The family's extremely energy-efficient home, under construction on a hillside off Pumpkin Ridge Road, incorporates "passive house" construction techniques designed to take advantage of natural heat sources combined with extreme insulation. Because of the home's design, it will cost less than $50 annually to operate heating and cooling equipment, according to its builder.
In fact, the Farris house is expected to be so energy efficient that a regional energy conservation group is touting it as one of six Northwest homes that serve as examples of how homes should be built in the future.
"We're trying to live a greener life," Stephanie Farris, 43, said recently as snow fell on the half-built home. "And I love the concept of very low energy bills."
At his job with Nike, Bryan Farris helps bring new technologies and fresh product ideas to the company's shoe and clothing lines. He and his wife are taking a similar approach to innovation in their house, although at a slower pace."We had been plotting something like this since we got married," said Bryan Farris, 46, who attended Hillsboro schools.
The couple bought their 3.15-acre lot in the late 1990s, when Bryan Farris' job had them living in Jakarta, Indonesia. Fifteen years later, they live with their two boys, ages 10 and 12, in a North Plains subdivision a few miles from their next home.
Their current house was built using typical construction standards, although the couple has added solar panels to generate some of their own electricity and low-energy lighting to reduce energy use. But those add-ons are minor compared to the energy savings built into their new home.
"There is so much science involved in these houses compared to a code-built house," said Sam Hagerman, president of Hammer & Hand, the Portland contractor building the Farris house. He also was elected president of the Passive House Alliance, which promotes this type of construction.
The 3,600-square-foot house is so energy efficient in large part because Hammer & Hand's workers are encasing it from the foundation up with a 6-inch-thick layer of dense foam insulation and sealing cracks. Hagerman said the home would be 10 times more airtight than even homes that meet Energy Star standards for energy efficiency.
Most of the windows at the Farris home are positioned to capture sunlight on the home's long southern exposure -- where they also catch a view stretching across Hillsboro to Bald Peak beyond. All windows are triple-paned to hold in heat, while an overhang will shade out the higher-angled summer sun to avoid over-heating.Advanced framing techniques will help eliminate "thermal bridges" where energy escapes, including around window frames, Hagerman said. All heating equipment and household appliances will have a small appetite for electricity, and a heat pump system will help keep the air temperature comfortable.
Because so little heat can escape, sunlight streaming through windows, warmth emanating off appliances and other devices, and even their own body temperatures will give the Farris family two-thirds of the heat it needs. Only the final third of their heating and cooling needs will come from a small heater and air conditioner, which Hagerman said would run only in very cold or hot weather.
Homes as airtight as passive houses also require a high-efficiency ventilation system that brings in fresh outside air and warms it to room temperature before circulating it into the home, Hagerman said.
The Farris home is one of six that the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance is showcasing as part of its Northwest Energy Star Homes program.
"We wanted to highlight homes that are not just meeting the Northwest Energy Star specs but going beyond," said Neil Grigsby, who heads the Portland-based project with demonstration homes stretching from Seattle to Montana.
The innovations built into those homes, including the Pumpkin Ridge passive house concept, are ideas that can be adopted by other builders and, eventually, by cities and counties setting new building codes, Grigsby said.
The Farris home will cost up to 8 percent more to build than a similar-sized home built to typical codes, with most of that larger price tag tied to increased insulation and imported windows. However, lower energy bills will offset the couple's higher mortgage payments, so the couple won't spend extra each month, Hagerman said.The $50 estimate to heat and cool the new house for a year does not include the cost of electricity to operate lights, appliances and other devices in the home, which likely will run another $750 per year. However, the Farrises may later add electricity-generating solar panels and possibly solar water heating to cut their energy bill further.
Rick Berry, a designer at Scott Edwards Architecture, said drawing the Farris house blueprints posed some challenges -- among them, heavily insulated walls that are nearly a foot and a half thick, a house footprint that required a large southern exposure and the need to limit windows on the shady north side of the home. The budget also had to remain realistic for a typical family, he added.
The payoff could inspire others to live greener -- by spending their "green" more wisely at the time homes are built.
"It's just going to be a fantastic house," Berry said. "People are realizing sustainability is not just a keyword. People are living that way."
-- Eric Apalategui
Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/north-of-26/index.ssf/2013/01/north_plains_couples_passive_h.html
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