So Brick does a few things but they are minor in the grand scheme of things. Mostly the thermal mass helps as they heat up during the day and stay warm after the sun goes down so help to minimize wall heat loss (same with gain in summer). The R-value is about 1 but the thermal mass effect is a bit larger. I actually notice my loss more on the back wall which is not brick. I think there is probably an infiltration benefit with a brick wall but I can't say that for sure. Just looking at it , even with the weep holes, it looks to be a pretty effective air barrier compared to siding. You should easily be able to beat your spec house if you try. The only thing that $1800 doesn't include is the gas connection fee. I only used about $120 in gas last year but there is another $120 a year in connection costs. I try to justify that this fee is not really energy cost... In the country - orient your windows right. 1 inch foam (my biggest regret) on the walls and basic infiltration work (foaming windows and doors etc). I'm guessing no NG, so at least Seer 15 heat pumps. Get a geo quote but they are hard to justify generally. Use shade trees on those E/W walls (and south walls too as long as they are deciduous and not oaks or something that keeps leaves too long). Water? What is the motivation here? You should have a well? That is nature's best water reclaiming system. I priced a rain catchment and it was absurd. A well would have been cheaper and I am on city water. Code makes graywater difficult (although I don't know exactly which jurisdiction you are in). But generally NC is not Arizona so the benefits are minimal and jurisdictions have no need to be flexible. Shade/orient windows well/foam sheath/seer 15 - and you should have no problem getting below $1000 a year in HVAC costs. Lezarc - you must not drive much! Average car, average driving = $2000 a year - all carbon, mostly foreign (my house, mostly US uranium). Sure apples and oranges but perspective. You may not design cars but you decide what to buy....just tweaking you.

Hi, I think as in all trades there are good guys and bad guys. Before I go further I declare that I am biased because my brother is an architect, and a builder (and I think very good one at that.) You can judge for yourself, he put his money and skill where his mouth is and designed and built this hotel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_di_Moravola. Architecture is also about personal preferences too, so some things some guys like more than others. My personal acid test is if the normal chap in the street visits a building and thinks wow this is nice, then you got a winner. It is a matter of when you see it you know it. I also speak from a client end. My brother did design for me a house, however we came in way over budget. So I had to start again. This time I used a local architect who knew the market and could design to a budget target. We came in high, everyone does. I mean everyone, but not ridiculously so. My recomendation is design to a target of $US 100 and be prepared to pay about $US 150 for a single family home in the 2,000 to 3,000 sq feet range. I.E. you will be 50% over budget. In our ultimately abortive design we also used a structural engineer. He was great and we needed him to sign off on the plans becuase he was NY state licensed. I still would recommend him, he is Mr. David Kufferman and he is based in Connecticut. Ultimately I think the choice of which depends so much on the situation. Especially the site. If the site is difficult then you need a more difficult and intricate design. If the site is easy, flat, no oustanding issues, then you can go for a buy off the shelf designs. Incidently if you go for a buy off the shelf design note that you will still need someone to sign off on the design. I.E. if the house colapses, that person is on the hook for it. Some off the shelf designs are so bad that you may not be able to get anyone to sign off. One final note for the ultimate Arcitecture design you can get (loads of money though) CATIA. This is a software package originally used for aircraft 3d modeling and design. Frank Gehry used to to design the museum in Bilbao, that is how they managed to get that free flow curve look. Other neat tricks include special on site window glass curve shaping which used a tight bed of steel rods. (Just like those toys with many steel rods that you place gently on your face to get an impression recorded). The glass was placed on the bed of rods and heated. It then deformed to the desired shape. Note one special mold but many many shapes of glass. Anyhow enough rambling on...... Best, Mike. Here is a link that might be useful: Moravola: Hotel

We just finished making 33! (33!) interior storm windows. This year, we inserted shrink plastic in the custom frames we made with about 5/8" wood. Turns out this was a good idea, since many of our windows are out-of-square and these windows ended up being pushed in to fit. You cannot tell they're plastic, since they all are behind wood slat blinds. We'll look at our gas bills before we decide if we want to replace the plastic with plex. I'll report back about any future energy savings, but I notice already that on a windy day, my wood blinds and window treatments don't blow and billow at the windows the way they used to! Thanks, everyone, for all the helpful suggestions and vendors mentioned here. It helped us immensely. Pamela

Well, the answer to the TDL v SDL question is easy. In true divided lights -TDL-each pane is installed in its own frame that goes clear through the window. In SDL there is some sort of grille appplied to one surface of the glass, or worse both surfaces, but there is only one pane of glass, so when you look sideways at any angle but dead on you can see the fakery. If I couldn't have TDL, I'd change to a different muntin pattern. You architect is correct, there would be a significant aesthetic loss. Especially since you don't have have that many muntins, in the first place. I'd economize elswehere to make sure I could have TDL. However, before I'd exchange the original older windows for modern ones, I'd look into getting them brought up to good consition, adding wooden storms, etc. This is often cheaper than quality replacements. (Though maybe not so much $$$ for the architect....) You could be saving original stuff and getting excellent energy improvement at the same. Problem is finding someone to do this work in your area. I have just located someone near me to work on my own windows, and delivered four there yesterday for an initial project to see how this worker does. If you keep asking around I think you'll turn up somebody. I found the guy I hired yesterday by keeping my eyes peeled for years and asking around all the time. When I saw a window in at the hardware store awaiting measurement for a reglazing, I recognized it as something that was being rehabbed. I looked it over carefully, and noted the contact phone number on the sash, and scurried home and called it. Turns out my guy does it all the time, but is so busy he never advertises. My advice: keep asking till you find the local version of my window genius. Molly~