From the category archives:

envelope

HERS Index Rating Initial Evaluation Results

April 7, 2008

We received the initial HERS Index scores from the Energy Star evaluations that MaGrann performed on our initial specs about two weeks ago. I have been crazy busy lately and forgot to post on this at the time. If you recall from our LEED Design Charrette, we need to hit a HERS Index of 50 [...]

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Window Article and Thoughts on Fiberglass Windows

February 27, 2008

I have been in contact with Tara Taffera, the editor of Door & Window Manufacturer Magazine, over the past few months regarding what windows we plan to use on the 100K House. Yesterday I received the February issue in the mail that Tara sent me with an article on windows in LEED for Homes projects. [...]

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Budget Priorities for an Energy Efficient Home

February 25, 2008

I arrived at the topic of this post in a round about way today. It started with a search for the best refrigerator for our project on the energy star website. While we obviously need an energy star model, the range of energy usage ranges from roughly 400 – 700 kWH / year on the [...]

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SIPs Have Been Chosen as the Building Method of Choice

February 18, 2008

Last week I had a meeting with Scott at Level 5 to discuss using SIPs in detail. We called one of the manufacturers and asked all questions that we had regarding our project. Once we got off the phone Scott quickly said that he was willing to go forward with SIPs or the project and [...]

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ThermaSteel – Light Guage Steel Insulated Panels

February 5, 2008

Recently I’ve received a few recommendations to check out an alternative to SIPs that uses light gauge steel to give insulated panels structural integrity rather than sheets of OSB. The most local company that provides such a product is the ThermaSteel Corporation located in Virginia. Some of the touted advantages include the following: Using light [...]

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SIP Quote Update for 100K House

February 1, 2008

I am heading out the door now for a weekend getaway but have a quick update on SIP quotes for the project. I have received quotes from four of the seven companies I requested bids from. I have agreed not to disclose exact pricing from each vendor at this time so for now I will [...]

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Energy Efficient Insulation Options

January 30, 2008

As you know we are focusing our budget on the major guts of the home that are not easy to upgrade in the future. Probably the biggest organ of all in the home is the insulation or quality of the shell. I can’t believe all of the home improvement shows I have seen lately that [...]

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Plans Released to SIP Manufacturers for Quote

January 21, 2008

You may recall our Preliminary SIP Mfg Evaluation in early December. After speaking with the various manufacturers about their basic process, product and market differentiators I owed them more detailed plans to give us a quote for the two homes. I just finished contacting the manufacturers and delivering the plans to each of them for [...]

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Preliminary SIP Manufacturer Evaluation

December 12, 2007

One of my taks from the last design meeting was to research local SIP manufacturers and get quotes to pass on to our builder to formulate into his calculations for the rough estimates of the construction costs. We do not have a detailed builder spec package for quote so I can not get official quotes [...]

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