Ever since we started building our house, I knew I wanted to have mechanical ventilation. The reason for that is that you want to build a house as leak-free as possible in order to conserve heat. The problem with that, though, is that the leaks in a standard house serve the purpose of removing stale air from the house and bringing fresh air in. It’s not just stuffiness that’s the danger, but also moisture control and even your health: radon, carbon monoxide, and VOCs from building supplies all need to be ventilated out to protect the inhabitants.
Mechanical ventilation allows you to control the air flow in and out of the house. But the key to achieving the best of both worlds is a Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) or an Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV). They both extract the heat (or in the summer, the chill) from the stale air being exhausted and then pre-heat or pre-cool the incoming fresh air. With a transfer of heat efficiency in the 70-90% range, you can have consistently fresh air throughout the home without paying for it on your heating and cooling bills.
Read on to check out all factors involved in the decision:
The stereo/data closet: smurf tubes in the back, blue data bundles on the right, green stereo wires
I have a confession: There’s a good chance I over-wired the house. But I succumbed to the now’s-the-time pressure of realizing that if I ever wanted to put in more wires for either sound, video, or data, then the easiest and cheapest moment is before the drywall goes up. It’s called “structured wiring” because all of the wiring runs back to a central location, as you can see in the photo on the left. (Each one of the wires that goes back to a central location is called a “home run.”)
Here’s what I wired in: data and tv wiring to ten locations and stereo wiring to six locations. Each data/tv wiring location has two RG6 (standard cable video wire) and two Cat5e (ie ethernet internet wire) wires. In addition, to each data/tv location I put in 3/4″ so-called Smurf tubes, which is flexible hose empty except for a pull string. The idea is that in ten years, when we’re all using fiber optics or whatever, you can then pull new wiring through the walls without opening anything up. Just tie the new wire to one end of the string and pull it through the hose.
Read on to see why I went this way.
Mike Mcpherson runs our blower door test
There are three ways that energy is transferred: radiation (that’s what makes your face feel warm when the sun is shining on it), thermal (that’s what burns your hand when you touch a hot stove), and convective (like when hot air rises). And here’s the thing about insulation: insulation is tested by how it slows down thermal transfer. When you’ve got a leaky house, then the stated insulation value written on the package when you bought it won’t mean a whole lot.
And all houses leak. Most of them leak a lot.
I don’t think there are any national standards when it comes to how airtight a house has to be built, but recently, a test called the Blower Door Test has become popular. We just did one on our house and learned some remarkable facts. Read on!
E.T. Foam Home
Using sprayed polyurethane foam for insulating is a no-brainer these days. It insulates much better than industry-standard fiberglass batts, both because it simply has higher insulating properties and also since the foam essentially eliminates convective heat loss (ie foam eliminates drafts). Closed-cell foams are also very rigid and contribute to the strength of the house.
Read anything on eco-friendly building, and you’ll find reference to closed-cell foam. It’s great stuff–at least in theory.
The local manufacturer of spray foam is Corbond. It has an R-value of about 6.2/inch. But I was a little suspicious that the guys who spray it in come dressed in hazmat suits. What’s up with that? Read on for some scary statistics.
Here is a gallery of interior shots. I used a wide-angle lens to show the rooms–they seem bigger than they actually are!
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- Kitchen (living room in background) as seen from mud room
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- Living Room
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- Front Den
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- From front door to street
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- From Front Hallway up Stairs (Kitchen in Back)
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- Living Room
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- At top of staircase
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- Upstairs Hallway
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- Upstairs Hall Bathroom
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- Upstairs Middle Bedroom
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- Upstairs Front Bedroom
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- Master Bedroom
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- Master Bathroom (as seen from Walkin closet)
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- Master Bathroom
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- The Plans!
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- Inside the Master closet
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- Inside Master Closet towards other bedrooms
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- Upstairs Front Bedroom
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- Downstairs Hallway, from front entrance towards living room
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- Your Bedroom When You Come Visit!
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- Your Bedroom When You Come Visit (Reverse Angle, Bath in Background)
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- Basement Rec Room
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- Basement Rec Room (Reverse Angle)
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- Mechanical Room
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- Basement Office
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- Basement Office (Reverse Angle)
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- View From Mechanical Room towards Rec Room (Basement entrance on left)
We got back into town to see the house had made great progress. All the windows and doors are in, the roof and the side roofs are on, as are most of the shingles. The entire interior of the house is now framed, photos of which I will upload soon. Now that the house is officially closed in (ie lockable), we have been handed our very first set of keys to the new house!
the south wall as seen from the street
house front
back of the house
back of the house. check the grand back porch entrance!
another south wall view
The roof was finished just before Thanksgiving, and the next day Mark and his guys got the first of the basement windows in. By the end of next week we should be “dried in,” which means that I can stop obsessing about the weather report.
From the backyard (the northwest corner)
From the street
Through the neighbors trees in the back yard (southwest corner)
The first of the windows
Anne on the phone to Mom in Göttingen
Tonight Mark and his team hurried to finish at least most of the roof sheeting before the weekend, when snow is forecast. At least when the next storm hits I’ll have much less to shovel!
They are using this neat stuff called Zip System, which is a special OSB board that is then just taped at the seams and is immediately waterproof. You’d think the tape would peel up, but apparently it has years of performance testing behind it.
Rage rage against the dying of the light
No, we're not putting up a billboard in the yard
Earlier in the day
Front View
On Thursday November 12 I awoke to a snowy world. And it kept snowing. I went over to shovel snow out of the upstairs of the house. By the time it was done, there was nearly two feet of snow in the house. It took me five hours to defenestrate it all. (So it took me five hours; at least I get to use my favorite verb.)
Gingerbread house under construction
Front of the house
One day this will be a bedroom
The wet snow stuck to the rafters
The trusses were added today. Finally we get to see what the house looks like in all three dimensions!
Mark Gets Trussed
Here Come the Trusses
All Trussed Up
All Trussed Up Too
