Warren Design Build strives for a tightness rating of .06 CFM50/SSF.

I know what MPG stands for. My VW Golf gets around 30, my 2002 Chevy dump gets about 9, and my brother's Suzuki 250 motorcycle gets around 70, but what about your house? A tight house has air leakage at about 1/10 of a cubic foot per minute per square foot of shell area when the house is pressurized to 50 Pascals with a blower door test. A CFM/SSF of .1 is what is needed to combat $10 a gallon heating oil, which is what you should be planning for as you design your home or addition to meet the energy costs of the future. At .06 CFM/SSF you won't even have to buy oil. You can heat your house with occupancy and light bulbs. (Minimal heat supplement such as electric baseboard, no conventional oil or air heating system needed.)

Why doesn't everyone do this?

Good Question.

Warren Design Build has been building super-insulated air tight houses since the early 80s, initially as a response to our last energy crisis. (See "A Solar House Revisited." ) It is the smartest building practice, so we've continued to build that way, but we noticed that not many clients were concerned or saw the value in it. But now with rising energy prices, everyone needs to minimize their energy use and costs. It's time for all of us to jump back on the energy efficient band wagon.

But it costs so much...? Well, not really. So you were going to put that state of the art boiler in with all it's weather responsive controls and your fancy shamancy radiant floor heat. (Not to be too critical. It's an excellent way to distribute heat in a large house and has the added benefit of easily being coupled to a thermal solar system). But your talking $25,000-$35,000 just to install your heating system. Let's take that dough and put it into insulation, air sealing and a sweet little fresh air ventilation system and wallah, you're practically there. Add a little electric baseboard heat (see if you can go the winter without ever turning it on), and some fresh air supplies for the stove, dryer, and any fuel burning appliances. Kick anything with VOCs (volatile organic compounds) out the front door and you'll not only be warm and wealthy, you'll be healthy too. Way healthier than living in a fuel spewing, outgassing, energy consuming monstrosity that happens to leak everywhere you don't want it to.

Okay...So I live in an air tight cooler but I can't breathe and that tuna can I just opened will stink the place out for a week. Not to fear...fresh air ventilation is here.

That's right, you build the home as if you are smothering a moth in a mason jar and then you fill it with controlled, pre-heated fresh air. What better way to preheat the fresh air coming in than to extract the energy from the exhausted air on it's way out. The HRV (heat recovery ventilator) and its brother the ERV (enthalpy recovery ventilator) do just that. Out going air from the kitchen and bathrooms is exhausted through a heat exchanger that pre-heats the incoming air that is distributed throughout your air tight house, supplying you with fresh air. The ERV essentially does the same thing except it allows for moisture to transfer across the exchanger membrane to help control humidity.

Too hot in the summer? Add a single source mini split air conditioning unit. They work really well, are quiet and efficient, and you avoid the installation of the extensive ductwork of a forced air system. In a few years when they (the Japanese) get the air source heat pump side of it working right, you can drop the electric basebord heat, and get both your heat and cold from the same source.

Now that you've gone all earthy crunchy on me, you might as well install an evacuated tube solar domestic water heater. So you have south facing roof to spare? Fill it up with photovoltaic collectors, go to an all D.C. electrical system, and cut all your umbilical cords with the world. Er, except maybe the satelite TV. Still gotta watch the Superbowl ya know.

If you'd like to talk more about your possible Net 0 (zero carbon footprint) home, give us a call. We'd love to design and build it for you.