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Case Studies in High Performance Homes

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LEED v4 for Homes Design and Construction Checklist. Built Green. Certify Projects Find a Member Certify Projects Get Checklists Building and development projects are qualified using one of five Built Green checklists, depending on the type of project and are organized into environmentally friendly action categories.

Built Green

Batt + lear: sustainable residential construction and remodeling. Batt + Lear projects begin and end with your vision for your home: we break ground only when we understand what you want your home to look and feel like, and we’re not finished until you’re at home in your new environment.

batt + lear: sustainable residential construction and remodeling

Whether it’s a one-week energy savings package, a kitchen remodel or a new home from the ground up, your project will be: comfortable We are innovators and leaders in the field of home performance, and you’ll be amazed at the comfort and savings after the transformation of your home.beautiful Your home will be beautiful, inside and out. The skeleton and skin of your new home will be gorgeous, refined and welcoming.sustainable We are dedicated, award-winning green builders. From lumber sourced from FSC-certified forests to low-VOC paints and finishes to our rigorous waste management and recycling, your project will be healthy for both our planet and your family. New Construction. Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union - Energy-Smart Loans. We empower our members to do more than they thought they could with their banking relationship.

Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union - Energy-Smart Loans

We have a great respect and commitment for our combined social, economic and environmental convictions and have built, and will continue to build our financial cooperative around these ideals. As a representation of our mission, we have become a leader in providing our members the ability to access and afford energy efficient options for their homes. Sustainable Connections Community Energy Challenge. A NW Washington Green Jobs and Energy Efficiency Program The Community Energy Challenge makes achieving energy efficiency as easy as possible from start to finish.

Sustainable Connections Community Energy Challenge

We provide each participating household and business with quality information, a full energy assessment, a customized energy action plan detailing cost-effective measures, assistance with utility and tax rebates, reliable contractors, and quality assurance. This program is open to home and business owners in Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan, and Island Counties.

Check out Toward Net Zero Energy, our new pilot program with the Opportunity Council! Clean Energy Fund 2. Page Content The Clean Energy Fund enables a mix of projects administered by Commerce's State Energy Office.

Clean Energy Fund 2

Funding will support development, demonstration, and deployment of clean energy technologies that save energy and reduce energy costs, reduce harmful air emissions, or otherwise increase energy independence for the state. Mission Zero House - Mission Zero House: A Net-Zero Retrofit. A rehab project in Ann Arbor turns a house in a historic district into America’s oldest net-zero residence There really is nothing more challenging that I can think of than taking a home in a historic district and taking it to net zero energy.

Mission Zero House: A Net-Zero Retrofit

But it sure helps to start with the right home. Good bones When I asked Matt Grocoff, “Why this house? ,” the first words out of his mouth were, “Good bones!” Despite the home’s age, the foundation and structure were sound. “But the beauty of this home goes well beyond the structure,” Matt is quick to add. Honoring the history While Matt and Kelly were determined to get to net zero on their home, it was definitely going to be by working with the home and its history, not against it. “Creating energy is not the reason we live. Mission Zero House. The Mission Zero House, a 1901 historic preservation in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a 1,500 square foot single family home in a climate with four distinct seasons (temperatures ranging from 95°F to -20°F [35°C to -28°C]).

Mission Zero House

Occupied by the Grocoff family (Matt, Kelly and their two young daughters), the intent of Mission Zero House is to redefine home, proving that where we live is much more than four walls, but a space to cultivate and sustain community. With over 130 million existing homes in America (half of which were built before 1974) the Grocoffs wanted to restore a neglected old home rather than buying new. They wanted to preserve the heritage, story of place and the beauty of the home without expanding its footprint. The Grocoffs set out to restore their Victorian-era home to Net Zero Energy, Net Zero Water and ultimately make the building a learning tool for the community in both spirit and ecology.

Photo: Cybelle Codish Courtesy of THRIVE. EPS Audit. Ground-coupled heat exchanger. A ground-coupled heat exchanger is an underground heat exchanger that can capture heat from and/or dissipate heat to the ground.

Ground-coupled heat exchanger

They use the Earth's near constant subterranean temperature to warm or cool air or other fluids for residential, agricultural or industrial uses. If building air is blown through the heat exchanger for heat recovery ventilation, they are called earth tubes (also known as earth cooling tubes or earth warming tubes) in Europe or earth-air heat exchangers (EAHE or EAHX) in North America. These systems are known by several other names, including: air-to-soil heat exchanger, earth channels, earth canals, earth-air tunnel systems, ground tube heat exchanger, hypocausts, subsoil heat exchangers, thermal labyrinths, underground air pipes, and others. Sanden CO2 Refrigerant Heat Pump Water Heater at FutureFit Home. Abstract Residential heat pump domestic water heating systems (HPDWH) use synthetic refrigerants with high global warming potential (GWP).

Sanden CO2 Refrigerant Heat Pump Water Heater at FutureFit Home

In the 1990s, Japanese engineers developed an alternative HPDWH technology known as "Eco-Cute" that uses CO2 for refrigerant, a naturally occurring gas with global warming potential (GWP) 2,000 times less than synthetic. Oregon’s plumbing code requires hot water heating systems to be tested and listed by an approved agency (such as Underwriters Laboratories UL). Although it is not yet UL listed, the City of Portland allowed us to install the CO2 HPDHW system as an alternate material through its Alternative Technology Advisory Committee process.

Sanden Hot Water Heat Pumps - Energy Efficient Hot Water Systems. Bundle design study birch case study house. ROXUL ComfortBatt. ROXUL COMFORTBATT® stone wool insulation products are designed as a thermal insulation for wood and steel frame construction.

ROXUL ComfortBatt

This semi-rigid batt has a unique flexible edge designed to compress as the batt is inserted into walls, attics, ceiling and floor frames. The flexible edge springs back, expanding the batt against the frame studs to give a complete fill. COMFORTBATT® compensates for normal variations in stud centers caused by distortion or warping. The special flexible characteristic at the insulation edge ensures the expected R-value is achieved. Overview ApplicationThis product is designed specifically for exterior wall steel stud applications. Cat 5 air & waterproof barrier. Air and waterproof barrier Cat 5 is a single component, Silyl-Terminated-Poly-Ether (STPE) that is roller applied to produce a highly durable, seamless, elastomeric weatherproofing membrane on exterior sheathing, CMU back-up walls, and pre-cast concrete.

Cat 5 is proven to prevent water and air penetration of the building envelope in conditions ranging from everyday weather to the drenching rains and 155 mph winds of a Category 5 hurricane. Utilize Cat 5 as the primary air barrier over above grade structural surfaces prepared with R-GUARD Joint & Seam Filler and R-GUARD FastFlash. Solvent free. Isocyanate free. PROSOCO: Construction products that improve buildings. Green Builder HOTY Entry-General-Birch Case Study House. The Birch Case Study House was developed using the Living Building Challenge as a guide. The primary goal of this project was to implement numerous sustainable strategies highlighting the successes and failures when designing, permitting and constructing Living Buildings. To help realize the project, [bundle] design studio partnered with non-profits and building product manufacturers. Through the course of construction [bundle] hosted a workshop series with Sustainable Connections to present green materials and strategies to the local building community.

[bundle] also partnered with Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) for the NextStep Homes program. Birch Case Study House. Description January 22, 2015 The Birch Case Study House was developed by [bundle] as a tool to demonstrate the industries most progressive techniques in green building. DOE Tour of Zero: Bellingham Power House by TC Legend Homes. Affordable Net-Zero-Energy House — TC Legend Homes. This custom net-zero-energy home, built for a Bellingham couple nearing retirement, won the grand prize in the Affordable category at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Housing Innovation Awards.

The house is small but spacious feeling. Our Bellingham Power House Takes Shape — TC Legend Homes. There's nothing we love more than building overachieving homes. Our latest project will not only produce enough solar electricity to meet its own energy needs, but it will produce surplus power to charge two electric cars: a Tesla Model S and a Nissan Leaf. Nicknamed the Power House, it is the first of its kind in Whatcom County and one of few such homes in the world. Perhaps more remarkable than the home’s efficiency is its modest price tag. Shared by two couples and three children, the 3,000-square-foot custom home will cost under $110 per square foot to build, significantly less than most other residential construction projects in Bellingham.

With its airtight shell, structural insulated panel (SIP) construction, numerous south-facing windows, highly efficient heat pump, and approximately 10,000-watt solar panel array (built by Bellingham’s own iTek Energy), this one-of-a-kind house has no electrical bills and costs nothing to heat. Bellingham Power House — TC Legend Homes. Linseed Oil Information and Use - A natural preventive maintenance product used to preserve wood and concrete.

Home Interior Paints & Exterior Paints. Zehnder 550. Heat Recovery Ventilation - HRV/ERV- Zehnder America. BioPCM™, BioPCmat™ & ThermaStix™ BioPCMTM is the trade name for our family of proprietary bio-based phase change materials. When used in buildings they reduce cooling loads and HVAC energy consumption while enhancing the building’s comfort level. Phase change materials “PCMs” use a basic nature of physics, the absorbing or releasing heat when matter changes from one state to another, to aid in thermal storage. When you warm up a solid material, its temperature rises steadily until it nears its melting point. Then it absorbs a significant amount of heat, but the material does not get warmer, until it fully melts. The process of changing phase from solid to liquid absorbs an enormous amount of energy comparatively to when the material’s temperature is changing in either its liquid or solid state.

BioPCM is available a variety of melting points or “Q factor”: 73ºF (22.8ºC), 76ºF (24.4ºC), 79F (26.1ºC), or 84ºF (29ºC). BioPCM and our bioPCmats meet the provisions of the buy American act. GeoSpring Hybrid-Electric Heat-Pump Hot Water Heater. Water Heaters are the Second-Highest Energy Users in U.S.

GE GeoSpring Electric Heat-Pump Water Heater Review. The new GE GeoSpring can save you money. Bellingham Bay Builders - Project Galleries. Bellingham Bay Builders. House of the Immediate Future. In the fall of 2011, Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King County was approached by the Seattle Center Foundation with an idea. Miller Hull - The Habitat for Humanity House of the Immediate Future. The Habitat for Humanity House of the Immediate Future It's enlightening to compare two approaches to the same problem fifty years apart.

The House of the Immediate Future Exhibit at the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle provided a vision for the future of domestic life as exuberant modular assemblages packed with high-tech energy-intensive gadgets that did the living for you, built and powered by seemingly endless resources. Fifty years later, we at The Miller Hull Partnership are at work on The House of the Immediate Future with Habitat for Humanity to be built first at Seattle Center as part the Next 50 celebration of the '62 World's Fair and then moved to the New Rainier Vista neighborhood near the Columbia City Link Light Rail Station. Certified Homes/Next Step Site-Built Homes. Emerging Technology.

Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA)