The Architect's Principles for Designing an Efficient House

As stated in earlier posts, it is pretty important to articulate your plan for your home in a written document for all to discuss prior to the start of construction. This helps everyone-owners, builder, plumbing, electrical and mechanical system designers/installers- to understand the end goals and discuss any potential questions and concerns so that they may be resolved with enough time and thought from all. For instance, one of the goals we had was to keep all of our HVAC ducts within the envelope, that is, not a single duct or return in a wall. This wasn't as easy as it might have been for the fact that our bearing wall is our central stairwell, so we had to design some duct chases in interior spaces in both the dining room (we gave up 4") and along the stairwell (which we'd intended to leave open). Because we really liked the layout of our house, these compromises were a small concession to achieving the interior ductwork goal without a significant re-design.

Below are some of the design principles Les Moore (the architect) used to inform his work:

Energy Efficiency Elements

Northern exposure: Garage rear windows at left, to allow for natural light in that space (unheated) and minimum window surfaces on north and East exposures. Small rectangular windows on main house are to provide light under upper kitchen cabinets.

1. The Most Volume for the Least Surface:  The best volume to skin ratio is the first element to consider for an energy efficient house.  A sphere gives you the most enclosure for skin surface, but, as any hippy can tell you, spheres (or their close relative...domes) make very awkward living spaces.  The nearest form to a sphere that can be easily built is a cube...so that's the general form we used for the house.
2. Minimum Interior Volume:  Ceiling heights are minimized to keep the interior volume as small as possible to minimize the heating and cooling loads.
3. Exposure:  Catching and controlling sun while protecting the house from cold and winter winds takes best advantage of the sun's heat. This means maximizing the southern exposure and minimizing the northern exposure of windows and doors.  In cold/icy climates like Syracuse, entrances, entries and garages need to be facing south so that ice can melt on sunny days. Entries with north exposure will remain frozen all winter unless considerable labor or chemical melters are used.
4. Good Insulation:  Lots of good insulation combined with the judicious use of foam to prevent air leakage is the cheapest/best use of material to conserve energy.
5. Good Windows and Door Openings:  Windows and doors must be energy efficient and sized to maximize appropriate sun gain and cold protection.  Generally this means more window area to the south, while minimizing windows on the other faces. Solar "eyebrows" on the south windows, and a pergola on the west main floor (over the deck) will reduce summer heat gain while allowing for optimal sun and some solar gain in the winter. Overhangs are designed to shade from the (at Syracuse) noon sun's 71 degrees on 21 June, but will let in the 25 degrees noon sun rays on 21 December. Additionally, south side window glazing will allow for more heat gain than on the other faces.
6. Solar Systems: To provide areas for solar systems, all the primary roof surfaces (house, entry and garage) are sloped at 45 degrees and face south. The area available for solar panels free of shade and at a reasonably efficient angle for the panels, can provide for both solar hot water (which Lisa and Justin are installing now), and photo voltaic panels (to be added in the future), which ideally will offset a considerable portion of their electric and hot water gas requirements. We used the developer's standard roof truss construction system (a cost saving measure), while also making a house form consistent with its neighboring homes. 

Preliminary sketch for solar shades over main and lower floor south windows

Les notes that when we look at colonial houses in the Northeast many of these natural elements are often applied: minimum space in minimum volumes, taking advantage of southern exposures, while protecting from northern exposures. However, he stresses that while the colonials were saving energy for their own survival, we now need to save energy for global survival.

Why We Should Care About Sustainable Building

For many years I worked in various NGO setting focusing on issues pertaining to clean water, and I even spent a year with a firm that dealt with the clean up of superfund sites. Through each of these experiences, my efforts to change policy and practice concentrated on the by-products of the built environment (sewage, polluted run-off, etc.), and it was pretty frustrating to be dealing with the byproducts of poor management and choices. For this reason, the idea of shifting my energy to buildings, both existing and new, became pretty intriguing, because one had the potential to impact the negatives in the equation.

The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) begins each of their reference guides (they cover everything from New Construction to Neighborhood Development) with a few quick facts, and LEED Homes is no different:

• There are more than 120 million homes in the United States and about 2 million new homes are constructed each year;
• According to the U.S Department of Energy, these account for 22% of the total energy consumed in the U.S., and 7% of the water;
• Levels of indoor air pollutants can often be four to five times higher than outdoor levels; and
• The residential sector contributes 21% of the carbon dioxide emissions (and I’m pretty sure this is just residential energy, notwithstanding the automobiles we use to get around).

I went to University in Canada, and during my time on campus there was intense discussion about the adoption and implementation of the UN’s Bruntland Report, titled “Our Common Future”. Within that report lies of definition of sustainability that has informed me to this day:

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

I'm frustrated to think how little we've achieved since this report was issued in 1987. However, in constructing my home I can make choices that impact the equation, by virtue of the materials I use (and consideration of the embodied energy and lifestyle costs of these materials) and those that I don't (e.g. no tropical hardwoods or products that degrade environmental quality). Moreover, how I live in that home, including--what products I use to clean, food I eat, and how much I consume to “fill” it--will also have a real impact on sustainability and my family’s health. So hopefully, by creating just one green house inside and out, I can minimally impact the broader debate on how we will develop sustainably, regardless of what the politicians are doing!

Creating a "Superior" Foundation

I'm still amazed to see where we are in construction today given the winter we had. We started the first week of January with site work to prepare for the foundation. This entailed creating a construction boundary with a silt fence around the perimeter of the work area (more like a snow fence!!!). We also protected a few trees, albeit with piles of snow rather than fencing given the ground cover. Soil was placed in one corner of the site (adjacent to the existing cottage) before excavation commenced. Our soil type is mainly clay, and our footing mix consists of 18" of crushed stone, with 4" under drain. Wall footings are 60" wide, with 10" of stone as well. Once this was done, everything was covered for a night to keep frost at bay. The next day, our Superior Walls(TM) arrived from nearby Lima, NY. We decided to go with these precast walls vs. concrete block for a number of reasons:

1. Our actual Superior Walls product is the Xi (meaning extra insulation). They provide an excellent thermal barrier because they have fewer seams, and they have the first layer of 2" rigid foam insulation embedded in them (an R12.5 in our case). The total wall thickness is 8'8", and the remaining cavity can be filled with whatever insulation we choose. We're still debating fill material at this time, and are considering dense pack cellulose as well as closed cell spray foam.

2. Engineering off-site ensures a minimal amount of waste, some of which can be reclaimed at the production facility and reincorporated into the production process. Additionally, there's no packaging waste on the job site, as the panels arrive on flat bed trucks ready to be lifted by crane into place.

3. At all seams between panels, workers applied a construction adhesive to ensure an air-tight bond. Each piece was bolted before being sealed again along the outside seam (see below, left) as well as inside each cavity (below right). A good portion of this wall will be below grade once site work is complete.

4. Finally, the pre-fabricated walls proved to be superior in light of our climate: very cold temperatures can make constructing traditional concrete block foundations on site difficult, if not impossible. Within one week of our wall's placement, we had topped off the foundation level, and the basement floor could be poured, giving us our foundation in an impressively short time frame. Here's a link to Superior Walls website where they discuss some of their "green" features:

http://www.superiorwalls.com/greeninfo.php

Note: Foundation drainage is VERY important, and is normally covered by most state and local codes, as well as the durability guidelines in LEED Homes. Our builder used flexible PVC pipes around the foundation walls, beginning at the high point (garage side, east) and directing water to a french drain constructed downslope at the northwest corner of the property. When we had our first big melt in early March, we were pleased to see just how much water flowed through the drains to this outlet.

House for Free!

Here are some photos of the existing bungalow as it was when we entered our purchase agreement with the builder. Paul had already done the soft demo on what was probably a circa 1920's structure. Note the remnants of the 1948 newspaper on the pine floor: this was placed below the carpeting in order to provide some insulation to the floor from the cold cellar below. Apparently, the finishes were quite sparse. Locals of many years remember this house as holding a family of six. All in 700 sf!! It makes me feel guilty about our new house that is almost 2,000 sf bigger!

Initially we tried to incorporate this house into the new design, but we it resulted in a less than ideal orientation, and it would have been expensive to bring up to the standards of the new house. Initially I explored ways to try and use some of the lumber and flooring in the new house, and contacted a Syracuse company called CABFAB who has experience using reclaimed materials. Most recently, I contacted Habitat for Humanity and the Concerned Citizens Action Program--both are locally based organizations that are involved in the deconstruction industry.

Ideally, we will find somebody who wants the materials or the house as a whole. We absolutely want to avoid putting any usable material in the landfill! Any takers……?

Building Green: An Integrated Design Process is a MUST

To make sure you optimize the design for any project you need time. We didn’t have much. By the time we’d thought, “hey, we might build a house” it was mid October and our lease would be up in 10 months.  I thought my experience with sustainable design and USGBC’s LEED programs would allow me to quick start the process for a new design, incorporating as many of the best practices that I knew. I was both right, and wrong. You need specifics about every single component part of your home and I certainly am not an expert in all of them. For instance, while I knew exactly what low flow toilets and faucets would work for the family, I was less sure about the composition of our walls and attic that would be best for our climate. Additionally, we had the sticky issue of a budget: building a sustainable house within the limits of our budget, and understanding that certain sustainable features such as increased insulation can impact the price tag. But by how much? Fortunately, some good advice from team members early on helped provide some clarity on whether or not we could design a home to meet our needs, and to be as efficient and sustainable as our budget could afford. 

The initial members of our design team included:

The Builder: Paul Fowler (see previous post) who had a wealth of experience to bring to the discussion about what building practices work best in our climate, as well as costs associated with these practices. Again, he owned the property that we wanted to build on, so he was, by default, our builder. For more information on the work Paul is engaged in visit http://fowlergreenhomes.com/

The Architect: In our case, Leslie Moore, my father-in-law. You are lucky if you have such an asset in the family to bounce ideas off of. We trusted him to know what it was that we needed, even if we didn’t have absolute clarity on how to get there. He produced more than three versions of his most efficient design, all the while knowing that we might not build one of them. He even visited the site one afternoon while in town to make sure he’d situated the house correctly for solar, views and privacy. Few have the luxury to work with architects in this manner. The one drawback to his involvement: because he’s not living near us we’ve had to do a lot of stuff over the net and the phone, which when working on plans, can be a bit of a drag if you are one-dimensionally challenged, as I am. But he built us a nifty model to make up for my handicap, which is a great thing to have! 

A graduate of RISD, Les served in the Navy Reserves for four years before commencing his work as an architect. He had the unique experience of working on the “Expo ’67," a 240 ft dome that was the U.S. Information Agency Exhibit for the Montreal World’s Fair. Most of his work (as a partner in various firms) focused on public and private (college/university) buildings and spaces, including some of Boston’s metro stops. His fascination with boats, particularly fast sailing boats, has been a lifelong “hobby.”  He’s built numerous craft, including a 40-foot trimaran sailboat that won a good number of local and ocean races. His love of sailing, and newfound passion for residential architecture, sustain him to this day. 

The Engineer: Ellis Guiles, Vice President of TAG Mechanical Systems and Principal of EG2 Engineering, P.C., was indispensible from the get go. I hired Ellis even before we’d signed a contract so that he could run some preliminary models to see if our design assumptions translated to real energy savings before we agreed on a price with the builder. Because of my professional experience working with mechanical engineers I’m a big fan of modeling, as it can tell you a lot about a design’s potential energy performance BEFORE you actually spend money on building. For instance, Ellis was able to inform us that our initial plan for 4 inches of exterior rigid foam plus additional insulation in the studs wouldn’t net us the savings (in heating and cooling costs) that we expected such practices would garner. His models were also able to demonstrate what appreciable differences would result from choosing one window option vs. another. As a result, what we saved in buying the less expensive, and only slightly less efficient windows, we then could spend on a solar hot water system to offset our use of fossil fuels.

Ellis is a Professional Engineer and a Mechanical Contractor, and in addition to his modeling, he’s been informing our decisions on HVAC design as well as other ventilation issues that arise when you create a “tight” house. He is also my GREEN RATER http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=2093#overview and HOME ENERGY RATER http://www.resnet.us/home-energy-ratings, and in these capacities will guide us through both LEED© Homes ™ Certification and the Energy Star V2.5 Certification.  

And of course, the owners: We had experience renovating our old house and knew our programmatic needs really well. We even reviewed these with the architect before he put pen to paper. Once we agreed to build, we have been intimately involved in the decisions because we have very specific sustainable goals (e.g. LEED Silver) and a builder who is new to these programs. 

So, after about five weeks of research, drawings, and discussions with this group, we came to an agreement, but only once we had designed the house, written the sustainable specifications, and discussed all of the goals pertaining to Energy Star and LEED© Homes ™ Certification.  It was an intense design process, and I’d obviously advise anyone undertaking a similar home building project to allow for another month or two to review ideas. For instance, with more time, we might have figured out an alternative to a traditional HVAC system that we’ll be installing for heating/cooling/ventilating the house. Initally, we thought we could do without one, but discussions with the engineer showed us this wasn’t feasible because when you create a tight envelope you need to ventilate it correctly (the phrase in the industry is “Build tight. Ventilate Right.”

An integrated design process also allows you to address all the specific sustainable details, including certification goals, so that you can include them in the specifications that are a critical part of your Construction and Purchase Agreement (even if you are NOT pursuing certifications, you need to ensure your sustainable goals are articulated and agreed to in specifications). Once the construction process gets going, things are going to unfold too quickly to ensure that you have everything from wall construction to finishing materials covered. In fact, based on my experience with this project and others, you can save yourself many headaches, change orders, and money, if you take the time to ensure for an integrated design.            

Why "Just One Green Home"

If you've read my history, you'll realize that we arrived at this juncture less by design than by happenchance.  We’d spent nine years renovating a ranch in Massachusetts, including: insulating the walls, attic and replacing single pane windows after undertaking an energy audit.  There were definitely moments during those years that we dreamed of starting from scratch instead of “fixing it up,” but we didn’t anticipate building in our future. Our move to CNY involved renting for a year, to give us time to understand how and where we wanted to live.  We assumed, especially given the "buyers" market, we would be buying an already existing house.

We spent a few weeks looking at properties online and with a realtor, growing increasingly discouraged at the offerings. Some were in need of too much repair and energy saving improvements, and others were new, but too big, offering rooms and space that we had no desire to live in.  In some of these new homes the materials and methods they used to build left us wondering how long it would be before we’d be doing repairs and making improvements to increase efficiency. 

Location was also important, both for the kids (good neighborhood, schools) and for reducing the family’s commute to work, activities, sites of interest, and our number one shopping destination: the food market. While we were attracted to locations further from Syracuse, where my husband works, we realized that such a move would result in more driving for him, and less family time. The idea of building came to us as our realtor passed (for the fifth or sixth time—thanks Dave Pridgen for your patience!) a property in Dewitt, NY. 

Dewitt is adjacent to Syracuse, and the site is just 2 miles from my husband’s office. He loves to bike, so we could envision him doing so in better weather. The public schools that our kids can attend for the next six-eight years are both less than a mile away, and the site is close to the many amenities that the City of Syracuse has to offer. So the location was right.  Moreover, by building a new home, we realized we could create a structure that was both efficient and low maintenance compared to existing properties. However, there was one potential problem: the site was owned by a builder who would also develop it, and we didn't know a thing about him. Would he be interested in entertaining the idea of building a sustainable home, particularly one on our budget?

The builder is Paul Fowler. Paul has built over 3,000 homes in our region so he has a wealth of practical, applied experience. When we met him, he was mulling over a new product line called “Fowler Green Homes” in order to meet the needs of homeowners who want specific green features http://fowlergreenhomes.com/

However, he’d never built a home to LEED Homes or Energy Star specifications, two rating systems we were interested in applying to our process. Paul explained his approach to energy efficient design as being rooted in the “middle of the bell curve,” meaning that we could pay more for thicker insulation and better windows, but the performance that they would yield would diminish, beyond a certain point. In other words, you won’t necessarily get the results that you pay for. The initial discussions with Paul about our design ideas were influenced by the architect's rendering of the house, as well as early discussions with a planning engineer. Many, many hours later, we arrived at a place of comfort and agreed to a contract. We signed this the last week of 2010, after the snowiest month in the history of Syracuse. A great time to begin building a house :).

Getting Started

The house project is off and running! We broke ground on January 8, and I'd intended to start this blog shortly thereafter. But if you've built a house you'll understand that it is a pretty intensive process if you choose to be involved in every decision, as I have been. So forgive me, I'm late!

My purpose for doing this blog is to share with other prospective builders the process that we went through to build what we hope will be a very sustainable home, both in the energy it won’t consume and the nature of the materials it will use. This is our own personal journey, not a map for others to follow. But if it provides guidance and ideas than it has succeeded in some measure. Get in touch, questions and comments are welcome!