Net Zero Energy Homes: Bilyeu Passive House
| Author: |
Jacob Dunn |
| Published: |
April 1, 2011 - Download |
| Description: |
This custom home was designed and built by Bilyeu Homes for Sarah Evans and Stuart Rue. The project is located 40 miles south of Portland, Oregon in the town of Salem. The project resides within a 1920’s neighborhood close to downtown, something the owners desired so they could bike to and from work. The home began its conception in 2009 and was recently finished in July of 2010. The house attempted to attain a healthy, durable, and high performance home that fit the needs of a growing family while satisfying the rigorous Passive House energy standards. The client also prioritized the cost effectiveness of the energy efficiency measures and after a cost benefit analysis between investing in active renewable energy or passive shell and systems design, the decision was made to forego photovoltaic panels. The house is wired and set up to install a photovoltaic array if desired in the future, but the home mainly focused on reducing the loads and energy consumption of the house to an absolute minimum. According to the energy model, a 3 kW PV array is the estimated amount of generation capacity required to meet net zero for the home. All components of the house were designed to be readily understandable by the trades in terms of constructability and installation, but contain slight modifications to reach maximum performance. |