Part III: What is The Pretty Good House? I am going to extend the metaphor of my last post, where I compared the Passive House standard to Elizabeth Warren and the country of Germany. Analogously, if the Pretty Good House standard were a politician, it would...
Part II: Passive House What is Passive House? If high-performance building standards were politicians, Passive House would be Elizabeth Warren; if it were a place, it would be the country of Germany. Let me explain. In the United States, the Passive House standard has been created and...
Part 1: The state of the question: I recently completed my Certified Passive House Builder training. The training consists of several parts. It starts with a self-paced, online tutorial followed by a two-week class, and concluding with a written exam. It demands a sizable commitment of...
Modular Homes are Hip! Coming this fall, we will be breaking ground on another NZE home and once again we are choosing a modular form of construction. This is our second modular home, and we were so pleased with collaborative relationship we built with the designers...
There are many things I love about running my own building company, but chief among them are the communities that my business connects me to. Whether it is the large community of NESEA that I have written about elsewhere in this blog (Sept 18) or...
For those who are interested in creating energy efficient homes and additions, there is something incredibly seductive about spray polyurethane foam (SPF), commonly called spray foam insulation. In its closed-cell form it offers both unparalleled r-value performance as well as a permeability rating that keeps wall...
Weatherization work in attics is never easy. Attics are often cramped, hot, dark, and dirty places. It takes a special kind of person to do this work and not many are capable of doing it and doing it well. And yet the data compiled by...
A number of years ago, we built our first net zero capable house. It is a super-insulated, carefully air-sealed house heated by mini-split, air sourced heat pumps and sporting a 5.45 kw solar array. The client recently reached out to me to report her utility...
[caption id="attachment_16357" align="alignleft" width="400"] High performing, durable wall assemblies: Double 2x4 framing carefully air sealed and filled with dense packed cellulose provides high-performing, noise-blocking, long-lasting walls. All our new construction walls are built to this level of performance. [/caption] My accountant is a man of long...
Picture above: Architect’s rendering of our new project in Great Barrington. [caption id="attachment_16309" align="alignleft" width="400"] What can happen when the noble desire to be energy efficient trumps intelligent design.[/caption] For many years we branded ourselves as a green building company, and we defined being green as making...