What I would change about my ICF home
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.พ. 2023
- We built this home back in 2014, after 10 years of pouring ICF walls, but precisely zero experience as a builder. Here are few things we COULD change to improve the performance even more!
- วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I’d make those awning hinges so you can raise them in the winter a few inches and lower in summer to shade basement.
Cool idea for the involved homeowner (which I am). But had I built them shorter or higher from the get go, they would do everything I needed them to so without any intervention; thus truly "passive".
An on demand water heater is perfect solution. Only heats the water when needed. Could you move the stove down to the first floor? You could have the pipe stay there and just have it pass through the second floor. Make a "DUMMY" stove that the pipe passes through and you could grab some of the heat when needed. You could add a LED screen for a fireplace look.
Moving the woodstove is a great idea we have discussed a lot. It might happen one of these days. However, the on-demand is a big no-no for a net zero home.
You can look at upgrade windows EU Termopan 3 pan glass nothing beat those for the $
in floor radiant heat in the concrete floor would be suitable, mine is heated by solar. AMPEX (R-10 to R-16) is made for the tubing in radiant floors. IF you also need radon gas elimination, AMRAD is an EPS product for radon gas and also adds some r value. You should be at R-12 to R-20 rating for the floor to isolate the floor from the cold ground, then you are only heating the slab not the ground
Radiant heat is awesome, I agree. We also target r-20 under the slab, with a radon barrier.
I would be sure to avoid putting a concrete deck above my living room ceiling; a heavy rain overwhelms the waterproofing, and also the concrete conducts moisture into the flooring inside the house. We solved the former issue by building a screened porch over the deck, and the second problem by using quarry tile instead of the bamboo flooring.
Yikes! I'm glad you were able to find solutions Steve. I cringe every time I see a print with living space under a deck.
Have you heard of Alchemco Techcrete 2500?
@@robnowe5464 Nope
Concrete that is 4400 psi or higher is considered waterproof
@@Jerry-ko9pi Actually it isn't that simple...It has to be consolidated properly for one, and secondly it must be monolithic. An ICF wall has thousands of plastic ties that pass through from one side to the other, which could easily present a problem for waterproof concrete.
What's the wall unit you have there that shows your breakdown of energy usage?
That is the Evolution Thermostat from Bryant/Carrier. Unfortunately it doesn't store much data, that would be 1 thing I would love to change.
Why not just use a gas furnace instead of resistance heat as a backup on cold days? Yeah, it’s burning a fossil fuel, but only on exceedingly cold days, and is more economical than is resistance heat.
Great question Paul! There are the original reasons, and there are my reasons today. Originally, we would have to 1) Pay for a furnace & 2) Get a propane tank in the yard. All to potentially save a little cash. We decided to first see how much we actually spent on backup heat, then decide if propane backup was worth it. We had $79 in backup heat last year, and that has been our costliest year to date. Reasons today include 1) I can't generate gas with PV panels, so can never get to net-zero with it. 2) Gas introduces the possibility of carbon monoxide and gas leaks. 3) Backup heat usage isn't enough to justify it.