Renovator8 - Blast from the past indeed! Hello to you, MightyAnvil and others! I remember the soundproofing debate we all had many years back - very informative (at least for me LOL). I've had some whacky ideas over the years and it's nice to have some unbiased feedback from experienced people like you and others. I'm actually building this condo concept from scratch. Yes, another whacky idea I've been dreaming up for years. I've been wanting to take an urban building (in the middle of the urban core) completely off the grid with the utility only as a back-up. Basically, all the units will operate 100% on photovoltaics coupled with a large Li-Ion battery bank, inverters and BMS. The local utility here is a bit of a tyrant (and monopoly) and has recently come out with a plan to charge flat fees of up to $71/month to residents even if they use no power at all. I realized years back this would happen to power producers so this is the next step in being independent from the utility. I've had a very very hard time getting accurate power consumption figures from elevator manufacturers. The townhome/condo design is one that almost requires the use of the residential elevators to make them easily accessible. Of course there are stairs one could take... but traversing two flights of stairs every day just to access their front door isn't very appealing. I've read mixed reviews about elevators here and reliability seems to be a concern... but then again most of the comments I've come across were for older residential units - not current makes. The machines seem very simple yet are prone to failure more often than I would expect. The installer stated that the units have improved dramatically over the years in terms of reliability, efficiency and cost. I've been told that they are much more reliable than commercial units. But I'm not sure if this is just typical elevator sales guy talk as online reviews are mixed. I was hoping to get some feedback from people that use and rely on their residential elevators on a daily basis. I know people that own residential units here but they rarely use them. I'm going with prestressed/prefabricated concrete panels for this project and the hoistways have already been spec'd per the mfg's requirements. I was originally going to frame out the hoistways but was worried about noise transfer so am now going with concrete enclosures.

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!

How efficient do you want to be? I think the advice will differ if you're looking to achieve Net Zero or PassiveHaus standards vs the current stretch code. I'd suggest that in the northeast it's probably a poor decision to shoot for less than the stretch code requirements for insulation and ACH numbers. Going for the level of perfection that PassiveHaus demands stretches all but the most generous budgets. We opted for an intermediate level in suburban Boston; rigorous sealing of all air exchange we could find; insulation to ~R30 in the walls R60 in the ceilings with a wrap of rigid foam on the entire exterior to prevent conduction through the framing plus blown in cellulose and some spray foam depending no the area; reasonably high efficiency heating and cooling; solar panels that supply about 30% of our needs; decent, but not outrageous windows (a mix of Marvin Ultimate and Integrity), energy recovery air exchanger, etc. Our utility bills are about half of what they were in a similar size house built 14 years ago, but more importantly the house is extremely comfortable in both summer and winter. The house is built to last--plenty of 2-300 year old houses up and down our street, and I'm quite sure the upgrades for energy efficiency were quite worthwhile.

I'm building in SW FL and right now my windows are in but not my doors. No insulation yet. Our house has energy efficient, hurricane rated windows and the roof decks will have icynene blown in insulation. We of course will have insulation in the rest of the house and all openings will be sealed. Our AC unit is a variable speed unit and we'll have 3 zones. All lighting will be LED. First floor of the house is block construction and second floor is 2 x 6 wood construction with Hardie siding over it. First floor will be stucco. However like Virgil and JDS alluded to, I think the best things we did have nothing to do with modern efficiencies, but in old fashioned siting of the house, etc. We are building a U shaped house that is only 1 room deep on all sides of the U and we are already seeing the benefits. We sited the house with a north/south orientation with the backyard facing south. All our eaves are 32" wide and we have a 9' deep lanai on the back of the house. Ceilings on the first floor are 10' high. Because the rooms are only one room deep, it allows for windows on at least two sides in every room. My DH's office, the kitchen/dining room, the great room, the guest bedroom and my studio all allow for cross breezes and even the other day when it was 94 degrees with almost 70% humidity, those rooms with the cross ventilation were quite bearable with the windows open. While our master bedroom has windows on both the east and south walls, only the window and door on the east wall open. I purposely left off windows on the west wall, to try and keep the bedroom cooler. Being that we're only in the bedroom to sleep, I don't see the lack of extra windows as a problem. Especially since because of my bad allergies, we never sleep with the windows open at night. Right now there is almost no vegetation around but I imagine that once we plant trees, that too will help with the heating/cooling of the house.