Tuesday, May 29, 2007

These pictures are of the 2007 Michigan Energy Fair show house being built. They show how the overhang's were designed to work with the sun's angles to cool the home in the summer (see the shadow lines just below the window openings). And in the winter the sun's angle changes so the windows get full sun light to warm the home, they call this Passive Solar Design. The show house was designed to be elongated on an east-west axis and so the south faces sunlight between the hours of 9:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M. (sun time) during the heating season. And in the winter the South facing glass lets sun light in and allows thermal mass to absorb, store, and distribute heat. For thermal mass we have included in the design a two-sided fireplace that will be built out of stone or concrete tiles.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

As I talk to people about the Show House for the 2007 Michigan Energy Fair and all the Green Building products in it people seem intreged by the use of Fly Ash in the concrete that is used in all the footings, ICF walls and the Lite-Deck floors. People ask what is it and why we would use it. So I desided to explain it here in my Blog. Fly ash is produced by burning coal at electric power plants fly ash might be destined for disposal in a landfill. But when added to concrete, fly ash makes concrete easier to work, stronger and more durable. Fly ash also enhances the enviromental performace of concrete. Mining and manufacturing of natural raw materials can be reduced along with decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, using a ton of fly ash can save almost a ton of CO2 emissions from being introduced into the atmosphere. Inaddition to concrete, fly ash is used in mortors, stuccos, paints, artificial stone, carpets, ceiling tiles, soil cement, pervious concrete and a variety of other building materials. Adam from Hybrid Homes (TM) used some great sub-contractors on the show house. Team Elmer's supplied, delivered and pumped the concrete with a 40% fly ash mix and R-Value Concrete Structures poured all the flat work and ICF walls and the Lite-Deck. To find out more about this product go to any of these web-sites.
Today the rendering was finished for the 2007 Michigan Energy Fair Show House. As you can see this house site on the site as if it belongs there. After talking with Adam of Hybrid Homes (TM) the project is right on schedule they are setting the second floor subfloor and then starting in on setting the second floor ICF's. Having spent two weeks helping build the show house I now wish I was there to see the second floor go on today. Please check out Adam's updated pictures on his web-site. If you would like to see a larger version of the rendering above just doulble-click on it.