DEEP ENERGY RETROFIT

A Tale of Two Rooftops

lc1958 — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 04:28:04 +0000

The snow on my rooftop is melting much more slowly than that on on the other houses, since my house keeps the heat in! And, note the beautiful new siding!

Dr. Warm and Lascaux

Holistic Design / Laura Catanzaro — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:34:43 +0000

Okay, so now we were ready for really foaming the basement. We loved the young earnest guys sent by the bigger insulation company, but we needed someone who really got it about the building science. We found Dr. Warm (whose real name is Robert Jordan). Here he is testing the Cedar Breather to see if he could get it to not stick entirely to the foundation when the closed cell foam hit it. The idea was to create a drainage plain. He developed a spraying style that was kind of at an angle. It worked.

Testing the Cedar Breather

The "angle" style spray

More"angle" style

Spraying the first coat of the closed cell foam. This is one thing I don't think too many people would enjoy doing. But Dr. Warm loves it!

The foam is done--all 3"-plus of it

Dr. Warm's work made Liane think of the prehistoric caves of Lascaux. After we put the thermal barrier (15 minute fire protection) on the basement walls, we will consider getting some murals painted...

Guinness, Liane's long-haired Dachsund, would definitely like to be depicted on the wall

The basement stair walls were protected and fire-blocked with conventional sheetrock. The open cell in the ceiling will get the thermal barrier paint.

Inside Foam Job cont’d

Holistic Design / Laura Catanzaro — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 02:41:16 +0000

When we decided to foam the basement walls, we had to make a decision about whether to put in a perimeter drain. Liane’s basement is generally fairly dry (except when there’s a plumbing leak). But in this era of climate change, extreme weather, and biblical floods–even in Somerville–we decided that the responsible thing was indeed to install a perimeter drain. We would connect it to the foundation walls by means of a drainage mat which could send any moisture coming through the walls–down along the perimeter drain. A pump in a sump at the low end of the basement could pump any accumulated water out if necessary (whatever its source). So that’s what we did.

The diamond blade that cut along the perimeter of the basement

Diamond saw marks

A little (actually a lot) of drilling

Abi putting up the Cedar Breather, which actually worked as a more affordable approach to a drainage mat.

Rick and Abi with the Cedar Breather--and note that the electrical panel has been moved inward temporarily

Laying out the filter fabric wrapped, perimeter drain line which was installed deeper than what is shown here. Btw, the foundation walls are fieldstone with brick above.

Concrete covering the perimeter drain. Yes, we had to go around the Pheonix because of the switch in how to deal with the basement.

We did decide to cover the basement windows and to later foam over them. Liane only uses her basement for storage and the building systems. If she wants to have windows in her basement at a later time, they can always be cut out through the rigid and the spray foam from the outside.

and there's the sump...

No, we haven’t seen any closed cell foam in the basement yet–but it’s coming in the next post. Just wanted to let you know what we needed to do before we could foam. Dealing with moisture is probably one of the most important things in any retrofit–deep or not.

Inside Foam Job–the Attic

Holistic Design / Laura Catanzaro — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 15:42:03 +0000

In all fairness to the foaming guys, the HVAC fellows took a while, so the inside foaming also took a while to get started. We had to get the HRV supply runs done in the attic for the 3rd floor apartment, before we could foam the rafters.

Foaming guy for the open cell spray foam at the attic and dormer rafters

HRV return run exhausting from the 3rd floor bathroom (supply runs are at the furthest ends, for good air mixing)

After foam job in attic--buckets were to protect vents yet to be connected

Interior view of air bypass where sidewalls meet rafters

Yes, had we been a bit better coordinated, we would have sequenced the cellulose between the attic joists after the spray foam at the rafters. As it was, we just did the best we could from the exterior, as shown in the previous post.

Openings at roof sheathing 'before'

Another thing we would have done, and can still do, is to acoustically seal the ducts venting through the attic to the outside. Right now the big one (where a number of vents are gathered) acts like a trumpet, and Liane can hear music heralding community events such as 5K races–through her stove hood!

: ‘Trumpet’ inadvertently created by the venting

Air By-Passes…

Holistic Design / Laura Catanzaro — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 01:28:27 +0000

Ambrose, one of our DER gurus checking out the sidewall for bypasses

While you’ve got to have good air for your human lungs to breathe in a house, you don’t want to have uncontrolled holes letting air in and out, and giving an easy ride for lots of heat to exit and enter. Air by-passes, thermal bridging and moisture penetration are anathema to a deep energy retrofit. You’d think that with a superinsulated retrofit, we wouldn’t have an air bypass problem, but we did—because of the structure of the house. The rafters were sitting on 2×10′s laid flat across joists that protrude outboard from the sidewalls like the fins on a motorcycle engine (wierd metaphor, but that’s what they reminded me of). Needless to say–a “chainsaw” retrofit–to keep a continuous air and water plane, became out of the question.

Joists above the southeast sidewall

Rafters and joists with structural plate in between

"Motorcycle fin" joists above southeast sidewall

"Crenellating" the rigid foam around each joist--2 layers worth...

Yes, we could have boxed everything in–but that didn’t happen. Instead, we spray-foamed the ____ out of all the air-bypasses at the joists (at least I hope we did…). And then used some nano-paint to try to “assuage” the conductive heat loss. I’m not sure the strategy really worked. An infrared scan will let us know soon enough.

Spray foam (closed cell) at the soffit joists

Nanopaint at joists but not at "joist-tails" that are just extending the roof eaves visually.

How we might have dealt with air bypasses and thermal bridging from the inside--if the attic sprayfoam had gone according to plan--see next post...

HRVs and make-up air

Holistic Design / Laura Catanzaro — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 04:28:37 +0000

Okay, we’re back…
Yes, we did have difficulties. The HVAC took a long time to complete, and momentum was lost…
However, it was regained, as following posts will show.
But before finally getting to the home stretch of this project, it is important to discuss the role of the Heat Recovery Ventilation units (HRVs). Each of the three apartments at Liane’s house received one as part of the HVAC upgrade. HRVs basically act as the “lungs” of the house. They are mechanical ventilation systems that bring in fresh air which has been pre-heated by heat captured from the stale, return air. The old air isn’t mixed with the new air–but its heat is. This is done by means of a “core”, which looks like an aluminum cube, through which many little air-passages flank each other. Heat gets transfered but the two different air-streams never actually mix.

Fantech HRV unit--how the core works

One of Liane's HRVs (from the outside)

A tightly retrofitted house needs air because the usual leaks and drafts that one doesn’t want are no longer there. Controlling ventilation mechanically and efficiently is one of the hallmarks of a Deep Energy Retrofit. The air Liane’s HRVs bring into her house is at about 90 cfm–just like a little breath, and heat energy is saved (some extra electric does get used by the fan). The air is supplied to either end of each apartment, and is exhausted through the bathrooms–for a good mixing. Rigid ducts were used where possible for less friction, and programming of controls was kept simple to save on costs.

One HRV supply line

Another thing we had to do was to supply make-up air to the kitchens of the three apartments, so that the gas stoves would have plenty of air. We also needed to vent the stoves to the outside, and make sure that the make-up air went on with the stove ventilation. It was useful to have the new chase where the chimney had been, to install the make-up air lines behind the stoves.

Third floor chase where chimney had been

Rob from FAI installing the booster pump for the make-up air

The new chase is now conveniently behind the stoves, where the old chimney had been.

Synergy wins award from MassCEC!

lc1958 — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 23:33:53 +0000

Synergy Construction wins award from Mass. Clean Energy Center! It was an exciting day here on October 4, as our construction company, Synergy, was one of 4 MA companies to receive $250K grants from the MassCEC. The awards ceremony took place right here on Ellington Road, and the cameras were rolling as the dignitaries rolled down from Beacon Hill right to my basement. Here are a few photos!

Alex Cheimets accepts Synergy Const's award. Ian Bowles, of MassCEC on right.

Ian Bowles announces the awards in front of the DER

Liane Curtis (owner) and David Joyce of Synergy Const.

David Joyce (of Synergy) and Patrick Cloney, Executive Director of MassCEC

Laura Catanzaro explains the Phoenix combined space heating and domestic hot water appliance to Patrick Cloney of MassCEC.

Me with Ian Bowles, Chair of MassCEC and Secretary, Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs

The Chimney

Holistic Design / Laura Catanzaro — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 02:21:56 +0000

Whether to remove the chimney was a tough decision. Certainly the effort to do so was considerable, but what the resulting new chase would offer the project was important. We could gain a highway for properly venting the kitchen stoves and also supplying them with make-up air, which is necessary for gas stoves in a super-insulated house–where air quality needs to be carefully controlled. The chase would also provide a way to properly vent the existing plumbing. We decided to do it.

Remember in the old days of this blog, when Liane’s house had a chimney and a turbine?

The chimney had been used to exhaust the 6 pieces of combustion equipment in the basement, and the turbine vented the roof.

Through some pretty heroic and graceful efforts on the part of the Synergy crew, the chimney came down.

The roof area where the chimney had been was insulated with rigid foam, membraned, and re-shingled.

Remember the old hot water boiler, the forced hot air systems, and the DHW heaters?

Now the boiler is gone (with it's metal hopefully recycled) and the furnaces will be repurposed.

After the Phoenix arrived, the DHW tanks could go to their new home with the electrician as well. Now it's easier to walk around the basement without the overhead ductwork.

Here is the old chimney shaft--now turned into a new chase.

Looking up the shaft of the new chase.

Looking from the interior of an adjacent chase at the grille through which forced hot air used to come into Liane’s bedroom..

3rd floor access panel to new chase.

Looking down the new attic chase where the chimney had been.

Calvin reaching down into a new vent opening through the roof, located on the other side of the ridge so as not to interfere with the solar hot water panels which will be installed on the dormer roof.

Calvin installing the boot for the new vent through the super-insulated, "hot” roof.

HVAC

Holistic Design / Laura Catanzaro — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 01:17:36 +0000

After much mulling over with our mechanical consultant, we decided it would be best to remove the forced hot air systems in Liane’s house, and go with an all hydronic system. The first thing the plumbers (FAI) needed to do was to remove the leaky oversized ducts, which also made it possible to walk around the basement without hitting one’s head. The sheetmetal was eventually picked up for recycling. Below is the old 2nd floor return duct which had been located inside the 1st floor hallway at the back door. No wonder the 2nd floor could never get proper air mixing and balancing. The next thing was to decide what to do with 1 old hydronic boiler, 2 forced hot air furnaces that made a racket and blew dry hot air most unpleasantly–and 3 not-so-efficient domestic hot water heaters? Well, we gave them to the electrician (except for the ancient boiler). This way they could be repurposed for the electrician’s shop use, and Liane could go with a very efficient, quiet, hydronic, combined space heating and dhw system. The system we selected with the help of our mechanical consultant, was a Heat Transfer product called the Phoenix Evolution–a combined space heating, and domestic hot water–modulating, condensing unit. It is compact and very energy efficient, and can be easily integrated with solar hot water panels, which Liane would like to install in the next phase of this project, perhaps next year. There are some good tax credits for solar at this time.

Here is the Phoenix arriving.
Here it is out of it’s packaging–it’s pretty small, but pretty smart. One of those protruding boxes is a computer, and the other has rather elegant plumbing.

The Phoenix does weigh something though, and here it is being slid carefully through the basement bulkhead.

Rick, from Synergy was helping out with bringing the Phoenix to the basement, and he is at the base of the bulkhead steps in this image.

Once inside, it is positioned near a basement window through which it will vent and receive combustion air.

Now John and Bobby, the plumbers from FAI can start getting to work, to get all the domestic hot water switched over to the Phoenix.

Next, John from Boudreau Electric wires up what's necessary.

The supplier's representative and John look over the installation.

Resuming the Blog

Holistic Design / Laura Catanzaro — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 23:12:00 +0000

Okay, the time has finally come to resume this blog. The end of the summer came and went, with vacation breaks for most of us working on this DER. Our wonderful intern Natalia returned to her architectural studies, and we have been working mostly on the interior of Liane’s house this past month. We are not promising regular blog entries (since we are not as young as Natalia) but we will keep you posted as we can. Thanks so much Natalia, for all your documentation help this summer—we miss your energy, capacity, and enthusiasm. So, what’s been happening at Liane’s place? To pick up where we left off—the back entry stair and landing–here’s what it used to look like. It sucked up moisture and the landing area had begun to rot the sill of the house.
After much demo, debris removal, and digging out of rocks, this is the back entry area without the old, moisture absorbing, concrete stair. And here is the new wood stair, turned into a mini back porch–just about complete–with a nice shed roof to shed the rain.