Dreaming about a new home

[Birdmmjb]

We were in Little Rock tuesday and had to kill some time between Dr's visits. While diving arround we saw a United Built show house the Aspin with a 33 foot open loft.

I love it it has a lake cabin feel to the desigin.

I went back today to see if I like it as well today as I did the other day and I do.  R 15 in the walls R 30 in the atic built on a slab foundation.  Wow could we trim the utility bills and still have more space to live in. ( this house has R 30 in the atic nothing anywhere else

One thing that I noticed about it was that there was a great deal of storage in the eves of the second story that could be utilized.  the insulation is on the vertical wall and the floor in this space and I though that adding several doors to this area would yield me a lot of safe space to store the glass I used in making my stained glass windows.  By closing it off in the atic I keep grandkids from tripping and falling into the glass racks and cutting themselves and breaking expensive glass.

When I opened the door to this space today I was amazed at the amount of heat that poured in to  the loft area.  It looks like free heat to me and the service doors to this area are exterior grade insulated so when closed they would not transfer heat or cold when shut.  I might also want to add power fans (solar) to vent this area during the summer.

What are your thoughts on using the heat from the atic/side wall in this type of construction?  It seams that all you would need to do would be open a door or two when the sun was shining on the south facing roof as it would be floored for storage.

Have any of you used United Built to build your house or know of anyone that has any feed back on the company would be helpful.

[jmk]

 I don't know much about that cabin, but my friends cabin is like that and they have pull out beds in that space along with storage. That way he can have lots of guest.

[finnsawyer]

That insulation level is basically what is required here in Houghton, Michigan (47 degrees N. Latitude) and what I have in my current house.  So, it's well insulated.  I guess the basic question for this area would be what snow loading it could handle.  Here it's at least 70 ponds per square foot live load and 10 pounds dead load (ceilings).  The prediction is for temps in the single digits (F) for Sunday and Monday.

[Birdmmjb]

GeoM SNOW what snow we have had no snow this year and very little the past 2 or 3.  Which is normal.  Any real snow is rare here.

Gee, I'm sorry to report temps in the mid 60's short sleve weather here.  The bank did not call back today so we will be on pins until next week.

Cant wait to build with re in mind thinking of dual wiring one set for grid another for re.

Anyone have any ideas on the best route to take. I have some dc equipment should I run dc circuts or go on and use an inverter and run the second circut for re ac?

Jan

[ghurd]

Do all 3.  And more.

It won't take many extra "inverter outlets".  Leave plenty of wire to reach the inverter breaker box when it is connected.

Run #10 to a few places for smaller DC loads.  Maybe to the attic for one of CmeBREW's amazing 5W 12V fans?  Maybe to the bedroom ceiling for DC fan?  Maybe to the office for a RE cordless phone?

Many phantom loads can be far more efficiently relaced with straight DC, and a 78XX.

Run cable TV wire to about everywhere.

Run an extra (2nd) cable wire to anywhere that MIGHT get a computer, eventually.

Run plenty of phone wires.

Might run #1/0 AL from the attic to the basement for PVs to the battery?

Nothing like having some yahoo from the phone/cable company show up with a 4" hole saw in a 1/2" drill in one hand, a hammer and giant staples in the other...

Intending to run wires all over the outside of a new home.

Don't underestimate the insulation damage they can do.

Then they tear insulation up where ever they work.

IF they bother to lay it back down, it is still compressed and with gaps.

They flatten it with tools and feet.  Who knows how it is messed up inside the walls.

That doesn't include the damage to drywall, paint and siding.

If the basement is block, have them insulate it with 'vermiculite' () when they do the block work.

Might consider running pex in the basement floor for solar heat later.  Very cheap to do if it's done now, but it won't really be an option later.

A few plastic pipes sticking out of the floor in a south corner won't bother anyone.

A small system in that climate should make a big dent in the heat bill, and the entire floor is a pretty decent thermal storage mass.

Maybe plan a route for water pipes from the attic to the basement.

Could consider just using attic heat (no normal/expensive collecters)...

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2005/7/19/13842/8442

The best thing I ever did was run a LOT of extra wires, of every kind, from the basement to the attic, BEFORE the insulation was blown in.

Ten years ago I never would have guessed 2 phone lines, 6 phone numbers, some rooms with 3 phones, cable for the TVs and another for the computers.  

And now we might have to put up a 1950's type TV antenna to get the semi-local channels when they switch to digital.

Who knows what 10 more years will bring.

G-

[TomW]

g;

All good advice. I would add:

nice, big PVC conduit attic to basement. Fair size flex conduit with gradual curves [if needed] to all family areas. The next step is fiber optics and who knows what specifications will be needed there? At least with conduit in place its just a matter of fishing the stuff thru it when the time comes.

Of course, none of this is "cheap" now but it will be much cheaper than the tech doing it in 10 years.

I installed lots of extra cable in my office when I built it. Phone lines, coax, Cat5, etc and it still was not enough. Next time it will be 2" PVC to all corners in the attic space, or what passes for an attic in addition to all the stuff I know I need at the time.

Cheers.

TomW

[Birdmmjb]

Thanks for the thoughts.  At this time I had not given much thoght to the phone jacks ect but if the bank is crazy enough to make the kind of loan that we will need to build this then I will really have to be ready as the builder plans to complete in 90 days.

I had not thought of the pex in the concrete for heat I will need to do some reading on that and see what kind of system I might be able to get installed.

One of the things I want to do as there will be no basement is have a battery box in the atic storage space and vent it through the roof.  I'm thinking of insulating the box to keep the battery temp down in the summer. then the re controls could be placed in the area near the box if it were placed in the south storage area the wire run from the pv panels would be very short and line loss cut down.  I currently have to run 75 feet from the pv panles to the battery. Did I fail to tell you that the new house site is much better for pv and wind as it is clear of obstructions trees barns ect.

The inverter could also be placed nearer the batterys which would be a big plus.

I almost hope the bank says no. I bult my last house when I was 22 after that experence I decided that I would never do that again.  My husband built his last house at the same time and after we married and compared notes on the experience we agreeded to never build again.

25 years must have soffened the memory some as here we are about to try again.

Jan I must have lost my mind Bryant

[zap]

As Tom said, "All good advice"... I'll add this:

Take a serious look at a Ground Source HVAC system.  In Arkansas your heating needs may be modest but I imagine your cooling needs will be greater and with a ground source system you could save quite a bit.

Here's an article with some numbers from my Dad's system.

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2005/9/1/34455/70334

[mbeland]

I think the main motivation for building yourself from scratch is to make it your special way. You probably know more what you want than at the time.

Martin