New Construction Zero Energy LEED Platinum Concord MA (click for all images)

This Concord Custom Home demonstrates what’s possible when starting from a clean sheet of paper and an eye towards sustainability.

Building from the ground up, all the facets of sustainable design and construction have been addressed.  Solar alignment, air quality, rain water management, super insulation, day lighting, certified lumber, local sourcing, low VOCs, and waste water heat recovery all invisibly integrated with the features, trim levels and conveniences one expects to find in a 4400 ft² luxury home.

This Concord home features:

• Advanced framing methods
• 7 kw Solar PV Array
• R60 Roof:  cellulose on flat with a vented attic
• R40 Walls:  cellulose in cavity + 4″ of polyiso rigid foam on exterior
• R20 On Basement wall
• R10 Under Basement slab
• R5   Windows:  triple pane
• Hot Water:  Tankless on-demand, with pre-heat salvaged from hot drain water.
  A brilliant little piece of heat recovery plumbing.
• Energy Star appliances and lighting
• Low VOC materials, Certified lumber, low maintenance fiber cement siding, heat recovery ventilators
• Full LEED Platinum certification

Add all this up and you have a healthy home which makes all the energy it needs.  The project was completed and the client moved in, in June 2010, but the Solar PV system has been producing power for weeks.

For more information, visit the client’s project website.

Arlington MA Super Insulation Retrofit (Click for all images)

The Arlington 2-family is a project which started as a man with a dream, and expanded to include Synergy Construction, Building Science Corp, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, NStar, consultants, sponsors, a wide swath of America’s press corp, references in U.S. congressional committees, and a spark which launched hundreds of Deep Energy Retrofit projects across the country.

The Problem:
Cold drafty house with envelope insulation pocked with voids.  Eroded cedar shingles and rotted trim needing replacement, all painted, the client said, in a “repulsive yellowish green color”.  The building’s 2 legacy steam boilers used 1082 gallons of home heating oil per year.

The Deep Energy Retrofit Solution:
The home was retrofit

• R60 Roof with 6″ of polyiso insulation on the exterior roof deck and 5″ of open cell foam in the attic rafters
• R40 Walls with 4″ of polyiso rigid insulation on exterior walls
• R3  Windows of fiberglass framed double pane
• (2) Heat Recovery Ventilators for air quality and humidity management
• On-demand hot water reducing hot water cost by over 80%
• New “green” siding and new sun reflecting life time roofing.

In its first full winter the home consumed 68% less energy than prior years, using only 362 gallons of heating oil with the same 2 legacy oil boilers.  Temperatures are now more consistent throughout the building and throughout the day, so much so that the client shut down all 3rd floor radiators to keep that floor slightly cooler for sleeping.  Ice dams and icicles are also eliminated with a super insulated roof.

The Future: The client may upgrade the heating system yet and is considering both solar thermal and solar PV systems.

To get more information, or learn why this is the most famous Deep Energy Retrofit project in the U.S., visit the clients project website.

How Much will my Heating Costs Decrease?

This question is difficult to answer as the specific reduction depends on the scope of the project. However, it’s not unusual to see 70% reductions in heating costs in a home which has been retrofitted.
With new construction, reductions of 100% are achievable – with installation of solar panels.

Through the stack effect, old leaky homes loose air from the roof while drawing air in through the dingy, dark and moldy gaps in walls and basements. That’s no good.
When homes were first tested tight houses 30 years ago, builders forgot to include ventilation to deal with all the breathing, cooking, and humidity. That’s no good either.

Since then it has become standard operating proceedure to include a simple ventilation system called a Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) in all tight homes to assure air quality and humidity control. Today the air quality of a super insulated home far surpasses any traditional home.

In a Traditional Home:

25% of the home is rafters, studs, rim joists, the bones of the home. These areas cannot be insulated in a traditional home so bleed out your hard earned heat. Wood is a terrible insulator.
25% of a home is made up by windows, and windows are even worse than wood
Add at least another 10% of the home made up by uninsulated or badly insulated wall cavities. 10%? If you are lucky it’s just 10%.
In total, 60% of the traditionally insulated home is completely un-insulated.

High performance rigid insulation on the home’s exterior under new siding and roofing, catches all of those voids missed in the wall, all of the house’s wood structure, tripling the insulation that’s actually in the cavity, while eliminating air leaks.
All without the loss of interior space. Win, Win, Win, Win, Win (is that enough wins?)

And almost forgot…….while installing the exterior insulation, Synergy first fills any empty wall cavities we find.

Roof Retrofit

• insulation installed the attic between the rafters if accessible
• 4″ – 6″ of rigid poliso on the exterior sheathing
• new sheathing layer fastened to the underlying house rafters with screws
• application of traditional water-proof roofing membrane
• The home is then re-shingled in the traditional way.

Wall Retrofit

• insulation inserted in the wall cavities if not already installed
• 4″ of rigid poliso on the exterior of the wall fastened in place with furring strips and screws through to the underlying wall studs.
• The home is then re-sided in the traditional way

No two homes are alike.  Synergy can adjust cavity insulation, exterior foam thickness and materials, even move the insulation layer from the exterior to the interior based upon the home and the client and if accepted by BSC or other qualified energy consultant.

New Construction

It is simply silly to build a new home in the old way.

Old Construction
A Deep Energy Retrofit (DER) is a great upgrade to any large home maintenance projects already in the works.  Consider:

• Super Insulating the Roof when Re-Roofing
• Super Insulating the Walls when Re-Siding

Leverage the work you are already doing to reduce the time and cost of a DER.

Are there other times a home owner should consider a DER?  When sections of the home are uncomfortably cold or hot or drafty, when ice dams are your constant winter companion, and when seeking to build out and condition a basement space.

Clients have also mentioned in-door air quality, climate change, asthma, energy independence, peak oil, and noise reduction as reasons to upgrade their homes.

A Zero Energy Home is a home which produces as much energy in one year as it uses in one year. This is a home which has maximized energy efficiency though Super Insulation, and the installation of high efficiency lighting, HVAC and appliances, and with the integration of on site alternative energy, such as Solar PV.

The accepted definition of Super Insulation, is an insulation level of R60 in the roof, R40 in the walls, and may include R20 in the basement walls and R10 under the basement floor depending on the project. Air sealing is a critical component of any super insulation project.