Build Your Home Ideas

Questions for my wife Many times during tours questions come up that are best answered my by wife. The questions are generally asking for a different perspective from mine. It makes sense. I am, after all, selling Passive House Design and Tradesman services through Airtight Services. So how much can you believe from a salesman?  My wife Brianna has offered to answer some questions from our most recent open house. Here you go! These questions are in no particular order. Hi Everyone! Brianna here. Before I go into answering these questions just know that I am not a designer, architect or engineer. Many of the finishes in our house I found on pintrest. Some of these questions are hard to answer, but I will do my best. What was the biggest challenge with the layout / floor plan in order to keep it "Passive"? Definitely working within the "simple shape" I am really not good at visualizing how large a space will be from the prints, so we ended up with bedrooms on the 2nd ...

2016 RESNET Cross Border Challenge Winner!: For those of you who don't know, RESNET (Residential Energy Services Network) is the independent organization founded to help homeowners reduce their utility cost. They do quite a bit nationally to promote building efficient buildings utilizing tools such as: HERS Index - Essentially a MPG for a house Energy Efficiency Mortgages - Mortgages that Credit a homes energy efficiency in the home loan (you can spend more to build the house because your utility bills will be lower) Energy Audits and Home Energy Ratings - a much more involved energy audit that one offered by Home Performance with Energy Star. It would probably be a great idea for anyone buying an existing home to have one of these audits done. It is far more comprehensive and can uncover some important information for the prospective home buyers A RESNET Rater is one who is responsible for all the necessary field work and energy modeling for a new construction Energy Star Hom...

Rochester Passive House UPDATE! We are planning out next open house for: April 1st from 10-3.  340 Quaker Meeting House Rd Honeoye Falls, NY 14472 Wow, time has FLOWN by! I can't believe it has been 4 months since my last post. So much has happened since my last post!  I have been holding open houses fairly regularly to those looking for a short walk though. I will be presenting at the following conferences in March: 2017 Finger Lakes Building Officals Association - March 14th in the afternoon http://www.flboa.com/2017-conference.html RIT Students and Faculty Location TBD on 3/23 around lunch time NYSERDA Event in the Buffalo on 3/28 at the Millennium Hotel I have an exciting announcement I will be releasing the 1st week in March. I will send out an mass email as well. Now - How has Rochester Passive House Performed over the winter? October     - 345 Heating degree days - No Heat Needed November -  572 Heating degree days - 124 kWh for heating energy -  $1...

Video Compilation  I have compiled a list of video's I shot during the construction of Rochester Passive House. All of the Video's can be found by searching "Rochester Passive House" in Youtube Enjoy! One of the 1st Video's I took was during the window delivery. They are heavy! We unloaded the container with a skid stear and had to push them into an on site storage container. This group of 3 video's shows what we needed to do to raise the outer wall of our double wall assembly when the inner wall was already built This video shows the setup and plumbing of our drain water heat exchanger. This video shows the installation techniques of damp spray cellulose. This wall is an interior wall for sound deadening, but you can see the installation from both sides of the wall. This video shows the technique we used to complete the insulation of our attic when we cannot see the levels of insulation. We need to maintain at least 24" of blown cellulose in the attic.  ...

Open House! - UPDATE We will be collecting Hats and Gloves and any warm clothing for Homeless Veterans. Many of our contractors (and myself) that worked on our house are veterans. Since it is Veteran's Day Weekend it would be a great opportunity to thank those who won't be as warm this winter! Please bring something to donate for a wonderful cause.  Rochester’s 1 st  (to be) Certified Passive House 340 Quaker Meeting House Rd. in Honeoye Falls Friday November 11 1pm-6pm Saturday November 12 10am-6pm I will perform a Blower door test at 5pm on Saturday, bring your smoke sticks and IR Cameras! If you are thinking of building or renovating you won’t want to miss this! Come see 1st hand: Passive House Design Super Tight  Construction Heat Recovery Ventilation Super Insulation Passive House Windows We will be on hand to answer questions and give tours If you cannot make this Open House contact me at: MattB@airtightservicesinc.com to set up a time to come check it out!

We've Moved In! So, where do I begin. It has been so long since I posted anything... What have I learned from living in a (soon to be certified) Passive House? It is QUIET! We don't live in a noisy area, but when you close the door you can actually FEEL the quiet.  When something is sound proof, it keeps the outside sounds OUT, but also keeps the inside sounds IN. My 6 year old takes piano lesson. the piano is LOUD! The ventilation system works great! Smells don't linger at all. My biggest "complaint" with it is when the boost button it hit, you have NO indication it is running any faster. There is no light or sound to suggest it is on high - you just have to believe it.  We have had as many as 15 people in the house on a hot sunny day and didn't over heat the house. The box elder beetles are BAD this year. We don't have any in the the house - no air leaks means bug proof as well. We do get some fruit flies but I think they come in with our fruit Horse fly...