Archive of posts from January 2011

• The cost of infiltration

  Jan 30, 2011

  There are several ways to approximate the cost of a leaky house. Before I proceed, however, I just want to mention there are other much larger longterm monetary benefits to building a tight house, like a longer lifecycle and less maintenance due to keeping critters and moisture out of the building enclosure. I’m sure there’s a way to calculate the value of these additional benefits, but it’s beyond my abilities (and you’d have to use a lot of assumptions to get there).

  Having gone through the numbers, there is some value to understanding the factors that are used to estimate the cost of infiltration, as well as the proportion of infiltration cost to the overall energy costs required to heat a house.

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• January Update

  Jan 29, 2011

  

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• How tight is tight enough?

  Jan 25, 2011

  As the snow piles up outside, I have turned my thoughts to Spring. Not only because it’s warmer and nature is waking from it’s long slumber, but also because I hope we will be conducting our first blower door test by then. Specifically I’ve been considering what type of results I should be expecting from the blower door tests, and how to interpret them.

  We made the decision early on to build an air tight house. This guided our choice of building materials, Zip system and tape for the exterior sheathing, gaskets and acoustical sealant to seal all other connections, and foam to seal gaps at the rims, windows and doors. The blower door test will help us seal any gaps we missed. But what target should we aim for? How do we know when the house it tight enough?

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• Inching closer to power at the site

  Jan 16, 2011

  

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• Poles and roof

  Jan 6, 2011

  

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• Metal roof progress

  Jan 5, 2011

  

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