You may recall that I wrote about my undersized mini-split heat pump a couple of years ago. It’s undersized compared to both the heating and cooling loads, as you can see in the table below. I’ll discuss the heating performance in a future article. (It’s been fine for three winters). Today, though, I’d like to show you how well the heat pump did in a summer heat wave, when we had three really hot days in a string of six days at or above our design temperature. Cooling performance in the heat wave You can see from the numbers above…

After spending countless hours researching information from Green Building Advisor (GBA), Building Science Corp, Energy Vanguard and more, I undertook a mostly DIY, all-electric new-build project in Northwest Lower Michigan (Climate zone 6A, Cold). I’ll review overarching strategies and concepts and include real-world data, details, and general experiences gained over three full years since moving in. When designing our home I drew much inspiration from the Pretty Good House, PassivHaus and Net-Zero Energy programs. These programs generally boil down to first minimizing the building energy loads, then meeting those loads as efficiently as possible. The former focuses on the building…

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With today’s high cost of living and building, it is important to maximize a house’s every square foot. As a result, many of our clients want to take advantage of a “bonus space” over the garage. Not all designs suit this type of construction, but many do.The space over a garage can provide flexibility to be an office, game room, guest suite, or even a self-sufficient VRBO or Airbnb rental. In terms of its construction, some builders say, “Just use attic trusses, install sheets of drywall, paint, and voilà, it’s done.” Sounds easy, and couldn’t cost more than a few…