We realized last week that we hadn’t officially announced the sale of our next project – The Skinny Project – on the blog yet. If you attended our web launch party, you heard about it, but we should officially notify everyone who may have missed out here.
The third project takes the best lessons learned from both the 100K House and the Passive Projects. We will be seeking LEED Platinum again, but we will not be seeking official Passiv Haus certification this go around. Other changes include, stick framing (instead of SIPs), basements and our newest home model, The Skinny. The location will be 5 doors down from the 100K project.
We’ve worked hard to update our project pages on all three sites over the past week. Our hard work can be viewed at the links below:
-
Skinny on PostgreenHomes.com (Customize & Buy)
Skinny on 100kHouse.com (Blog-like details & links)
Skinny on Postgreen.com (Corporate project page we have to keep up)
Some of the key features I’ve been telling people about these homes is that they will probably be the last homes we build in a while that start under $300K, due to our next big project taking place in a more expensive neighborhood, Fishtown. Also, the Solar PV incentives are still going strong from both the Federal and State governments, so achieving Net Zero Energy status is a possibility for the upgrade price of a Honda Fit. More details on the financing of the Solar Arrays on our homes soon.
We have a number of very interested parties in these units already, so if you are at all interested, now is the time to act. We are giving tours of the 100K House to anyone interested as construction has not begun on the homes yet. Buyers have the opportunity to choose from either the Skinny model or Loft model and the corner house can even accomodate a new 3 bedroom version of the Loft.
You will notice in the current renderings that there seem to be some trees printed on the exterior. This will not be the final finish, but we are diligently working with a local artist that is intent on screen printing a unique design right onto the fiber cement panels that will comprise the cladding. We’re all pretty excited about this being the first Postgreen Home complete with “House Tattoos.”
Related posts:
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Kudos on the work, especially the sustainability and cost elements, love the detail on the blog as well.
Why the move away from SIPs to stick frame construction with the skinny project? While blown cellulose may be good, SIPs are supposed to provide a tighter envelope – one of the most effective ways to reduce energy consumption.
We use blown cellulose on our commercial projects; I would recommend performing a thermal scan on the walls after the gyp board is up and the cellulose has settled (it’s not as expensive as it sounds). This will help identify/fix missed spots or ‘holes’ in the insulation, especially if you plan to use the dry application method.
Also, why the move away from the Passiv Haus standards? Too expensive, cost-benefit not making sense, foundation details too complicated? You commitment to building to those rigorous standards and selling the homes at that price point took balz.
Max – Excellent questions. I was waiting for these questions. I’ll try to delve into more details in future posts but will give some basic answers now.
We are trying out stick framing without thermal bridging and cellulose insulation to compare the costs, time to assemble and performance to SIPs. The SIPs have been very difficult to implement on our tight infill lots in Philly and we are not convinced they are the best method for us to build in the city. I think it would be a lot easier on non-rowhome houses without shared party walls.
We are no moving away from the Passiv Haus standards, simply the official certification. We are making educated guesses on insulation levels, windows and passive shading on the Skinny Project that will give us the most bang for the buck based on what we’ve learned. We will perform the Passiv Haus calculations during construction to see how far off we are, if at all. Based on what we learn, we will tweak our model going forward as needed.
The Passive Project was an educational project to learn how to build homes to the most stringent energy efficiency standard in the world. We have learned a lot from it, but have not determined as of yet if it is feasible or worthwhile to pursue the official certification on every home we build.
Don’t know if you’ve looked at the – http://www.solardecathlon.org – website? There’s an interesting design from Rice that looks like they are thinking along the same lines as you – albeit in a single storey. I’ve only had time to briefly skim through your stuff and theirs, but it looks like you’re both thinking along similar lines.
There’s an interesting design from Rice that looks like they are thinking along the same lines as you – albeit in a single storey. I’ve only had time to briefly skim through your stuff and theirs, but it looks like you’re both thinking along similar lines.