That’s still a very tight house, nice work!

It depends on the builder/architect/engineer. I like to treat the interior wall as non load bearing and stagger it from the exterior. More thermal break makes me feel good and then we can make the stud layout an even 16” from one corner on the inside so drywall and trim are easy. Realistically if the wall is 10” thick you still get an r12 break wirh aligned framing and the total r value is only knocked down by 5% or less.

Not strict, go for it!

You want to insulate the floor system between 1st floor and bassment? Batts will work, I’d go with mineral wool since it’ll hold its shape better and mice hate it vs fiberglass.

It’s not my money, I’m the builder.

I think you missed the part where I said r32 is cheaper than foamed 2x6. R32 is cheap now relative to just foaming the walls. And just straight batts don’t meet code so you’re stuck with some combo of foam and batts at minimum.

There is no financial reason to not do this now. There’s reasons builders don’t want to, but it’s not money.

Few flaws in that argument.

You’re assuming energy prices will remain the same and that the insulation costs more.

We’re getting r32 ish walls for less money then foamed 2x6 walls. The attic is easy, just blown in more. Windows can be just good double pane. Nothing crazy needed.

And you skip the whole heating system and have 2x 15k heat pumps. That’s a savings of 10k or more. Heating with a current heat pump is ballpark same as the cheapest natural gas.

So for the same money you can skip the boiler/furnace, Insulate well, have heat and AC and still pay the same or less for heat. You don’t need to offset with solar that we can agree on for sure.

The air sealing has the added benefit of making your house last longer too.

The timber frame/sip combo is a great setup.

With recent spikes in foam prices were getting r40 walls and r60-80 ceilings for similar or lower cost than sips. In our experience with sips it’s been very easy to get a decently tight house but hard to get a very tight house. Getting to 1 ach50 seems easy but getting below .33-.5ach 50 hasn’t been consistently easy. The double stud alsogive a lot of benefits such as being able to run plumbing in exterior walls.

Overall we’re so much better at this than 10 years ago. Being unsatisfied with 1 ach50 was nuts in the US 15 years ago.

I’m a big advocate of net zero. Its basic goal is to have a house that’s net energy input is zero. This is achieved by building a tight envelope, being realistic with size requirements and using efficient heating where the energy can be generated on-site. Site generated energy is usually solar with possibly a small woodstove to cover below zero days.

This allows you to look at energy consumption over a year not day or week as with passivehaus. Because you’re actively heating the house you drastically lower then envelope requirements but at the same time on a yearly basis you’re a net zero consumer of energy.

The solar/minisplit/woodstove/tight envelope compliment each other very well while still being reasonably priced.

For envelope I’m a big proponent of simple rectangular houses and double 2x4 walls with dense pack cellulose. With a little planning it’s easy to air seal effectively and costs much less than foam for the same r value. Im also a fan of still foaming rim boards as it’s just so much more consistent.

Ventilation is easy as sizing an erv based on house volume. If you want to splurge the zehnder system is a very elegant way to get even balanced air exchange.

Edit: spelling

Yeah not sure on the downvotes.

Passivehaus is massively expensive in our climate and has minimal benefit over net zero.

In climates where they don’t get the negative temps passivehaus becomes much more economical.

I’d say at this point full passivehaus isnt worthwhile in our climate. Net zero is and draws a ton of inspiration form passivehaus. To get to true passivehaus you’ll spend exponentially more for minimal gain.

We’re in the process of building two now. If you have questions fire away.

Rent at ski and snowboard express in Richmond then head to Cochran’s.

A lesson is worthwhile. Sling well and teaching someone to ski are completely different skills!

Policies haven’t changed at all. They’re just happy if people are skiing!

All are in demand.

I’m about 15 min from Burlington and pretty tuned in with both commercial and residential. I can give you some contacts in each trade if it’s helpful. Feel free to shoot me a pm with any/all questions.

Hey I’m a UVM grad from hartland. Good luck!

We did a job nearby about a year ago and the pizza was decent. We only went for lunch, but I’d go back based on my experiences.

Agree with anyone being able to build a house.

I always tell people anyone can frame/wire/plumb a house and make it safe and functional. The difference is a pro can do it fast enough to make a living.

During install and after it was built.

Rafters were crowned so bad that a straight trim board was inches off the roof mid span which touching on both ends. Corners of house so out of plumb and square that it was impossible to get corner trim on right so siding has to all be shimmed off the house. Doors openings leaned so far doors wouldn’t stay closed unless latched. Roof singles installed so sloppily that the previous course of nails was exposed oh maybe 1/3 the courses.

Many many electrical and hvac issues too, but I didn’t deal with them directly.

If it was any one of the issues it would be not great that it slipped through. But the fact that it was every part/trade that had issues points to a much broader quality control issue. It wasn’t something that slipped through, everything was just shit.

Having worked on both I can’t steer you away from Huntington homes hard enough. The quality control simply isn’t there. We spent weeks fixing issues at a house and had to settle for stuff that we’d never even consider with stick built.

It’s tough but you really do get what you pay for. They’re saving the money by not grading and crowning lumber, slapping hangers on with 1/4” gaps under them and not squaring things up.

Edit: I’m bad at typing

As others have pointed out grid tie is the easiest. But it could very well cost more to get power up a mountain than it would to install the entire off grid setup.

Here’s the sol-ark 15kw, they make a 12kw that could work too. https://www.sol-ark.com/sol-ark-15k-all-in-one/

Oops, try green mountain solar.

I’d steer clear of sun common and sun run, particularly for this type of installation.

Your best bet might be to get an electrician to do everything except the actual solar panel install.

This is very doable if you’re willing to manage your power around the solstice or install a small standby generator. Any hybrid inverter will work, Sol-ark comes to mind first. It will manage your batteries and call on the generator only as a last resort.

If I fill my in bed fuel tank and/or have heavy shit in the back of my truck I get flashed all the time. Tried adjusting my headlights down but then it was very hard to see on the highway at night when it’s empty. Almost need to get leveling airbags to make it safe for everyone.

Sol-ark 15kw plus batteries and solar will do exactly what you want.

But once you start sizing the battery bank for 96hrs of backup with December solar conditions you realize it’s very cost prohibitive. 24hrs can be reasonably accomplished. If you need more than 24hrs it is more cost effective and reliable to shoot for 24hrs of battery and add a small generator that the inverter will call online when batteries run low.

Try VT creamery too. Similar to Ben and Jerry’s but easier to work for as there isn’t the heavy hand of unilever looming over the factory all the time.

I will agree that VT pizzerias kinda suck.

Hey that’s not entirely accurate. People in our town used to do great things and eat better food in Boston, San Fran and DC too…

Seriously if you’re that worried try calling a few contractors ahead of time. Ask if you get in a bind if they’ll come help.

Also if you think there’s actually a good change it’ll happen grab a tarp, some 16’ pieces of strapping and a couple ladders and a roof hook. You can cut the tree enough to get the tarp on and toss down trapping vertically on top of the tape with screws fairly easily from a roof ladder. It’ll suck to do alone and won’t last forever but it’ll get the house 99% water tight quick.

It’s the water damage that’ll really cause the extensive damage.

Edit: buy it all at Home Depot and if you don’t use it you can return it Monday.