Dan is getting close to a  Passive House milestone – insulation goes in later this week.  In preparation for that cloth baffles are being placed on the Larsen Trusses so that when the insulation gets blown in there will be some control of where it goes.  Here we see Dan’s wife Hillary tightly stapling the baffles into place.

As you can see from the next photo, there is access between the floors at the sill plates.  You are looking up to the second floor from the first floor.  (Note that Hillary did NOT staple the baffles on that bay or it would have been tight 😉  Insulation will be blown in from the upper floor into the lower floor.  Dan and his crew will install the OSB downstairs over the face of the Larsen trusses, but upstairs there will be additional fabric placed over the face and the insulation blown in before the OSB gets installed on that floor.  The OSB will be the airtight layer for the house and once that is installed and the whole building sealed Dan will be ready for a MAJOR milestone – the blower door test!  But first, the wall insulation, OSB, attic insulation, taping all the joints, sealing any openings remaining… still plenty of work left to do!

In the meantime, here is a view of the front and back with some siding and color.  It is really looking great!

Image in the Public domain. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flags_4.jpg

Monday is Memorial Day here in the United States.  It is a day that we remember the brave men and women who have fought and died for our country.  It is by their service and dedication that we have persevered as a nation and maintained the freedoms that our founders fought for.  Those freedoms are our greatest existing resources.

I would also like to say thank-you to  the men and women who are still alive who have served our country or are still serving our country.  Your service is greatfully appreciated.

Recently I was challenged by a friend who is aVietnam veteran to research the war that I am too young to remember.  He asked me to write a story as a returning Vietnam vet with PTSD and to seek closure in some manner.  It was a very moving experience and one that helped me to understand as a non-participant to some small level what the war meant.  If you are interested in reading the resulting story, “Look Into Our Shadows“, you can find it at my writing blog.

Freedom isn’t free and thank-you seems inadequate for what has been provided for us as a country by the brave men and women who have given their time, their blood, and in many instances, their lives.  Please accept the gratitude offered with the deepest respect for the service rendered.

Thank-you.

-Linda

Diligence is key in building a Passive House.  Making sure all the details are incorporated as planned is necessary.  When Dan’s windows showed up with the wrong stickers on them there was more than enough heartburn to go around.  Windows are a very important part of the Passive House configuration.  Figuring out where they are located, how much sun they let in (or keep out), how large they are, what their physical properties are in terms of materials & construction are all very important.

As the truck pulled up Dan noticed immediately that there was a problem.  A call to the manufacturer determined that it was most likely a sticker mixup, but just to be sure Dan did not install them until the engineer determined that they were in fact the right windows.  Phew!  I am happy to report that they are in and I have the pictures to prove it.  Dan’s friend Dale even came up from Portland to help put them in.  Additionally there is now a set of stairs to the 2nd floor and I was able to go inside for the first time and I took more pictures.

[slideshow]

If you notice, the windows are not flush mounted to the outside as you would expect.   There is a reason for this.  The windows perform better thermally if they are placed closer to the center of the window well.  There is a program available from the Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory called THERM that can be used to test for the thermal capabilities of construction materials, primarily windows and after testing the position and types of materials, it was found that where the windows are located within the assembly is an important factor.

With the windows in, the Tyvek and siding going up outside, we are getting close to another Passive House feature – the airtight layer.  Dan designed his Passive House to have the airtight layer on the inside of the structure.  He will be using OSB over the larsen trusses on the inside, sealed, and then will blow in dense pack fiberglass insulation into the cavity.  Once the doors are in and any other openings are covered it will be time for the blower door test.   If you want to be sure you don’t miss any updates, you can register for email notification on the right hand side of the page.

-Linda

I had an opportunity to take some pictures of the project from the deck of the house up the hill.  As this is still a construction zone, the backyard is not yet BBQ ready, but it does have a nice amount of space.  You can see the house faces the back of a Safeway store, but the road in front of the house is wide so it doesn’t feel crowded.

The second picture shows just a bit of the side, but you can see the windows in the loft area.  Dan says that there will also be 2 skylights added – one over the stairs and one over the small bedroom.  When I asked how that affected his PHPP figures he said that with good glazing it actually improved since he was able to get additional solar heat gain.

You can see the wet-flash that has been painted around the window openings and Dan told me the windows are coming in a few weeks and will be installed immediately.

Here we are back at street level. In addition to the windows, the Tyvek will be going up soon and the siding.  After that the insulation will be done, the airtight layer sealed and the blower door test performed.  Stay tuned for all the updates!

If you want to make sure you don’t miss any changes on the project, sign up to receive updates via the email subscription button on the right side of the page.

If you would like to see a slideshow of the project I have added a page, accessible by a link at the top of this page, or you can click here.

I find it interesting when in the course of a few weeks a topic keeps coming up in different conversations so often that the number of occurrences catch your attention.  Just this week I have heard several people discuss Passive House as it relates to other areas of Sustainable Construction.  Since this is a blog whose main focus began with the idea of using Existing Resources and is also promoting Passive House construction, I wanted to broaden the discussion to show how these two goals work very well together.

I have heard a few comments that Passive House does not promote “green building” as a focus of a project.  By this the commenter usually is referring to material selection, or reuse of materials already on site.  While the Passive House requirements do not specifically have a mandate or credit for a percentage of reused or recycled materials brought from a close proximity, that discussion is very much alive in the Passive House Consultant community.

Passive House began as a way to reduce the ever-increasing need for fossil fuels.  It approaches the carbon footprint argument from a different direction than the embodied energy of Existing Resources does.  Passive House construction does this specifically by reducing what is needed to heat and power a building over the lifetime of that structure and thus requires less energy to be produced at the global level.  By developing methods to bring Passive House construction to retrofits AND require they have the same performance of newly constructed Passive House buildings, the Existing Resources that are already in place in the present day building stock and their embodied energy can be incorporated into the main goal that Passive House construction has of reducing energy requirements while also promoting sustainable building practices.

While Passive House does not focus specifically on which materials can be reused and what building methods best promote sustainable construction, the people who are involved in the effort to bring Passive House construction to the forefront are keenly aware of these issues and do take steps to incorporate them into their projects.  Passive House Northwest has a mission statement that says in part “We are motivated by the long-term protection of the environment and climate; the promotion of sustainability, quality, and durability in building construction; the creation of a built environment that is healthy for its inhabitants; and the advancement of energy independence and the reduction of operating costs for building occupants and owners.”  Many of the Passive House consultants from Seattle are also members of the Ec0-Building Guild.  I am certain that other consultants from different areas of the country have similar associations.

Just as there is no one way to build a Passive House, there is also no one way to build Sustainably.  It is the overall impact that remains as the goal and reusing materials, or putting them out to be reused by others fits the underlying principle of Passive House very well – if something is already made, the energy to make another one does not have to be provided.  Existing Resources can help Passive House achieve their goal, it is up to the building professionals and others in the local community to find the ways this can happen easily, efficiently, and affordably for all concerned.

The conversation of the role Existing Resources play in Passive House is ongoing, as is another conversation of taking Passive House to Net Zero through adding alternate energy sources to a project specifically to reach this goal.  It is good to have these conversations, share ideas and opinions, solve problems, and address misconceptions should they arise.  The good news is that you do not have to pick Passive House over Sustainable Construction – Passive House IS Sustainable Construction, how sustainable is up to those involved with the project and the resources available.

-Linda

Dan’s project is making waves in the Green Building community. Today’s email brought the latest Building Green newsletter and a wonderful surprise – Dan’s project is featured in an article that Alex Wilson wrote for the Evironmental Building News. “Passive House Arrives in North America: Could it Revolutionize the Way We Build?” Be sure to check out Alex’s article and put your two cents worth in the comments or accompanying blog.

-Linda