true. my spec sheet is for Louisiana,south central La., a hot humid climate. while location isn't in the actual specs location is in the links & of course my user name. lzerarc,you got my gender wrong. LOL. Are you still building Energy Star homes? I've been doing mostly existing homes but have a builder that wants to build to the 50% better standard, for the $3,000 builder credit. do you find this too much to ask of a builder? just wondering if I want to invest time & effort into this..again. glad to see my specs are helping. please no IC recessed lights. ICAT only. recessed lights & duct leakage is so easy to get right and has such a bad effect when it isn't done right. these two things are my pet peeves. best of luck.

I always enjoy threads dealing with energy-efficient homes, as our plan is to, within the next few years, build a home that is as energy-efficient as possible. Like teresa b (above) originally considered, we have thought about an ICF home and geothermal. The ICF concept is still almost unknown in our area. A few years ago, we attended a home show, and not only was ICF not represented, no one with whom we spoke knew what we were talking about. Fortunately, I have located a builder in the area who has some experience with the Logix ICF system, so I hope to speak with him in the future. Another interesting thing -- at a party last night, I spoke with a guy who has one of those Hardy (brand) woodburning furnaces, the type that is located outside the home, with underground lines connecting it to a heat exchanger located in the standard heating system. It also preheats water going into the water heater, to save on water heating costs. Something else I will consider!

check Resnet or BPI certified company to do your audit. make sure you hire someone with experience in both existing and new homes. test existing house and ducts for leakage and address before adding insulation in attic. re-test when work is completed. have an itermediate inspection when addition is blacked in and insulated. adding a 1" Poly-isocyanurate, rigid board foam sheathing to exterior of addition walls will add R-7 to walls, break thermal conductivity, and stop air infiltration through the walls. grace and other companies make window flashing tapes and products that will easily keep water from entering around windows and doors when flashing to foam sheathing. it makes sense to make existing part of house more energy efficient while you have trades there. or you could diy some of the caulking. maybe even some of the duct sealing. you can't seal the walls from the exterior, but you can from the interior. sealing holes in ceilings to attic can be done from inside the attic, or inside the house in most cases. in the addition holes should be sealed when they are made. insulation in the floors is always an issue in raised houses. 3" closed cell foam makes a big difference. will the addition be slab on grade or raised? best of luck.

Within budget, energy efficient and functional, doesn’t seem like a lot to ask till you start to put it all together. This design has finished up being 250m2 and it will be sitting on 3000m2 section. We built on the same land some years ago. We then split the land in half and planted lots of fruit trees in and around the existing mature tree’s. It’s flat……almost and has fields on two sides. Other than the house that we built on the front of the section it’s very private. We also planted on the new boundary between the existing house and this new section which is now well established. The front section had no trees and I used to look out my kitchen window and imagine my new future home with all the trees with paths running through them. We never thought that building this new house would take so long to get started and leaving our rental house each week to go mow the section, pick fruit and trim foliage was depressing. Well, we made it but the budget is tight and a lot of thought has gone into making it the best it can be, including all the rooms we need and being as energy efficient as I can get it. It’s only just been sent off for costing so changes are still possible. I can give you the reasons for the design but I am more than happy to hear your thoughts. The outdoor room with slider facing south and the north facing slider gives me Mother Nature’s Air Con and I get to enjoy more of the land that surrounds the house. You will notice that there are no doors on the lounge or the kitchen – it’s just budget and a sit down with DH of what we need over what we want. To the right of the entrance is bed 1 (DH office) and a ‘bath’ room. This was a solution to the future sale of the house in NZ. Let me explain – When I arrived from the UK 12 years ago, I found it strange that ALL NZ homes had a room with shower, bath and sink with a separate loo (which often didn’t have a small sink!?!?) It’s the same today but they do tend to add a baby sink in the loo. This is seen as very old fashioned in the UK and most renovations include knocking the loo through to the bathroom. So, if I had to sell the house in the future maybe a Kiwi could handle a shower room and bathroom – they don’t like change or different and I learnt this on my first build 12 years ago! Halls are to a minimum as much as possible, I saved on a door again between family and hall……..ummm not sure yet, can I live without one? You may notice how straight and lined up the roof is – I wanted a covered BBQ area to the back so that helped to line up the roof and I pulled the roof out over the garage too. It could be seen as a boring house and I would love to go gable crazy but needs, wants and budget played a huge part here. However, input and thoughts on the subject will be helpful. The bedrooms are small but acceptable here. You may question the huge scullery but this is for work needs not an excessive want. A few things you can’t see – we have so many power outages here that we will be looking at solar panels even if it is just to the kitchen. We want to upgrade insulation etc. With a bit of research I have chosen to have the kitchen company build the vanities. I have a choice between cheap, nasty but affordable or $1700 looks OK. Going off the built in we had made in the last house I am thinking the kitchen company will give me the look I want at a cost I can work with. Love to hear what you think