Great video Steve. Nice to see a properly designed house that is taking advantage of all the knowledge we have about our environment and home to build efficient homes. It's a lovely bright house that I am sure the owners are going to enjoy living in.
It looks amazing!! great system from Butech and impressive to watch Rodrigo and his guys (Gabriel and Helio) take great care to install it. Steve will definitely film it this week.
Isn't the heat pump water heater cooling the basement? In New England this would mean having to add that heat back to the home with the primary heating system a significant portion of the year since the water heater is still inside the conditioned space. COP 4.07 is great but that energy then also has to be sourced again any time the heat is on which sort of defeats the purpose. These seem to make a lot of sense, in say, Texas, where you are almost always cooling instead of heating. I''ve been watching heat pump water heaters for a while and so far my research says their ROI is going to be very poor anywhere with a significant heating cycle year round. What am I missing?
Have this tank, and I live not far from this build. It's still more efficient to steal energy from the basement to heat the water even if it increases heating load around it.
The heat pump is cooling the basement - it's extracting all the heat needed to heat the water from the basement. You can use ducting to bring outside air into the heater so that you're not cooling the room or relying on a certain amount of heat passing into the room from the rest of the building. The advantage of sourcing the heat you need from inside the heated envelope of the building is that it avoids any risk of the heat pump freezing due to cold weather. Althought the heat pump is more efficient in winter if it is taking in air from the home at 65F than air from outside at 35F, as you point out, you have to pay for the air in the home to be heated to 65F. Taking air from the home will result in a COP of about 2.0 for the water heater (although this assumes you are using an efficient heat pump to heat the home). This sounds like a bad deal when Rheem say the heater should have a COP of 4, but you have to look at the graphs of how the heater's COP varies with air temperature. With the air temperature at 35F, the COP is going to be around 2.75, so you are only paying a little more if you use heat from inside the home.
@@RobWinikates It's still joules in and joules out. If the cold air is blowing into the conditioned space 100% of the energy need to be recovered over time.
The idea that every build would accommodate all of the water it encounters seems like rich people problems. How does this pencil out on a small parcel?
No not at all, it is usually a municipal system problem, they don't want to have to deal with it, it costs them money to clean the water and treat it, putting it on the homeowner makes it their problem
That’s the problem with those water heaters, why would you turn your mechanical room into a meat locker. Unless you want to use it like a root cellar. You didn’t explain the reason for insulating the interior walls is the adjoining rooms like a rec- room would be pulling heat, along with any moisture thru that interior wall. What about the moisture? How is the wood fiber going to not mold and Or condense on the wall surface?
What don't you understand about it? It is insulation made from wood that has been broken down into the individual fibres. It's stuck back together using a binder and a fire retardant, in such a way that it traps small pockets of air.
@@JAllen01 It's not the wood that's creating the insulation, but the space between the fibers that traps air. Same as fiberglass, rockwool etc. It's not like solid timber. Dead air space is the working mechanism in almost all building insulation. I'd guess the advantages that this product offers would be that it's made from a byproduct of some other wood processing operation.
@@JAllen01 Wood fibre is a little better due to air that is trapped between the fibres. R values are now around 5.6 for wood fibre compared to R 10 for the very best man-made foams (excluding Aerogels). So you do need nearly double the thickness of wood fibre, but it’s a natural product and has a lot of thermal mass, which can be useful.
I don’t like the concept of forcing wood to be what’s it’s not using chemicals and whatnot. Insects, fire and rot are going to get to it no matter what
with all the money and effort spent collecting storm water runoff why not install a collection system for household use? It would probably end up cheaper and you wouldn't have any water bills.
@@josecito976 I understand the idea. When it rains heavy down here, the lots wash out silty muddy water into the streets sewer system, which in turn makes the city have to clean that water. Just don't understand what climate has to do with it
That shower drain system is very cool. Hope to see some more videos on that install.
They are coming
Great video Steve. Nice to see a properly designed house that is taking advantage of all the knowledge we have about our environment and home to build efficient homes. It's a lovely bright house that I am sure the owners are going to enjoy living in.
Thank you for the kind words
That shower... wow!
Would love to see the shower pan and tile install
It looks amazing!! great system from Butech and impressive to watch Rodrigo and his guys (Gabriel and Helio) take great care to install it. Steve will definitely film it this week.
Love the wedge on the spacer!
How do you keep the shower pan from turning into black slime and smelling bad?
Do they need to pull up all the tiles and scrub out pan periodically?
Wondering the same
The tiles are easily removable, plus the pan is anti-microbial so it doesn't sustain microbial growth
That’s interesting. Thanks.
Why did you not put pipes two feet deeper under septic system for at least one tone ground heat pump , since you are doing that digging any way?
That septic system is a very precise designed system, from the engineered sand to the depth, overfill, etc
21:57 “If only you knew the power of the Pex Pipe...”
Isn't the heat pump water heater cooling the basement? In New England this would mean having to add that heat back to the home with the primary heating system a significant portion of the year since the water heater is still inside the conditioned space. COP 4.07 is great but that energy then also has to be sourced again any time the heat is on which sort of defeats the purpose. These seem to make a lot of sense, in say, Texas, where you are almost always cooling instead of heating. I''ve been watching heat pump water heaters for a while and so far my research says their ROI is going to be very poor anywhere with a significant heating cycle year round. What am I missing?
Have this tank, and I live not far from this build. It's still more efficient to steal energy from the basement to heat the water even if it increases heating load around it.
The heat pump is cooling the basement - it's extracting all the heat needed to heat the water from the basement. You can use ducting to bring outside air into the heater so that you're not cooling the room or relying on a certain amount of heat passing into the room from the rest of the building. The advantage of sourcing the heat you need from inside the heated envelope of the building is that it avoids any risk of the heat pump freezing due to cold weather. Althought the heat pump is more efficient in winter if it is taking in air from the home at 65F than air from outside at 35F, as you point out, you have to pay for the air in the home to be heated to 65F. Taking air from the home will result in a COP of about 2.0 for the water heater (although this assumes you are using an efficient heat pump to heat the home). This sounds like a bad deal when Rheem say the heater should have a COP of 4, but you have to look at the graphs of how the heater's COP varies with air temperature. With the air temperature at 35F, the COP is going to be around 2.75, so you are only paying a little more if you use heat from inside the home.
@@RobWinikates It's still joules in and joules out. If the cold air is blowing into the conditioned space 100% of the energy need to be recovered over time.
The idea that every build would accommodate all of the water it encounters seems like rich people problems. How does this pencil out on a small parcel?
No not at all, it is usually a municipal system problem, they don't want to have to deal with it, it costs them money to clean the water and treat it, putting it on the homeowner makes it their problem
Storm water management requirements isnt unusual. When building a new home it isn’t too difficult to have dry wells,
Why going with bytes rather than laticrete orcevenvdchleuter??
I just can’t see the joints in shower floor being viable to drain shower over long term
Tax code states that new constructon is NOT applicable for the heat pump credit.
That’s the problem with those water heaters, why would you turn your mechanical room into a meat locker. Unless you want to use it like a root cellar. You didn’t explain the reason for insulating the interior walls is the adjoining rooms like a rec- room would be pulling heat, along with any moisture thru that interior wall. What about the moisture? How is the wood fiber going to not mold and Or condense on the wall surface?
3" drain for a shower, Steve? I can't imagine overwhelming a properly vented 2" drain, especially with restrictors in most fixtures. Do tell.
I don't understand Woodfibre insulation
What don't you understand about it? It is insulation made from wood that has been broken down into the individual fibres. It's stuck back together using a binder and a fire retardant, in such a way that it traps small pockets of air.
@@tlangdon12 the idea of wood Fibre as an insulation, wood only has an R value of like 2 per inch normally doesn't seem like a great idea
@@JAllen01 It's not the wood that's creating the insulation, but the space between the fibers that traps air. Same as fiberglass, rockwool etc. It's not like solid timber. Dead air space is the working mechanism in almost all building insulation. I'd guess the advantages that this product offers would be that it's made from a byproduct of some other wood processing operation.
@@JAllen01 Wood fibre is a little better due to air that is trapped between the fibres. R values are now around 5.6 for wood fibre compared to R 10 for the very best man-made foams (excluding Aerogels). So you do need nearly double the thickness of wood fibre, but it’s a natural product and has a lot of thermal mass, which can be useful.
I don’t like the concept of forcing wood to be what’s it’s not using chemicals and whatnot. Insects, fire and rot are going to get to it no matter what
with all the money and effort spent collecting storm water runoff why not install a collection system for household use? It would probably end up cheaper and you wouldn't have any water bills.
Potable is pronounced with the "oh" sound, as in potato, not pot as in a potted plant, with 2 t's. there's only 1 T, 'pote' potable, not pottable..
Steve you're very good, but you have a habit of beating a dead horse. Please make a concise point and move on.
Too many ads in your content
Damn, Matt got older quick
Push fit pex? No thanks
What a waste of money they require builders to spend on rain water up there. In Texas we have nothing
Totally different climate so it's not comparable
@@TheRealChappy is it about the climate or about the city/state taxing builders to make sure the city isn't required to clean their runoff water?
They don’t build to the minimum required by code, least of all in a multimillion dollar build
Hell if I had the $ to splash I’d be doing this and more
@josecito976 yea for sure me too. But it sounds like it's city code up there to clean your jobsite's rain water lol
@@josecito976 I understand the idea. When it rains heavy down here, the lots wash out silty muddy water into the streets sewer system, which in turn makes the city have to clean that water.
Just don't understand what climate has to do with it