Hello all (any) of you that found your way here. My name is Sam Norman, and I live in a very small house in Connecticut. My wife and I, with my three children have been looking unsuccessfully for a house. First our house, a two bedroom farmhouse, didn't sell. The stress on the kids and us at each showing finally took it's toll, and we took the house off the market. Luckily for us, a piece of land became available to us and we decided to build. At the same time, one of our neighbors asked if he and his family could rent out our house. My wife, Teri, and I are both very interested in building "green" and I decided that other people might profit from our successes and failures while trying to get this house built.
thanks for reading,
Sam
What's the address? (Send it to me privately if you're worried) ... or post the Google Maps location. I want to look at the local wind speeds.
ReplyDeleteWill do. :)
ReplyDeleteSo Pete, you have a wind suggestion?
ReplyDeleteSam
Yes. I meant to reply back ... buried under schoolwork ATM.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the best or the worst site for wind. In Connecticut what matters the most is elevation. The whole state is a series of ridges and valleys; the wind is found up above the ridges (big surprise.) The wind maps have your area as either class 0 or class 3, depending on how they handle that problem. On the other hand, it always helps to be next to a body of water.
How tall are the surrounding trees? (Shorter being better ...)
I need to do a project for a class; I'm toying with the idea of doing a site evaluation for your house.
ReplyDeleteTo do that, I'd need to gather data. In other words, I'd buy an anenometer and have it shipped to your house. You'd then need to bring it to Bristol and install it on the roof of the old house, then go back later to retrieve the wind speeds and send them to me.
I don't know how practical this is in the middle of winter, mind you. I'm not sure it is the best way to go and am still thinking it over.
On the other hand, here's the big picture on energy. You're on a limited budget and so need to carefully prioritize what you do. Here's my suggested list, based on what needs to be done immediately and what will give you the most return:
ReplyDelete1. Passive Solar - looks like you have a handle on this. Keep those deciduous trees on the south side if you can, btw.
2. Geothermal Heat - this is more expensive up-front than the alternatives but saves a ton of energy. They drill a hole in the ground (the same way they'd drill a well) that goes down where the bedrock is room temperature all year round. Then they pump water up and down the pipe to heat the house in the winter and cool it in the summer.
3. Solar Water Heating - instead of feeding cold tap water into your hot water heater, you pre-heat it by sending it through a contraption on your roof.
4. Making your own electricity with solar photovoltaics and wind - this is probably best tackled later on, after the house is built.
Just make sure that you run some extra water pipes and wires from your basement to your attic, so that you won't tear out your walls to put them in later.