Going to build a southern oriented house

[ROUSTABOUT]

Been thinking about this for years. I sold my house and should be building this year or I might wait until spring.
im in Ohio climate zone 5. Going to superinsulate the walls to R30 with R80 in the attic.
triple pane windows, raised heel truss, etc.
has anyone framed 24” on center and found the structure to feel weaker than if framing on 16” OC?
it seems that the thermal conductance of all the wall studs when added together makes a pretty significant energy penalty.
Anyway, here is my ramble...

Build with ICF way better on energy and a tornado won't blow it away. Been building them for years. Just built my brother a big one. Parents are in one. Phenomenal on energy. We also used FastFoot for the footings.

 

[Erik M]

My century home is oriented south and we are zone 5 as well but from my experience your summer is a lot longer and hotter than your winter is cold. If you put big windows facing south, either have deep soffits to shade them in summer or else put crank out awnings for summer months. My second floor windows facing south spend all summer with the shades drawn, but are wonderful in the colder months. No point in having a super insulated house that you roast in all summer. Design is a compromise. I wouldn’t waste money on the triple glazed window but would look a geothermal heat pump if you have space and lots of solar panels. My heat is geothermal and the solar panels provide all of my electrical needs and then some.

 

[Drewintoledo]

Almost couldn't find the blog. One thing nice about modular is once the house is set on the property, you can lock the doors. The house itself is pretty cheaply built, I figured I would replace / fix what I thought was sub-standard. House was $124k; finishing, pouring a basement, hardi-plank siding, porches, and hooking everything else up was $76k.

This link should get you to the beginning (blog goes backwards in time):

F l a m i n g o - F a r m - H i l l s v i l l e, V a

Documenting the building of our modular house... we designed our own layout and will have Nationwide modular build it in their factory, transport it and set it up on our land. We have a builder that will put in the basement, finish the inside, build decks and porches. Planning to follow up after...

ffhill.blogspot.com

Thanks for sharing. I'm already getting overwhelmed just trying to bring all my resources together. I just don't see it happening this year, but I might still break ground.
Seeing your posts kinda gives me a little energy to stay at it. I like how you captured even the little things.. like ordering a dishwasher to have the plumbing so you can replace it with a quality unit later to how the drywall screws show in the sunlight. You definitely have the gears turning in my head again. I skimmed through quickly, but one of your objectives was to have a "superinsulated" house. What R value did you end up with?

 

[Drewintoledo]

My century home is oriented south and we are zone 5 as well but from my experience your summer is a lot longer and hotter than your winter is cold. If you put big windows facing south, either have deep soffits to shade them in summer or else put crank out awnings for summer months. My second floor windows facing south spend all summer with the shades drawn, but are wonderful in the colder months. No point in having a super insulated house that you roast in all summer. Design is a compromise. I wouldn’t waste money on the triple glazed window but would look a geothermal heat pump if you have space and lots of solar panels. My heat is geothermal and the solar panels provide all of my electrical needs and then some.

Yes! I'm even looking at EXTERIOR window shades. The kind that operate vertical down across the window on tracks to keep out the sun/heat on those super hot days.
I already have solar panels from my old place and all the gear to go with it. Two inverters, rails, mounts, heck I even have a solar tracker that moves throughout the day and parks itself facing east at night waiting for the sun to rise. That's why I went with triple pane. Well, not entirely. The neighbor to the north trains dogs. We darn near share driveways. They also foster dogs, so it can be noisy at times. The bedroom is to the north. People always think about the thermal properties of triple pane but forget about the acoustic properties and the ability to block sound. It's a score for me. I can't take my money with me, so I'm going for it.
I did look into geothermal but didn't want the land realestate and mechanicals to go with it. No forced air here. I'll be fully mini-split & electric.

 

[sandman2234]

And here I was, when I read the title, picturing a big mansion with huge pillars on the front porch! Even my Wife missed the "looking South" concept!
David from jax

 

[Drewintoledo]

And here I was, when I read the title, picturing a big mansion with huge pillars on the front porch! Even my Wife missed the "looking South" concept!
David from jax

I’d love to build a plantation style house. Heck I already have a few of the pillars.

 

[masscity]

In the late 70's I bought a house like you're talking about. It was 1800 sq ft rectangle with the gable end facing south. 2 1/2 car garage was on the west side.
The front half of the house had a cathedral ceiling and had windows above the front door all the way up to the roof. A large picture window on in the living room
on the east east front and a large kitchen window on the west front. I also had a 9 x 9 ft atrium as you walk in the front door.

The first third/front of the house didn't have a basement because of the atrium. Family room and bedrooms were in the back of the house. The house had long
overhangs, about 3 feet. No summer sun came in the house. In the winter if the sun was shining and it was around 25/30 degrees I could shut the heat off and the
house would stay warm. Forgot to mention this was in the Detroit suburbs. I was on a acre and I loved this house.

 

[old and tired]

...What R value did you end up with?

I don't recall right now. Beside we had layered extra insulation in the attic. Still have a bunch of foil lined bubble wrap that we have not put up in the basement. We need to do a better job with insulating the basement. Something we had not planned on and one of the first projects I'll do once I retire in 2 years!

So are you more concerned about heating or cooling? Do you plan to have a wood stove? Our house is pretty much heated with wood with very little effort.

To confirm a few things: Yes we are at 36.8*Lat.; we did use 2x6's on 24" center to reduce bridging. The house is very sound proof from the outside - not sure if that also traps indoor noise as well (?)

For us, we had power, water well and an unknown septic system in place when we bought the property. If it didn't have those comforts, things might have turned out different!

 

[EddieWalker]

Fine Home Building magazine has stories all the time on super insulating houses. The Federal Government provides grants to Universities and other Groups to figure out how to create a house that is super energy efficient. In my opinion, because the Grant Money is designated to support a position, the research is directed to "prove" what they are being paid to do. Because of this, it's become a one solution fix that really doesn't address the what is actually happening in a house.

In my opinion, there are 2 significant things happening in a house when considering energy efficiency. First is the up down direction of heat and cold. This is easily controlled by maxing out your attic insulation. Two most common ways of doing this are blown insulation and foam. Either work great if you achieve the same R value. Beyond this, it becomes nitpicking without any measurable improvements.

Walls have become the big joke in home building because the Government is focused on R value instead of wind resistance. Wind is the big issue when dealing with walls. House wrap was the big game changer in improving the ability of a house to withstand the wind, and chill factor caused by the wind. Wind defeats insulation. Wind goes through almost every material used on siding of a house. Even if you don't feel it, it's happening. House wrap stopped this significantly, but instead of focusing on this, the Grant Money ignored it and invented the "Thermal Break" issue. A lot of home builders understood the problems with air getting through the walls and focused on sealing the house to achieve the highest level of efficiency for the best return on cost.

House wrap is now outdated and polymer coatings with tape has become the standard. ZIP System has pushed this to a new level, but there are more and more options coming out that will challenge ZIP System in cost and speed. For now, ZIP System is the gold standard. Seal up the walls and the R Value becomes secondary in a wall.

Sealing windows with tape is more important then a third pane of glass. The cost of triple pane windows will never provide enough energy savings to justify the cost of the windows. If you live in an area that is loud, their is some advantage to the third pane. A friend near SF International Airport had 4 pane windows installed to deal with the noise from the jets that worked well. He didn't see any change in his electric bill.

If you go with 24 inch spacing for your walls, you have to increase the size of your sheetrock to 5/8's. Half inch will show each stud in the wall over time and give you a wave look to the walls. Same thing happens in ceilings when half inch sheetrock is used.

Think of your house like a car. Your car from the factory is like a properly, modern designed house. Then you can spend a fortune making your car faster and more like a race car, but never actually see any real world results. Spending a lot of extra money on your house to attempt to lower the amount of energy you pay to heat or cool it never actually shows noticeable results. There is a very defined line where you build to best practices to achieve the best results, and then you go past that and just waste time and money.

I have 6 large dogs. They want to go outside and then back inside all the time. We where constantly opening the door to let them out, then back in again. Eventually I put in a massive doggy door. It's HUGE!!! I expected my electric bill to skyrocket because of this, but it never changed. I now have 3 of those doggy doors around my house and my electric bill is still the same. Heat is in the upper part of the room and what goes out through the doggy door is less then what we where loosing by opening the door over and over again. My walls are R13 with ZIP System. My windows are taped and my attic has 2 feet of blown Attic Cat insulation for a R60 rating. The only way that I can improve my energy efficiency is to replace my HVAC system with something better then the SEER 19 rating that I have now.

 

[kwbretired]

What about double walling the exterior walls for better noise reduction and insulation. Build wall with two 2x4 stud walls with the studs offset from each other. The top plate can be a 2x10 which would give you a two inch space between the walls. I have not seen this done but seems like a good way to do it bet will cost more.