Now is the time for me to seriously begin thinking about some of the details of how I’ll make our new eco-friendly home as energy-efficient as possible. My wife and I have our hearts set on a design that we like for our new home, now I am starting to plan the nuts and bolts of how we will lower the energy costs of our home and reduce its carbon footprint.
One major way that I plan to do this is through smart construction of the building envelope. I’ve learned through my research and experience that a tight building envelope would allow me to have more control over conditions inside the home, reduce heat loss during the winter time, and reduce the amount of energy I need to consume in order to run the systems inside of my home.
Advanced framing is the foundation on which we’ll make find our balance between being eco-friendly and having a comfortable, livable space. This is probably one of my favorite parts of the project, because the details we come up with in our meetings with the architects will be a lot of fun to implement later on when construction begins. How we insulate the home is very important too - in this episode, I speak with the architects about several different insulation methods - all of them have their respective benefits and drawbacks, so we’ll be looking for the one that really fits the bill for our new home.
No framing method or insulation method is going to be the uniform best choice for every house in every climate, and fortunately we have a lot of options available to us. If you have had any experience in this area or want to give some feedback, I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below and let us know what you think!
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Facebook TwitterGene, thanks for the reference material! I’ll definitely take a look at it… the more I know before I choose which insulation to use in the wall construction method we pick, the better off we’re going to be in the end.
When it comes to advanced wall construction, I kind of live by the idea that there is no perfect framing system, otherwise I think we would all be using the same; they each have pros and cons. I think it also depends a lot on environmental factors too – I am trying to take everything into consideration when picking the right way to go.
With the double stud wall with staggared studs and an insulated gap between them, it is possible to put the vapor barrier on the back of the inside wall. I have never done that but apparently it is an approved method. That way, the electrical wiring and plumbing do not penetrate the vapor barrier!
PS. With standaed 2×6 walls, with studs on 16" centers, about 10% of the wall is only about R6.