Share Your Project
Do you have a project that you feel demonstrates the best of the BrightBuilt Principles? We’d love to share it on our site. Please send some information and photographs of your project. We recommend limiting text to 2-3 paragraphs and including commonalities that your project has with the BrightBuilt Barn. Approved projects will be posted in the Community Section of our website.
- Double Stud Walls on a Dime, Falmouth, ME
- Metro Green, Arlington, VA
- Go Logic House, Belfast, Maine
- Redfern House, Portland, Maine
Double Stud Walls on a Dime
Falmouth, ME
Kaplan Thompson Architects
This 2,500 sf single family house and detached garage (connected by open breezeway) is located on a bay between between Portland and Falmouth, Maine. The goal was to create a super tight, budget conscious house whose up front energy saving strategies would wield little to no utility costs down the line. Design and construction of this house employed multiple strategies to maximize air tightness and insulation levels in order to minimize air infiltration and heating load.
The exterior walls are double 2×4 stud walls creating an 11 1/4″ cavity filled with dense pack cellulose insulation (R-40). A radiant floor slab sits on top of 4″ of rigid insulation and is isolated from the foundation walls by an additional 4″ band of rigid. Roof framing is 14″ deep packed with dense pack cellulose (R-50). Triple glazed fiberglass windows provide a 20% reduction in heating load. Roof mounted evacuated solar hot water tubes supply hot water to the radiant floor system and provide most of the dhw for the year, assisted by an electric on demand heater for winter needs. Given the super level of insulation, no additional heat source is provided to the upper two floors of the house.
Three blower door tests were conducted to maximize the ability to find all potential air leaks in the building. A goal was to achieve the ACH50 .6 required to achieve Passive House (Passivhaus) standing.
- First test – after closing in the shell, prior to insulation = ACH50 2.2
- Second test – post insulation = ACH50 .88
- Final test – post dry wall = ACH50 .77
The house is currently on track to receive a Platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. A detailed article about the home’s construction appeared in the June issue of the Journal of Light Construction. For more information and photos of this project, click here.
Metro Green
Arlington, VA
Located less than five miles from downtown Washington, DC, this four bedroom home focused heavily on reducing energy use. The four bedroom plus loft project emphasizes modern eco friendly design and features structural insulated panel construction (SIPs), geothermal HVAC, grid-tied solar and low-e argon windows. Because of these and other energy saving measures, the 3825 sq ft house’s projected yearly heating and cooling costs are a startling $180 and $125 dollars respectively.
Other energy efficiency upgrades include high efficiency appliances, a re-circulating hot water heating system and an energy recovery ventilation system (ERC). Low VOC (volatile organic compounds) finishes/paints and local and natural materials have been used throughout the house. The site features pervious paving and drought tolerant landscaping. As a result of incorporating energy saving products and technologies, Metro Green has achieved a 51 Home Energy Rating System score, and has received a 5+ star rating from Energy star as well as Energy Star certification for exceptional indoor air quality. (Homes must achieve a minimum score of 86 – on a 100 point scale — to be deemed “ENERGY STAR” qualified).
Finally, in recognition of the severe and ongoing concern over the health of the Chesapeake Bay, the project set a goal of net zero site runoff for a one inch rain event. The house features a green roof, more than 500 gallons of rainwater cisterns, and pervious surfaces including a rainwater infiltration trench underneath the driveway.
Metro Green is the first LEED Platinum home in the state of Virginia and was awarded the Best Single Family Residential Project by the Virginia Sustainability Building Network.
For more information and photos of this project, click here.
Go Logic House
Belfast, Maine
This super insulated house is built to German Passivhaus standards with walls achieving R50 and ceilings achieveing R80. A prototype is currently under construction and is avaibale for tours. The prototype will be monitored continuously and at the end of 2 years, data collected will be reviewed thoroughly to see if the building is meeting expected goals. Go Logic Homes use modular construction and green building materials throughout and is on track to receive LEED Platinum Status and Passivhaus certification.
- Walls are a load bearing timber frame (local pine) sheathed with SIPS (Structurally Insulated Panels.) The SIPS are, manufactured by Winterpanel in Vermont are 6 1/2″ thick for an effective R-Value of 33-38. 2×4 furring is run to the interior of the SIPS to provide a cavity in which to run plumbing and wiring. That space also contains blown in cellulose for an additional R-13, bringing the total wall to an R-47.
- Roof is a scissor truss with 24″ of dense pack cellulose blown in for an R-80.
- Slab on grade foundation with an effective R-78, based on 8″ of rigid foam underneath and 4″ on the sides to thermally isolate the slab from the foundation wall.
- ERV by UlitmateAir, with earth loop pre-heat
- High performance triple-glazed windows and doors imported from Germany
- Sustainable landscape design by Ann Kearsely (Landscape Architect of the BrightBuilt Barn)
- Active solar system is a 60 tube solar thermal system designed to cover about 70% of the dhw load with electric backup. Also, a 3.5 kw PV array that will more than cover all the space heating and non solar hot water loads.
GO Logic is the new business venutre of Alan Gibson, site builder for the BrightBuilt Barn who says he took lessons from the BBB experience in the areas of airsealing, passive solar pros and cons, mechanical systems, maketing and most directly the input of Ann Kearsley, to build on the knowledge from one project to inform the next.
Redfern House
Portland, Maine
http://www.redfernhomes.com/
Net-zero, net-metering, LEED Platinum, Fossil Fuel free.
This 1700 sf 3 bedroom 2.5 bathroom house is located in the city of Portland, Maine – just a couple of miles from downtown. While the house is grid tied, it uses photovoltaic panels to provide energy and drastically reduce the amount of energy drawn from the grid. Two meters monitor energy use – one tracks electricity being produced at the house and one tracks electricity being used. Large slated sliding barn doors move over the south facing windows to provide shade during the hottest parts of the day. The landscaping includes native, drought tolerant plants and no turf, and no hardscaping, limiting the need for watering.