We hereby Permit you!

Time is a funny thing. It goes by so quickly when you're soaking up life and enjoying every moment but it goes ever so slowly when you are anticipating a future moment you long to be enjoying.

June 17th will mark the 2nd anniversary of owning Turtle Falls...where did that time go? On the other end of it, it seems like we have been working on designing this house for an eternity! One year and one week after signing contracts to get this ball rolling I am happy to finally say...

We have the building permit!

Kudos to the team that made it possible to approach the township building department with plans, the likes of which they have never seen before, and have the permit issued after the first kick at it. As far as I know, this is the first passive house to be built in this township. Big thanks to Architect Chris, Contractor Mark (who did some fancy talking at the meeting with the building inspector) and Homesol guys, Ross and Stephen.

Even more exciting than finally getting the building permit is watching the surveyors marking out the exact location of the house within the excavation. This house needs to be dead-on true south for our PHPP numbers to work for us.


Surveyors are marking the line that runs true East-West. The South elevation of the house will follow this line.

In the fall, we did some preliminary excavating to eliminate any surprises that the rocky ground inevitably holds in this area. In doing this we would be ready to go once the building permit was issued. During the wait from December to now, there has been much worrying (mostly on contractor Mark's part) about whether the excavation is on the right orientation. Trying to figure out where true (rather than magnetic) south lies, can be confusing when there is a declination to be factored in.

If we calculated wrong with our little hand held compasses back in the fall, it could mean the house would have to sit on more of the disturbed soil than the undisturbed. That would mean heaps more engineered fill to be packed in that corner where the disturbed soil is...more expense...like we need more of that! It could mean having to orient the house away from true south...not good for our PHPP numbers. It could mean more hoe ramming...you guessed it...more expense!

Exhale. Contractor Mark is not just a pretty face...he is master of the Mark-hole! Apparently, around here, a Mark-hole is an excavation in tricky ground that everyone else thought to be impossible, except for Mark...hence Mark-hole. Anyway, although this particular excavation does not score enough difficulty points to be a bonafide Mark-hole, we consider it to be so for its magical ability to be spot on the correct orientation when all compasses on the land at dig time showed different readings. Simply reMarkable!!

Next up...engineered fill in the south-east corner of the lot and well drilling in the opposite corner. Aaah...the sounds of summer at Turtle Falls!

More later,
Mimi

A New Name...and the Canadian Cold Climate Heat Pump

Ohm my God...watts been happening?

Sold...finally!

Lots has happened since I last posted. The house in the city finally sold, after 10 long months of showings and keeping the house showroom immaculate. I have been spending my time over the last 60 days, prior to the May 1st closing, packing and moving the house contents to the rental condo (or the pied-a-terre as a good friend has named it) and packing and moving my woodshop to the storage locker where it will remain until the new house is finally built ☹ What will I ever do without my tools for that length of time? I'm hoping contractor Mark will be ok with me worming my way onto his crew so I can at least get my tool and wood fix by helping out with the build.

Before I get to the telling of what's happening with the new house I must take a moment to thank you all for your weird and wonderful suggestions for the blog's new name. It was really hard to decide what the final name should be. I finally went with a name that would make at least some sense sitting at the top of each post. Some suggestions were very clever but were only relevant for that one post where I asked for help renaming the blog. Some suggestions were just cryptic enough that, I have to admit, I didn't get them. Some were excellent but already taken...such as Casa Costalotta. And all of them I completely appreciated. Thank you for your interest and participation in my little blog. And Doris...thank you for your winning suggestion! (Joe & Flora, one of your suggestions I used in the opening sentence...it was a contender). I have added the "passive" edit mark to the new header sketch a bit prematurely I suppose. Same goes for the past tense "built" but we are definitely on target to make these pending characteristics a most certain reality. There's no turning back now...there's a big hole in the ground at Turtle Falls and we no longer have a house, of any kind, to live in at the moment! We must forge on!!

Now, back to what's going on with the house.

Several weeks back we had a meeting with the HVAC supplier for Casa Tortuga, Encore Geothermal Inc. Ras and I have never been known as very conventional, so what we have decided on for our mechanical system is also not conventional, at least not for a passive house. Let me explain.

Passive houses, typically, are primarily heated using the solar gain from the triple-glazed windows strategically sized and placed on the south side of the house. The amount of insulation and the air-sealing is critical for keeping the warm air inside the house in winter and outside the house in summer. The required HRV or ERV helps to condition and distribute the air. A secondary heat source typically only needs to be small, such as a mini-split heat pump or a small amount of electric heat to name only two options. The idea is that by not having to buy a conventional furnace you can put that money into the extra insulation, air sealing and windows. The temperatures in a passive house are supposed to be fairly consistent and slow to fluctuate. Much has been written about whether the criteria developed for passive house for the European market are right for the North American market. The Canadian climate offers up a bit more severity for us to deal with when trying to reach the numbers necessary for passive house certification.

Passive House is in its infancy in North America. Builders of passive houses here, more often than they would like, are having to resort to buying European made HRV/ERV systems and windows because they are not available in the numbers or qualities they are in Europe. That is starting to change, but at a snail's pace. Architect Chris has mentioned that at least one of the Canadian window manufacturers he has approached for our project is striving to produce windows that are good enough for passive house certification.

There's all kinds of info about building a passive house here in Canada and the USA. Many builders of passive houses feel compelled to blog about it to get the word out...exactly the reason why I blather on at great length. There's not a lot of info yet about the experience of living in a passive house, particularly in my area of interest - Canada. The little bit of information I have been able to find makes me a bit apprehensive. It seems temperatures within some of these passive houses fluctuate more than the marketing blurbs say is typical. It's hard for me to determine if this is because of the difference in climate, our relative lack of experience in building passive house here in North America, or the fact that the materials and systems we have to choose from are not the quality with which the European passive house is built.

Admissions of cold bedrooms when doors are closed, temperature differentials from room to room, temperature fluctuations wider than expected, and constant tweaking of mini-split and HRV performance to balance out these characteristics make me wonder. I may have mentioned once or twice how I absolutely dislike the cold. One of my other pet peeves is overly obtrusive sound levels of heating and cooling systems. Loud mechanical systems are simply annoying! All that being said, I'm very sure the mini-split option (the most common secondary heat source of choice) for heating and cooling our passive house is not the way to go for us. Electric heat is quiet but not efficient. Electric cooling...not very quiet. Radiant floor heat is too much heat for a passive house for the expense and it's not very helpful at cooling in the summer. These were not the only options we looked at. We looked at them all. Confusing and unsatisfactory options...each and every one!

So off we go to see Encore Geothermal...and the world made sense once again with our introduction to the Cold Climate Heat Pump.

Oh...the joys of winter in Canada!

A mini-split is an air to air heat pump that usually comes with a specification that it will work with some degree of efficiency to temperatures as low as -10°C, some to -15C. Minus 10°C is the temperature at which most Canadian postal workers start wearing their long pants rather than shorts to deliver the mail and it's certainly nowhere near as cold as it can get in many parts of Canada in the winter.

That's why the good people at Ecologix, a Canadian company from Cambridge Ontario, have developed a cold climate heat pump meant for the Canadian climate. These cold climate heat pumps operate efficiently down to a -25°C outdoor temperature. That -25°C is the efficient operating temperature that is guaranteed with these heat pumps and not just the oftentimes exaggerated marketing hype target. You know the hype I mean...I'll use the car industry as an example. This new car uses 6 litres/100kms. But what isn't stated are the conditions needed to get that actual fuel efficiency, like the outdoor temperature needs to be a constant 15°C, you must never exceed the speed of 80km/h, you must never use your brakes or idle at a stop light, and accelerate only as if you are a member of Gas Savers. Ok, I digress and exaggerate just a bit, but my point is these cold climate heat pumps will work at temperatures of -25°C, day after day. Although the literature for these heat pumps states -25°C, word is that at -40°C they still won't freeze up. It's refreshing when a company actually under-promises and over-delivers. My kind of company...Canadian and modest.

The Ecologix CCHP pulls heat from the outdoor air to heat the home in
winter and pumps heat to the outside to cool the home in summer.
The CCHP adjusts capacity to meet the immediate need, delivering
only what the home needs without waste.

In the configuration we have chosen, the heat pump is coupled with a ducted air handler that will distribute the conditioned air in 3 separate zones in the house. What a fantastic concept...heat/cool only the areas that need it rather than heat/cool the whole house. I know this sounds like overkill and, yes, we are spending the money on a
"furnace" when we are not supposed to need it but it is the best solution we have found to have everything that we want...quiet, efficient and even secondary heat in the winter and cooling in the summer.

This exercise of planning to build a passive house has raised so many questions that seem almost impossible to answer. Much thought and revision, on many levels, has gone into designing this house. Let me back up a little, to explain one of those more esoteric levels.

The house in the city that we just sold was a very interesting and unique little house..."one-of-a-kind" as all the real estate agents described it. Over the years we have done some crazy things to it, like turning it into, essentially, a one bedroom house, removing the closets because they were so small anyway what was the point of keeping them, removing any semblance of a "yard" and replacing the grass with meandering walkways and low-maintenance perennial gardens, over-spending on the renovation we added in 2010...all because we truly thought we would never move from this house so what did it matter that the house was not suitable for anybody else with clothes, children or dogs...and we would be able to amortize the cost of the reno over the rest of our lives. As always, life finds a way to throw you a curve ball when you get too deep into it. And our plans to stay in that crazy little house forever, ultimately, were severely revised.

That is, for the most part, why our house took so long to sell. We had to wait for a similarly unique buyer with enough money to pay for an over-improved, under-sized house but was neither a clothes horse nor responsible for several dependents of either the 2 or 4-legged type...talk about seriously limiting our market! You can only hear potential buyers say, "too small, no closets, no garage" so many times before you want to throw in the towel.

Ras and I agreed not to make the same mistakes with our next house. Therefore, this house is bigger than we want it or need it to be. And although we are choosing this cold climate heat pump, first and foremost, because we want the benefits it offers us, it is also a consideration for the next people that will eventually own this house. We may be all gung-ho about passive house and willing to live with its inherent characteristics but the next people may not. We really don't like thinking of resale when designing this house but the thought of trying to sell another crazy one-of-a-kind house sends shivers down both our spines. This secondary heat source solution will not only completely satisfy us but, with its conventional furnace look, will put the future owners of this house at ease. Hopefully, by the time we are ready to pass this house along, passive house and cold climate heat pumps will be the norm.

In some way, I truly believe that passive house in North America needs to find its own way. What works in Europe may not be the best approach here...just my opinion. We are trying an approach that we believe we can live with comfortably and efficiently into the future. (Edit May 12: It seems I am not the only one with this opinion. This Green Building Advisor article,"Passivehaus Buildings Don't Heat Themselves", was posted four days after I wrote my post. Confirms, for me, our decision to go for the cold climate heat pump).

Now...if only we could get the building permit! We're apparently just waiting for a few engineers' stamps on some documents. Once we have those...we'll be madly off in all directions. Can't wait! Soon we'll be Living La Vida Ohm Free (Thanks for that suggestion, Kaye. It was also a contender).

That's it for now,
Mimi


For those interested in more info about the Ecologix Cold Climate Heat Pump, see the following:
Ecologix Inc.
University of Waterloo researchers change the face of home heating and cooling in Canada
Canadian Federal Government announce $4 million in support from the Clean Energy Fund for cold climate heat pump development

Game change, name change

Original blog header photo. This name no longer accurately describes our "odyssey" 

Interim blog header photo

As you can see from the partially completed new header there are some changes to talk about. All exuberant plans need to be reviewed and revised every so often. Ours are no exception.

If this turtle isn't careful, he will fall too!

When we first stumbled upon the trillium-covered terrain we now know as Turtle Falls our initial thoughts were to build a cottage in the truest sense of the word. More a cabin really...only seasonal use was the idea...a place to escape the crazy-making city and relax by the water's edge with a good book and a great margarita, all while soaking up a little bit of sunshine. Aaah...life at its simple best.

Then our simple little idea grew. Our first revision incorporated the idea of passive solar design. What a great concept, using the sun to heat your cabin for free. Then came the idea to go solar and get off the grid. And I must add somewhere in here that the cottage plan has now morphed into an all-season home. Lots of dreaming and studying ensued. The real benefit from all of that effort was becoming much more energy efficient humans as we practiced for the eventual living in an off grid home. We ridded our house of phantom power consumption, got our electricity bill down to a reasonable monthly dollar amount, and became aware of the incredible opportunity we all have with the renewable energy sources available to us.

Just when we thought we were getting close to finalizing our want list for our new "retirement home" by the lake Passive House hits us square in the face. Never heard of it before. More studying ensued. Result of all the studying...must build Passive House! With the efficiency that is inherent in a passive house it only seemed logical to build this kind of house for our off grid odyssey. Full speed ahead with plans, architect on board, passive house planners on board, contractor on board.

But something still doesn't seem right. I have many sleepless nights wondering how I will coax Ras into complying with the "minimize then energize" mindset necessary to live in an off grid house. She did say, after all the study and discussion of energy efficiency and solar and off grid stuff, "maybe we can have a wine fridge in the new house!" I chalk that up to her overwhelming exuberance and a momentary lapse into rose-coloured glasses land. My reply: "21 years we've survived without a wine fridge and you want to put one in the off grid house?" Off came her rose-coloured glasses. I still chuckle about that to this day.

This many solar panels the budget does not afford!

The thought of the football-field-sized solar array keeps dancing in my head! I keep wondering how to power my woodworking shop on those days...or weeks...when the sun doesn't shine. The fact that we will run over our initially targeted budget makes for the very possible reality that I will be building the kitchen and pantry cabinets. One needs a shop with power tools to do that in a timely fashion. Large woodworking tools need large amounts of electricity to run. Only with a football-field-sized solar array would this be possible. And for this, the budget certainly does not allow.

What to do? What to do? What about net metering?

Net metering seems to satisfy all our needs - power the house from the grid, produce enough electricity with our solar array to send back to the grid and therefore offset our electricity usage/bill while still having a battery back-up for those days when the grid goes down. We still have incentive to keep our consumption low to keep the size of the solar array as small as possible (hence no football field...) and we are still self sufficient in the event of a power outage. I've never been a fan of the micro-fit idea purely from the standpoint that if the power goes out you're still sitting in the dark, even with all those solar panels up on the roof. The monthly check is a nice idea but sitting in the dark...not so nice. Net metering is looking real good to us...even without the rose coloured glasses.

So this is where I am stuck at the moment. I started this blog when the plan was in its infancy and came up with the goofy name of Ohm Free: Our Off Grid Odyssey. The name reflected our goals at that time to be more energy efficient and self sufficient. Many revisions later finds us on a slightly different path and now the blog name needs a revision as well. We are still striving to be as energy efficient as possible, as well as self sufficient. We're just going to come at it from a different perspective...one that suits our lifestyle a little better. The ohms might still be free but only after we've received our credit from the hydro utility for the energy we produce. The "off grid" got revised right out of the plan. The odyssey? Oh...it still remains!

With this game change I now need a blog name change. I got as far as sketching out a little scene for the header but I'm stuck for a new name at the moment. I'm still working on it but no luck yet. I seriously need your help.  This is all I've got and, quite honestly, they're pitiful!
Passive House Casa Tortuga...blah
Turtle Falls Tales...nah
Ras & Mimi's Big Building Adventure...not
Net Metering Nerds...hmmm
Musings of an Energy Nerd...taken
Passive House For (By) Dummies...possible...

Got any suggestions? Sure could use the help! Please jot your thoughts down in the comment box. Hopefully, by the next post I will have a new name and a completed header...with your assistance.

Ciao for now!
Mimi

Thermal bridging exposed on a snowy day

I wasn't planning on writing a blog post today but what else is there to do on a day when everyone is taking a snow day and most of the city is closed. Shovelling, I suppose, is an option but the snow plow hasn't been by yet...so what's the point? Moving the snow twice doesn't make it twice the fun...at least not for me! I will admit that the city looks beautiful right now though.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...again!

8½ inches fallen in 7 hours...and still counting!

Let's just heat the great outdoors with that thermal bridging!

I wanted to write this post to illustrate a perfect example of the result of thermal bridging in a conventionally built home.  Each piece of a house's framing material acts as a thermal bridge, a conduit for heat to leak through the wall. Thermal bridging is more significant than many realize. This photo shows the outdoor patio area of the 2010 better-than-code-built addition at our house in the city. Admittedly, we knew nothing about Passive House when we were planning and building this addition back in 2009, therefore thermal bridging was never taken into consideration. That is totally obvious when you look at the photo and see how the snow is melting within the 18-24 inch (45-60 cm) band closest to the house. The concrete floor inside is radiantly heated and that heat is being sucked right out of the 22°C (72°F) interior floor and into the -5°C (23°F) exterior stone patio because there was no thermal break, in the form of insulation, implemented under the patio door and between the interior and exterior floors. The patio door, although very good, is only double paned and is also losing more heat than it would with the third pane, typical of passive house rated windows. No wonder the floor's heat system comes on as often as it does! 

Just goes to show that energy efficiency can, literally, go right out the window, or wall, or floor if thermal bridges are not dealt with properly. Here we thought we were building a very energy efficient addition 2 years ago. Today's snow day certainly shot down those beliefs. This is very concrete proof that conventional building techniques have a long way to go to live up to their energy efficiency claims. Eliminating thermal bridging is one of the most important characteristics of a passive house. I always understood the concept. Now I see it.

This kind of heat loss will not happen in a passive house. Insulating a passive house takes thermal bridges out of the equation and heat then remains inside the house longer, rather than finding its way easily to the outdoors.

A little extra, well-placed, insulation can reduce heating (and cooling) requirements significantly.

Graphic thanks to Fine Home Building

Luckily, we will not be experiencing the kind of heat losses in our new house that you see in the above photo of our current house. We can thank the wall anatomy details designed specifically for Casa Tortuga. You will notice several extra layers making up the super-insulated wall structure of this passive house. Thermal bridging is eliminated, therefore eliminating the heat losses we are seeing now in our city house.



Wall anatomy of Passive House Casa Tortuga.

Copyright © 2013 Vert Design, Chris Straka

 

How all the layers go together. That's a lot of insulation!

 

Copyright © 2013 Vert Design, Chris Straka

Now that looks like a really warm and cozy house. I can't wait!

Well, it's still snowing after all the time it has taken to write this post. Maybe it's time to go tackle some of the thigh-high drifts out there. Ras gave up when she saw the snow plow's contribution at the end of the driveway. It's time for me to put my 9 layers of insulation on and go out to brave the windy, wintery, white stuff! Ugh!!

Cheers!
Mimi






Window shopping on a cold day

The weather has been the number one topic of conversation around the province this week with the deep freeze that we find ourselves in here in Ontario. Being a good Canadian, I will continue that conversation. Actually, I'm not a very good Canadian...I really, really dislike the cold...a lot!! Ras isn't a fan either, truth be told. The two photos below show our daily walking attire from this same week in 2012 versus 2013. My brother was quite concerned for me this year, having to spend the worst of the winter here at home rather than in the warmth of Mexico. He thought I might just turn into an icicle. Ha! Now the nephews can call me Aunt Icicle as opposed to their usual nickname of Aunt Toothpick.

 We might look happy in both of these photos but really, in the photo on the right, our faces just froze that way!

The hardest part about winter in Canada, for me, is the sunnier the day...the colder the temperatures...which leads me to why I'm blathering on about the weather. I can't wait to experience our first unbearably cold winter day in the new passive house. The more sun, and bluer the sky, the colder the temperature outside, and the toastier it will be inside...all thanks to some pretty swank windows. Perfect!

So, how are we staying warm until that day comes when we can taunt cold old Jack Frost from within our passively solar heated house? By shopping, of course! 

Gaulhofer Energyline 90
PVC with aluminum exterior clad

We ventured off to the Ottawa Home Renovations Show last week with architect Chris to touch and feel the Gaulhofer windows that are, presently, number one on our list for passive house windows. These are some seriously awesome windows! Built like a German tank (although built in Austria) and finished with impeccable craftsmanship, the look and solid feel of these         tilt-and-turn windows is unlike any other windows we've seen. What makes these windows worthy of gobbling up almost 15% of our total construction budget?

• triple glazing
• argon gas-filled
• Thermostop ® warm edge spacers for reduced condensation
• glass glued to sash for added stability and thermal capability
• Audiostop ® for sound reduction
• insulated multi-chamber PVC frame with aluminum exterior cladding
• U_W best value of UW 0.58 W/m²K (just know this is a pretty good number. I have no idea what it really means either but architect Chris and the Homesol guys tell us it's good)

All of the above features contribute to a window that can offer superior insulating qualities. The following features add to the window's strength and function:

• square steel tube reinforcement in the frame
• rock solid hardware that gets bolted to the steel reinforcement tube, not just the PVC
• secure tilt-and-turn operation for multiple ventilation options

When you look at the photo of the window detail you are also really looking at the primary heating source of our home. So I guess we could look at that 15% of the budget is for windows and furnace, so to speak. That makes the window budget seem a little less painful...and bring on those beautiful sunny, wicked-cold, blue sky, January days! I shall never fear another winter day like this again while standing behind one of these wondrous windows!

Next stop on our shopping frenzy...the solar store.

Shop on. Stay warm!
Mimi

Team Tortuga

Our trip back from Turtle Falls yesterday after having met with our building "team" was as if we were living in some weird Eagles songbook version of life...life in the fast lane of the westbound 401 was leaving us with a peaceful easy feeling. I swear no mushrooms were harmed for the writing of this post. Let me explain...

First let me introduce our team of extraordinary gentlemen. These are the enthusiastic and brilliant minds bringing passive house Casa Tortuga to reality. Hmm...all handsome AND handy. Red Green would be proud of our ability to assemble such an excellent team!


L-R: Stephen Magneron (Homesol Building Solutions Inc.), Mark Raison (Crane's Building Service),
Ross Elliot (Homesol Building Solutions Inc.), Chris Straka (Vert Design Inc.)








Yesterday's meeting brought everyone together to discuss construction details and determine what trees still need to be removed to allow for maximum solar gain. As you can see from the photo there are a lot of trees at Turtle Falls. Although a good number of trees met lumberjack Alistair's chainsaw a couple of weeks ago, there are still a few more to be introduced to said chainsaw. Stephen got right to work setting up the Solar Pathfinder.

Stephen levels the Solar Pathfinder in the excavation site and makes sure it's oriented to solar south

Then he takes a picture of the instrument's reflection of the sky

The reflection of the skyline in the Solar Pathfinder shows which trees need to be removed to allow maximum solar gain

The simplicity and brilliance of this instrument is mind boggling...nothing electronic, no batteries required, just a compass, a tiny bubble level, a graph/grid of the correct latitude for the area and a glass dome. The grid under the glass dome represents the sun's path (horizontal arcs) for every month of the year for our particular latitude (44 degrees N). The vertical lines represent time of day. The important times for sunlight hours for solar gain are between about 9 or 10 am to 3 or 4 pm. So if you look at the reflection of the trees on the grid lines between about 9:30am to 3:30pm, those are the trees needing to be removed. We were nicely surprised, and relieved, that we only have to remove about 10 pine trees. There's a fine balance of sun and shade required to passively heat and cool a house. The deciduous trees will not need to be removed since they will provide shade in the summer. In winter, they lose their leaves therefore they allow sunshine through. Brilliant!

There is a whole other side to the Solar Pathfinder that is way more high tech. The above photo gets loaded into a computer program that then allows for all kinds of analysis necessary for the energy modelling of a passive home. I'll leave you to investigate that on your own if you're interested...it's pretty high-end geekish best left to the high-end geeks to explain. Me, I'm just a low-end geek and it's beyond my capabilities! That's why we have Stephen and Ross from Homesol on board.

Priscilla's conference room holds 6...no problem!

Next, we all squeezed into Priscilla's conference room to discuss the details of foundation and wall construction, moisture barriers, air sealing, insulation choices, how to hang the deck to minimize thermal bridging, and window placement within the wall. Did you know that it makes a difference to the amount of heat gained through the windows whether the windows are installed closer to the interior or exterior of the wall? Ya...me neither! And since the walls of this house are going to be somewhere close to 23 inches (58cm) thick, before exterior cladding is installed, there's a lot of room to move the window in or out. Crazy stuff. My vote would be for more solar heat gain (cuz I really, really dislike being cold!) but I'll leave that up to the guys and their PHPP computer program to figure out what the best average would be for heating and cooling. Ras and I heard so many new names yesterday...blue skin, black jo, polyisocyanurate, xps, siga, yadayada...I'm glad we weren't being tested at the end of the day. That's why we have contractor Mark on board!

I'll say that it was a great meeting. The guys brainstormed about the best ways to construct this air tight house, debating option after option to reach our goals in the most cost effective and energy efficient manner. Ras & I were there to answer ya or nay to material choices...do we go with spray foam insulation with a high carbon footprint or do we choose the dense-pack cellulose option with less R-value per inch but more environmentally friendly (yes to the latter), if we have to add posts under the deck as opposed to cantilevering what is our preference. Cantilevering causes problems with thermal bridging...so lets explore the post option. When the brainstorm session concluded, Ras & I had a much deeper understanding of the why's and how's of passive house logic. This will be the first passive house that Mark has built so he is now feeling more confident about what needs to be done to get us to passive house certification. The seemingly odd techniques of over-insulating are making sense to him now. Mark has made the leap, with relative ease, from conventional building code compliant techniques (although he has always built to a better standard anyway) to the energy efficient building techniques of the future. Notice in the photo above how we have him surrounded and barricaded in the conference room...just in case he still had the notion to run screaming for the hills ;)

Finally, to make sense of the Eagle songbook reference...as we were in the fast lane zooming back to the city after this meeting, we both had this overwhelming sense of calm. You would think our heads would be spinning and there would be at least some anxiety about the scale and detail of this project...but no. That is a sure sign that we have assembled a great team that gives us 100% confidence in what we have decided to build at Turtle Falls.

'Cause I got a peaceful easy feeling,
And I know you won't let me down
'cause I'm already standing on the ground.

                                                                   ~Eagles

 

More later,

Mimi