We visited Happy Dancing Turtle and toured the resident buildings with Ryan Hunt. You can learn more about their campus and building techniques here: http://www.hugllc.com
While much of what they do is experimental and not always refined, we learned about some of the things they tried and some concepts we may want to include.
While much of what they do is experimental and not always refined, we learned about some of the things they tried and some concepts we may want to include.
- Used 12 in SIP from Extreme panel
- Foam vertical (3 pieces) and horizontal out from garage
- Nothing under the slab except sand - pipe the air through slab to warm. Dry sand is R1 per inch
- 3 feet of cellulose in the ceiling - R100 had to put straps on ceiling to support the weight
- Ran radiant floor heat tubes under slab - use a water heater element and an expansion tank to heat whole house. It seldom runs.
- Small negative pressure helps with condensation
- No HRV - just exhaust fans to push air out - and pull air into bedrooms. In-ground air exchanger - Run air through ducts around house - exhaust air under incoming air pipe - keeps the air at 60degrees. Can run thru ERV - same lines. HRVs don’t work well at 10 below - use lots of energy and keep cycling. Had not tested for radon - didn’t think that radon would be an issue with moving air. Exhaust fans in bath and kitchen run constantly and vent outside.
- Dense pack cellulose provides a vapor barrier.
- Put the same coating on all windows regardless of direction (seems wrong)
- Used drop down truss to get more insulation - comes down just above windows and looked fine upstairs. Question - how does sheetrock go on in the corners - nothing to nail on top? https://www.hugllc.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=26&Itemid=152
- Ventilated the attic
- Use google sketchup to model with sun angle
- Used two sets of windows - looks odd. Marvin integrity window are fiberglass. Can also use wood. Vinyl can get hot and warp and conducts cold more than fiberglass.
- Caution with triple pane windows - pay more and the gasses leak out after 10 or 15 years. Just air is fine -- argon is the most cost effective gas.
- Put rippled poly windows in the main house garage on the south side - they act as solar heaters for the garage.