It was an eventful week at The Sustainable House. Occasionally it was frustrating, occasionally gratifying, but mostly just hectic...per usual.
The concrete pours were completed, allowing the go-ahead for the stone guys to set the stone trim, which in turn allows the stucco to be applied to the exterior walls. The wiring rough-ins are for the most part complete. The ducting is now complete except for the cooling coil for the geothermal unit, which is still on order. The two egress windows in the basement are now framed and mudded in to the wall. And we have picked out block to be used for the raised bed gardens and permeable driveway.
Most of the tasks this past week have been common to home construction and remodeling. The concrete pours were a standard affair. The egress windows were framed-in with a typical treated wood frame where it contacts the foundation block, and is mortared into place. The quality and resulting durability of this construction technique is standard expectation for our general contractor, Keith Poets of Quality Builders. His quality craftsmanship and pride in the work being done on the home was especially noticeable as we pulled out the old existing basement window in the one area that already had an egress window put in with makeshift workmanship - and an amazing amount of industrial adhesive and sprayed-in expanding foam. Keith explained that gluing so copiously is a clear sign that someone didn't know what they were doing. It was easy to see that the shoddy installation allowed large quantities of air (and resulting heat or cold) to pass through. In addition, several areas of the window had untreated wood resting directly on the block wall - a technique that would have greatly reduced the lifetime of that window frame. Keith surmised that the window was the result of a previous homeowner attempting to do some quick, easy work to get the house more attractive for sale. Apparently it's buyer beware.
We've also used a better-than-conventional-standards technique in the House's ductwork. The return duct lines are solid runs of duct - different from conventional work of the period (1948) in which they just enclosed a stud or joist space and used that as a cold air return. LEED standards follow the principle that a solid return run will produce greater efficiency and more durability over time.
I was talking to Ryan, the lead installer for UMR (the geothermal guys) on site, about the cooling unit and the new Honda Freewatt system. Apparently all we're waiting on now is the geothermal A/C coil. It's a 32 inch coil inserted into the main trunk line of the ducts where they exit the furnace. Using the furnace's fans in the summer, minus it's heating capability, to cool the house. The geothermal unit will pump what is essentially radiator fluid, glycol, down through the wells dug out front. The temperature in the ground stays steady in the mid 50 degrees all summer. This cool liquid is then used to cool the air flowing into the house. Thermodynamically speaking, it technically takes heat from the air and pumps it into the ground. I find it easier to understand the other way around, taking the cool-ness of the ground and pumping it into the house.
The "Freewatt" system will deserve its own post in the near future. We're all excited to see what it'll do.