Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. Modern society concentrates to much on reducing all petroleum usage from some people instead of reducing some petroleum usage from all people. The second is much cheaper and time effective. The house looks awesome. Great work. Very impressive.
Well done! This is exactly the kind of home I plan to build when I retire, as my final home. I want a low maint, low cost to run, high comfort and healthy home that doesn't require a lot of my time and energy, so I can focus on living!
Seeing the solar array on this 28' x 28' house made me smile. We built a 28' x 14' shed with a mono sloped roof to hold our 27 panel array, similar to this one. We bought a used Chevy Volt months before the build. Based on our normal electricity usage, the power company would not have approved the 10KW array without it. Now with net metering, our electricity bill is $9/mo. This includes 90% of our transportation needs.
So fantasic! And Steve's intro sets the stage. As a fellow engineer and just commencing my passive house project I'd love to hear from you on some "big picture" takeaways. Maybe top three things youd do differently and top three you'd repeat.
That was a great video. I wonder what that final dollar figure of this is compared to a conventionally build home in that area. I thought my R-40 walls and R-60 ceiling were high until I heard this home has R-100 ceilings.
The average household electricity consumption in BC Canada is less than 1kW, but the passive house has 8kW solar power installed. Speaking of heat transfer modeling, it could be done without CAD/CFD software. I am wondering if the height of the building contributes to the heat loss.
I'm curious about overall initial costs versus a typical new build on the same site and then balanced against energy (and other) savings (and possible costs?) over the next, say, 25 to 30 years.
I don't understand why the concrete foundation was not insulated on the exterior. Roxul or graphite reinforced EPS wold be my choice. XPS off gassing is 1,300 times as bad as CO2 for GHG's. I would of used Roxul on the exterior wrapping as well. The XPS can shrink leaving small gaps.
I've only just found this video link -Thanks for sharing my project Steve and the kind words. It is a regret not insulating the foundation floor and walls better. The space was originally not planned to be heated, but my wife has made it her woman cave and heating that space uses more power than heating the two levels of passive house space above. I could still insulate some of the exposed wall on the exterior, and get some benefit.
@@rickrys2729 I have been building passive solar homes since 1981. I have also been insulating my foundations and slabs since then. We drove buy a house one time in the mid 80's and the design was obviously solar. We stopped and had a chat. The home was slab on grade and the builder was using in floor heating without insulating the slab. Mother earth will thank him forever for the warmth. The home probably would of loved the extra warmth for the last 40 years
@@richardmckrell4899 They are charging upwards of $700 per sqft lol.. You could get the same results with ICF for a fraction of that, but then they can't make crazy profit margins.
@@richardmckrell4899 they are around 5% more than a 2x6, with zip and spray foam.. I am self building one now and we will make out for around $70 a sqft and I bet close to passive, but honestly that just seems like the equivalent of hollywood giving themselves awards...
Not sure if anyone has, it should be really easy given the simple form factor, Should be easy to insulate, without all the folds and architectural features most architects like to add.
They didn't end up using geothermal. If you look at the Home Energy Rating report at 5:56, it only has "air source heat pump" listed. I think he was trying to say that when he mentioned abandoning his original models, but it wasn't initially clear to me either.
The slinky loop is part of the ERV and not part of a ground source heat pump. It warms very cold winter air and avoids the ERV going into bypass mode to avoid freezing the core heat exchanger. The slinky loop is technically a bit shallow (due to solid rock below) and by February I can tell I've chilled the whole slinky area some, but I rewarm it in the summer months when it cools hot humid air. The cost of a GSHP in solid granite was too high.
Why not build ICF? It certainly has to be cheaper and more effective than all these "passive" details.. I guess the only downside is you can't charge a premium for it..
Beautiful house in terms of thought, planning, and execution but if its not beautiful in its presentation whats the point? Masses will never be converted if all this tech just looks like a plain box
This is a cool project for sure, but not all that environmental or a real solution for climate change. The carbon footprint to build the home including trucking everything on the rural site, land preparation, concrete use, embodied carbon etc is still huge. An electric vehicle for each adult is unsustainable both financially and logistically considering battery supply constraints. Still a cool build, but this guy is no more environmental than the guy living in the townhouse in the city who bikes to work.
Good points, I agree that embodied carbon and energy for my construction is high and it not scalable for solving climate change, but PH is a good model for new construction and can work for renovations too. Utilities are making progress to reduce the carbon emissions for making electricity, but we have made little progress on the harder problem of reducing the carbon footprint of buildings and transportation. Existing buildings cannot merely all be replaced with new PH construction, but there are ways to tighten and insulate. Our rural town mostly heats with oil and shifting that to heat pumps is one of the challenges we have. We provide rebates for heat pumps and try to keep power cost low but a price on carbon pollution would speed things up. As for a 2nd EV we did find that my wife and I simply share the Tesla for nearly all driving and we hardly put any miles on our 2nd car, an X5 diesel BMW . So actually we will not replace that BMW with an EV any time soon and that saves more batteries for others. I did build an electric bike about 10 years ago and used that to commute to work putting on thousands of miles and I do still use it sometimes, but now I work from home.
@@rickrys2729 I appreciate your reply and your nuanced comments. PH is indeed where new construction of all types should be headed. Here's hoping the society-scale issues, electricity generation and sustainable transport, can be solved promptly.
Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
Modern society concentrates to much on reducing all petroleum usage from some people instead of reducing some petroleum usage from all people. The second is much cheaper and time effective.
The house looks awesome. Great work. Very impressive.
Well done! This is exactly the kind of home I plan to build when I retire, as my final home. I want a low maint, low cost to run, high comfort and healthy home that doesn't require a lot of my time and energy, so I can focus on living!
very well detailed project, congratulations !
Very interesting... I smiled over his last line about is tractor and gas tools... Thanks for the info
11:33 am I seeing things or did you connect the cat's litter box to the ERV?!
Yes sir, 1 exhaust for the cat litter box
Thank you for sharing. What a fascinating story to hear how the project came to be. Major accomplishment!
Seeing the solar array on this 28' x 28' house made me smile. We built a 28' x 14' shed with a mono sloped roof to hold our 27 panel array, similar to this one. We bought a used Chevy Volt months before the build. Based on our normal electricity usage, the power company would not have approved the 10KW array without it. Now with net metering, our electricity bill is $9/mo. This includes 90% of our transportation needs.
So fantasic! And Steve's intro sets the stage. As a fellow engineer and just commencing my passive house project I'd love to hear from you on some "big picture" takeaways. Maybe top three things youd do differently and top three you'd repeat.
Congrats on the house.. Hope you enjoy it as i enjoyed rhe video
Nice build, thanks for sharing
Rick Rys for president.
It’s crazy the differences between northern and southern needs for passive houses.
That was a great video. I wonder what that final dollar figure of this is compared to a conventionally build home in that area. I thought my R-40 walls and R-60 ceiling were high until I heard this home has R-100 ceilings.
I really liked the hrv and venting the kitty litter, lol
His video is like a movie trailer. Would love more (deep dive) details on ANY sub system of the the house.
I ride my bike past this house all the time! Building a new house is ashburnham with the same principals.
The average household electricity consumption in BC Canada is less than 1kW, but the passive house has 8kW solar power installed. Speaking of heat transfer modeling, it could be done without CAD/CFD software. I am wondering if the height of the building contributes to the heat loss.
I'm curious about overall initial costs versus a typical new build on the same site and then balanced against energy (and other) savings (and possible costs?) over the next, say, 25 to 30 years.
I don't understand why the concrete foundation was not insulated on the exterior. Roxul or graphite reinforced EPS wold be my choice. XPS off gassing is 1,300 times as bad as CO2 for GHG's. I would of used Roxul on the exterior wrapping as well. The XPS can shrink leaving small gaps.
I've only just found this video link -Thanks for sharing my project Steve and the kind words. It is a regret not insulating the foundation floor and walls better. The space was originally not planned to be heated, but my wife has made it her woman cave and heating that space uses more power than heating the two levels of passive house space above. I could still insulate some of the exposed wall on the exterior, and get some benefit.
@@rickrys2729 I have been building passive solar homes since 1981. I have also been insulating my foundations and slabs since then. We drove buy a house one time in the mid 80's and the design was obviously solar. We stopped and had a chat. The home was slab on grade and the builder was using in floor heating without insulating the slab. Mother earth will thank him forever for the warmth. The home probably would of loved the extra warmth for the last 40 years
interesting but a lot of power for hvac on passive house... We never use HVAC on our passive house not needed even in WY
Very Nice!
Whats the payback period?
With what they charge there will never be a payback..
@@FJB2020 I didn't think so, this whole passive house stuff seems like a lot of virtue signaling for rich people.
@@richardmckrell4899 They are charging upwards of $700 per sqft lol.. You could get the same results with ICF for a fraction of that, but then they can't make crazy profit margins.
@@FJB2020Hell, ICF buildings are crazy expensive too. The whole passive house thing sounds like a big scam.
@@richardmckrell4899 they are around 5% more than a 2x6, with zip and spray foam.. I am self building one now and we will make out for around $70 a sqft and I bet close to passive, but honestly that just seems like the equivalent of hollywood giving themselves awards...
Has anyone yet build a passive house rated 40x60 barn?
Looked like a challenging project due to the hill site location. But turned out nice.
Not sure if anyone has, it should be really easy given the simple form factor,
Should be easy to insulate, without all the folds and architectural features most architects like to add.
Why GSHP and the mini splits? You couldn't get the whole house to be done with the GSHP?
They didn't end up using geothermal. If you look at the Home Energy Rating report at 5:56, it only has "air source heat pump" listed.
I think he was trying to say that when he mentioned abandoning his original models, but it wasn't initially clear to me either.
The slinky loop is part of the ERV and not part of a ground source heat pump. It warms very cold winter air and avoids the ERV going into bypass mode to avoid freezing the core heat exchanger. The slinky loop is technically a bit shallow (due to solid rock below) and by February I can tell I've chilled the whole slinky area some, but I rewarm it in the summer months when it cools hot humid air. The cost of a GSHP in solid granite was too high.
@@rickrys2729 ahhh, I have not seen a lot of ERV setups so I didn't even know those could/need to use those loops. Thank you.
Awesome
Why not build ICF? It certainly has to be cheaper and more effective than all these "passive" details.. I guess the only downside is you can't charge a premium for it..
Exactly. With 1 trade you do the amount of work of 4 trades.
Beautiful house in terms of thought, planning, and execution but if its not beautiful in its presentation whats the point? Masses will never be converted if all this tech just looks like a plain box
Think you mean 'left turn' not 'right turn'.
i'm too poor for this
You're not my real dad!
This is a cool project for sure, but not all that environmental or a real solution for climate change. The carbon footprint to build the home including trucking everything on the rural site, land preparation, concrete use, embodied carbon etc is still huge. An electric vehicle for each adult is unsustainable both financially and logistically considering battery supply constraints.
Still a cool build, but this guy is no more environmental than the guy living in the townhouse in the city who bikes to work.
Good points, I agree that embodied carbon and energy for my construction is high and it not scalable for solving climate change, but PH is a good model for new construction and can work for renovations too. Utilities are making progress to reduce the carbon emissions for making electricity, but we have made little progress on the harder problem of reducing the carbon footprint of buildings and transportation. Existing buildings cannot merely all be replaced with new PH construction, but there are ways to tighten and insulate. Our rural town mostly heats with oil and shifting that to heat pumps is one of the challenges we have. We provide rebates for heat pumps and try to keep power cost low but a price on carbon pollution would speed things up. As for a 2nd EV we did find that my wife and I simply share the Tesla for nearly all driving and we hardly put any miles on our 2nd car, an X5 diesel BMW . So actually we will not replace that BMW with an EV any time soon and that saves more batteries for others. I did build an electric bike about 10 years ago and used that to commute to work putting on thousands of miles and I do still use it sometimes, but now I work from home.
@@rickrys2729 I appreciate your reply and your nuanced comments. PH is indeed where new construction of all types should be headed. Here's hoping the society-scale issues, electricity generation and sustainable transport, can be solved promptly.
A Japanese doctor? Ok lol