A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit That

Two Fantech HRVs (Heat Recovery Ventilators) are installed for unit 1 and unit 2 to bring in fresh air, exhaust stale air, AND salvage the heat from the stale air to heat up the fresh air.
The Unit 1 HRV is installed in the basement. Since the bottom of the unit is below grade it was going to be something of a challenge to get the condensation drain out of the building....but then who knows how much condensation is expected in winter. We decide to drain into a bucket and see if evaporation can keep up with condensation.

Unit 2 had its own challenges. To reduce breaks in the envelope, the HRV for unit 2 would exhaust through the 2nd floor bathroom exhaust duct. At the same time the 3rd floor bathroom, which never had ducted ventilation, also was going to be connected to the 2nd floor bathroom exhaust duct. It's a busy duct.


This image is looking up to the 3rd floor soffit. The vent on the right is the exhaust damper for the 2nd + 3rd floor bathroom and the Unit 2 HRV. The small hole on the left has a small clear hose protruding so condensation can drip out.

The HRV was designed to pull from the 3rd floor back room and vent into the 2nd floor back room. Because the connecting staircase is in the front of the house, the air circulates throughout the house. The air intake is not visible as it is hidden within the new soffit. Normally this might be fine, but the soffit is fabricated from a PVC material, and I'm not comfortable having our fresh air filtered through a solar heated PVC box.......of course I could be nuts.

We get our exterior water spigot back, while finally solving that mysterious leak in the wall. This is just in time for spring grass re-seeding.


We got the bulk of our backyard back as the contractors start pulling materials and equipment out.

The mason arrived to fix the foundation which had split. This shows the opening the Mason made to fix the guts of the wall.

Here we're all finished.

Anderson foam is coming in for a final spray to fill in the few areas ripped out by various electricians, plumbers, and cable guys and to spray an area where the drywall had not been removed prior to the main spraying back in December.

Final Details

The final trim piece is installed by Rick and Mike, closing off the last nesting spot for the irrritated birds. We started on the walls on November 17, and now some 120 days later, the walls are finished.


Dryer vents are removed from the window and built into the wall. There's nothing quite like a dryer vent through the window to mark one as hmmmm something less than fully cultured.


Bathroom dampers are finally reinstalled for the 1st floor bathroom.


In a moment of unplanned excitement, Mike lost control of his coffee, spilling it down the wall. Mike is house broken though as can be seen in the photo.

Reflections

It's a little bit of a challenge to install siding in bitter cold (I'm told), or when the roof is dribbling on your head, or if supported 20 feet off the ground by a platform shiny with ice, or when the coffee runs out. Synergy plows forward pushing towards completion.
November 13, 2008

January 29, 2009


One of the challenges siding over 4" of foam on an 80 year old house, is that the house has settled, the walls bow slightly. They may even have been built that way. Wouldn't be surprised. To reduce these imperfections they torque the firring screws, better aligning the exterior. It is an imprecise science.

Snow melt

Walking the kids to school and back one passes all manner of roof ice and roof insulation problems. The neighborhood is marked by gutter freeze, and big honking icicles. What people tell the world about their homes, and particularly their attics through the snow melt.....if only they knew.

Frozen gutters. Extensive icicle growth.
Icicle formation requires that the outside air be warm enough to allow the escaped heat to melt the snow, yet cold enough to refreeze the water before it falls to the ground. The less effective the roof insulation, the warmer the roof, and greater the snow melt. Super insulation will minimize melt and icicles by cooling the roof surface. There will still be melt during warm sunny days, but then icicles are impossible.
January 21: neighbor

January 21: neighbor

January 22: neighbor

The lower roof melt areas here are wider than the higher ridges. Guessing, the insulation in the attic is on the floor and the area between the roof rafters are uninsulated. The heat that does escape into the attic travels to the roof and passes more easily between the rafters (the wider areas) than through the somewhat more insulating rafters (the thinner areas).
January 22: neighbor


I would guess this to be the opposite. Insulation is in the roof rafters. The rafters here are the weak link and show the greatest melt.
January 22: neighbor

Another example of attic floor insulation, shown with the wider melt areas, demonstrated with a kind of shingle lithography. The thermal properties of the roofing shingles comes right through.
January 22: neighbor

The roof area to the right of the downspout in this December 7 photo is a new addition with a cathedral ceiling, and one assumes extensive insulation in the rafters. You can see that the rafters on both sides of the skylight are doubled up as is the practice, and we can guess that there are two recessed lights, one on each side of the skylight. The roof to the left of the downspout is a cold attic insulated on the floor and sealed from the cathedral ceiling. The diagnal telltail? No idea.
UPDATE: Read the reader comment below for a brillaint sugestion for the cause of the diagnal telltail.


This is our roof in a photo taken January 21. Like a Westminster Kennel Club winner, this blue ribbon roof has a nice shiny coat of snow, and is completely house-broken with only a few stray icicles. A roof like this should have a very small range of icicle producing temperatures.

Our Story Goes Regional, National and Global

Associated Press reporter Jay Lindsay releases the story to the wires:
Mass. hopes to learn from 'super insulated' house
ABC.com
It found a home at a few national outlets; ABC.com, MSNBC.com, a few global environmental websites, a slew of regional newspapers, and something in Australia. It wouldn't seem to me that Australia has a problem staying warm.
Homeowner Alex Cheimets shows the two-inch-thick insulation on his house in Arlington, Mass. Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009. Cheimets' house is part of a super insulation pilot project designed to conserve energy and control heating and cooling costs for the homeowner. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

The timing could not have been better for the story of the super insulation research taking place in Arlington Massachusetts and the team of supporters and sponsors behind it. The story hits after several days of "tuchas" freezing weather across great swaths of the United States, and just days before Barack Obama takes his place, and turns the page on alternative energy and conservation and our expectations of government and ourselves.

Also picked up by the websites of the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Worcester Telegram, WHDH channel 7, CW channel 56, Examiner.com, The Danbury CT News Times, Fosters Daily Democrat of NH, The Day from New London, CT,

The Home Stretch

The team slogs through the measuring and carving of the rigid foam, cutting in every bloody slot to make way for every bloody rafter tail to finish this drama free "Quickie" wall. It's always the details that kill you, and Mike is taking on a crazed look. No more coffee for Mike today.

Finished with that, they turn the corner and start stripping the 2nd floor above the front entranceway.

We learn that the two front columns are NOT weight bearing. Just there for looks. That chunk of house is just cantilevered over the abyss. A cantilever would be rocket science for the hacks that built this house (and that field stone foundation).


The electricians arrived and whipped through their work orders:
-Fixed the bizarre basement wiring, organizing and fastening lines to the ceiling and eliminating dead lines.
-Re-wired the rear lights, the front entryway lights, the back deck lights.
-Moved the dryer hook-up for Unit #1 next to the washer for unit #1.....and just as quickly moved it back. I guess that was a mistake.
-Shifted the main electric service connection from the driveway-side around the corner to the front of the house.

The driveway width was always barely acceptable before........in fact if ever a passenger, I normally closed my eyes. Now it will be 5" less acceptable. To avoid the loss of our electric meters (again) to a wayward vehicle, we're shifting the service pick-up to the front and crossing our fingers that it can made to look somewhat less than a festering sore on the house, a wound, a scar, a blight.....not that I'm fixating on the wiring. OK, I am fixating on the wiring.


We are actually so proud of our wiring and electrical service, that we asked for an extra coil to be up there banging against the wall. That's going to get fixed.

We had considered reducing the insulation on that one wall segment to 2" thick, or just 2" thick within 6 ft of the ground, and then transitioning back to 4" to the roof. Sounds fussy and complex doesn't it? Keep it simple. Learn to drive or get off the driveway.

The reflective foil is looking pretty slick.

January 7 is a freezing rain day. No one shows up and the kids leave 2 hours late.

The team returns to work the 8th, finishes stripping the front, starts stripping the last sections of the old siding on the sun room, and rips out the entryway doors.




The doors going in are of standard height, which is shorter than the doors coming out. Some trim surgery is required above the door.

With day's end, the last of the ugliest shingles on Earth await their execution on the peak of the roof. The magnificent Lemieux doors are installed and accessorized with such things as knobs and locks. We are totally unworthy.
More un-insulated voids are found and stuffed. House wrap is applied over sheating.

I don't want to jinx anything here......but... Can I confide in you? Can you keep a secret?
I can actually visualize completion.