Energy Efficient Construction
Signature Homes has been building energy efficient homes for over 28 years. Many features being used today we started utilizing over 18 years ago. Wade has not built anything other than “Efficient Homes”.
There are a number of ways to achieve efficiency in construction. You must consider how the home will be used. All uses of each home differs as do the occupants of those homes. The site location should be the first consideration based upon the occupants needs or desires.
From there the design should incorporate the best uses of the site to the advantage of passive solar, heat and cold, through placement of windows and doors taking advantage of seasonal sun migrations as well as tree shading.
Typical construction methods used by Signature Homes by Wade:
Bolted bottom plate of outside walls sitting on seal/seal a foam insulator placed between the bottom plate and foundation.
“Zip Wall” full heights as to avoid and minimize seams. All joints are “Zip Wall Taped” to ensure maximum seal and protection.
Windows usually Vinyl or Wood with a minimum:
“U-Factor” Heat Escaping From Home .30
“SHGC” Solar Heat Gain Coefficient, blocks sun from home .28
” VT” visible light transmittance .51
“AL” Air Leakage 0.2
All windows & exterior doors are glued in place and “Taped” to ensure minimal air passage.
Full House Foam with all porches and non heated and cooled areas framed and sealed off. All exterior walls, bottom plate, joints are caulked and or foam sealed to minimum 3 inches for 2×4 walls and with 5 inches for 2×6 walls.
All Exterior doors fully insulated, foam injected, unless solid wood.
HVAC specs; 95% heat gain Gas Furness with variable flow gas burners. 20 SEER “seasonal energy efficiency rating ,” smaller tonnage dual stage compressors with variable speed air handlers, full metal ducting and digital programmable thermostats. The smaller tonnage is due to utilizing more units in a zone effect. Smaller tonnage units utilize less energy and have a much slower SEER decline rate than larger tonnage units do.
These are a few basic standards Signature Homes builds by. If you would like to discuss more in detail please do not hesitate to contact Wade at your earliest convenience.
Green Construction
The use or should I say abuse of the word “Green” has been very loosely used to mean anything that saves energy while utilizing products that are environmentally friendly. There are no limits on how high you can go, other than MONEY!
Green in the very strict sense can be taken to the extreme to utilize many available technologies to construct the very high end of “Green” or just basics.
LED structured Lighting
Water recapture design
Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs)
Structural Insulate Panels (SIPs)
Solar Panels
Wind Generators
Recycled Construction Products In & Out
Foam Encapsulation
Solar or Tech Shield Decking
Geo Thermo HVAC
Extreme High Efficiency HVAC
Multi pane Low-E Argon Gas Windows
And the list goes on……..
The first and most important question you should ask is: How long am I going to actually live in this home! Please keep in mind to date there is very little value added to the appraisal for many green expenditures.
Everything has a cost. Building green costs on any level potenzmittel viagra. The smart objective is to match the cost savings over 5 years, to more than the green upgrades costs total.
If this is your last home, (for sure), then you may allocate more green features than in a home for shorter period of time.
Wade is very well qualified to assist you in the short and long term benefits and costs of various “Green” options. Please do not hesitate to contact Wade for a more in depth conversation.