How do you design & build using Eco-friendly materials for real people like me?
I live in a passive solar hybrid home built 30 years ago. 2×6 stud walls 16″ o.c, open floor plan, cathedral ceilings, fiberglass batt insulation, clear glass double pane Anderson windows, fhw/oil heat, solar hot water.
I keep my bedroom window open 24/7. I love the smell of the outdoors and the fresh breezes from the fields. In the winter I have blankets that keep me warm with the window open. I turn down the thermostat to almost off in the winter & off the rest of the year. In the winter I sit in front of the southern windows & feel the warmth of the sun on me (I wear short sleeves). At night or cloudy days I wear warmer clothing. In the summer the windows are shaded from decidious trees (no a/c) with 30″ roof overhangs. The house stays cool.
Now tell me something; with all the building science of super insulated homes & CAD programs showing how much insulation we need to conserve energy- how do you design & build for people like me?
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Replies
Maria,
I think you've got it figured out already. It doesn't sound like you have any problems. Keep living in your house and be happy.
We New Englanders like to live that way. Thank you for your quick & commons sense response.
Martin's right. You have a home that works for you.
No offense Maria, but you have an uncommon home. The mass market needs to rely on building science to guide them when solar orientation isn't ideal, or builders will only use 2x4, or there aren't trees to provide optimal shading, etc. Some people who have small children aren't going to leave their windows open through a New England winter, unless they like visiting their pediatrician. We're seeing an increasing need to incorporate allergy or health concerns into the indoor environmental design.
I'm glad your home works for you. That's how it should be, and I'm sure your home would work for others, too. But I'm also willing to bet there's a sizable portion of the homebuyer market that would want or need something different.
Maria,
This is a very interesting question and a valuable provocation for those of us who focus on "green living" issues. Most of our country's people choose to keep their windows shut and thermostats set for maximum comfort year round. It is almost taboo to suggest people should do otherwise, so the focus instead must be thermal enclosures and mechanical systems that operate efficiently. I like to point out basically what you have described, that anyone can choose to use minimal climate control in whatever house they occupy if they just embrace the natural climate of the area. Of course that's easier to say if you live in a mild climate, as I have for many years.
I agree with all of the above, except maybe a little with Mike. Despite the fact that we're attempting to renovate to PH standards, we've always lived with the seasons. Thermostat around 60 in the winter, 78 in the summer. This has most certainly NOT been because of our unreasonable frugality. Our family simply finds it more comfortable.
Now, for my concern with Mike's assertion that it's dangerous or irresponsible to allow children to sleep in cold rooms - is that backed up by anything, other than the common misconception that cold temperatures give you a cold? I know the Dutch, Danes and other Northern Europeans have their children nap outside year around, even as babies. I also know that the 'normal' temperature for a home (70? 72?) is a new concept, and that humans have lived and thrived for the vast majority of their time on this planet with wildly divergent temperature ranges.
That nitpick aside, I'm glad this is being discussed. Even without the benefits Maria enjoys with her current house, everyone could learn to lessen their impact by adapting to the season.
Maria,
Would you mind sharing a picture of your house...especially the south facade?
Paul:
I made the statement based on two different pediatricians, who advised keeping the temperature between 70-74 degrees for the first 6 months of a child's life. I don't know where they got their information from, but they have medical degrees and I don't.
Paul, you make some excellent points. I claim no expertise in pediatrics but it seems reasonable to say that the children of our species (even among the baldest of mammals) must still have the ability to survive and thrive well outside the USA standard thermostat temperature. After all, the ability to tightly control the ambient temperature is only a very recent development in the history of Homo Sapiens, and somehow completely unnecessary for all the rest of the animal kingdom.
In fact this issue isn't merely academic because it now appears likely that even in the USA we will fairly soon be re-learning to live with less energy, and less strict climate control would naturally follow. Maria's original post describes some common sense methods of staying comfortable year round without much brute force from mechanical systems.
Hello everyone,
Thanks for your input I wasn't asking you to critique me or tell me that I am in the minority. The question that I asked you is simple. How Do you design & build for real people like me. Say that I am your client and that is how I live. I want you to design & build a house that fits my lifestyle using Eco-friendly practices and materials. I want you to think about it and tell me how you propose to do it.
John, These are the pictures of the front of the house (south facing) designed by my father Anthony Hars, Architect in 1979. It's in Groton, MA (near Nashua, NH). The first picture is in Summer showing the canopy of vegetation which cools the air and shades the south facing windows and one in late fall showing that the sun can come in and warm the house through the clear glass.
Reminds me of Martin's 70's house
with a slightly higher budget
John,
Yeah -- I don't think Maria's house used windows from the local dump. The foundation is old telephone poles, and the lumber, roofing and nails cost about $9,000. I imagine that Maria paid more for her swimming pool than we did on that old hippie house.
Dear John,
Hats off to you for designing & building an inexpensive house. My father's house was built 30 years ago. Yes it is a large home and yes he used quality design & materials-there is nothing wrong with that. Everything in that house is original. It cost $350,000 to build a 6800 sf home including the land (which normally is not included in the cost to build a home) it comes out to $51 sf to build. It is more energy efficient due to design & solar orientation than most houses built today. The pool is 29 years old and it is vinyl.
You are the type that judges and makes comments before you know the facts. You are again missing the point. I am asking you to design & build me a house that fits my lifestyle. I am your client. I like my windows open, I love the sun, I love fresh air. Now listen to what I want and design & build around my wants and needs.
Maria, the house I posted is Martin's house ... not my design
I like Martin's Design.
I like your father's design.
I like your thread.
Maria,
John brought up my old house -- I didn't.
My response to John's point on the budget was not an attempt to criticize your house -- just making fun of my old hippie house, with its inexpensive materials and bad thermal performance.
I have never advised anyone to keep the construction budget for a new house at or below $9,000.
Mike, I understand. I disagree with the pediatricians, but I'm hardly an expert either. I've been wrong about plenty before, and expect it will happen again.
Maria, I think your question is being answered, but not directly. In short, I think designing for someone like you wouldn't be very different than anyone else. I think that all houses should be built with performance in mind, which means taking into account insulation, solar gain, siting and air quality. If someone wants to open a window in the middle of winter, the house will still perform far better than an average mass market one. If you want to use your heating or cooling system sparingly, even better! Your house uses less energy. Perhaps your preferences balance each other out?
Superinsulation means that the house will use less energy, even if you keep a window open in one room. Your behavior can amplify or diminish the overall performance, but that's true of any house.
Maria,
I thought your post/question was very interesting....
I would like to read your thoughts on how you would design a house for a person such as yourself.
Since I have been a kid I have been outside in all kinds of weather and I've played in the mud. And yes to this day I love to have my windows open all year. I love the cold air, the smell of the rain. I rarely get sick, I can't remember the last time I was sick. I believe it's because I do keep my windows open and I am breathing fresh air from outdoors not recycled air. I bet those who live in musuems never opening their windows are more sickly than people like me.
Martin's house looks right off the cover of 'From the Ground Up"
Wore the cover off of my old one and then lost it, had to buy one used off of Amazon
Wish those guys would do a 21st century update of that one.
Most useful book I have ever seen
Keith,
Rex Roberts ("Your Engineered House") is to blame for the house's follies and successes.
For those interested in Charles Wing's "From the Ground Up": it's available online for free:
http://jmarchant.com/Sources/GroundUp.pdf
Hello John,
You can check out my blogs on designing and building for people like me on my website: http://www.MDEcoBuild.com. It's for the Mini Me's.
I'm sorry, but what the hell is going on?
Maria, you post a question posing as a homeowner, but you present yourself as a "Sustainable Designer" on your website????
Holy lord, people are weird.
I like your blog and thoughts Maria. Keep it up and wish you much success.
Martin, thanks for the link for the book and for telling us more about your "hippie house." Gotta love the price tag too!
Funny, I found that this morning, but my copy is some 244 pages, it looks as if a bunch of the tables and such are missing, so I would advise checking out the online version and if you like it find a copy on Amazon.
I'm with you Brett.
I had to give my head a shake after reading through this thread.
Yeah...we are ALL weird.
To be fair ...
I didn't think Maria was "posing" as a homeowner.
I read it as a hypothetical question
Maria,
We do not "need" CAD
Lucas Durand is doing wonders with a pencil.
I think we can combine Climate/Site/Solar sensitive design with Building Science.
We can be comfortable...open our windows whenever...and go outside
AND we can use less energy.