Energy and a New Begining

It has been a very long time since I updated Local Fruit! - so long that I don’t even know if the links are still connected.  But here we go with a quick update that should have occurred several years ago.

The very green house in old Folsom was completed in October 2012, and when we moved in we started tracking utilities.  Before construction began, we projected that the intense insulation and solar system would reduce our energy usage by 30%.  We would have been happy with an actual savings of 25%.  However, the actual hard dollar savings between our prior home and the new home-both homes of comparable size-was well beyond our goals.  The actual savings in dollars was 67% for electricity and 71% for natural gas.  The savings in kWh and Therms was equally impressive.  The outstanding energy reduction results are a compelling case for the use of advanced framing techniques and superior insulation methods in construction. 

The down side of building such a solid and well insulated home is that when it warms up in the winter, the upstairs zone is overly warm.  I find it occasionally too warm to sleep at night.  In the winter I like to sleep under the weight of a comforter, which means I get too warm at night.  When it is coldest in the winter and the furnace heats the downstairs zone to 68-70 degrees, the upstairs will warm up to 72-74 and stay there! So last winter when we had a good freeze, lows in the 20’s for a week, my bedroom window was open 4-5 inches all night, every night. During a normal winter the house is very comfortable, but a during a really cold spell it is actually too warm.  Such a warm little house! When I am a little old lady who is cold all the time, maybe I will finally close that window…

We planted what little area we could plant. The historic district lot is small at only 50’ wide which allows for a small and easily manageable patio and garden.  Located by a river and greenbelt, the views are borrowed from nature as are the wildlife. The landscape area outside the fence is deer territory; they regularly trim the bushes and have twice eaten the grapefruit tree down to stubs.

Back to Local Fruit!   This blog started as a way to share the experience of building an energy efficient home in a cool historic neighborhood in a fun California town.  Stay with me as I expand the Local Fruit!'s  footprints to add vineyard tales in northern California, especially El Dorado and Amador counties.  The Local Fruit! adventure will continue in 2015!

Investing in Insulation

Hello and welcome to Local Fruit Folsom. This week’s blog is about insulation and the building envelope. Throughout our new construction home project the focus has been energy efficiency. We chose to invest in building a quality envelope around our living area because our goal is to minimize our utility bills and try to get to a net $0 in annual utility bills.

 

Soy-based closed cell spray foam in exterior walls



After using advanced framing to maximize the energy efficiency from a structural and framing basis, we selected highly efficient windows and turned our focus on the insulation of the building envelope. The objective is to build a very efficient home and use a solar PV system to minimize the actual purchase of utility power. When focusing on energy efficiency, the absolute most important element in the design of the home is the insulation.

 

Open cell foam under the roof deck



We attended Greenbuild in 2009 in Phoenix and saw a demo of a hybrid system at the CertainTeed exhibit. Seeing an actual demo structure allowed us to better understand what we were asking of our builder in 2010, and of our insulation subcontractor in 2011. Learning about the envelope and advanced framing also helped us to choose a quality builder who had experience with green building techniques.



Our house is constructed using four different types of insulation:



• Roof deck - 8” of open cell spray foam to achieve R30



• Exterior walls - both closed cell soy-based foam and blown cellulose to achieve R27



• Floor – Fiberglass batts



The house was framed using 24” x 6” on center advanced framing. This means that the framing is 24” apart and the exterior walls are 6” deep to allow for very thorough access during the insulation phase. There is not an exterior surface that is not extremely well insulated. In the walls, we decided to go with a hybrid system that includes 2” of closed cell foam and 4” of blown cellulose. Closed cell foam has many advantages but is extremely expensive compared to open cell foam or cellulose. By using only 2” of the closed cell foam we gain the benefits of a tight seal, added structural rigidity and improved wind resistance for the home. Closed cell foam is made from soy beans and does not allow water or air to pass and it is mold and pest proof. However, when reviewing costs it became evident that 6” of foam does not deliver as much R-Value per dollar as a combination of insulation methods.

 

Quite a few of the contractors wanted to be involved in a green project, but lacked actual experience. We chose Gai Kirkegaard to build our home because he had already built a LEED Platinum home in our town: he talked the talk and walked the walk. He even drives one of the most efficient cars available-proof that he lives efficiently. When talking about the envelope or advanced framing, Gai and his team truly understand the intricacies of green building.

This week was exciting as both the roof and insulation were installed. The insulation installers make a terrible mess, but as soon as they clean up we can schedule the insulation inspection. After that drywall starts and we can start counting down the weeks until we get to move in. Whoo-hoo!





Advanced Framing in Folsom

Hello and welcome to Local Fruit. The entry this week explains why we chose to invest in the envelope of our home, and specifically highlight the advanced framing techniques that are at the heart of our green construction.

When we started planning for our future home, we spoke with several contractors, architects and designers who all were very competent and professional. However, the top priority on the house is energy efficiency and we wanted to build a home that was designed to minimize electricity and gas usage, and thus cost less to operate in the years ahead. Two phrases were used commonly by the builders with green building experience: “invest in the envelope” and “advanced framing”. The logic is sound – design a solid and well insulated envelope around the living areas; the cost to heat and cool the occupied spaces will be greatly reduced, resulting in a lighter impact on the environment.

The envelope consists of the exterior walls, windows, under the first floor and the attic, in short the entire area that separates inside conditioned air from outside air. Most buildings have leaks caused by spaces that were too small to insulate when built, like electrical outlets and wall corners. By using advanced framing techniques the objective is to allow each and every inch of the envelope to be designed to minimize energy waste. Even the windows were chosen to be as efficient as the budget would allow.

 

Advanced Framing Walls and Floor



 Advanced framing is very cool to watch. The joists and trusses are ordered to the specs of the home and are delivered on site. The lumber is built to the specs of the actual framing requirements per the structural engineer, so very little waste is created at the job site. The floor joists pictured here and wall framing are 2x6 installed 24” on center to both maximize strength and allow for insulation. That means the walls are 6” deep and the studs are 24” apart to maximize capacity for insulation. The location and size of windows is factored into the overall rating for the envelope as well. The result is an integrated system with a higher R-value for walls and attic, which help to significantly lower future utility expenses. Simply using advanced framing techniques can result in a 5% reduction in heating/cooling costs, lower materials costs and a labor savings of 3-5%.



So far, our home is still in the framing stage and the walls are being built at this time. Our builder, Gai Kirkegaard, and Anthony Juarez-Lessing's framing team are doing a great job. They are wonderful guys and we enjoy watching them work. The roof trusses were delivered last week and should be put up this coming week.    

 

Wall and Window Framing



Two of the next tasks are all about energy: insulation and rebates, both are at the heart of the project and are worthy of future blog posts. After all, this is a cool project in a cool area, but our focus is energy and expense reduction. It is exciting to see the house come together!

Roof Truss Delivery