Another Successful Project

This morning we received new photos from a photo shoot we had last week. The project was in North Oaks. The home was essentially a whole house remodel.

We started the project on June 6th, 2011. Working in phases we began by partitioning off the lower level areas and cutting out the existing foundation to increase the room size of both the master bathroom and the 'new' lower level exercise room. We cut the concrete, and extracted the 8" thick poured concrete foundation using a Cat 315 Backhoe. Once removed, we excavated for new footings and new poured walls for the addition.

Once the foundation was out of the way and framing was underway, we put our focus on completing the lower level to allow the family to move down before we took over their main floor. The lower level had all new trim work, bar, game area, exercise room, kids playroom, and a space for a future wine cellar.

The new addition, and any opened up wall within the home received Icynene Insulation in the walls, for exterior insulation as well as for sound insulation. The home has a complete in-floor heating system throughout the main floor. The system was very inconsistent. We corrected this by zoning the system for each space. This has improved the constancy though out the home.

In the common main level areas we installed a hickory flooring above the heated floor. Typically wood floors are not a great application for heated flooring, but Hickory tends to be stable, and will not expand / contract as much as other woods.

Other main floor attractions are the completely remodeled master suite with spa like amenities. Featuring all heated flooring t

he space is not cold. The shower has 6 body sprays, a rain head as well as a hand-held and traditional shower head for the complete "Human Car-Wash" experience. The tub is an under-mount Kohler Bubble Massage for an additional spa like experience. The unique countertops are manufactured by Cambria.

The kitchen has all new appliances, countertops, flooring, and we were able to 'tone' the existing cabinetry to achieve the desired look the designer Bruce Kading of Bruce Kading Interiors was looking for.

In the end, the homeowners are beyond happy with the experience they had throughout the process.

Visit www.bmichels-const.com for more great photos of this project and many others.

- Bob

Wikipedia explanation of the HERS rating (energy efficiency of a home).

Minnesota's Green Path and other "Green Building" programs use the HERS Rating of a home to determine it energy efficiency . Click the link below to see how the HERS rating works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_energy_rating

Air sealing a new or remodeled home.

I found this article by Allison Bailes at "Energy Vanguard Blog". Good information if you are considering a remodeling project.

Whenever I see an older home being remodeled, especially if it's an extensive renovation, I always wonder if the homeowners and the contractor know what a great opportunity they have to make the house tighter. Whether they're opening up walls or adding new ones, working in the attic, the basement, or the crawl space, air-sealing should be part of the scope of work.

Here are a bunch of reasons why:

1. Keep conditioned air inside. Air leaks waste energy. If you're spending money on air conditioning or heating your home, why would you want to make it easy for that expensive air to escape?

2. Keep unconditioned air outside. Air leakage works both ways. When a cubic foot of conditioned air goes outside, it must be replaced with a cubic foot of unconditioned air coming inside. That adds to the heating or cooling load of your home and costs you money.

3. Keep bad air out, and stay healthy. Not only is the air leaking in costing you money, it's probably not the most healthful air either - moldy air from the crawl space, carbon monoxide and gasoline fumes from the garage, dead animal parts from the attic, pollen from outdoors... You get the idea.

4. Keep moisture out of your walls. When it's hot and muggy outside, you don't want to pull that moisture into your building cavities and start biology experiments. When it's cold outside, the warm, relatively humid air inside can condense inside wall cavities and rot them out.

5. Older homes with diagonal sheathing are very leaky. For the past 60 years or so, builders have used sheet goods (plywood & oriented strand board mainly) for wall sheathing and subfloors. Before that, homes had diagonal 1-by lumber (photo at right). There's a lot more air leakage through the gaps between all those boards than newer, plywood-sheathed homes have. Same goes for floors. Seal 'em up! Once you close up those walls, you've missed your chance.

6. Window and door openings are major air leakage sites in walls. Whether you replace windows and doors or not, you may well have access to the gaps between the window or door frame and the wall framing. Use an air barrier material (not fiberglass or cellulose!) to fill those gaps.

7. Those walls, floors, and ceilings may not have been open for decades, and when you're done, they'll be closed up for decades again. Don't miss this opportunity. If you're already in there doing remodeling work, take full advantage. You'll be rewarded with a house that's more comfortable, durable, healthful, and efficient if you do it properly.

There you have it. And if you're still worried about that old myth that you shouldn't make your house too tight, well, don't. A house does NOT need to breathe; people do.

Use of color can add punch to a project

Here is a link to a great blog about the use of color for your next project.

Dura Supreme Blog - For the write up!

Bob

Minnesota's Green Path-efficient durable homes for Minnesota!

Over the last 9 months of this year, the Builders Association of the Twin Cities (BATC) has been busy building a new "de-coupled green building program" called Minnesota Green Path. This program is much different than most green building programs that require an "all or nothing" approach.

The BATC is also working on a Green Path for Remodeling program to help consumers and remodeling contractors enter and choose a place along the green building path.

In both programs, the tested and certified Green Path homes will receive an easy to understand report tracking and memorializing the HERS index and green attributes that were designed into the project.

See this link:

http://www.mngreenpath.org/

for more information on this innovative approach to green building and remodeling.

Energy Savers: Energy Recovery Ventilation Systems

Here is an article about the use of a heat recover ventilator (HRV) in your home.

Recently, I was called to a remodeling customers home . She complained that the doors in the lower level of the house were sticking and not able to open and close properly. The weather here in Minnesota has been very hot with very high dew points. Some days the dew points were in the 80 degree range.

The day I was called to the house was a typical for this summer-a warm and humid day. Upon entering the house, I noticed that the house was cool and the air felt humid as well. I looked at the doors and asked several questions. Yes they have been running the air conditioning, no, they do not leave doors and windows open for fresh air. I looked at the humidistat and the reading was 66% at 74 degrees- Wow!

I went to the basement and saw that the HRV was set to run 20 minutes every hour.

The HRV was bringing in 90 degree air, cooling it slightly and dumping fresh air that was full of humidity into the cool house. The air conditioning would cycle off at it's set temperature without getting the humidity out of the air.

If you live in a state where you have high humidity in the summer, turn the HRV off. The article I have linked below states that you want to leave the HRV on to bring in humidity. This would be a good idea if you live in Arizona, but not for us here in Minnesota.

We brought in a commercial dehumidifier after turning the HRV to the off position. As the humidity level drops, the doors will begin to function as they shrink down in size.

Energy Savers: Energy Recovery Ventilation Systems

A Wild Kitchen

Take a look at this article I received from DuraSupreme. Here are some fun ideas for a kitchen. How many mornings could you wake up to this color in your house??

- BuilderBob

"Needless to say, she became my dream client and I became her dream designer! Finally someone who's not afraid of color and wants to have visual fun!" explained Barbra Bright, of Barbra Bright Design in San Francisco, CA. Barbra designed this Dura Supreme kitchen for her client using a daring finish combination of cherry cabinetry with a custom, bright green paint. Above: Evelyn clipped this photo from a magazine as inspiration for her new kitchen. Barbra christened this project "The Chartreuse Kitchen", because the color speaks for itself and was instantly recognizable by everyone involved. A referral client, Evelyn G., brought in a photo she had discovered in a European Kitchen and Bath magazine, with bright green paint and warm cherry tones. Barbra discussed with Evelyn what she liked about the kitchen in the photo. It was the combination of the chartreuse green paint with the cherry wood, in a traditional shaker door style. The door style was traditional but the color scheme offered a bold, fun and modern twist. "My first concern was that there was too much green paint. Was this color scheme going to be truly livable for the long run?" So Barbra suggested that they add more cherry cabinetry to ground the kitchen and use the chartreuse green paint as more of an accent. She explained, "I immediately thought of Dura Supreme cabinetry because of their quality AND I knew they would do a great color match." Evelyn was tasked with finding the "perfect" chartreuse green paint color, one that she could live with and love for the long term. She brought in a small 2" x 2" paint swatch that was a screaming neon green. "I had a feeling that when she saw it painted on a larger sample, she would realize how neon and overly intense this color was. She didn't realize that what looks good on a small chip will look much different on 42" wide wall cabinets." With that in mind, Barbra went to the paint store to get a quart of Evelyn's paint and while she was there, she selected another color that she felt would work better for the long term. She had both of these colors painted up on a large board - and Evelyn agreed with Barbra's choice. "We went with my choice, and then sent the sample to be color matched by Dura Supreme's finish department. They sent us a half-door sample and the color was right the very first time! Barbra smiled in recollection and explained, "That's when this project became the talk of the finish department at Dura Supreme as everyone was curious about the end result." Barbra selected Dura Supreme's frameless "Alectra" cabinetry with a "Craftsman" door style for its contemporary styling. Cherry cabinetry with a "Harvest" finish was an ideal complement to the custom "Chartreuse Green" paint. This project was completed in January and Evelyn LOVES her new Dura Supreme kitchen and Barbra proudly points to this project with the daring color scheme as one of her favorites!

Retrofit Geothermal Systems We Have Installed

Since my last post, we have installed 3 retro-fit systems and 1 new home geothermal system. Below is a brief description of two of the retro-fit systems.

The third retrofit was unique. As part of a whole house remodeling project, we added a indoor pool room ( Natatorium). The pool has a beach entry and disappearing edge near a glass wall. The house and pool are heated with a geothermal system. Please look for a separate post regarding this system.

1. 4800 sq ft home built in 2001.

We were limited in space for the loop field as the home was built o

n a lot with a very small yard. As a part of a basement finish, the walkout doors were re located to an area where the footings had to be under-pinned. Since the back yard was to be landscaped in conjunction with the project, it was logical to locate the 5-ton vertical loop field in this area.
In addition to the loop field,a five ton water to water heat pump was installed with a water coil over the existing high efficiency gas forced air furnace. A new 110 gallon

marathon supe

r insulated electric hot water heater connected to the de-superheater provides ample hot water for the 2 adults and three teen aged occupants. A new 400 amp elect

rical service with off peak metering provides half price electricity to run the geothermal system

2. 8000 sq ft house built in 1996.

As part of a lower level finishing, the mechanical systems of this house were suspect. We evaluated the cost to heat and cool this home using the present gas forced air heating system and compared it to Geothermal with off- peak metering service and geothermal with electric whole house rate. It was decided that the cost of the new meter would not be off-set by the electrical energy savings and the owner opted for the .02 cent per KWH savings for all of the electrical use of the home.
A 10 ton vertical loop field was installed in the back yard, two 5-ton heat pumps and two 110 gallon Marathon electric hot water heaters to be used in conjunction with the heat pumps de-superheater for domestic hot water.

How a heat pump works You Tube video

This You Tube video refers to an air source heat pump (air conditioner).It is useful because it will explain how a heat pumps works. It is short and runs very quickly. Watch and listen to it a second and third time if needed.

In the video, the heat from the building is discharged to the air outside of the home. Usually when an air conditioner is running, it has to discharge the heat to an already warm place. It would be easier and less expensive for the heat pump to transfer the heat to a cooler place.

With a geothermal system, the heat is discharged into a cool place below the surface of your yard. The earth is typically 58 degrees at a depth of 6'-'8' below the earths surface near St Paul, Minnesota. The temperature will vary according to your location -colder to the north and warmer to the south.

In the winter months, the heat pump is reversed to move heat from the earth, and place it inside of your home. Here is the link to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-cnkjjJUaQ

Thank you,

Builder Bob
http://www.bmichels-const.com/

Picture of my "Parade of Homes -Dream Home" mechanical room.

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This is a picture of the mechanical room of the home in post #1, located in Stillwater, Minnesota. The room looks like the inside of a submarine- compact and organized. All mechanical rooms should be neat and organized. The components are identified below.

Water to air heat pump

The water to air Heat pump is the white cabinet on the left of the photo. You can see the two insulated lines coming down from the ceiling that circulate the antifreeze solution from the loop field outside through the heat pump's heat exchanger plate. The lines going down are the refrigerant lines that are exchanging heat with the anti freeze solution, and are connected directly to the heat pump on the inside of the cabinet. The heated refrigerant is circulated through a "radiator" in the upper section of the cabinet. Air from the return registers in the home is pulled through the "radiator and heated. The heated air is then forced through the supply registers through out the house. The heat pump has a two stage compressor for efficiency. The blower motor is a variable
speed motor to conserve electricity . The copper lines on the left connect the de-superheater to the water heater pre- heat tank.

Steam Humidifier

The small box mounted on the duct-work near the ceiling is the steam humidifier. Geothermal heating is done at a lower temperature than fossil fuel combustion heating. The air returning from the house passes though a large surface coil that is heated by hot refrigerant from the heat pump. The air moves slower and at a greater volume through a geothermal air handler than through a fossil fuel combustion furnace. Traditional humidifiers spray a mist of water, steam is absorbed more easily by the lower temperature air of the geothermal heat system.


Back up natural gas furnace and "switchable electrical service"

The grey cabinet to the right of the water to air heat pump is a 96% efficient natural gas furnace. The heat pumps and the water heater is connected to Xcel Energy's "switchable electric meter socket" Excel Energy can switch off the electricity to the heat pumps and the water heater during times of peak demand in the summer and the winter. In the winter, it can be off for up to 6 hours. During this time, the natural gas furnace is given the job to heat the home by a panel on the Water to air heat pump. It is a seamless transition.

The water heater is large enough to handle being off for 6 hours as there are 110 gallons of 130 degree water in the tank.

In the summer, Excel Energy can "toggle" the power during times of peak demand causing the cooling function to turn on and off in 15 minute intervals. The house is very tight and well insulated, so the occupants do not feel this happening.


Domestic hot water indirect preheat tank

The 50 gallon domestic hot water pre -heat tank is the first tank to the right of the back up furnace. Cold well water is pre -heated in the tank to 110 degrees by the circulation of the water in the tank through the de-superheater. Preheated water then passes to the 110 hot water heater down line.

In floor heat buffer tank and water to water heat pump

The in floor heat buffer tank is where antifreeze solution returning from the in floor hydronic heat tubes (in floor heat) is stored; and indirectly heated by the water-to-water heat pump (low white cabinet to the right). A series of pumps circulate the antifreeze solution to the 5 zones (basement floor, garage floor, mud room floor, master bath floor and pub floor).


The water to water geothermal heat pump is the low white cabinet to the right of the two tanks described above. This heat pump is taking heat from the loop field and transferring it to the buffer tank. It will heat the antifreeze in the buffer tank to 110 degrees and maintain that temperature for the in floor heating system.


"Marathon" 110 gallon electric hot water heater


The "Marathon" 110 gallon water heater is filled with 110 degree pre heated water from the pre-heat tank. The "Marathon” electric hot water heater is connected to the switchable electric service and uses .053 cent electricity (off peak) to heat the domestic hot water to 130 degrees for use in the home. It is the most efficient hot water heater on the market (EnergyStar Rating).

In a future post I will cover a geothermal retro-fit of a home in North Oaks. Two natural gas furnaces were replaced with water to air geothermal heat pumps using a vertical loop system.

Thanks,
Builder Bob
www.bmichels-const.com