From the category archives:

Building Science

Premature Solarization – Solar Power Before Reducing Consumption

January 22, 2009

Disclaimer: I am aware that solarization is used incorrectly in the title of this post, but I use it in an attempt to make a joke that is both juvenile and trite. Forgive me. We are planning on attending a solar happy hour this evening, and that got me thinking about that most recognizable of [...]

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Frost Protected Shallow Foundations (FPSF)

December 9, 2008

What is a Frost Protected Shallow Foundation? A frost protected shallow foundation (FPSF) is simply a more practical construction method used in cold climates as an alternative to standard footer foundations. Traditional foundations require a footer to be placed at the frost line with a foundation wall and eventually slab on top of that. FPSF’s [...]

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100K House SIPs Installation Flickr Photo Set

November 19, 2008

While we are gone, we thought we would give everyone a chance to catch up on our latest construction photos. The SIPs Install photo set is part of our 100K House Construction Photos collection on Flickr. We tried to take a picture from a couple of different angles after each panel went up on the [...]

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YouTube Video Shows Us How To Install SIPs

November 13, 2008

Overall the SIPs install has been going very well considering no one involved has ever seen or handled a SIP before in their life. The crew is probably on pace to beat traditional framing by a few days and we will have the benefit of having the insulation complete at the end of our process. [...]

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Increasing our Solar Thermal System vs. Gas Boiler Backup

November 7, 2008

Problem Statement The high efficiency Munchkin gas boiler is more expensive to install (>$3,500) than budgeted as both a backup to the Schuco Slimline II-80 solar thermal system spec’ed out for domestic hot water and a sole source of heat to our hydronic radiant heating system (more on these mechanicals here). Installing gas service to [...]

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Marker Time – Energy Efficiency (Utility Costs)

September 24, 2008

Today’s Marker Time is the first in a series of videos that will look at the Energy Efficiency of the 100K House project. The first in this series looks at the utility costs of the 120K House versus that of a similar new construction house built to code and an existing house that is not [...]

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Marker Time – Indoor Air Quality (Health)

September 22, 2008

Our third and final installment of the Indoor Air Quality Marker Time videos. In retrospect, this should have been the first of the IAQ series. Oh well. As Nic will tell you, we covered this topic about the homes first rather than things like recycled materials and solar panels because we believe it is overlooked [...]

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Marker Time – Indoor Air Quality (Ventilation)

September 19, 2008

The second “Marker Time” video covers Indoor Air Quality in a bit more detail. Today we take a look at mechanical ventilation inside the very tight envelope of the 120K House. We cover both local (kitchen & bath) ventilation as well as whole house ventilation in the form of HRV’s (Heat Recovery Ventilator) and ERV’s [...]

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Marker Time – Indoor Air Quality (Materials)

September 18, 2008

Welcome to the first of hopefully a long running series of educational videos we like to call “Marker Time.” I guess you could say this is our take on the UPS Whiteboard style of presenting. In this segment we talk about Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in the 120K House compared to the average new construction [...]

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Preliminary Kitchen Ventilation Investigation

July 14, 2008

The task of figuring out exactly what we are going to do for kitchen ventilation has been on the back burner for some time. As ground breaking is getting closer, this needs to be nailed down. Here are our criteria for the kitchen or cooktop ventilation: Exhaust flow rate that accomplishes 5 kitchen air changes [...]

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