[tabrink]

Or how I went from $3000 a month to live to $500.

So I am in the 25th month of hand building my lake home. Need to go to work soon as I dropped off the planet a couple of years ago.
The home.
3000 sf with 60' of glass lake side.
585,000 pounds of 16" concrete and cell foam walls. The massive 12" slab becomes a heat sink depending on the season.
R48 ceilings and R32 walls. Spray foamed the roof sheeting so attic is always ambient. Never cold and never hot.
6 kilowatt of solar cell/battery bank on garage and 17kw propane backup generator running at 50% of full load thanks to mini splits and LEDs.  Built my own ATS to mechanically interlock out back feed to grid. Utility bills almost zero out. Will most likely be less than 100 buck for the next year.
This summer cooled with one ton, 12000 btus of cooling. $1.35 a day. Sized for four tons.
Tonight 3 degrees and I am heating with 12000 btus of heat.    Used to have a 140000 btu gas furnace in our city home.
My heat pump mini split (26.2 SEER) is keeping the house at 68 degrees compressing in 3 degree air. How the heck can it do that?
One of the unique ideas used was ceiling heights are at 11' but all room walls height are at 8' to facilitate mounting mini splits at 9'. No big furnace and eliminating ductwork loss.  We created redundant front/rear zones. Turn off living room zone when you go to bed and turn on sleeping zone. You can imagine the conversations I had with my beautiful wife about no ceilings in bathrooms. All home lighting is 12v off battery mounted as LED light strings on top of 8' walls. Beautiful wash of light off the ceilings. All ceiling fans are 12v as well off the solar battery bank in garage.
One of the interesting things I installed was a series Energy Star instantaneous on demand hot water systems. I take the 55 degree well water and send it through my Energy Star electrical on demand system and heat it to 85 degrees and then I feed that 85 degree water in series to my Super Energy Star propane boiler and heat the water from 85 degrees to 122 degrees and it is hot water forever.  For redundancy both systems are sized at capacity of full load so the loss of any utility (propane or electricity) does not negate my wife's ability for 60 minute showers.   
First real test for very cold weather tonight and only running one mini split out of four.

FWIW my internet costs more than my utilities.
So far so good and patent applied for.
Thanks for looking.
Tom

[ACHiPo]

Wow talk about a labor of love!  Sounds like an engineering marvel.  Congrats!

[Nick77]

Way cool, I built my house also and applied lots of energy savings concepts. But you took it to a whole another level. Congrats!

We need more pics! 

[JLM]

Would love to learn more about your house (and get inside pics).  26 SEER is great.

I added solar PV system last year under utility incentive plan (and federal tax credit).  Went on the grid October 5 and after the first 2 months had a $21 credit.  We built an EPA 5 star rated house 10 years ago, but wish we'd used 6 inch walls.  Still our energy bill for this year should be about $500 with the solar.

If you use the generator much, recommend connecting battery to it.  Generator lifetime is measured total run time.  Connecting it to batteries would allow this operational scenario:

Utility power on (batteries charging/charged) > utility power off > batteries run to depletion > generator runs (excess generator power recharges batteries until fully charged) > generator shuts off/batteries run to depletion > repeat until utility power returns and charges the battery again

This should greatly extend the life of the generator and allow for quieter operation especially at night during low power demand.

[sfox7076]

I am envious of the power scenarios you have.  I am in an apartment with ConEd.  No solar option.  Cost of power is crazy here.

[tabrink]

Way cool, I built my house also and applied lots of energy savings concepts. But you took it to a whole another level. Congrats!

We need more pics! 

Couple of construction shots from early 2015 showing 16" exterior walls (8' concrete /8" foam)and close cell insulation.





HIS and HER kitchens. We both love to cook!






Tortuga / Channel Islands and LS-6 room


Due to 16" sills all trim had to be hand ripped and routed. Native stone from property used  as well.







New concrete walkway I poured this week covered with 30" of straw due to cold weather.  I finished this pour at midnight Saturday morning.





This mornings weather station report:

 
 8:26 AM CST on January 10, 2016 (GMT -0600) 
Report Station
Elev 915 ft  | Updated 12 min ago

Clear
6.4 °F
Feels Like -5 °F

Inside 67 degrees
One 12,000 BTU mini split
 

[Peter J]

Tom, that sounds like a very interesting structure. I'd read as much as you're willing to write about it

How do you deal with humidity generated from those 1 hour showers?

I'm very interested in energy efficient houses, but I think many of the most progressive are either owner built or bottomless pocket designs. My (sad to say) take is that many people value what they can see and touch on a daily basis more than considering the protracted cost savings implementing high energy efficiency. It's also a hard sell for builders...a shame.

Would enjoy pics if you're of a mind.

[Peter J]

Cool, thanks for pix. Can you write more about roof? Did you implement a cold roof design above foam?

I love this stuff, but rarely see it on this forum!

[sfox7076]

You can always market it as kosher.  It has a meat kitchen and a dairy kitchen. 

[Guy 13]

Very interesting,
please share more with us of your project...

Guy 13

[tabrink]

 Peter,
Cold roof and indoor air temp/humidity control.
I have purchased air to air exchangers that will be mounted in the gables to facilitate relief of any escaping heated air and humidity as soon as it warms up a bit. 
As we are just transitioning from our city home to lake home 60 minute showers are not yet an issue.
Additionally I have used blue jean insulation on living space ceilings so little indoor ambient leakage occurs. Cold-roof systems effectively function by allowing the heat that is lost from the interior of the home to be continuously flushed out via the cold-roof ventilation/air to air exchanger  so that the temperature of the upper roof surface (where snow and ice could accumulate) remains near ambient exterior temperatures, thus reducing the formation of ice dams on the upper roof surface. Luckily we rarely see any extended snow or ice accumulation. We pay outrageous taxes to avoid heavy snow and ice. 

Excessive costs for energy efficient build
I designed the house myself and did not use a builder. Performed 100% of the work myself with the exception of setting trusses and roofing. Hired day labor as needed for windows and sheet rock. Designed most interior rooms with 16' long walls at 8' high so that I could lay horizontal 2 layers of 16' wall board and have zero wallboard waste. Allowed me to mud and tape waist high seams. Exterior walls were 3 layers of horizontally stacked 16' wall board. This construction method eliminated over half of the required taping required.
So out of pocket costs for the home are in the $100 range. This does not include land, decks, porches or sidewalks. I project $125 a square to finish.  What this does not include is the cost for me to reduce my day job work from full time to two days a week for the last two years.

Going forward.
As we built this home out of pocket our living costs have dramatically reduced.
Due to energy efficiency, no mortgage etc. combined costs for taxes, insurance, utilities etc are in the $500 per month range.

[ACHiPo]

I like the wide sills--makes the house look like old world European from the inside.

[Bob in St. Louis]

That's fantastic, I'm definitely a fan!

[tabrink]

Duh...Actually one thing I should have but forgot to add is that the stone pigment we put in the concrete is for ever. No painting forever,   

[JakeJ]

Totally cool build, tabrink!  Like the others responding more pictures and as much detail as you are willing to share!

Thanks!

[Nick77]

Nice work, that is a virtual fortress. 

[JLM]

Took a class last year in super insulated houses (needed CEU's and have been interested for 35+ years).  The push was for a total R60 envelope (walls, floors, ceiling), super tight, and triple pane R7 windows.  Reportedly they could be heated in northern climates with a hand held hair dryer (with minimal ducting needed) and cooled with one mini-split.  Of course air-to-air heat exchanger would be required.  Zero net energy cost is a cool concept and comforting when looking towards fixed income (retirement).

But shouldn't we ask what's the payback?  Can it make sense?  Could the extra money spent be better invested in other things?  How much can be recovered at time of resale?  Nobody knows for sure what inflation, energy costs, new technologies, etc. the future will bring.  We're seeing similar fast changing scenario with high efficiency cars:  diesel no longer makes little sense; hybrid versions with 20+ year paybacks (under current fuel costs).  With cars, the best choice is reliable, high resale, efficient, low initial cost conventional cars.  Same with houses, play smarter not harder.  Smarter meaning low initial cost (reduce/eliminate mortgage), small foot print, low property taxes, simplify features to reduce maintenance, avoid flood planes, look for low energy costs (natural gas, alternate energy potential), and conventional but energy efficient design with attention to detail. 

Beyond fiscal advantages and saving the planet, pride of ownership and job well done is what drives interest in this sort of thing.  Congrats Tom.

[macrojack]

It is a dream of mine to build a net zero house full of the latest innovative energy-saving equipment and ideas. I read quite a bit toward that end but always with the awareness that practicality precludes my doing any such thing. Since I am inept, clumsy, lazy and weak (not to mention old), I chose instead to make the most of what I have. And what I have is a 1350 sq,ft. ranch style tract home built in 1983 in western Colorado. It faces west with a roofline the runs North and South. Both of these details are undesirable as hell in my location. We have made it work for us with strategic planting of trees and pampas grass and assorted shrubs and vines. These are all pretty easily accomplished for small money and low skill people like us. After that, though, the hiring began. We had a Rinnai 0n-demand, NG fired water heater installed ($2750). The house has NG fired hot water baseboard heat powered by the original 32 year old boiler. Various heating people have told me that replacing the boiler would not be cost effective as long as it continues to work properly.
Solar panels were installed in November, 2014 at a cost of approx. $12,000. After the tax credit, we will have $8400 in it. At the same time, we had the electric service panel replaced and upgraded the service to 200 amps. This work will pay for itself in less than 7 years.
We then had a vapor barrier installed in the basement for $850 including sealing off all penetrations in the floor of the house. After that came sealing all penetrations in our ceiling and having R-49 worth of loose cellulose blown onto the attic floor ($1500). Before the insulation was installed, we had a solar powered, roof mounted attic fan installed in the hole where our swamp cooler had been. We also had Panasonic bathroom fans installed in both potty rooms and vented through a turbine that was already in place on our roof. All of this came to about $800.
Then lastly, we had a 24,000 BTU Mitsubishi mini-split AC only unit installed on the south wall which successfully cooled the whole house last summer when the temps stayed at + or - 100 degrees throughout June. Total cost of this unit installed came to just under $4000, including the electrician.
I am fully retired and my wife will continue working for 5 more years. After that, we anticipate seeing a small income for the duration from SS in my case and PERA for her. So, my reasoning is simple. Prepare for the future by reducing my monthly over head as much as I can.
We are on annualized billing with Xcel Energy. Before the solar went in, we were paying $124/month for gas and electric. When the quarterly billing adjustment happened in Feb, 2015, it dropped to $41/month. I expect the next adjustment to take it down to about $30/mo. after this year's heating cost reductions are noticed. And that pretty well bottoms out what I can accomplish here without enormous further modifications.
Tom (the OP) has done an admirable job at ginning up my envy. His house looks beautiful and sturdy. He has a scenic location and his innovation and execution appear award eligible.
Ultimately, despite the fact that he placed this in the home renovation circle, I read this as a thread about retirement and I responded to that theme. I hope I did not look like a hijacker in so doing.
Almost forgot - we also had Graber double cellular shades installed in all of the larger windows ($1300).

[LesterSleepsIn]

Great work and very smart thinking here by Tabrink, Macrojack and all. Once I got past laziness and dull-headed thinking, I made some relatively small changes in windows, curtains, and new insulation that have made significant improvements in comfort and realized energy savings. More to be done.

In New York State you can have a free energy audit done and, in my case, it was an eye opener and well worth the time invested.

[JLM]

macrojack

Have you run the numbers yourself is determine if a new boiler could make sense?  I doubt it too, but it's free to shop around for the new one and easy math to double check (most contractors I know simply make a off the cuff guess based on anecdotes their buddies pass along).

Big thanks for encouraging me to get into solar PV.  Attended a renewable energy conference and caught the very end of a utility incentive program that made it feasible (projecting an 8 year payback).