Thursday, May 22, 2008
Advanced framing is a technique that demonstrates the fact that less, truly is more. Less wood in the wall means more insulation. Less wood in the wall means a higher R-Value. Less wood means a tighter building envelope. Less wood in the wall means a more efficient use of the resource. Less wood in the wall means less waste.
My understanding and appreciation of advanced framing has afforded me the ability to offset the the cost of the premium spray foam insulation I use in the construction of my homes. I estimate that I eliminate up to 30% of the wood framing materials used in the construction of the homes I build, when compared to the amount of material needed to frame an equivalently sized home conventionally. On the larger homes I build rough lumber packages can exceed 100K dollars. In those cases the 30% savings can offset the cost of the entire insulation package. We are talking about substantial savings when done correctly.
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| Posted by bcampbell at 9:02 PM |
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Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Efficiency in heating and cooling comes from control and monitoring. To make a heating and cooling system function at its maximum efficiency, you must break the system down into as many small systems as economically feasible and reduce the amount of ductwork by as much as possible. Think about it like the lights in a house. Imagine that your home only had one light switch controlling all the lights in the home. Although it would be convenient it would not be efficient. This is predominately how we heat and cool our homes. Most people go to a single thermostat on the wall and set it to a temperature that can only be monitored from that single location. Imagine the inconvenience to the occupants of the home if the analogy of the single light switch were really true.
Now imagine that the heating and cooling system functioned like the light switches in most of our current homes. Each room would have its own thermostat for the comfort of that space. The occupant wo...
| Posted by bcampbell at 10:41 AM |
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Sunday, March 16, 2008
What is a conditioned attic? Why haven't I heard this term before now?
Eliminate all attic ventilation and condition the space- the photo above is of a mini-split heat pump inside a conditioned attic. Notice the closed cell spray foam is applied to the underside of the roof sheathing.
In modern residences, the challenge of achieving a continuous air infiltration barrier and thermal insulation barrier at the interior ceiling level is especially difficult. The air barrier, used to isolate the living space from the attic, is usually the taped drywall, while the thermal barrier is the insulation placed on top of the drywall. Typically, the ceiling is not a single horizontal plane, but a series of horizontal planes, vertical planes (knee walls), and sloped planes, all intersecting to create the ceiling. Field inspections repeatedly show how the continuity of the air barrier and thermal barrier is compromised at knee walls, coffered ceilings, dropped ceilings, framed soffits or mechanica...
| Posted by Bond Campbell at 1:28 PM |
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