Archive for the ‘Materials’ Category

The Shirey’s Zero Energy Idea House opens today!

Thursday, October 15th, 2009
The Zero Energy Idea House, built in Bellevue by green building pioneers Riley and Donna Shirey, opens today to much fanfare.
This home, which will be the Shirey’s personal residence, is exactly what it says it is – it provides ideas to the building and home buying audiences for advanced energy saving technologies which are part of a potential zero energy strategy.  It includes such advanced technologies as structural insulated panels, (R-24 walls, R-40 roof), solar hot water heating, LED lighting, a reverse chiller for heating, a helical wind turbine, and a 2.5 kwh photovoltaic panel array.  The combination of all these technologies will most certainly help the house get much of the way to zero net energy usage – resulting in one of the most advanced homes built regionally to date from an energy standpoint.  The WSU Energy Program projects the home will have net energy bills of about $500 a year, quite an achievement.  I suspect given how green the Shirey’s are, they are likely to do even better than this in actual usage.
Installing the structural insulated panels

Installing the structural insulated panels

As wholistic green builders, the Shireys have also included a number of other cutting edge green components.  Extensive green roofs and native landscaping will help reduce the roof rainwater runoff.  A 3,000 gallon rainwater cistern provides irrigation.  Lots of neat green materials, like FSC floors, recycled plate glass counters, and concrete countertops show green homes can be incredibly beautiful. 

I have had the pleasure of knowing the Shireys for a number of years.  They own and run Shirey Contracting, located here in Issaquah, WA.  They are true green building pioneers, and were some of the first builders regionally to draw the important connection between building and sustainability.  They have been builders for several decades and were early users of structural insulated panels, which can result in tight, energy efficient walls and quick construction timelines.  Donna was instrumental in starting Built Green, the green building program for King and Snohomish Counties.  In addition to the Idea House, the Shireys are also building a home in Florida which will be LEED platinum – two truly cutting edge homes.

A great 13 minute educational video of the home was made by King County GreenTools – don’t miss it.  Also, the Zero Energy Idea House will be open Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Nov. 8 for self guided tours.  It is most definitely worth checking out – it is a truly inspiring home.

Posted in Dig Deeper, Energy, Events & Classes, Materials, Other cool projects, Water | No Comments »

2×4 or 2×3 inner walls?

Monday, October 27th, 2008

Dennis Rominger, Howland’s project manager, and I had a conversation today about whether to use 2×4s or 2×3s for our inner walls.  Since these walls are non-structural and really only exist to hold in the extra insulation, they should be use as little material as possible, while still providing an adequate nailing surface for sheetrock. 

This is the interesting back story:  structurally speaking, most lighter weight wood framed buildings only need 2×4 walls.  The energy code has pushed this up to 2×6, to provide a thicker, more insulated wall section.  Because we are using double walls, we are mostly using 2×4s for the outer walls (we are using some 2×6, but for structural reasons), knowing we will far exceed the energy code.  I am really excited by the idea that we essentially could take the code 2×6 wall, and conceptually speaking cut it into a 2×4 and a 2×2, add an inch dimensionally, and for a relatively small amount of extra material (one inch) end up with a lot more highly insulated wall.

Some of the questions we have are:

  1. Do 2×3s provide adequate nailing surface?
  2. Will a 2×3 wall be stiff enough?  Will the 2×3s provide a straight wall?
  3. As a less popular dimension, will 2×3s actually be more expensive than 2×4s?
  4. What is the availability of 2×3 in FSC?

Dennis is going to look into these issues and we’ll report back once a decision is made.

Posted in Design, Dig Deeper, Energy, Materials | No Comments »