Energy efficiency vs marriage
I’ve received a few comments about why we did this or didn’t do that and how could we make the building science mistakes we’ve made (when I clearly know better). Unfortunately life isn’t always so simple.
I also know two others who’ve faced this same issue and I’m sure there are more so thought I’d share.
We planned to build a very energy efficient home, somewhere between passivehaus (PHI) and PGH though likely short of PHI and closer to PGH. This was my number two priority for our new house, second only to Health/IAQ.
This was not entirely new to me. When we built our current house in 1987 we included numerous things that at the time where considered quite progressive. We foamed the rim joists, wall to roof junctions and other bits. The interior vapor barrier (this was 1987) was taped at all seams, around all electrical boxes and plumbing bits. Wire entries in electrical boxes were foamed. We had considerable extra insulation blown in our attic. Structurally we built to what was then called Code+ so we also had larger floor and roof joists than code, plywood sheathing, etc.
Finally, we ran a full day of blower door tests (it was handy having Minneapolis Blower Door just a few miles away). Not only CFM50/ACH50 but I wanted to know how much numerous things pulled so we turned the water heater back on to measure it, then the furnace, bath fans, clothes dryer, central vacuum and built fires in our fireplaces (a roaring fire was pulling just over 1100 CFM!).
So going in to this new project in 2013 I was somewhat familiar with energy efficiency, IAQ and building science. Far from an expert but ‘knowledgeable enough to know better’. I’d also followed GBA since its inception.
We were not able to find an energy architect that had built anything close to the very traditional 200-year-old aesthetic we wanted so we decided to go with a team approach. The architect we wanted to use was not strong on the energy side but agreed to our plan of hiring a good building science architect and expressed excitement about learning more about this.
Our first energy architect was extremely good on the energy side. He’d worked with Wolfgang Feist, has designed numerous PHI homes and retrofits, and was enthusiastic about our project. He quickly proved a bit too rigid though (anything less than full on PHI was a real struggle for him) and other team members asked that we not continue with him which we agreed with.
Our second was the charm – Rachel Wagner of Wagner-Zaun. She’s well regarded in the energy and building science world, understood and even agreed with our design choices from an aesthetic and lifestyle standpoint, and is super fun to hang out with.
All went well for the first several months. Further in to the project however, our architect choked on the wall (and roof) structures that Rachel suggested – standard 2×6 w/ exterior foam. They said that they would not sign off on them and Rachel could not sign off on plans done by another architect.
To give a sense of one key meeting. Our architect had agreed to this over a year prior and were now reneging on that agreement which itself did not sit well with me aside from energy/sustainability issues. This both due to the money already spent on their and Rachel’s time to achieve an energy efficient home and the integrity issues this raised.
My wife loves the houses designed by this architect (as do I), had not been able to find another architect she liked as much, and kind of sided with them during this meeting to get me to give up my desire for an energy efficient home. To put it mildly this put a significant strain on our relationship (and quite frankly that meeting and the hours following still leaves a huge knot in my stomach).
In hindsight I think that my wife and our architects did not fully grasp just how important energy efficiency, environmental issues and other related bits are to me and have been throughout much of my life. I know someone will want to say that we must not have a very good marriage if she didn’t know that but I know that in even the best and strongest marriages there are many areas that we don’t fully grasp about our spouses. Two of my best friends are psychologists who do marital counseling and we’ve talked about this dozens and dozens of times. None of us is perfect and none of us are able to really fully know our spouse no matter how much we might want to.
My wife and marriage are far more important to me than energy efficiency or holding an architect accountable for their prior agreement so if that was what had to happen then that’s life. It hurt, a lot, but was not worth damaging my marriage over.
我们看看在瑞秋作为原则architect but her designs lean a bit contemporary for my wife’s tastes and she was concerned that the house might end up too contemporary even if Rachel focused on keeping it traditional. As well, our principle architect refused to work as the ‘design architect’ with someone else as principle.
We searched for another architect who could satisfy aesthetic and energy requirements but at the time were unable to locate one.
So… The result was dropping energy efficiency (and improved building science in general), and largely trusting our architect and builder on these. Our architect actually drew up a new contract that specifically prohibited energy efficiency being a component of the design.
Our builder stated that, while not to the PGH or better level I desired, his houses were much more energy efficient and with better building science than average. So this became our direction and we moved forward.
In this aspect the construction process has been quite painful and draining. I see so many things that I know aren’t done the way they should be and could easily have been done correctly. Studs and jacks that I know will be huge thermal bridging issues (and made worse since so many are bright red along their edges so stood out against the sheathing almost like they were screaming at me that they were there and ready to suck energy out of hour home) and that should have insulation outside of them.
The ERV’s tied in to return ducts when they should be sending fresh air to bedrooms (and they should be pulling stale air from baths or other places). Roof trusses telegraphing through snow within 24 hours of every snow event because they were insulated so poorly and I know are leaking air. A loft (finished attic) that is massively bigger than it needs to be and is open to below. A bit of the porch that intrudes in to what should be a clean rectangular and more energy efficient box.
And on and on.
I sometimes think that it was irresponsible of me to have proceeded like this and think that we should have worked harder to find another way and create a more energy efficient home like we’d planned. But my marriage and family is intact and strong and that’s much more important.
All in all it would have been very helpful to have had a much stronger building code. I cannot express how draining it is to continuously fight the ‘it meets code’ mantra (along with the ‘this is the way we’ve always done it’ mantra). And then to have roof insulation that does not do what it is intended to do (and very easily could have) and that clearly does not even meet code be proclaimed OK by the state’s top code and energy person.
在这观点总是重要的,s process I’ve had to continuously remind myself that my marriage is far more important than the poor building science we’re paying a gob of money for. And that will continue for years to come – every time I’m reminded of how our house was built and how it should have been built.
So this post is more statement than question but I’d welcome others thoughts and experiences. Criticism of my wife or marriage for not being as energy efficient as I’d like to have been are however not welcomed.
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Replies
I wouldn’t blame your wife here at all. She wants the house to look a certain way because that’s what is important to her. That’s a legitimate point when building a new home. You want it to be energy efficient because that’s what’s important to you. The architects job is to meld these desires into a practical structure.
Your architect is an arrogant a**. I’ve run into this many times before in my work as a consulting engineer. I have had to overrule architects many times. I like to jokingly say “architects and engineers don’t always get along because the architect says “it will be beautiful!” And then the engineer says “forget it, we can’t build it”. Architects are closer to being artists than they are to being engineers. Their job is to be creative and to build interesting and appealing structures. I don’t fault them for this, we all contribute to the projects in different ways. The job of engineers is to apply physics and make things that are practical, affordable, safe, etc. engineers are closer to physicists and builders than they are to artists, and our job is to be practical.
Your architect should have recognized what was important to you and accept that an outside specialist would have to be called in to meet your needs. Your architect was probably too afraid of looking like he didn’t know something than he was in working to design your perfect home. For me, this is unacceptable. To specifically write out of a contract one of your specific project requirements is unthinkable here since your requirement is an entirely reasonable one!
I would probably have had the architect draw up a floor plan and exterior architectural details, pay for the plans, and parted ways. I would have taken those plans to my chosen energy efficiency specialist and had them work with my general contractor to get things done, with the original design architect no longer involved with the project.
I’m sorry you had this experience with your project. It’s not supposed to be this way.
Bill
Your struggle is all too familiar. You mention some of the roadblocks to an efficient house - "meets code" and "we've always done it this way". I worked on a citizen group to try to improve the efficiency of homes in our city. We were stymied by realtors, who run the city council, and by the local Builder's Association. And my efforts to improve the efficiency of my own home have run into similar roadblocks. In the end, I've chosen to live my life rather than making the efficiency of the house my life. It's a bitter choice, however. Daily.
The important part is that you got a much better than code home, all the small details aside your house is much more energy efficient than most new builds.
My sister working through a renovation and I can see she has similar challenges. Being stuck in the middle between the architect, the builder and family is very challenging. Lot of decision get made not because they are the lowest cost or the most energy efficient but because it is simpler or sometime it is just not worth it to fight.
I can relate to some of this, not the marriage part.
I wanted to build a conditioned crawl but when the county plans examiner basically attacked me for it, I threw my hands in the air. Fine, I'll do it "how it's always done around here".
And after they go away, you can do it the way you wanted. Unfortunately, the OP is stuck with what he has. However, "happy wife, happy life", sorta.
That's my approach to building closed, conditioned crawls. Build a vented and poorly insulated crawl first. After the CO is issued, go back and seal it up and insulate it properly. We just can't fight 500 different city halls.
I will be sharing the OP's dilemma on my next build. Same issues of efficiency vs. marriage. My wife is the designer and wants gigantic walls of glass and a fireplace in every room. At least that's how I see her goals, anyhow. She says I want to live in a cave. Maybe we're both right. I hope we can peacefully meet in the middle. It's so much harder to design things for yourself than it is for others.
W. Ramsay,
High performance building is in its nascent phase. Until things shake out, there are too many choices involved when you decide to build. Too many choices for everyone from the owner to plan examiners. Historically that's not the way things were. You built like everyone else did, and usually used a variant on how the surrounding houses looked.
这部分是我为什么支持能源requirements being mandated in codes. Hopefully over time, two or three building assemblies for each region will emerge as the dominant choices. Builders will be familiar with them, the proliferation of consultants will stop, and code complaint houses won't be seen as something to disparage - and hopefully there will be less conflicts with everyone involved.
Just curious, what was the architects rational about not using 2x6 stud wall with exterior foam insulation? 2x6 stud walls are common, and exterior foam is not unusual. Makes no sense to me at all.
Yeah, I don't see how this impacts the appearance of the house.
I can't tell from the original posting where you are on the build process.
Before you get all upset, have you done a Manual J? Have you done blower door testing? It's easy to assume that certain assemblies are inefficient but you won't know until you run the numbers.
If the build is underway you can add airtightness, and that's probably the biggest thing. At a certain point you have to be able to say to the builder, "this is my house, I'm going to live in it and I'm willing to pay to have it the way I want."
This is not the forum for marital advice, but there might be a way to communicate to your wife that living the rest of your lives together in a house that causes resentment to well up in you every time you cross the threshold is not in anyone's interest.