Measuring Energy Efficiency
The home’s electrical monitoring system has been online for just about a year now, and we’ve also been watching the home’s energy consumption compared to other homes using a terrific platform from Wegowise. Even though the house [...]
Built-in Resilience
We had another opportunity to do an interesting test of the home’s performance during a cold spell in mid-winter. We shut off the heating and ventilation systems for four days during a time when the temperatures ranged between 17 °F [...]
Clearing the (Kitchen) Air
It has been a while since I last updated this blog, but it has been a productive winter at 346 Highland. The down time has given us an opportunity to do a considerable amount of testing and to monitor the home’[...]
Exterior work continues
Finally we’ve had a decent stretch of weather for exterior work! Over the last two weeks our landscaper has been able to complete the final grading and hydroseed the lawn. We’re using a special, locally-grown hybrid grass called [...]
CERTIFIED!
Great news! This week we received our ENERGY STAR, Indoor airPLUS, and Zero Energy Ready Home certifications. Thanks to all the hard work of our design team, general contractor, dedicated subs, and LEED rater, we were able to achieve all [...]
Certification testing
A few weeks ago I posted about how we commissioned the Zehnder ventilation system. Our commissioning agent measured and adjusted all the airflows to ensure the system is delivering the proper amount of fresh air to each living space and [...]
Finishing touches!
All the major elements of the house are finally in place and the teams have been focusing on the details and remaining few items to install. Our last remaining vanities and tubs have arrived and been installed, the rest of [...]
Wrapping Up The Roof
Our roofing contractor installed the last parts of the roof recently. The copper standing seam roof looks great over the connector and porch, and has the additional advantages of durability, minimal maintenance, and recyclability at the end of its life. [...]
Duct sealing
Our HVAC installer, Boucher Energy Systems, was out Friday to commence duct sealing. The Energy Star rating system specifies a maximum permissible amount of duct leakage from our ventilation ducts. Even though the entire duct system is located within the [...]
Our Own Solar System
We hit a big milestone today - we went off the grid and starting producing our own electric power! Our 14.7 kW array will provide a substantial amount of the home’s energy during most of the year. Our solar installer, [...]
