Your guests won’t tell you if you have a problem. They’re too polite. Your kids probably have their door open when they are small and don’t have a problem.  Your teenagers probably don’t talk to you much anyway. How can you know if there’s a problem? It’s a good idea to spend a night in each of the other bedrooms in your house, particularly the guest room, if you have one, to see how the temperature goes with the door closed for eight hours. And do this on a cold night and a hot night. You might be surprised at what you find.

Why do these rooms tend to get off temperature? The answer is they are starved for air. A poorly design heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system, know as the HVAC system in the trade, often does not provide a method for the air to return to the heater or air conditioner except through the open door.

Take a look at your bedrooms. There will be a supply air register or two. But, is there a return air grill? The supply air coming to the room must displace the air that is already in the room.  And that air has to go somewhere. When the door is open, the displaced air exits through the door and is sucked up by the return air register in the hallway. Everything is fine with the door open.

But when the door is closed, the air that should be displaced is trapped. When this happens, no new air can get into the room. The “log jam” of air causes a pressure build up at the supply air register and the air in the duct takes the path of least resistance and heads to other parts of the house where there is no resisting air pressure. So the room with the closed door gets no conditioned air and gradually becomes too hot or too cold.

The cure for this problem is to install return air grills in the bedroom. This can be done best by connecting the grill to the return air ductwork so air is taken directly back to the HVAC unit and cooled or heated. If this can not be done due to physical restrictions, a transfer grill can be installed. This can be a simple grill cut in a wall that adjoins the hallway, thus letting the air escape, even when the door is closed. But a direct grill like this will allow sound through, too. It’s better to install a transfer grill in the ceiling and connect it to a piece of flexible ductwork with a bend or two that connects to another grill in the hall. That way the sound can not travel in a straight line and much less sound will be transmitted through the passageway.

Remember, to get the air you want in, you need to let the air you don’t want out. Return air grills or transfer grills are the way to do this. Getting your air conditioning and heating system working optimally is the first major step toward good energy efficiency in a home.

If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

I know it sounds like an odd question. We tend to think of using solar design for houses, not clothes. I’ll explain.

If you know it’s a cold day, do you think about what you’re going to wear? Of course you do. You might wear several layers. The layering forms more tiny air spaces around you and increases the insulating effectiveness of your clothing. You might pick out dark colors. Even if you don’t think of this as “passive solar dressing,” it is. dark colors absorb the radiant energy from the sun better than light colors. I’m sure when you’re outside on a cold, but sunny day, you walk on the sunny side of the street to stay warmer than you’d be on the shaded side. Ah! Passive solar principles, again. It’s nothing more than proper insulation and receiving the free energy benefit from the sun.

Insulation is important, so let’s not forget your hat. We always hear that we lose the most heat through our heads. Your house loses the most heat through the roof. Heat moves upward as hot air rises. So wearing a warm hat is like putting good insulation in your attic and roof. It’s the place where the investment produces the most benefit.

We do the same thing in the summer, using passive solar principles to stay cooler. Don’t you choose light colored clothes? Light colors reflect the sun’s radiant energy. You’ll stay cooler. A light colored roof in a hot climate will keep your house cooler, too. Don’t you pick clothing that breathes so you’ll stay “ventilated?” Natural ventilation in your attic will reduce your air conditioning expense. It won’t have to work as hard. With the right ventilation in many climates, air conditioning may not be essential, even on the hottest days. On a hot summer day, you might also wear a hat with a big brim. That’s like having a house with proper overhangs to shade the walls and keep the house cooler. The shading keeps you cooler whether it’s a hat or a roof.

I wrote another blog post last winter about using solar energy to help clear my driveway of snow.  It’s rare to get much snow where we live in North Carolina. But it happens from time to time. Hey, if Mother Nature is giving us free energy, we might as well use it. It’s simply a matter of understanding how to use it.

If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

Metal roofs, now often referred to as “cool roofs,” can act like your light colored, open weave shirt and keep your house cooler in hot weather. They do this “passively”, that is they use no electricity in the process. Here’s why they work. In an article posted at Classic Metal Roofing Systems website, they list four energy benefits you’ll get with a metal roof.

1. Thermal Mass. Mass is the “weight” of a material. Stone has more mass than wood because a chunk of stone weighs a lot more than a the same-sized chunk of wood. Heavy asphalt roofs have a lot more mass than metal roofs. The higher the mass, the more heat a material can absorb. Although metal can get quite hot to the touch, it does not store heat in its mass and it will give up it’s heat more quickly soon as the sun goes down, or behind a cloud, or even when a breeze blows. So just like your open weave shirt, the material will cool down easily. Aluminum is even better than steel in this regard.

2. Color. Just like your light colored shirt, a light colored roof will absorb less radiant heat. I wrote a blog post about how I use passive solar principles to help clear snow and ice from my driveway. And color was the key. Here’s a link to that article, if you’re interested: http://www.designingyourperfecthouse.com/blog/2009/01/passive-solar-design-on-my-driveway/

3. Reflective Pigment. In the Classic Metal Roof Systems article, they say “Many dark-colored metal roofs now have reflective pigments so that good reflectivity is achieved even in dark colors.” This means that you are not limited to a silver or white roof to enjoy the benefits of an energy efficient, highly-reflective roof.

4. Integral Airspace. Metal roofs do not lay tightly against the roof sheathing. This means that a gap of air is created that insulates the roof sheathing from conducted heat coming from the metal. This airspace acts like a trivet or a pad you might place beneath a hot pan to keep from burning the countertop or table in your kitchen. Asphalt roofs lay tightly against the sheathing and continually conduct heat into your attic or rooms below, adding to your air-conditioning expense.

No matter what roof material you choose, be sure to provide sufficient attic ventilation. Metal roofs do not replace this essential design feature. But metal roofs will keep your attic and house much cooler and keep your air-conditioning electrical costs down significantly.

Metal roofs tend to cost more, initially, than shingle roofs. I’m researching this and looking for ways to control the added costs. I’ll report on this in future posts. If you have any experiences with metal roofing and the energy benefits, please post a comment. I would love to hear from you.

If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

I refer to siding, brick, stone, stucco, and other sidings as the “weatherproofing” of the house. These materials keep the bulk of the wind and water out, but even perfectly installed siding material will still let in small, but significant, amounts of moisture. There is no effective way to stop this and it does not indicate the house is poorly built.

Do you remember the old black tar paper that used to be installed around a house before the siding was installed? That layer is the actual barrier against water infiltration. It is the true waterproofing of a house. These days, tar paper has been replaced with several high-tech House Wraps, like Tyvek and Typar by DuPont, Weathermate by Dow, and PinkWrap by Owens Corning.

Materials such as these have revolutionized house waterproofing. Much more resistant to moisture infiltration than old fashioned tar paper, these materials substantially improve the energy performance of the house, as well. By reducing the air infiltration in exterior frame walls, particularly on windy days, these high-tech house wraps help the building insulation remain effective. All insulation works on the principle of dead air being the actual insulator. The insulation simply keeps the air still so it can insulate. You can imagine that if air is moving around in the wall cavity, the “R” value (insulating value) is going to be lost. The house wraps keep wind from penetrating the walls and compromising the insulation’s effectiveness. House wraps will save you a lot of money in heating and cooling costs.

When the windows and doors of a house are installed, the house wrap is taped to the window and door frames with special tape to insure a tight seal. When this is done and the roof has been installed on the house, the house is watertight, regardless of whether any of the siding has been installed. The siding material is there to protect the house wrap, deflect the heavy weather, and for looks.

If your house is being built in a cold climate and you are worried about brick, stone, or stucco being installed in freezing conditions, you don’t have to delay the start of construction. You can begin the house, provided weather permits the foundation to be built, and let the builder frame everything. He can install the roofing, install the windows, and wrap the house up with one of the house wraps. The house will be watertight and the interior construction can continue. The masonry on the exterior can wait until warmer weather without delaying the rest of the construction.

If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

There are two reasons for that. First is the cost. Traditional, all masonry fireplaces are very expensive to build. The entire chimney must be built of masonry and the tall column of cement blocks, bricks, and terra cotta flue liner is very expensive. Plus, a true masonry fireplace requires a foundation to carry the weight. That adds more cost. Pre-fab metal units have taken over the marketplace for cost alone. Some pre-fab fireplace companies are Heatilator, Majestic, and Heat-n-Glo. These fireplaces have some limitations on the size of the firebox opening. If I need a particularly large opening, I turn to Isokern. This is a fireplace that is made of a special type of concrete block system, but it does not require the full masonry flue. So it is a compromise between the design freedom of the traditional masonry fireplace and the cost benefits of the pre-fab units.

Wood-burning models of pre-fab fireplaces are readily available, but in spite of that, most of my clients choose to set these fireplaces up with gas logs for the sheer convenience of starting and stopping a fire whenever they want. Many people have grown tired of chopping and carrying wood, cleaning up the mess and bringing bugs into the house and give up the ambiance of a real wood fire in favor of the convenience of a gas log fire. These days, there are many very good choices of gas log sets that provide a realistic wood fire look. Because most of the heat goes up the flue, fireplaces are not energy efficient. They can actually draw more heat out of a house than they can provide. Fireplaces should be viewed as decorative elements in a house.

Some gas fireplaces require a vent pipe and others do not. The vented gas fireplaces give the most traditional look since they do not have to have glass doors on the firebox. But vented gas fireplaces must have the damper held open permanently according to the building code. This allows heated air from the house to continually escape up the flue twenty four hours a day. This is obviously an energy loss. Open fronted, vented fireplaces also use the air inside the house for combustion and can allow combusted air to return back into the house. People who have allergies or sensitivities to petroleum products could react negatively to this. For those people, a direct vent fireplace might be a better solution.

Direct vent fireplaces take outside air for the combustion and vent the combusted air back outside. No indoor air is used. No pollution is added to the indoor air. No heated house air escapes the house. They cost less initially because no chimney is required. A direct vent fireplace can add heat to the house, but not as efficiently as a gas furnace. The major objection to direct vent fireplaces is that a fixed glass panel covers the firebox. Sometimes people describe this as an aquarium look because of the glass. But there are decorative frames for the glass that make it look like a set of good glass doors.

All in all I would say that most of the fireplaces I design are gas log types with the exception of outdoor fireplaces. For those, wood-burning is still the preference. Of the indoor fireplaces, most are the vented variety primarily because of the appearance. People prefer the traditional open faced firebox. But in some situations, the direct vent type is the best choice, especially if finding a location for the flue and chimney is difficult or cost is a priority.

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     One company I’ve worked with here in North Carolina is Smart Energy Solutions. They have a computerized system that manages the big consumers of electricity in your house, like water heaters, air conditioners, dryers, and such. Here’s how it works. In the background, without any noticeable change in your daily living habits and convenience, this system prevents the big electricity consumers in your house from coming on simultaneously. The dryer might wait to start its heating element until the air conditioner is done with its cycle, for instance. This prevents peaks in your electrical usage from occurring and levels out your electrical consumption throughout the “on-peak” period. In most places, the “on-peak” period is usually from around 8:00am through early evening during the weekdays.

    To get the money savings with this system and reduce your electric bill, you switch from having the electric company bill you on the normal “residential rate” and bill you on the “demand rate” instead. The way the demand rate works is the power company can monitor your consumption and based on the highest peak usage they monitor during the on-peak hours, they establish the rate you will pay. The higher the peak, the higher your rate will be. If you keep the peaks low, the cost per kilowatt hour will be less.

     This is the same way industries have paid for their power for years. Now there is this smaller system for your home. It manages the peaks in your demand, thus reducing the rate the power company can charge you, thus reducing your electric bill. And best of all, you never know it’s doing anything because it doesn’t change anything about the way you live. Plus, you are helping the environment.

     You might be wondering how this helps the environment if you are still using the same amount of electricity but just paying less for it. Well, if everyone had this system, the power companies would not have to produce as much power. They would not have as high a demand to meet during high-peak periods. You might already realize that power generating plants can’t be setback from hour to hour like your thermostat. They keep generating the same amount of electricity almost twenty four hours a day. And that amount must be enough to fulfill the highest demand. If the peak demand could be limited, less electricity would need to be produced. That means less fuel will be consumed, less pollution will be produced, and fewer new power plants will have to be built. So this is why a computerized energy management system is a very “good deed” for the environment and for your wallet. You’ll be reducing pollution, preserving fuel resources, and reducing your electric bill all at the same time.

You can learn more about designing your house to be energy efficient by reading Designing Your Perfect House. It’s contains lots of tips on passive solar design and energy efficient building.

We would love to here your experiences with energy savings. Post a comment and share it with us.

If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

    I think the best way to reduce your living space is to write out what we architects call a “program.” This is the first thing i do when doing a house design. This is a list of needs and desires plus a target size for the spaces you want. It’s a good idea to multiply out the areas of these rooms, include hallways, closets, stairs, and other small spaces and add them up to get a total. Take that total and multiply it by 1.15 to add 15% for the area the walls themselves take up. You’ll end up with the total square footage your house design will need to include all that you want. If this total is too much, go back and reevaluate what rooms and spaces you included. Trim out the excess. I discuss this process at length in my book, Designing Your Perfect House. A good, well thought out program will become your road map to the right sized house design.

     When reevaluating your programmed spaces, it’s a good idea to try to double up usages of rooms. Try to imagine dual purposes for the same areas. Maybe one of those guest rooms for occasional use by the grandchildren could double as a sewing room or office for your day to day living. Maybe you don’t need the formal living room and it could be replaced with a smaller library or even a reading nook. Do you need a separate formal dining room plus a breakfast area? Could those dining functions be combined? They probably can be, it’s simply a matter of how the space is designed and where it is located in the house design. A good architect can help you shrink the square footage without shrinking the house’s livability. Do we really need to keep all of the junk we seem to accumulate over the years? Could the guest room bath also serve as the powder room? Good house design is a matter of trimming the fat and keeping what is essential.

Try to think of how you really live and throw out the space you never or rarely use. Make your house design efficient. One great book that deals with the concept of living smaller and can help you with ideas is Sarah Susanka’s Not So Big House. I highly recommend it.

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 When the flakes stopped falling, we had about six inches of nice, clean snow on the ground. I put on my tennis shoes (I don’t have boots anymore since I moved south) and found my gloves (they were in my golf bag where I left them following a chillier than usual round a few weeks ago) and set out to clear the snow. I don’t use a snow shovel any more. I’m not sure I still have one. I use my leaf blower, instead. It works surprisingly well. It fluffs up the snow and blows it away almost without a trace. I cleared my sizeable driveway in a little over an hour. The best part is my back doesn’t hurt! 

But here’s the reason I’m writing this post. No sooner had I gotten most of the snow off of the concrete, it started to melt. The air temperature was only twenty seven degrees. The sky was cloudy. But enough solar (radiant) energy still filtered through the clouds, was absorbed by the concrete, and was converted into heat to efficiently melt the dark ice that remained. Here was a perfect example of Passive Solar Design. It’s called “passive” because no mechanical systems are required. It just simply happens. As you might imagine, the portions of my driveway that sit in the shade did not melt. But the totally free energy from the sun did the job for me elsewhere.

 Shouldn’t your house be designed to take advantage of this free energy? I discuss this in more detail in my book, Designing Your Perfect House. If a house is designed properly, the sun’s energy will be kept out in the summer by the use of properly sized roof overhangs. You don’t need expensive solar collectors, photovoltaic panels, pumps, batteries or anything. Simple, thoughtful design will make your house energy efficient. A good architect or residential designer can do this for you. And if you live where you might get snow, be sure your driveway is on the sunny side of the house.

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Austin, Texas – the state capital and home to the University of Texas – has long been known as a liberal bastion in a conservative state, and the city’s residents are renowned for their environmental consciousness. But it wasn’t the community’s mind-set that led to the establishment of the nation’s first comprehensive green building program; it was a nuclear power plant.

A nuclear power plant and sustainable building and green do not seem to go together. But the question of whether or not the city should buy into a nuclear project led to the introduction of an energy code in 1985 and it started the Austin Energy Star Homes program that spawned the Energy Star program nationally.

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      Many electricians base their price on the number of junction boxes they install. Each switch, each electrical outlet and each light fixture counts as one box. So if you add an overhead light and a wall switch, this counts as two boxes. Usually, the location of the boxes does not matter. It is the number of boxes that is critical to your homebuilding costs.

      The preventive medicine to avoid this cost calamity is to have a good, well though through electrical plan drawn up prior to the builder preparing his price. Your architect or residential designer can help you with this. They can show you what you need and help you avoid “over-lighting” your house. Over-lighting is a real peril and can really add homebuilding costs quickly. Many times I see people put a light above the vanity in a powder room and also include a ceiling light. In real life, the light above the mirror will light the small powder room quite sufficiently. The ceiling light will never be used. Be sure every light is essential before you toss it in to the plan. These things add up. If you really want to control your homebuilding costs, you need to place lights with care.

      Also, try to avoid over-controlling the lights. It’s easy to start adding switches to control every light from every entry point to a room. Try to be prudent about this. You will want to provide what is called a lighted “path of travel.” This is a path that takes you through the house with switches along the way so you can turn on the light ahead of you and turn it off after you have passed. A simple example is a hallway with a switch at each end that operates the hall light. Rooms like dining rooms that have two entry points should have one of the light in the room operated from both entry points. These are called three-way switches in the construction world. But the other lights in the dining room do not have to have three way switches. Only place those switches near the primary entry point. If you come into the room from the other direction, you will have to walk across the room if you want to turn on the other lights, but you will save a lot of construction money by using this switching strategy in every room and you also won’t end up with a bunch of unsightly switches all across your walls.

      Control your lighting impulses and prepare a good lighting plan and you will gain control over your homebuilding costs.

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