Olympia Master Builders Annual Tour of Homes

Save the date: August 20 & 21 and 27 & 28

UPDATE: TOUR GUIDES AVAILABLE TODAY AUGUST 18TH!

Look for insert in the Olympian newspaper, or swing by Olympia Master Builders (1211 State Ave, Olympia, Wa) to pick up a copy.

We’re excited to report we’ll have two of our new Passive Houses on the tour this year! Look for the North Project, and the Jewel Box.

And because we appreciate all the fine folks who come from far and wide to visit us on the Tour, we will have a drawing for a brand new ipod NANO! Enter to win at either of our tour sites.

.We look forward to seeing you there!!

The balance of the day held juicy discussions about how to manage moisture in a PH, the systems from water to air handling, details on energy modeling,  building efficiency trends, PH initiatives, and current projects show and tell. Artisans Group was there to present and answer questions on two of our current Passive House projects (North and The Jewel Box). Following the conference, we hosted a small tour through the homes for attendees.

There are around 300 or so Certified Passive House Consultants in the U.S., a growing number, but not too many yet. These events are a critical playground for many of us to get together and compare notes, and share successes and failures, there is no question the Passive House movement is moving… at a fast rate! It’s very affirming to be in a room with so many great people with capable minds focusing on a common goal and be willing to work together toward the success for the greater global community.

Being a pioneer is not always smooth or easy, but this dedicated group is the real thing. We’re glad to be part of it.

The Artisans Group will have two of our latest Passive House projects on the tour. Look for the “North” house, a modest-contemporary with modern overtones, this  Eastside Olympia  house was made for big living by a small family, and “The Jewel Box”, an exquisite Budd Inlet waterfront home created for an artist client with fine taste. With neo-mid-century styling, this little gem always pleases!

We hope to see you there!

PHnw 2011 Spring Regional Meeting

Posted on Feb 13th, 2011

On Saturday, Randy presented his PH payback modeling spreadsheet at one of the sessions; he had tremendous feedback from the audience. The spreadsheet allows a PH consultant to easily represent the payback period to upgrade to a PH from a typical home. Because the math involved in conveying this information is otherwise complex and off-putting, Randy rendered it into a graphical representation that is easy to appreciate by all parties. This is especially great for the homeowner because it helps them to make informed decisions about choosing PH; when they see the payback is often under 10 years and their monthly utility bill is down by 75% or more, PH sells itself. And that makes our jobs so much easier! [click here to read an earlier post about this spreadsheet]

Another highlight of the conference was  to listen to  two legendary powerhouse physicists,  Amory Lovins, green energy guru and Dr. Wolfgang Feist, founder of PH,  share the podium to convey their thoughts and insights on Passive House and the future.

With the numbers of PH consultants on the rise (15 in 2008 to 200 this year), there are many PH projects in the works nationally, which were the subject of many presentations. We were particularly impressed with the Habitat  for Humanity prefab PH projects on the east coast. The idea of affordable and deeply energy efficient has been theoretical until now. Very exciting times in the building industry.

We toured several PH projects in the Portland area on the last day of the conference. That was a wonderful opportunity to see the different assemblies designers are coming up with. Because Passive House is not prescriptive, the ‘roads to get there’ are varied. We saw traditionally designed homes to modern, we even toured a remodeled home, quite impressive!

I must say, after three days with all these fine folks, it was the best conference I’ve ever attended. The information was timely, critical and stimulating, at the end of the three days, I was exhausted and super-charged by the people involved and the subject matter. There is an interesting and distinct willingness of PH industry folks to share their knowledge freely about lessons learned.  The personality of the PH movement feels very healthy and cooperative, everyone seems to work and play well together despite the perception of ‘competition’; I’ve heard people comment several times, “there’s plenty for everyone”. This open source approach creates a strong sense of team-work, a very compelling and inviting way to propel a revolutionary movement forward!

Lastly and most importantly, a warm thank you to the hard-working folks at PHIUS who created this opportunity for all of us.

Passive House Homeowners

PH Living Room

Amory Lovins

Dr. Wolfgang Feist-Founder of PH

Portland PH-under construction

PH Modern Kitchen

Suppertime PH fun!

One listener wrote in to NPR with concerns about justifying the unusually low cost to upgrade to a Passive House. Our illustrious Randy Foster wrote a note back to the listener addressing her concerns:

[Question-Comment from Listener]

Hi KUOW:
Really interesting short segment on a new home being constructed in Olympia, WA. I found the information provided by the designer of the home rather remarkable because the cost of construction was said by her to exceed “Code Built” homes by only about 10%.

My question: Was she accurate in her statements? I really am having problems with such “news” because it simply does not ring true! Did you preview her story’s content prior to broadcast?
Listener

[Response from Randy Foster, founding-owner of The Artisans Group]

Dear Listener,

Thanks so much for posting your questions!  Tessa Smith and I own The Artisans Group, the firm that has designed and is building the home you asked about.  We really enjoy an open dialogue with people that are interested in what we are doing.  We specialize in the design and construction of homes that meet the Passive House standard.  A Passive House is more comfortable than a typical home, and heating one requires only 10% of the energy that is used to heat a typical home.

Here is a summary of some real numbers, taken from the construction estimate for another Passive House that is currently under development here at The Artisans Group.  The numbers support that a Passive House can be built at a modest increase in the cost of a typical home:

I am not surprised to hear that the comments made by Tessa during the  program “do not ring true” for you.  It is a historical fact that the home building industry has spent many years developing and building “green homes” that utilize expensive and complex systems in an effort to increase the efficiency of a home.  Ground-source heat pumps, radiant floors, and other technologies can add substantially to the cost of a home – very much more than the number used for the cost of a typical heating system in the example above.  Even worse, mechanical components wear out and fail over time, so their cost is a recurring expense.  Part the beauty of a Passive House is its simplicity – an exceptional building envelope requires little or no maintenance to keep it working.

It is important to add that one cannot simply increase their insulation budget, etc. and be assured of creating a super-energy-efficient home that will performs well.  A successful Passive House is created by a qualified design and construction team.  Energy modeling tools that have taken many years to develop, and which require a considerable amount of study to understand and to implement, are used during the design process.  The field team needs to fully understand the details of the design, and testing should be performed while the home is under construction to verify that the structure is performing as required.

Please offer any comments or questions that you may have!

Randy Foster
www.artisansgroup.com

We were on the front page of the Olympian a couple days ago with one of our current Passive House projects.Very nice article written by John Dodge, who was contacted by DT North, the homeowner! It’s very cool that the homeowners are so engaged in their project; this is a fun way to design and build smart homes!

The article is reprinted below and here is a link to the Olympian article.

High-efficiency home under construction in Olympia

OLYMPIA A home without a central heating system that’s designed to reduce home heating costs by 75 percent or more is under construction on Marion Street.

By JOHN DODGE

The Olympian

We’re pretty excited that Passive House is getting this exposure. It’s such a perfect approach to building homes in our region and it’s particularly exciting to think that building this way could have mainstream appeal. Finally.

Listen to the segment here![audio:http://artisansgroup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Tessa-on-KOUW-09-23-102.mp3|titles=NPR Interview with The Artisans Group- 9.23.10]

1 : Imagine a house that uses less energy than a hairdryer to heat it… it’s true, this is that house. This is an exciting new project that we recently broke ground on. It’s a new custom ultra energy efficient Passive House located  in the Northeast neighborhood of Olympia. This is the first of it’s kind in South Puget Sound and only the second in all of Washington State.

For more details of the project or to read about what the Passive House Standard is, see the project blog [here]. Location: 1114 Marion Street, Olympia WA 98506.  Go to map.

2 : Lovely brand new custom home designed by The Artisans Group for Laupen Homes. This simply elegant home is an absolute delight! Built Green Level 5, this home has an unequaled uniqueness that must be seen. Unexpected and whimsical design belies the serious approach to site integration and energy performance.  Located at:  10621 Katieann Lane SE in Olympia

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3 : New custom home designed by The Artisans Group for Laupen Homes. It boasts a high energy efficiency rating of  Built Green Level 5 and even higher LEED Silver rating, the first in Olympia. The homeowners desired a beautiful blend of PNW meets Mediterranean, it really hits that mark. This home is truly custom in every way, no details were left behind as the homeowners knew exactly what they wanted.

You can easily see this home from the first round-about on the west-side of the 4th Avenue Bridge; it’s just up the hill at 123 West Bay Drive.

The House that Saved the World is a thirteen part production featuring  Eco-Home Builders that are breaking the trail for sustainable buildings.

The production will feature the different phases of project development and critical stages of construction on these integrated energy efficient homes. The owners, designers, craftsmen and crew will share their challenges and triumphs as construction moves along.

For those of you that have been following our blogs, you’ll recognize Dan

Whitmore’s house as one of the homes featured in the production.

I can’t determine what the distribution of this program will look like or when, but here is a link to the site which also has contact information: The House that Saved the World.