[V8] Electric and Hydrogen Power

[Mike Arman]

NAC, sorry.


Regarding low-enviromental-footprint homes, we've just finished building a mother-in-law/guest 
cottage on our lot here in Florida. Single story, 864 square feet, 2 br 1 ba.

This was a clean sheet of paper operation from day one, I was the contractor, and I used to be a 
slumlord so I know lots of ways NOT to build houses.

We decided to go with a "90%" solution - the problem with absolute state of the art 100% perfection, 
total energy independence, 100% self contained, zero environmental impact structures is that they 
are incredibly expensive. Additionally, the vendors tend to go out of business since no one can 
afford their products. University of wherever builds a 1,000 square foot house to state of the art - 
and it costs $2,000,000! Neat technology demonstrator, but commercially impossible.

Here's what we did:

Foundation was a standard reinforced concrete slab on grade. We added a 1/2" thick foam pad 
underneath it before the concrete was poured, faced both sides with vapor barrier, R value about 10. 
Additional cost was about $350. This "floats" the pad thermally on the ground.

The walls (and ceilings) are made of 4" thick styrofoam which has metal channels embedded in it when 
the panels are foamed. There is a thermal break in the channels. The walls are R-35. The panels are 
quite light and go up easily and quickly. The metal (in fact ALL the metal in the structure) is 
galvanized, so as all Audi owners know (Audi content!!!), it won't rust.

Roof trusses are 24" OC, steel scissors trusses. The roof underlayment (what is usually plywood or 
OSB) is 24 gauge galvanized "ripple plate", 3' wide by 10' long, the edges look like a Pringle chip, 
these panels are screwed to the trusses. Next is a layer of polymer "Titanium" which replaces the 
usual tar paper. Tar paper burns, this stuff doesn't. (We also checked the styrofoam wall material, 
it won't support combustion - take away the flame and it goes out.)

The roof is a steel standing seam roof in light grey with an IR reflective coating. In the direct 
sunlight, it only gets barely warm. This is pretty much a standard product nowadays, so no real 
extra cost. Air space plus clerestory for ventilation of the space between the top of the ceilings 
and lower surface of the roof structure. Vented eaves as well.

The price for the house package (walls, trusses, ripple plates, roof) was about $24,000 delivered, 
arrived on a truck and we rented a crane to unload it. It isn't very heavy, but it is too much for 
two or three people to do safely by hand.

Windows are double pane argon filled low E from Lowes. These cost about $170 each. You can put your 
hand on the windows in the full, hot, direct afternoon sunlight, and the inside glass isn't even 
warm. Exterior doors are fiberglass, steel sheathed.

We used inorganic wallboard which costs about 30% more than standard wallboard - but it doesn't rot 
or get moldy or fall apart if it gets wet. We didn't have the house completely closed and a major 
storm came through and we had 2" of water in the bedrooms - just swept it out, no damage at all!

Back to the walls - the structure is wrapped in Tyvek (vapor barrier) and then there is a 1/2" air 
space. The entire exterior of the house is faced with 4" thick split face concrete block, tied to 
the structure at EVERY block with a stainless tie strap. The blocks are beige, and don't get 
particularly warm in the sun either. It will be sprayed with a clear silicone water-repellent 
sealant in a month or so when it is done curing.

We calculated the heating/cooling load at 1/2 ton for the entire structure - but the *smallest* heat 
pump we could buy was two tons. We will see how that works out (we are moving in about 30 days from 
now). I think I'm going to be very cold in the summer . . . dear bride loves her air conditioning!

We have a very well insulated, extremely solid structure (rated 140 mph winds) which absolutely 
won't burn - the only wood in the building is the kitchen cabinets and the interior doors - and it 
probably cost about 25% more to build than a conventional block/wood trusses/shingles house. Upkeep, 
however, is expected to be close to zero, and it looks like my idea of heating it with a candle and 
cooling it with an ice cube is going to work.

We expect the heating and cooling bills to be very, very low - that, plus very low maintenance was 
what we were trying to achieve.

This was a 90% solution - we did 90% of all the "good things" to make a house that isn't a utility 
hog or maintenance hog. Getting to that 90% cost us perhaps 25% more than a standard house, so we do 
get a payback pretty quickly. Going to 100% state of the art would have quadrupled (or worse) the 
cost of the house, and that last 10% won't break even in my lifetime.

Incidentally, we pay all of $500 a year for hurricane insurance - in coastal Florida! We did 
incorporate quite a few wind mitigation items in the construction - lots of extra screws (there are 
no nails!), extra bracing, extra tie straps, etc. These are very easy to incorporate when the 
structure is being built, but practically impossible to retrofit on an existing structure. Normally, 
insurance for a structure with this value is about $1,750 a year, so we are saving $100 a month, 
$1,250 a year, every year, forever, just on the insurance.

There's also no mortgage - we did this "pay as you go". (How un-American!!!)

A *few* pix if you want them - the pix are about 1 MB each, we have about 300!

Best Regards,

Mike Arman
90V8Q