(Just after they received their Certificate of Occupancy (CO)) –
“We are moved in and have our CO. We actually hosted Thanksgiving there! We have no idea how the house is performing (no propane or electric bill yet despite being hooked to the grid for almost 4 months!) but it is super comfortable! Everyone that comes always tells us how ‘warm’ it is, with the thermostat set to 68º. So far we are very happy, interested to see what the first propane fill-up looks like, I haven’t even had time to look at the gauge yet. We have a 500 gal underground tank feeding a Viessmann condensing boiler with low temp radiant; because the house is so tight I’ve been monitoring water temps and with few exceptions, the boiler is constantly circulating 80-85º water, just enough for warm toes. I had a lot of people tell me that radiant is a waste in a high-performance home but we love it (placed in selective places around the house, bathrooms, and high traffic main areas). With the tightness of the house, I did not even bother to put any heat source in the outlying separate rooms of the house and seems evenly distributed. We haven’t gotten the upstairs heat hooked up yet (except radiant in bathrooms) and it still stays warm up there on 20º nights, About ~65ºF. SPF Insulated attic stays at around 60ºF with no heat source. Currently, no ERV (researching and saving up for one- rough ducting for it is in place- suggestions welcomed, thinking either venmar/Broan or Panasonic) but have continuous run Panasonic bath fans for now and the house does not feel stuffy. We did have some window condensation issues at first but I’m running a dehumidifier in the basement until ERV install and seems to have taken care of that (before the dehumidifier we were at 65%RH!) – still a little on really cold mornings. I assume a lot of that is construction moisture (rainy spring/summer) and there are a lot of green lumber from timber frame drying and the concrete in basement shedding its water. The garage is ridiculously warm and on its own zone at 60ºF. It barely ever runs. Only when a door is open.”
“BTW, preassembling the gable ends onto a truss with soffit pre-built and then swinging the whole thing in as one piece worked absolutely awesome. To date, I have only ripped one 1/2″ piece off a final piece going into a corner and a couple of blade widths on some headers/footers when assembling this entire house. The fit of the panels is really stunning. I’m sheathing the roof today.”
[EP note – our corner panels have the ability to trim or “stretch” length of the wall to address potential issues with floor platform being different dimension – that is what he is referring to.]
Recent Comments