VOTE for LEED Project of the Year!
I'm excited to announce that 346 Highland is a finalist for the 2020 LEED Homes Awards Project of the Year! The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is celebrating the best of green homes and are letting the public decide who gets [...]
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’[...]
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 [...]
Commissioning the Ventilation System
We’re in the final few weeks of construction, and our HVAC contractor is busy commissioning the various systems. This is a two-part process: first, the contractor gets each piece of equipment working within its design specifications, and second, for [...]
Drone video
After a recent snowfall, we decided to take a look at the roof and examine it for snow distribution, look at coverage over the solar PV panels, and check for possible problem areas. The GC hired a local aerial videography firm to scope out the house with a drone. We didn’t find any problems, and it makes for a cool video!
Building a Healthy Home
One of our primary objectives with the Highland project has been to build a healthy home that minimizes risks to the occupant’s health. This whole topic, called “Indoor Air Quality” (IAQ), is of growing interest amongst both builders and [...]
Front Yard Stormwater System
Way back in June we installed the first of two large underground stormwater retention systems, underneath the driveway. We had to hold off installing the second system in the front yard until the construction trailer was removed and we were [...]
