The New York Times had a big feature article on Passive Houses this weekend, along with an informative video about a project in Vermont. The article has brought a lot of great attention to the Passive House movement and apparently generated some buzz in the media. You can read it here: www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/business/energy-environment/26smart.html?_r=1
The reason I know it's gotten attention is that it prompted Sustainable Business Oregon, a blog that's run by the Portland Business Journal, to call us today for an article on the growing popularity of the Passive House concept in Oregon. They posted an article today that featured our house: www.sustainablebusinessoregon.com/articles/2010/09/passive_houses_gain_ground_in_oregon.html
I love the video and the informational graphic with the New York Times article -- they really help provide a clear picture of how Passive Houses work. They also mention that there are only about 13 Passive Houses in the country, and we're one of them! Here's a list on the Passive House Institute US website, if you're curious: www.passivehouse.us/passiveHouse/PHIUSProjects.html
Monday, September 27, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Salem Green + Solar Tour
We are very excited to announce that we will be participating for the second year in the Salem Green + Solar Tour on Saturday, Oct. 2.
If you went on the tour last year, you'll recall that we were there with just the frame of our house, since it wasn't completed yet! This will be your chance to see how the project turned out.
Learn more about the tour on the Solar Oregon website. The tour is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and begins at the Pringle Creek Community in Salem. There is a presentation at Pringle Creek at 9 a.m. by architect Nathan Good, who helped us in the initial stages of our project. The cost of the tour is $10 per car, or free for bicyclists.
The tour organizers sent us the photo we contributed last year for the event program. It is fun to remember the project at the framing stage!
And here's our lovely home today:
If you went on the tour last year, you'll recall that we were there with just the frame of our house, since it wasn't completed yet! This will be your chance to see how the project turned out.
Learn more about the tour on the Solar Oregon website. The tour is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and begins at the Pringle Creek Community in Salem. There is a presentation at Pringle Creek at 9 a.m. by architect Nathan Good, who helped us in the initial stages of our project. The cost of the tour is $10 per car, or free for bicyclists.
The tour organizers sent us the photo we contributed last year for the event program. It is fun to remember the project at the framing stage!
And here's our lovely home today:
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Blake the Builder
Several weeks before we moved into our new house, a video crew from Serious Materials, the company who made our windows, visited to interview Blake. They wanted to make a video for their website about our project, which uses their products. They have finally posted their interview with Blake the Builder on their blog:
http://blog.seriousmaterials.com/?p=1216
Last week, a representative from Energy Star visited to do a quality assurance blower door test -- and also to check out our project, because he was interested in seeing it. We didn't get to witness our previous blower door test, so it was interesting watching it happen. He was impressed and said that he thought our house was very well-constructed and would perform very well energy-wise. It was nice to hear more external validation of our builders' good work!
We've been staying comfortable in our house this summer, only turning on the A/C when we have a lot of visitors over, like we did for our housewarming party recently. At night we open several windows to let in the cool night air, and we turn off the Energy Recovery Ventilator so that it is not retaining our warm air as it ventilates, instead letting more of the cool outside air come in. Then in the morning, we close the windows back up, shut the blinds and curtains, and the house stays a nice temperature during the heat of the day. It's been working out well, and we're saving a lot of energy by not constantly running our A/C.
http://blog.seriousmaterials.com/?p=1216
Last week, a representative from Energy Star visited to do a quality assurance blower door test -- and also to check out our project, because he was interested in seeing it. We didn't get to witness our previous blower door test, so it was interesting watching it happen. He was impressed and said that he thought our house was very well-constructed and would perform very well energy-wise. It was nice to hear more external validation of our builders' good work!
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Certified!
We have received our Passive House certification! Thanks so much to our builders, Blake and Larry Bilyeu, for all their hard work throughout this entire project. We are officially the first new construction Passive House on the US West Coast.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Energy usage
We have received two power bills constituting a little less than two months of electricity service at the new house.
We have averaged a tiny bit less than 14 kWh per day. By way of comparison, the average American house uses about 30 kWh per day, according to the Department of Energy.
Except for a few days last week, the weather since we've moved into the house has been very temperate, so we weren't expecting a huge bill. Still, it's nice to see such a low bill, especially considering that electricity is our only energy source - we don't use natural gas or heating oil.
We have averaged a tiny bit less than 14 kWh per day. By way of comparison, the average American house uses about 30 kWh per day, according to the Department of Energy.
Except for a few days last week, the weather since we've moved into the house has been very temperate, so we weren't expecting a huge bill. Still, it's nice to see such a low bill, especially considering that electricity is our only energy source - we don't use natural gas or heating oil.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
20 under 40
Our local paper, the Statesman Journal, is creating a list of 20 awesome people under 40 years of age. And our own builder Blake Bilyeu has been nominated! Go Blake! We're rooting for you.
http://community.statesmanjournal.com/20under40/
http://community.statesmanjournal.com/20under40/
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Our first certification
I've been out of town for the past few weeks, but I got back to find this lovely certificate waiting for me:
Our house earned a Platinum certification from Earth Advantage, their highest level of certification for homes using sustainable building practices. Earth Advantage recognizes homes that meet high standards for energy efficiency, healthy indoor air, resource efficiency, environmental responsibility and water efficiency and conservation. We're excited to earn this certification! You can read more about their standards here: www.earthadvantage.com/compare.php
Our house earned a Platinum certification from Earth Advantage, their highest level of certification for homes using sustainable building practices. Earth Advantage recognizes homes that meet high standards for energy efficiency, healthy indoor air, resource efficiency, environmental responsibility and water efficiency and conservation. We're excited to earn this certification! You can read more about their standards here: www.earthadvantage.com/compare.php
Sunday, June 13, 2010
With all the furnishings
We've spent the past few weeks unpacking and hanging all our curtains, pictures, shelves, etc. as well as putting together a few IKEA things we're adding to the new house. So finally, I have a few photos to share.
Welcome to our new house...
Our numbers, mailbox and porch light look very nice:
Here are the wonderful under-the-stairs bookshelves, now full of books:
The living room:
Dining room:
Kitchen, with the awesome black subway tile now complete:
The office:
Stuart's side:
My side:
My craft desk:
The mud room, which is Pippen's domain during the day:
Our awesome garage storage shelves from IKEA:
Moving upstairs, here's the hallway:
This is the guest bedroom. Pippen kind of thinks it's his, so you might have to fight him for it when you visit:
Guest bathroom:
We quickly filled up our amazing master bedroom closet:
Master bathroom:
Master bedroom, which includes my writing desk:
That's all for now. Some great things have been happening outside the house as well. I'll get some more photos and share them soon.
Welcome to our new house...
Our numbers, mailbox and porch light look very nice:
Here are the wonderful under-the-stairs bookshelves, now full of books:
The living room:
Dining room:
Kitchen, with the awesome black subway tile now complete:
The office:
Stuart's side:
My side:
My craft desk:
The mud room, which is Pippen's domain during the day:
Our awesome garage storage shelves from IKEA:
Moving upstairs, here's the hallway:
This is the guest bedroom. Pippen kind of thinks it's his, so you might have to fight him for it when you visit:
Guest bathroom:
We quickly filled up our amazing master bedroom closet:
Master bathroom:
Master bedroom, which includes my writing desk:
That's all for now. Some great things have been happening outside the house as well. I'll get some more photos and share them soon.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Our awesome dog door
Some people have asked where we managed to get an airtight dog door. After Blake and Stuart did some searching, Blake found an awesome door at http://www.freedompetpass.com. Our blower-door (air-tightness) tests have included this pet door in the mud room door to the back yard. And it works! Our final test measured an extremely tight 0.20 ACH50 for the entire house (using the Passive House volume calculation).
Here is a video of the door during one of the blower-door tests.
Here is a video of the door during one of the blower-door tests.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
We're in!
So we disappeared from the blog for awhile, and I must apologize for that. We've been so busy moving in, getting settled and other things. But the most important news to share is that we're now living in our awesome Passive House! I don't have many photos yet, but I will take some soon and share them here.
Our first night here was May 23, and over Memorial Day weekend we moved over most of the rest of our stuff. So far, my main thoughts on living here are 1) It's not cold, and 2) It's quiet.
Since moving in, we only turned on the heat once briefly, and everything has remained a nice even temperature. Despite the cool, rainy weather of the past few days, we've remained comfortable. I love it! We've also found that we don't really need our comforter on our bed at night, because using it actually makes us too hot.
With our super thick and well-insulated walls, doors and windows, it's been pretty quiet. I can still hear the trains running a few blocks away, but it's not nearly as loud as at my old house. It's also nice because Pippen doesn't run outside to bark at every little noise he hears. He spends a lot more time relaxing in his favorite chair. He also had no problems figuring out how to use his air-tight doggie door.
We've been using an energy tracking device to watch how much energy we're using, so we should have some interesting data on that later. What's been interesting to me is that because I know this house is very energy efficient, and because we're even tracking our use, I've found myself feeling like I should use less energy. I'm even more vigilant about turning off lights than before!
I'll have more to talk about later, but for now, I'll share the one photo we do have. This is evidence of how Abby has taken to the new house:
Our first night here was May 23, and over Memorial Day weekend we moved over most of the rest of our stuff. So far, my main thoughts on living here are 1) It's not cold, and 2) It's quiet.
Since moving in, we only turned on the heat once briefly, and everything has remained a nice even temperature. Despite the cool, rainy weather of the past few days, we've remained comfortable. I love it! We've also found that we don't really need our comforter on our bed at night, because using it actually makes us too hot.
With our super thick and well-insulated walls, doors and windows, it's been pretty quiet. I can still hear the trains running a few blocks away, but it's not nearly as loud as at my old house. It's also nice because Pippen doesn't run outside to bark at every little noise he hears. He spends a lot more time relaxing in his favorite chair. He also had no problems figuring out how to use his air-tight doggie door.
We've been using an energy tracking device to watch how much energy we're using, so we should have some interesting data on that later. What's been interesting to me is that because I know this house is very energy efficient, and because we're even tracking our use, I've found myself feeling like I should use less energy. I'm even more vigilant about turning off lights than before!
I'll have more to talk about later, but for now, I'll share the one photo we do have. This is evidence of how Abby has taken to the new house:
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