Author: Mary Fifita

Don’t you just hate paying for wasted materials? Visit a typical residential construction site and look in the dumpster. The cost of that house includes all the materials that were not used in its construction as well as those that were. So, all that stuff in the trash raises the cost of your building without providing you with any benefits. Research indicates that the average residential construction project produces four pounds of waste for every square foot of living space built. For a 2,000-square-foot home, that is 4 tons of waste that usually ends up in the landfill! With simple…

Consider the kitchen as a supplementary heating device for your home. In hot climates, it’s typically better to place the kitchen on the side of the house opposite the direction of the prevailing winds. If the prevailing wind is out of the southeast, place the kitchen on the north side of the house. This will help to exhaust heat from the house throughout the summer. In the winter, north winds will push heat from cooking appliances back into the living space. Even in predominately cold climates, a north kitchen location is preferred, as it effectively doubles the return on investment…

Daylighting serves as a passive lighting system, and natural light can significantly improve our mood (and treat Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD). Daylighting is most effective as a passive feature when it provides enough lighting for you to function around the house without needing to turn on electrical lighting during daylight hours. You should be able to move from room to room, navigate through a room or do things that do not require detailed vision without having to turn on any electric light fixtures. This includes using the bathroom, opening the refrigerator, placing dirty dishes in the dishwasher, etc. This…

This article is dedicated to changing the common perception of where water comes from, how much of it is ours to use and how we can live using only our fair share. Water shortages have become a global concern, with climate change, population growth and pollution placing continued strain on available ground and surface water supplies. Every region of the US has experienced water issues over the past few years, some even outside of drought conditions. Also across the US, aging water and wastewater infrastructure systems are in desperate need of major renovations and replacements, wasting unacceptable volumes of potable…

Most rainwater and graywater systems are regulated by local, state and sometimes federal public health and safety legislation. The concern is to prevent contamination of public water supplies from individual installations that may not be properly designed, professionally installed or maintained. For example, imagine that you have municipally treated water service to your home and you install your own rainwater irrigation (non-potable) system and tie it to the municipal water piping (to use the municipal water as a backup for periods when it hasn’t rained in a while and you have exhausted your stores). If there is a fire down…

Continuous and contiguous air, thermal and moisture barriers are essential to healthy, high-performance homes, but it takes meticulous detail work to achieve this. A combination of rain screens, caulks and sealants, flashings and weatherstripping is required. Every penetration, transition and margin of the building must be addressed. Below are some general guidelines for exterior wall construction not only for long- term durability but also to achieve the performance that you expect from the product. Thermal Barriers: “Thermal barrier” is a fancy term for insulation. In a high-performance home, insulation should be installed on all exterior surfaces in an unbroken sequence.…

Before choosing your building system, you should analyze your ability to benefit from the use of high thermal mass building systems in your climate. Thermal mass can be any material that can capture heat and hold it for hours after exposure, then release it slowly. The most common materials used for exterior thermal mass are types of masonry, e.g., stone, rammed earth, adobe or concrete. During the hot days, as these materials absorb heat, it slowly moves inward through the walls. About the time that the sun sets, the heat has reached the interior space. Throughout the evening, as temperatures…

Miscellaneous electrical loads (MELS) can be almost as high as the lighting and appliance loads (which include entertainment and computer appliances) in our home. In fact, our model indicates 2,314 kilowatt hours a year! We have seen the development of more smart appliances and controls on the market in the last few years. Computers can now sense that they are not active and automatically go into sleep mode, and the same technology is now being applied to televisions and video equipment. Smart outlet strips that sense no demand can cut off phantom loads to appliances plugged into them, yet have…

It is important to note that, in modeling the home during the design phase, we made revisions to the design and building envelope components in order to attempt to reduce the heating and cooling loads. To assure its operational efficiency, we want to reiterate that we started by designing an efficient system: central equipment location and short, straight duct runs. Now our mechanical contractor uses ACCA Manual J software, version 8 or later, to correctly calculate how many BTUs of heating and cooling each room in the home requires. Following ACCA recommendations, we are designing for HVAC capacity at 96°F…

Now our goal from here on is to look at all the things that use energy in the home and determine how we can make each of them as efficient as possible. We want to get our energy consumption down to equal to or less than what we can produce with a reasonably sized PV array so that we achieve our goal of net zero energy at the end of a consecutive twelve-month period. In order to accomplish this, details are important. We will leave no stone unturned. We’ll start by examining more aspects of the home’s design as well…