Part3 in my series – "How to build a better house". Last week we talked about advanced framing techniques, which in simple terms replaces lumber with insulation material and maximizes the wall that’s insulated. This effectively improves the thermal resistance or R-value of a wall. As a reminder on how important advanced framing is, let's look at the comparison of a standard wall vs a wall constructed with advanced framing again:

A standard wall assembly using R-13 batt insulation will have an effective R-value of 11.1. An "advanced" wall assembly will have an effective R-value of 14.6 or 30% higher than the traditional wall. 

This week I want to focus on the different kind of insulation materials we can use to use that give you the most energy efficient green home.

In general, insulation is one of the most important components in any responsibly built structure, especially in green buildings. Insulation reduces energy consumption and if properly installed, can reduce draft dramatically. From that perspective, any insulation material is a “green” product.

The choice of insulation material will be covered in my next article "Insulation techniques……or how to build a better house – Part4" and has a lot to do with where the insulation is installed (wall, ceiling, roof, crawlspace etc etc), the climate area you live in and the specific details of your wall assembly.

So let's look at some of the different kinds of insulation materials that are out there these days:

Fiberglass Insulation:
This is the standard in the building industry today. High-density fiberglass makes the same wall cavity 15 to 20 percent more effective in reducing heat loss. The majority of manufacturers now incorporate at least 30 percent recycled material, and there are quite few products that carry third-party verifications for their recycled-glass content. If Fiberglass insulation is used as a batt, it is important to know that most of them are manufactured with phenol formaldehyde as a binder, though some products use alternative binders or no binder at all. So be sure and investigate the contents of the product you want to use in your green home.

Cellulose Insulation:
Is primarily made out of recycled newspaper, but not always from post-consumer sources. It is often damp-sprayed into open cavities, or blown into closed cavities at relatively high density. Cellulose adds to the airtightness of the house—and by forming a good infiltration-barrier. It is also less quality control dependent in filling voids than fiberglass batts (in simple terms… not as easy to mess up

Rigid Foam Insulation:
Rigid foam insulation applied to framing yields added infiltration resistance, reduced frame conduction losses, and higher overall wall R-value. Extruded polystyrene (XPS) and polyisocyanurate (polyiso) rigid foam insulation used to be made with ozone-depleting CFC blowing agents, but when ozone depletion was identified as a major environmental problem, the CFCs were replaced with HCFCs through international agreement. HCFCs were eliminated from polyiso insulation as of 2003, but they are not scheduled to be totally eliminated from XPS until 2020. Polyiso is currently produced with hydrocarbon blowing agents. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) rigid foam has long been made with non-ozone-depleting pentane rather than HCFCs.

Spray-Polyurethane Foam insulation:
One of my favorite insulation materials, spray-foam is an excellent choice for most buildings. Though slightly more expensive than the other materials mentioned above, the qualities of spray-foam will give you "a lot of bang for your buck". As the name implies, it is sprayed into open cavities and quickly expands to about 100 times its original volume. Most manufacturers claim R-values of about R-3.8 per inch. Several manufacturers sell water-blown products though there are still quite a few that use HCFCs or hydrocarbon blowing agents which are harmful to the environment and your health. So again, beware of what you buy.

Of course, there are a myriad of products available on the market today. If you want detailed information, I have included some manufacturer links below. If you want to find out specific product details while you are in the process of building your home, try the product directory at http://GreenBuildingAdvisor.com (Paid subscription) or http://www.buildinggreen.com/ (Paid subscription). They have great product databases with all the relevant product information.

I should mention that most of these materials can be installed in different ways – Loose fill, batts, spray or rigid boards. What to use "where" and "why", will be covered in my next article.

Be sure and come back. Don't miss next week's article. Insulation Techniques… or “How to build a better house” – Part4

Links to other articles in this series:

Thermal Bridging… and how it affects a wall assembly – Part1

Advanced Framing Techniques – Part2

Some Manufaturer Links:

http://www.certainteed.com/- Fiberglass

http://www.applegateinsulation.com/ – Cellulose

http://www.knaufinsulation.us/ – ECOBatt

http://www.demilecusa.com/ – SprayFoam

http://www.icynene.com/

Sources:

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/

http://www.buildingscience.com
http://www.toolbase.org
http://resourcecenter.pnl.gov
http://www.energysavers.gov

1. Install of a conventional 15 SEER system – $12,500.00
2. Additional cost for Geothermal – $19,500.00
3. Total Investment to install Geothermal – $32,000.00
4. 30% Federal Tax Credit – $9,600
5. Total additional cost for Geothermal after tax credit – $9,900.00

After the tax credit the total additional investment in a Geothermal system is $9,900.00. Yes, that still seems like a bit more but now let's look at how fast you will receive a return on that investment. On average a Geothermal system has a life span of twenty years compared to a conventional system which on average of 15 years. So above you saw what you have to pay out but let's take a look at what you will get.

1. Average monthly savings in your electric bill  - $325.41
2. First year savings – $2,361.86 (or 33 trees)
3. First year ROI – 23.857%
4. Estimated lifetime savings – $78,097.29 (or 661 trees)

After the third year you will have saved $7,445.78 by using Geothermal and by the fourth year $10,179.93, which means that you have seen a 100% ROI by the fourth year of using your Geothermal system. So now not only are you doing what is best for the environment you are doing your wallet a favor too!

…… that's why. The picture above shows water damage at the floor framing level in the entry door area of the house we are currently working on. The entry door we're replacing is not that old. This is only one of several areas we found in this home that have severe wood rot. The wood rot is due to a very poorly done previous remodel. This is a prime example what can happen over time if homeowners don't do their due diligence and hire professionals that know what they're doing. So what happened? Simple answer: Improper installation of a new front door with no flashing and waterproofing measures. Small amounts of water were able to penetrate the wall and floor framing under the door threshold which in turn slowly turned the floor framing to mush. We repaired the wood rot and had our roofing and waterproofing contractor – Stazon Roofing – install a proper metal flashing piece before the new front door gets installed. 

The new front door will be installed on top of this flashing piece. What you probably can't see in this picture is that the flashing piece has a an end dam (a small piece of metal that is bent up) -so if any water ever does get under the door threshold, it won't go far. 

Other areas of constant water damage we see in projects is in poorly installed or non-existing shower pans. 

Above you can see a properly installed shower pan, filled with water awaiting plumbing inspection. These liners are installed over a mortar bed for proper drainage and should not have any punctures or penetrations. We just recently had to tear out an entire shower due to an improperly installed shower liner…… a very expensive repair for our client.

As you can see, the potential areas for mistakes that can cost you a lot of money are endless, that's why you should always do your due diligence and hire professional and licensed contractors for any job.

 Written by:

Marc Kleinmann
EGC Custom Homes
http://DallasGreenBuilding.com
m.kleinmann@EGCDallas.com 
  

What we know today as "Advanced Framing Techniques", was originally developed in the 1960's as Optimum-value engineering (OVE) framing techniques under a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) initiative to cut the cost of houses by omitting unnecessary lumber. The approaches did not get widely adopted at the time. However, with the passage of time, many of the original OVE techniques have been incorporated in what we today refer to as "advanced framing". Advanced Framing includes OVE framing techniques such as increasing joist, stud, and rafter spacing to 24 in.; placing doors and windows on stud layout; and using stacked framing for direct load transfer. Application of advanced framing not only saves on lumber and labor costs, but also supports better insulation detailing and reduces the occurrence of drywall cracking.

The image below illustrates some of the advanced framing techniques.

Advanced framing, as the name implies, means using framing lumber intelligently in wood framing by:

1. use of common material dimensions (24-inch grid) as a basis for design to maximize material use and minimize waste and
2. efficient load transfer to reduce unnecessary framing members from the home.

As you can see in the illustration above, some of the techniques used include stack framing – allowing for the use of single top plates, elimination of wood beams/headers in non-load bearing walls, and two-stud corners. Framing around openings in exterior walls limited to those framing members needed for vertical load transfer or horizontal load resistance.

Looking at this from a broader view – what does this do for our exterior wall assembly and my house in general? Well… besides cutting back on material waste and material usage – which increases resource efficiency, one of the main goals of green building – incorporating these techniques allows us to install more insulation in exterior walls.

In simple terms: Advanced framing actually replaces lumber with insulation material and maximizes the wall that's insulated, which improves the whole-wall thermal resistance or R-value.

So let's look at a comparison of R-values in a standard wall vs a wall constructed with advanced framing:

A standard wall assembly using R-13 batt insulation will have an effective R-value of 11.1. An "advanced" wall assembly will have an effective R-value of 14.6 or 30% higher than the traditional wall.  

If you're a homeowner, you're probably reading this going: "How does this affect my wallet?" – I have some simple stats for you. Fully incorporating advanced framing techniques may result in:

• Materials cost savings of about $500 or $1000 (for a 1,200- and 2,400-square-foot house, respectively)
• Labor cost savings of between 3% and 5%
• Annual heating and cooling cost savings of up to 5%.

 (Source & detailed calculation: http://www.energysavers.gov)

So if you are currently in the market shopping for a home, ask if the home you're considering was built using advanced framing techniques or with other systems like SIPs or ICFs – which I will cover in future articles. If you are in the process of building a new home or undertaking a major renovation, ask your builder to incorporate these techniques. You will end up with a better home.

Links to other articles in this series:

Thermal Bridging… and how it affects a wall assembly – Part1 of 7

Sources:

http://www.buildingscience.com
http://www.toolbase.org
http://resourcecenter.pnl.gov
http://www.energysavers.gov
 

Stay tuned for our upcoming videos in this series. Part 2 will go over the results and explain what the next steps are in making this home more energy efficient. Interested in making your home more efficient? Well, I guess now you know who to call.

Written by Marc Kleinmann
Principal / Lead Project Manager
EGC Custom Homes

How about that idea…… ditch the stock and invest in your home! Energy efficiency is becoming more and more important for homeowners in Dallas. So it comes as no surprise that people all over the country are finding that an investment in their home is the best decision they can make. So how about investing  in a home energy retrofit? Besides the obvious – a much more comfortable home and less strain on the environment – it also appears that an energy upgrades have a better ROI than Microsoft stock these days.

Below is an article written by Anne Maertens of EnergySavy.com and Anne was kind enough to give us permission to re-post her article.

Times are tough. If you’ve been unemployed in the last few years, your savings have probably dwindled as you’ve struggled to make ends meet. If you haven’t lost your job, then you’ve hopefully been saving and investing small amounts. But the stock market has been a mess over the last five years, and interest rates for CD’s and treasury bonds are tiny. If you’re fortunate enough to have money to invest, where should you put your money to guarantee a good return?

Here’s a new investment idea for you: a home energy retrofit. Make your home more energy efficient through low-tech and cost-effective measures like insulation, furnace replacement and sealing your heating ducts.Huh? Why put money into your house with home prices going the way they’ve been. Well, this isn’t about increasing the resale value of your home: though you can expect that it will at least help. All you really need is to live in your home for five years for this to work in your favor due to the lower utility bills you’ll see every month. To illustrate the impact of doing a home energy retrofit as an investment, here’s a simplified example. Let’s say five years ago, a homeowner in Dallas named James was deciding between buying $10,000 of Microsoft stock as an investment or spending that same amount of money on a home energy retrofit to reduce his utility bills. What would have been the better five-year investment? The Microsoft stock worth $10,000 in June 2005 would have turned into just $10,700 five years later (a return of 7 percent over five years), including the increase in stock price and the dividends paid out over the course of the five years. But it turns out that the home energy retrofit would have been the much better investment. If James had spent $10,000 on a retrofit for his 2,000 square foot home in Dallas, including installing a more efficient heating system, efficient lighting, and attic and wall insulation, the investment would have returned 36 percent over five years, in terms of lower utility bills and increased resale value: even assuming that he only gets back half of the value of his investment at the end. So… Retrofitting your home is a better investment than the stock market. And that doesn’t even consider the fact that you’ll be more comfortable in your home and you’ll help reduce our country’s dependence on foreign energy sources.If you’re interested in learning more about how to do a home energy retrofit, who to do it, and how to get as much of it paid for by your utility and the government, estimate your savings at EnergySavvy.com.

I guess this says it all. Have an appetite for a home energy retrofit now? Contact the experts at EGC Custom Homes.

And another big announcement in the award circle this month – this one in the category for energy efficient homes. A home built by Swiss architect Peter Schuerch, principal of firm Halle58 won the 2010 PassivHaus award. Built in Bern, Switzerland, the home is a stunning example of how proper design and siting can overcome misconceptions about energy efficient design & construction – the facade of this project consists of over 50% glazing, yet it achieves energy efficiency far exceeding european standards. 76% of the hot water supply of the structure is produced through solar collection and the wall assembly creates a stunning R-value of 52!!! How about that? This design shows that energy efficient homes don't have to be boring, minimalise glazing and have large overhangs – efficiency results can be achieved with smart design.

There were many other interesting projects entered in the competition. If you are interested in a full list of the 2010 award winners, click here.