Friday, September 24, 2010

Lots of good stuff happened this week

Tuesday morning National Grid showed up to turn our power on, what a great day. After the last few weeks listening to the generator running it was nice to have have peace and quite. Well not exactly quite, with the compressor, saws and nail guns all day long but still much better than listening to the generator.


Some of the other things that happened this week.

I picked up the first 4 of our solar windows, man are they heavy. These windows have 4 layers of glass, with a 1" thick layer of clear gel encapsulated between 2 of them. Each of these 2'x6' windows weighs about 250 pounds, it's a good thing I have a one ton truck. These windows capture and store the suns energy within the gel layer and then radiates it into the house at night. They also have an exterior solar shade that retracts up into the head of the window that shuts the suns energy off when it's not needed. If you have the chance come by and see them for your self at the tour next weekend.
   
 We finished the last couple of wall panels on Monday and the rest of the week prepping for and installing the roof panels. Installed our triple 16" x 48' LVL ridge beam and got more than half the roof panels installed. only one week left until the Green building open house tour, next weekend and still a lot of work to do.

Tom Pittsley
tom.pittsley@nextsteplivinginc.com

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Structural Insulated Panel (SIP's)

 What are SIP's and what do they do? Structural insulated panels, are a wall system that has been used for decades but has the misconception of costing more. If you take the cost of the materials alone, then yes they cost more if you add in the savings for labor and waste then the cost is about even. The panels themselves are comprised of expanded polystyrene insulation with two skins of Norboard laminated to them. Making an incredibly Strong and straight panel system that can be interlocked to create a highly insulated and air tight shell of the house. Let's take a typical stick frame wall system that is used to build virtually every home in this region. (New England) 2" x 6" wall framing with R-19 fiberglass batt insulation. When you factor in the thermal bridging of the wood framing the total R-value of the wall system is reduced to about R-13.7 ( ORNL whole wall calculator) SIP's give you an total wall R-value of about 22.25 nearly double that of a typical home. The other really big factor is the air tightness of the SIP's envelope, something that is essential when constructing a passive solar home.
     The process of prefabricating the panels reduces the time spent building the home and reduces labor costs by about 30% if designed properly. Notice I say if designed properly, I cannot stress enough how important proper design is essential to getting it right and reducing costs. One guy I know said he built a home with SIP's and hated it. i asked why and he said that cutting in the windows and doors was a very messy and time consuming process. I couldn't believe it, I had never heard on anyone fabricating the panels in the field. I wouldn't even consider doing this. While sometimes changes need to be made in the field, which is fairly simple, the thought of cutting out all the windows and doors would be daunting if done in the field. The panels we are using come from Branch River Plastics, a company located in N. Smithfield RI less than 50 miles from the job site and are totally fabricated to exacting dimensions. This makes installing the panels a breeze and virtually eliminates waste in the job site.
     No dumpster needed
   This is one of my personal goals when building a home. No dumpster! Yes we have some waste but with careful attention to detail this can be dramatically reduced and materials can be chosen that are easily recyclable. On our current project we will not be using a dumpster reducing operating costs even further.

When you combine the reduction in labor and waste, add the increase in insulation value and air tightness, SIP's are one of the best methods to build better homes. While this is just my opinion, it was formed through years of personal experience and research. I spent 18 years building with the old method and the last 10 using alternative materials and have found no other product that can increase your home efficiency without adding significantly to the costs of building better than SIP's.
 We are also using the SIP's for the roof of the house increasing the homes efficiency by another 30% of traditional methods. When all of the factors are combined you end up with a home that uses about 40-50% less energy to heat and cool than a traditionally built home. My last project built in Middleboro MA using a SIP's envelope along with passive solar design, efficient heating and cooling, that house heated last winter for only $341, my goal is to make this one even better. We will continue to track this homes performance long after the project is completed, to ensuring that we are reaching our goal of building the most efficient homes possible.

Stay tuned
Tom Pittsley
tom.pittsley@nextsteplivinginc.com

Monday, September 13, 2010

Some things make a home efficient

Some of the small things that have a big impact on energy savings
       
It all starts with the foundation

              There are tons of details that go into to making a home and it all starts with the foundation. Have you ever though about your foundation and how little insulation is has? Even new homes, built recently fall short in this area. Current building code requires that all foundations be insulated, the common practices used leaves something to be desired. Most homes built today have insulation on the exterior of the foundation but for some reason builders stop the insulation at grade. This creates a large area of your home that is subjected to the elements with almost no protection. Did you know that the concrete of your foundation only has an insulation value of about R-1? That's less than a window. One of the things we do is to insulate all the way up to the sill of the house. This results in your foundation being fully protected to an insulation value 12 times greater than traditional methods. Along with this we also insulate under the concrete floor of the basement and up the sides of the basement slab. These things combined have not only a big impact on your homes energy usage but also contributes greatly to the comfort within the home.

     I do know why traditional builds don't do this, it's simple. Costs! It isn't a huge cost but most builders are not willing to spend the extra time, money and effort to do this, but this is just one of the things that differentiate us from most builders. As a company we understand the implications that not doing this will have on your home and the costs to you the homeowner, having to heat and cool this home.

On to the framing next

Tom Pittsley
tom.pittsley@nextsteplivinginc.com