New Home - What Would you do Differently?

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fowlerrudi said:
Hello folks,
I am a lurker - been absorbing the wealth of knowledge you all have. I don't think money can buy the education one can obtain on the Internet. Whether its a good education or not....

Anyway, my wife and I are planning on building an off-grid home next summer. I will be a handcrafted log home and will be powered by water turbines on off a river that runs by. We are currently living in an off-grid home and use wood heat and ceiling fans to get the job done.

Here is my plan for the new home, call me a dreamer:

Froling 3000 Turbo - with storage - how much - I do not know. I like what Justburnit did - inspirational! But is bigger better?

Warmboard throughout the home - Check out the Breckenridge on this site - http://www.yellowstoneloghomes.com/floor.html

I would like to run Pex in parts of the basement (not the mechanical room) and then on the main and upper floor run Pex in Warmboard (which requires different temps).

We would like to have a loop for an outdoor hot tub (currently heat with a Japenese Chofu heater) - and also would like to put PEX in the slab of the garage - all running from the basement Froling boiler.

I am thinking of putting unpressurized storage under the basement floor (built into the basement floor) perhaps using ICF blocks and a pool similar to Justburnit.

This winter it went to -40 C. That -40 F as well.

In the future when I am too old to handle firewood - I am thinking I can just swap out the firewood boiler for a pellet boiler (P4 looks nice).

So how can I build this with min amount of circ pumps since I am offgrid (check these out - http://www.grundfos.com/web/homeuk.nsf/Webopslag/DMAR-6EGDHG)

I don't completely understand why I would go pressurized or not however I do like the simplicity of non-pressurized storage at the moment - add a loop in the tank for supplement solar for after DHW tank is hot - add a loop for hot tub, etc.

Please comment!!!
Click to expand...

nice home, make sure to have a sealant on the logs or they will turn grey with time
 
Tom in Maine said:
Before you start talking about any heating system, start by thinking about insulating the whole building to R-60 with foam.

All your other choices will be a lot simpler. Your heating system will be smaller, heat distribution system will be smaller and the storage tank will be tiny by comparison to what a lot of folks have to use when they retrofit an older home or a home that is not well insulated.

The attention to detail-- making sure it is tight, using high performance windows and not over-glazing the house will also have a big impact.

You cannot plan on buying a lot of fuel forever and any extra cost of insulation, etc. will have a much, much better payback than anything else you do.

And you will be comfortable!
Click to expand...
Hello Tom,
Sounds interesting to quote an R-60. Am I correct in thinking you are talking about using SPF on the outside, as they do Monolithic Dome Homes? We are well on the way to converting our 36x104 foot barn into our home, and will spray the entire building from peak to 3' below grade with 3" monolithic layer of SPF - hoping to get a 'functional' R-60 or thereabout.
What is your situation - insulation, building type, heating system? I lived in Maine (Rockland, Rocport, Camden) for a decade, now am in SW Wisconsin. Hankovitch
 
We used some spray foam. Most of the building was foam panels that we built.
It started out with 5.5" of urethane foam in the core.
I then added another 1.5" on the outside in between 2x4's. Then added another 2" on top before the sheathing.
We are a little over R-60. The front wall is R-90 (don't ask).

The house is a cape, about 1100 ft plus an insulated basement.
It was heated with a Toyotomi hot water heater with a plate hx for the radiant system.
That ran about 250g oil for heat and hot water.

We then used a Jotul 100QT stove and about a cord of wood with 100g oil for backup and dhw.

This year, we are using about 1.5 cds of wood in a wood boiler we are developing.
It feeds a 345 gallon Heat Bank. This system operates unpressurized, with one a DHW hx.
 
If I had to do it all over again I think I would set up for hydronic heat. I'm happy with my hx and forced air but a warmer floor, a quieter heating system, and usable water temps at 130 degrees would really be nice.
 
R-90 Tom? That's got to be some kind of a record. You only copped to explaining how you got up to R-60 previously. Since your dirty little over-insulating secret is out in the open now, please explain how you achieved this insulating feat. Inquiring minds need to know.

Mike
 
Planning a storage tank into your foundation is simple (we used the space under the front porch), and you can make the tank enormous. It is especially useful if you are running low temp in-floor or basement slab radiant. For me , I am just too busy between my job and 5 children to fire a boiler 2 times per day. A big tank (ours is going to be 3000 gallons) makes it possible to fire once every few days in all but the coldest of weather. It will not add much cost to your basement. If you don't use it for heat storage, you have a very nice tornado shelter :)

Andrew
 
True confessions time:
The house was leaning due to old foundation problems and rotted walls (a little piece of heaven).
It is on the water and takes a lot of wind, which helped it lean away from the prevailing wind. It was about 5" out of plumb.

Then we replaced the walls, we had basically replaced everything from the top of the foundation to the bottom of the second floor.
The new walls were now plumb, but on the front of the house, the R-60 walls were in 4-5" from the edge of the new floor.

I was in the business of selling insulation seconds, and had a lot of foam kicking around, so we "padded" out the front
wall with another 5" of foam. We used long screws to tie it to the front wall. There are really deep window openings all around the house. And now, the front is even deeper.

The whole house is screwed together, with pressure treated framing and sheathing on the outside.
It seems pretty solid, now. It gets really windy here. I should have a windmill, but that is another forum!
 
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