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HARBROOK's Energy Efficient Windows and Doors by Marvin provided for new non-fossil fuel Queesnbury project
HARBROOK Fine Windows, Doors & Hardware provides energy efficient Marvin Windows & Doors for Talk-By-Design’s new home project, which will be heated by non-fossil fuel sources. Travis Kline from TBD says the project’s plan will be for a net-zero energy building in two years.
Standing admidst a network of ducts, pumps and pipes, Travis Kline of Talk-By-Design explains the levels of green tecnology used to heat and cool a home he designed and is building in Queensbury, NY. Photo by Aaron Eisenhauer, PostStar.
NEW HOME TO BE HEATED BY NON FOSSIL FUEL SOURCES
Reprinted from the Post Star:
QUEENSBURY -- Heat from the sun and the Earth will serve as the heating system in one new Queensbury home.
Builder and architect Travis Kline's goal is to show that a large timber-frame home can efficiently run on an alternative energy system, and not look like a "space age" structure.
"I'm a proponent that design can help determine how people live," Kline said.
Kline and a crew of 16 are building a home off Shallow Creek Road, which will use solar and geothermal energy rather than a fossil fuel powered furnace. The plan within the next two years is for it to be a net-zero energy building, which means it will have zero net energy consumption and carbon emissions annually.
The house has 82 windows, and eaves that are designed to maximize winter sun and minimize summer sun.
Because the house's power source comes from both solar and geothermal, several components are being used at the same time and are run by a sophisticated computer system.
The desired temperature is set, and the computer system regulates all the heating components so the house stays at that temperature.
The radiant heating system heats the house with a series of tubing within the floors that heated water runs through.
The house has three mechanical rooms. The geothermal system pulls the stable heat from the ground into the house via a loop, which is then sent through the house's radiant heating system once it reaches the set temperature. There's also radiant tubing in the south-facing solarium in the back of the house. The sun beats on the floor through windows in the solarium and on a sunny day, the heating system can bypass the geothermal and the radiant tubing in the floor of the solarium can run heat through the house.
Through the solarium, hot air can also be captured and put into a large sand bank at the house.
Because it accepts heat faster than it releases heat, the sand bank can charge during the warmth of summer and early fall, acting like a "hot air battery," Kline said.
There will be eight solar panels put on one side of the roof this year, and once an additional 20-or-so panels are put on over the next several years, the house will be a net-zero building in terms of energy consumption and emissions.
Temperature swings in the house shouldn't be more than 4 to 6 degrees throughout the year, he said.
The house does not have a fossil fuel powered furnace, but there's a propane backup system that might be used in an "end of the world, no sun in weeks scenario," Kline said.
A "carriage house," a separate structure from the rest of the house that will act in part as a garage, will be off-the-grid using solar thermal energy.
All of the major rooms in the home face south, and the house is designed so that rooms that are retired to later in the day, such as a master bedroom and a craft room, get the later-day sun, and an upstairs plant shelf will house plants that are known for purifying the air.
Kline has sourced as many materials locally as possible, using some of the wood from the 60 trees that were taken down around the property for building.
The house has generated a lot of attention: it's being sponsored in part by Hearthstone Timber Frame, and will be a National Showcase home. An open house will be held there later in the year, Kline will give lectures about its sustainable design at colleges, and WNCE-Look TV in Glens Falls is doing a video documentary on the building process, Kline said.
The home is meant to be the "retirement home" for Kline's parents, Sherry and Dr. Roy Kline, a Glens Falls optometrist. The home itself is grand - Kline's parents didn't want any of their four children to ever feel like they needed to stay at a hotel while visiting, but it was more than they were expecting, Kline said.
"They weren't necessarily looking for something this big," he said of his parents. "They think I'm crazy."