Author: Homeowner

BUILDING A ZERO NET-ENERGY HOUSE, YOU CAN DO IT! One of the issues with building a zero net-energy house is that the literature makes the journey seem very daunting.  The literature contains a plethora of architectural, engineering, and building specifications and terms.  It can become quite an intimidating exercise if one dives into the details.  In short, if you know too much, you can get scared away from building a zero net-energy (“ZNE”) house.  But it’s not really that hard. I wanted to build a very efficient, all-electric house powered by solar.  However, I was hesitant to commit to saying that I was building a ZNE house as I really didn’t know what I would be committing to.  I didn’t know where to turn to...

THE HAYFIELD HOUSE My father built a house in 1960 in an old potato field (“THE POTATO FIELD HOUSE”). The house was a Deck House built using post and beam construction with tongue-and-groove ceiling decking.  There was no insulation in the roof, other than the insulating value of the roof decking.  The windows were large plate glass, of single pane construction. The walls were framed using 2X4 inch studs, allowing for only modest wall insulation.  The house was built on an uninsulated concrete slab with the first floor heated with radiant heat using an oil fired furnace. The result was a very energy inefficient house which released a lot of CO2 due to the large amount of heating oil that was burnt.  As a child,...