Windows and zero energy challenge

I am learning a lot about windows, not the computer kind, but the house kind.  The one feature that I have to pay attention to for the south side windows is the solar heat gain coefficient (shgc).  The shgc rating ranges from 1.0 down.  A rating of one means clear glass and 100% of solar heat going through.  The lower the number, the less solar heat.  Unfortunately, the higher the number, generally the more heat leaks out also.  So most windows today have a low shgc.  Ones that I specced out had a .29-.35 shgc.  This mean only 29 to 35 percent of the solar energy is getting through.  This is much too low.  So far, and quite frankly I haven't started to seriously look, the highest shgc stock window I have found is .45,  still to low.  I am looking for .60 and above.

With these high shgc windows come two complications.  The first is the heat loss factor.  It is pointless to try to heat the house passively if much of my heat is going to leave through the windows.  Therefore I need to have insulated shades that I can pull down at night to minimize heat loss, or get those windows that have them internally installed. 

The second issue, which segues into the second topic in this post, is the zero energy challenge.  I have decided (from advice given to me from Peter Harding our energy consultant), to enter the house in the Connecticut zero energy challenge.  This is a contest for new constructions, with a grand prize of 10,000 dollars to the most energy efficient house.  A link with all the details is here:   http://www.ctzeroenergychallenge.com/about.htm

As far as I can tell from the existing contestants, I am the only contestant who is doing his own general contracting.  Every other contestant is a building company.

Excavation -silt fence construction to start Monday!
Wish me luck, and

Thanks for reading.

Sam

Our first plans

So below is a link  to see our first attempt at house plans.  I used a free floor plan generator, so the dimensions and sizes are a bit off. It was also not as user friendly as I would have liked, or have many features, but it was free...

http://www.floorplanner.com/projects/19192995-my-first-project

Along the top of the house you see a small green house, literally a green house, which we put in because of a design we found on the web.  The design won an award for passive solar heating plans.  The theory is that the sun heats up the green house, (the five barrels are 55 gallon drums of water used as thermal mass) and then vents and windows in the house help heat it.  The vertical wall separating the first floor bedroom and the living room was to be made of concrete, as additional thermal mass and to help radiate the heat throughout. We also included a hot-tub and outdoor shower.  A woodstove in the great room was for supplementary heating.

I then showed my plans to my cousin Tom, who is an architect, who told me essentially "nice plans but it will take 6-12 months to convert these to real drawings."  He suggested that I visit  architectual house plans.com to see if there were any houses that were close to what we imagined.  So I did.  Wow, what a site.  I was thoroughly impressed with the house designs, and the philosophy of the site.  This wasn't a generic house plan site, these were real designs, with real houses built by them.  I then came to the house titled "Northern Sun" and fell in love.  It looked somewhat different then the one Teri and I had built but it felt the same.  Teri agreed, and we were off.
http://www.architecturalhouseplans.com/home_plans/72