Hard to believe, with all that glass. What's the story?

 

I think i read somewhere that a wall of windows scores higher than a fully insulated, thermally broken wall would.

 

Tin - HERS score is mainly based on Energy Use calculation based on structure, insulation, size, climate, etc.. to go negative that means a lot of solar power (trying to get a house below 50 generally requires solar, or wind)

As for the glass, you can have all you want, you just have to make up for it.

JFox, not sure where you read that, but it maybe possible depending on shading, orientation, SHGC, and what the surrounding walls consist of (i.e. concrete block only)

TheHardWay - very nice job

 

As for the glass, you can have all you want, you just have to make up for it.

Exactly. That's why I'm all ears on how it was made up for. And for a bonus, whether the cost of that is actually reclaimable in a reasonable amount of time.

 

Nice work HardWay:thumbsup:



Those numbers should help your marketing!

 

Thanks for the interest guys.

The design is a direct response to site conditions. The pool photo is the rear of the home and offers a SW exposure. Hence the slope of the roof which is carrying Uni-Solar Flex Lite PV in our perfect orientation.

The view also needed to concentrate to the SW so the home and the pool open up to the hardwood swamp we mitigated during construction.

There is a predominant SW-W breeze that we wanted to capture so I loaded the rear with Centor Accordion Glass walls. This does NOT help my energy issues on paper since even though the the glass is Low-E, insulated, argon filled, and impact resistant it is still only R6 equiv. The SHGC is .19 and the U-factor is .27. In reality there is no heat gain or loss in spite of the western exposure. I designed the roof overhang at 4' after modeling the shade pattern cast from the hardwood swamp. As the afternoon rounds over the eaves it disappears below the trees offering only filtered light. In the winter when leaves have dropped, the broken sun will gently cool the home. Capturing the breezes from the W was only half the battle. I designed the roof as a shed and allowed the breeze to pass through the entire depth of the home and escape out the electronically operated windows on the front of the home at the ceiling height.

Because the environment here is humid, I had to design the interior to hold up. I used polished concrete floors, American Clay walls, paper-less wall board, and cypress everything with exposed duct work. You can see more at www.joshwynneconstruction.com or on www.jetsongreen.com Just look for the Power Haus

 

Hey Hard Way, any insight on the actual energy uses of this home now that it has been in function for several months now? Was this a personal home? Or did you build it for a customer? LEED score of 118, that's gold correct?

 

It is performing as expected for the client. It is the highest scoring LEED Platinum in the world. It won the LEED Outstanding Single Family Project of the Year at GreenBuild in Toronto this past October.