Project Description
This is a four bedroom, two full and one half-bath home located in the northern Hudson Valley on a 32 acre wooded property. The homeowners were seeking to relocate to a slightly rural location as well as to build a new home to a very high level of sustainability.
Type: New Construction, Custom Green Home
Project Architect: Trillium Architects
Special Features:
- Finished and fully conditioned basement and attic
- Root cellar in basement, thermally isolated from finished area
- Free-standing garage, workshop, and barn structure
- Random-width red and white oak floors milled from trees on the property
Green Building Approaches:
- Rear of house is perfectly aligned to solar south to capture winter heat and year-round electricity
- East, south, and west-facing windows capture about half of the energy required for space heating
- 11.4kw PV panels generate more energy than the annual operating needs
- 8” of EPS rigid foam board insulation under the slab
- 3” of continuous closed-cell (low GWP) spray foam applied to basement walls
- 3-1/2” of Roxul mineral wool between 2×4 studs on interior face of basement walls
- 2×4 double wall framing to practically eliminate thermal bridging
- 3” of closed-cell spray foam applied to interior face of exterior wall sheathing
- 9” of dense-pack cellulose insulation completes exterior wall insulation
- 4” closed-cell spray foam applied to interior face of exterior roof sheathing
- 12” of dense-pack cellulose insulation completes roof insulation
- Acrylic sheathing tapes used to achieve exceptional air-tightness of 0.43ACH50 (prelim blower door)
- European triple-glazed aluminum-clad wood windows with u-values of 0.13 (roughly R-8)
- Small ducted air-source heat pump system heats and cools the entire house
- Heat pump water heater extracts heat from interior air
- Energy recovery ventilation system has separate small diameter duct distribution system
- Fiber cement siding installed over a ¾” drainage plane
- Exterior trim manufactured primarily from recycled fly ash and rated for ground contact
- 100% LED lighting
- Low-flow water fixtures throughout
- Rainwater harvested for flushing toilets
- Oak flooring milled from trees felled from site
- FSC certified fir flooring for front and side porches
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