Energy Efficient Homes
tailored to your budget.
Blog: Projects
Living in Their New Passive House
The North family recently moved into their new Passive House! A long awaited, big day for them.
We haven’t done a formal photo shoot yet, but I’ll post a few snaps to give you an idea of the family’s cool style and of...
Posted on May 25, 2011
First Passive House Prefab Panel Success!
We’re excited to report a huge success this week with the installation of our first prefabricated wall sections for an ultra energy efficient modest custom Passive House (PH) here in Olympia. This is the first PH project we’ve done where we pre-assembled...
Posted on April 05, 2011
Siding for the Jewel Box
I’ve been sorely remiss in posting about the beautiful little Jewel Box project; it’s hard to believe we have the garage nearly built and rolled the trusses on the main house this past week! It’s...
Posted on January 11, 2011
Another Cool Passive House
We’ve been so busy around here lately that I haven’t introduced you to another really fun project we have in the works, The JEWEL BOX-Freas Residence . This unpretentious mid-century modern Passive House sits on a low bluff overlooking Budd Inlet, in...
Posted on October 25, 2010
Energy Performance Monitoring
Some of you are curious to know how our Passive Houses (PH) will perform over time and how accurate the PHPP modeling software really is for predicting continued performance. Well, we’re curious too… but, being so intrinsically aware of how the whole...
Posted on October 21, 2010
Judges Choice Best Green Features
The Tour of Homes is behind us and I can say it was the most fun we’ve ever had in 13 years of participation! We were fortunate to have good weather (yes, it rained a bit, but it wasn’t cold). The home...
Posted on October 15, 2010
Comfortable Vaulted Rooms
We’ve had several inquiries during the recent Tour of Homes about the 17’ vaulted ceiling in our featured home. Mainly the question was about heat being captured in the vault leaving the lower areas cooler and less comfortable.
Read on to learn about...
Posted on October 14, 2010
Passive House and SIPs
Thanks to a recent reader comment, we’ve taken the time to address the question (one we often get) about structural insulated panels (SIP) and why we don’t use them. Read on if you are curious.
Comment from reader:
From...
Posted on October 05, 2010
Passive House: Homeowner Interview
I recently caught up with DT North to interview him about his experience so far in building the second Passive House in Washington State:
Describe the home project you are involved with at...
Posted on October 01, 2010
Cost to Upgrade to Passive House
Not a big surprise, we received some juicy emails as a result of the front page article in the Olympian and the interview on NPR station KUOW last week.
One listener wrote in to NPR with...
Posted on September 28, 2010