Category: Blog – All Articles

There’s a little taste of Europe coming out of northwest Kansas and it comes in the form of fenestration! Advantage Architectural Woodwork (AAW) is a friend of ours here at AE Building Systems and we love seeing the amazing windows and doors they create. Working with them is a unique opportunity to get superior design and superior products that many don’t even realize are right in our region!

Who is Advantage Architectural Woodwork?

AAW is a small, family-owned operation but they’re doing some really BIG things in the world of architecture. As one of the only American made sources for European fenestration products, they offer something that is often not seen in the United States. They produce some of the highest performing and highest quality windows and doors you can buy in the world today like lift/slide doors, tilt/turn windows, and swing doors. And it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump from us in Colorado! 

AAW is run by Bob Holloway who embraced a love for woodworking at age 14 and pursued it into college. After graduating with a degree in Wood Technology, he attended a workshop on European window and door design, which featured technology superior to anything commonly available in the United States. He brought this knowledge to his home and wood shop in Kansas. Bob and his team have partnered with Smartwin, a German company, and are now premier producers of the highest-performing wood and wood-clad windows and doors made to passive house standards you can find today.

Passive House Windows: Elevating Performance and Sustainability

While European-style fenestration can offer some really beautiful designs and sleek looks, the real beauty is found in the energy efficiency! AAW is on a mission to build awareness of the use of energy-efficient windows and doors to make an elevated and more sustainable living experience. All of this is in line with Passive House design, which is so common in Europe, and has just as many benefits here in the States. AAW’s products actually not only work to meet the standards, but also exceed the criteria required for low-energy building. 

Our team has had the pleasure of working with Advantage Architectural Woodwork on multiple occasions. We’ve worked with them on projects with Smithworks out of Crested Butte, Allen-Guerra Architecture out of Frisco, Design Build Steamboat, and Bauen Build out of Boulder. We love seeing sustainable, energy-efficient design in practice, especially on projects in our own region. 

Interested in learning how to incorporate these top-tier windows and doors in your next project? Talk to our team to learn more about your options and if working with the team over at AAW is a good option for you!

Get more from Advantage Architectural Woodwork:

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We learn from an early age how important walls are. From fables like The Three Little Pigs to building towers with our blocks, we learn pretty quickly how important the walls can be. As we get older, we don’t always think about these powerful structures in our daily life, but we sure are grateful when they do their job! In the world of Passive House design, the walls do an even bigger job and it’s why we think about walls a lot around here at the AE Building Systems team, especially when it comes to making sure they operate well! 

We pulled together our top rules of thumb for smart wall design that works FOR you and not against you in your goals to keep your home smart, sustainable, and standing for the long haul. 

1. Keep Air Out! Air carries moisture, so it’s a general rule to keep as much air out of the interior of your wall as possible. Air-tight design in wall assemblies helps protect walls from moisture and condensation building up inside the wall. As a result, you avoid a ton of headaches down the road! 
2. Walls should dry to the exterior. Anytime you can push moisture to go outside, do it! Get the vapor to dry to the exterior so that it can dry out and evaporate to the environment instead of inside the home. That’s because moisture moves to where it is dry and it is usually drier outside than it is inside. We cook, shower, breathe, etc. adding moisture to the interior of the home.
3. Continuous Insulation is your friend! Continuous insulation (CI) helps move the dew point outside of your wall assembly. Put the thicker insulation, or higher r-value insulation, closer to the exterior. Some continuous insulation is vapor closed so be aware of the consequences of CI. Most foam products are not vapor-open. Some low-density EPS has a small perm rating and mineral wool boards are a great option when using a thinner layer of continuous insulation. Mineral wool has a fairly significant perm rating. 
4. Consider the climate. In Colorado, where the climate is more dry, you can sometimes get away with drying to the interior if it’s necessary. This works better when we are not actively humidifying the space. 
5. Zip-R Perm Rating. Zip-R homes have a thinner insulation layer and it does not move the dew point out of the wall assembly in much colder climates like Colorado’s. Zip-R sheathing is a simple all-in-one structural panel with built-in exterior insulation with integrated moisture, air, and thermal protection. Zip-R is a somewhat newer product so the jury is still out on how these walls hold up. 

Do Walls Breathe? 

Rot, mold, and all sorts of fun stuff can build up when moisture gets inside our walls. As a result, air tightness is critical for your wall assembly and you can never get your walls too tight. Walls do not need to breathe. They need to be vapor open to allow moisture to escape. Not only that, but energy loss and interior comfort levels are directly affected by your wall construction. 

We actually can learn a lot from a cactus when it comes to moisture and wall assemblies. The cactus “skin” has essentially two perm ratings. The cactus absorbs vapor through its skin at night, and in the daytime when temperatures rise, that same skin prevents the moisture from escaping. The skin of the cactus allows moisture to migrate inward, but not outward.

SIGA has learned the answer to keeping walls dry by incorporating the unique characteristic of the skin of the cactus to collect and store water. In our buildings, we want the opposite to happen — prevent moisture from getting into our walls and allow it to migrate out. SIGA’s product, Majrex, does just that.

If you take these considerations into your wall construction, you’ll be going in the right direction. Of course, you can always geek out on this more and we love talking walls with our customers and partners! Talk to our team about how you can make your walls more tight and more effective!

In the Limelight with “Heart of a Building” & the Avenson Residence

Lights, camera, action! AE Building Systems got a glimpse of the limelight with Heart of a Building and one of our clients. We can’t tell you how excited we were to hear that our client, John Avenson’s home, is featured on the regional PBS show. Not only that, but our very own Todd Collins was interviewed for a small part of the show to talk about some of the work we contributed to the project and our passion for sustainable products and construction.

John Avenson has an extensive passion for sustainable construction that stems back to age 9 when a tour guide explained how the Colorado Indian Cliff Dwellings were dug on the side of the cliff to maximize the winter sun heating up the spaces. From then on, green building was a part of life for John. 

The Avenson Residence is a single-family, detached home built in the 1980’s, originally built as a research house by the Solar Energy Research Institute – now the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, CO. John actually contracted and built this home to surpass building codes of the time. Since then, Avenson has continued the work to make this home more sustainable, while also using it to educate others. Being part of Heart of a Building was a natural collaboration for John and this residence! 

AE’s Involvement:

Air tightness was a huge focus for this project. If air is getting into your walls, so is moisture, potentially causing mold, rot, and more. Air tightness is also critical to prevent energy loss. We provided SIGA products for the air barrier on the Avenson Residence, as well as Alpen Zenith 925 / 1025 windows. John was a fun client to work with because he gets into all these products just as much as we do! And, it’s a great honor for us to work on such an amazing home where energy efficiency was so important. 

More to Energy-Efficiency Explore!

John has been intentional every step of the way. The house includes a CERV to help manage and optimize his ventilation after making his home as airtight as possible. He  has continuous insulation made up of 6” to 8” of Polylso. He also utilizes a Rock Box for thermal energy storage. The Avenson Residence is full of Passive Solar approaches from the original build and also Passive House approaches from retrofit over time. Energy efficiency is literally at every turn and it’s fun to dive into all he’s put into this home. Not only that, but he’s also considered how his landscaping affects the energy loads on the home. He’s literally thought of everything! 

Want to get more about this amazing project? 

• Check out the Heart of a Building show. 

• Learn more about the Avenson Residence episode! 

• Watch Todd’s interview with Paul K from Heart of a Building! Airing in October 2024! 

If you are retrofitting your existing home to be more energy efficient, know that you have options! Some of our clients are building new homes from scratch, but more often than not, our clients are retrofitting an existing home. Energy efficiency is all about improvement. We can all improve a little bit with each project! Contact our team to learn more about the Avenson Residence and how you can design, construct, and retrofit your space to be more energy-efficient!

How to select the best windows based on operation type, performance data, and wall assembly

Not all windows and doors are created equally. So, it’s important to understand the needs for YOUR specific project. What works for one project won’t necessarily be optimal for another. Those of us who care a lot about building performance pay very close attention to this kind of thing because we know windows and doors are a huge weakness in the building envelope. However, most homeowners perk up when they think about high energy bills and the fact that their investment in high-performance windows and doors can make a big impact on those savings in the long run. Windows are the No. 1 source of heat loss in a new home, about three times higher than all air leaks of the house combined (including air leaks at the windows). Optimizing your window selection can be a big deal for any project! 

First – Optimize Your Glazing

Single, double, triple, or even quad pane … A couple of manufacturers have also experimented with 5 panes, exotic gasses, as well as Vacuum Insulated Glass Insulated Glazing Units (IGUs). Once you get into triple pane, depending on the gas, the depth of the overall IGU, and the spacers used to separate the panes of glass, the IGU will generally outperform most window and door frames and sashes. Single and double pane IGUs generally do not outperform window and door frames and sashes. While going to quad pane is an option and it performs better than triple pane, generally the best price/performance scenario is triple pane glass. However, quad pane can be necessary in situations where higher performance objectives are desired or required. 

Second – Optimize the number of windows, mulled units, and their orientation

The orientation of a building and the windows on each elevation will impact the performance of the overall building.  Incorporating larger windows instead of lots of smaller windows helps to minimize the frame material and as mentioned above, the IGU with triple pane glass will outperform the frames.  Often, simulated divided lites (SDL) are used to make windows and doors look like there are multiple small panes, but are just one large IGU. They are simulated muntins and ideally they do not have grids between the panes of glass. Those grids between the glass are generally thermal bridges. 

Optimize Your Window Type

Selecting the right style or type of window is vital as well. Different types have better overall performance compared to others. 

The most airtight window types:

• Casement
• In-swing and tilt-turn
• Hopper (inward tilting)
• Fixed (aka picture window) – * These are often cheaper with a better seal and better energy performance compared to any type of window that is operable. 

For doors:

• Swing doors with multipoint locking
• Lift-slide – sliding doors

Windows and doors that do not perform as well:

• Single- and double-hung windows
• Traditional horizontal sliders
• Pivot, bi-, and multifold, accordion, pass-through windows, etc.

Consider Your Location

A window or door’s location in the wall assembly can have a big impact on energy efficiency. For example, “outie” and “innie” installations place the window frame closer or farther to the elements and direct light (heat). Each of these placements have different finish details to consider related to how they sit within the wall assembly and the finish details should be something you think about upfront instead of as an afterthought. Also, a simple note around the direction of the wall you’re placing windows on can make a big difference. This feels fairly simple, but many designers get rolling with what looks good and forget they just loaded a west-facing wall with a ton of glass that causes tremendous overheating in the summer months. 

Digging Deeper

Emu has done a lot to evaluate windows and goes into a lot of detail around how to minimize energy loss. Most losses occur through the glass, window frame, and at the connection to the wall. Emu shares specific things you can do to optimize performance of your windows. They also cover Smartwin and Alpen windows for high-performance ratings. Looking to upgrade your windows and want to optimize a project for the long run? Contact us to learn more about Advantage Architectural Woodwork and their products. We love walking contractors and homeowners through the features and benefits, but more than that, we love discussing what will work best for YOUR specific project. We know not every window works in every situation, and we geek out over finding people the optimal window and door solution!

Retrofitting your existing home – replacement?  

You can reconfigure your current openings in ways you might not have considered.  One of our clients replaced their windows with fairly simple changes.  This client hadn’t opened a couple of their windows for years and we suggested that if they don’t expect to open them in the future, to make the more complex assemblies into a large single fixed unit to save money, improve performance, and improve their view.  They also changed a fixed unit into an operable one to improve the cross ventilation in their home. While they made other changes than just these, the results were exactly what they were looking for.  We also tuned the solar heat gain of the glass to reduce overheating and they were delighted with the end result. Making your home more “livable” is part of the deal.  

Other helpful resources by AE: 

Anatomy of a Window: Basics for High-Performance Windows

The Yeti is in the Details: Window Spacers

Options for Large Windows in High Wind Load Areas

How To Prevent Window Thermal Bridging

The Key Differences in Window & Door Design from Europe to the United States

Saying “buh-bye” to the gas line is a lofty dream for many of us as we work toward a more sustainable lifestyle. If you can go a more sustainable route, why wouldn’t you? However, the barriers to going all-electric can be a little daunting, especially if you’re new to the concept. The utility companies certainly haven’t made it any easier for homeowners, either. So, today, we want to share some of what we’ve learned along the way in our research and in the firsthand experience of AE Building System’s very own Todd Collins in his own home.

Your Three Main Options: 

As you consider cutting ties with your gas company, you have three main options to consider: 

1. Cap it at your home. When you cap it at the house, you will continue to pay a connection fee and other small fees to the utility company, because there’s still a connection in place. You may want to go this route if you are concerned that you may have a need for natural gas in your home in the future. An HVAC technician can cap things at your home for you, but keep in mind you may want to call and talk to your gas company to see what fees you can expect. 
2. Cap the gas and remove the meter. This option is where you not only cap off the connection at your house, but you also reach out to the utility company to cap the gas at the meter, and remove the meter entirely. Typically, you get a final connection bill and at least in Todd’s case, he never got a fee for the service to cap and remove the meter. In this situation, there is still technically a gas line to the house and if gas is needed in the future, you can have it reconnected fairly easily, but likely at a cost which is unknown. 
3. Cap lines and remove the gas line. This is the most invasive option, which includes digging up a gas line from the house to the street. This can be very expensive as you may need heavy equipment and also pay for labor to remove the line (one of our clients was quoted over $6,000 to get her gas line dug out!). People typically consider this option if they are worried about natural gas leaking into the ground and making its way into the atmosphere. While ridiculously expensive, this is also the most environmentally appropriate approach.

Collins Residence: Their Experience

If you’ve been following our blog, you know that Todd Collins and his family have been working for a long time to retrofit their tri-level home to be as sustainable as possible. They had already eliminated gas in the kitchen by switching to electric induction and convection cooking appliances. They had a big passion for lowering their carbon footprint, while improving the safety of their home with less gas. Gas cooktops can add significant hazardous pollutants to the indoor air. The added benefit of lowering monthly bills was also a nice perk in the process! 

After replacing their furnace and water heater with heat pumps that don’t rely on natural gas, they decided to cut ties with their gas lines a few months later. They went with the option to cap the gas at the house as well as remove the meter. In their experience with Xcel in Colorado, they were charged a final gas bill for usage months earlier when they capped the gas inside the house, but were not charged any fees for capping the gas outside the house and for removing the meter. That said, other utility companies may have fees, so it’s always good to ask some questions first. 

One thing that was interesting during the process, Todd’s HVAC person, Bill Lucas of GB3, got a permit with the City of Golden. When the inspector came out to make sure everything was installed to code, the inspector made the comment “Well, I guess you don’t need carbon monoxide detectors anymore.” That never occurred to Todd, but it is true. The risk of carbon monoxide poisoning due to gas combustion within the house was eliminated – another benefit. 

As we’ve seen firsthand with the Collins Residence, and heard through stories of our clients, cutting services with a utility company can come with surprise fees. We always recommend asking questions upfront about fees, timeline, and potential future fees down the road. Do your research upfront so you have fewer surprises in the process. We’ve also seen that this process is worth the effort: lower energy bills, healthier homes, and more sustainable energy usage! If you’re considering cutting ties with your gas line and want to chat more, we’re always happy to share more details or information we’ve learned along the way! 

Check out our other resources on this topic:

• Going Extinct: Saying Goodbye to Fossil Fuels and Hello to Net-Zero-Energy
• Goodbye Gas Line: How the Collins-Ruddy Residence Reduced Their Reliance on Natural Gas
• Grid Electrification in our Backyard: How Golden, Colorado is Raising the Bar for Sustainability

The Rose Residence is truly a beautiful bloom within the local community of Boulder, Colorado! This unique home was built with sustainability in mind from the bottom up. So much heart and soul has gone into the Rose Residence, and AE Building Systems was honored to support the team/homeowners with gorgeous high-performance windows to help cap off their project! 

The Rose Residence is a gem within the city limits of Boulder, boasting one of the few full-acre properties in their neighborhood. They are a young family with three boys, but they also embrace the hobby farm lifestyle with two Nigerian Dwarf goats, chickens, cat, large garden, berry patch, and amazing tree house. The garden and animals actually influenced some of their design decisions to situate the main house within the lot and give more privacy where it was desired. This home and studio was built with family in mind, but also the practicality of a home office and hobby farm life in mind, with tile floors, mudrooms, and plenty of space! The house was designed by Rose-Leigh Design and built by Blue Mountain Design + Build. The owner, Laura Rose, designed all of the exterior details and the interiors. 

Sustainable at the Heart

The Rose Family really felt a high-performance home was simply the right thing to do on a personal and environmental level. The house also boasts a wall assembly starting with SIGA Majvest and Wigluv on the sheathing for airtightness.  Next is 1.5” Rockwool Comfortboard, Delta Dry Stucco + Stone, diamond lath and finally concrete & limestone finish. While this design presented some challenging puzzles to incorporate Rockwool near the exterior, they were able to accomplish a truly unique AND high-performing wall assembly. The home requires very little heating! 

Along with these energy-conscious design decisions, the house includes a whole-house ERV tied to a heat pump air handler and a heat pump water heater. They have also invested in solar panels and a whole-house battery backup system to support their current home, which is already very air-tight and energy-efficient. 

High-Performance Makes Sense

High-performance windows from Alpen made perfect sense for this project and it was an honor to support this project. The windows filled a large space within the living room (5.5’x8’) and the homeowners wanted a solution that would support the energy efficiency that runs throughout the entire house. As a customer of AE Building Systems, they loved working with a local company, but also a local product! They liked that Alpen is produced locally, for environmental reasons, lead time, and turnaround time for any potential issues. Not only that, we were able to take them on a tour at Alpen and show them the process and features of the product they were purchasing! 

If you’re wanting to source high-performance windows, you’re in luck! We have local access to arguably the best price/performance window products out there. We’ll walk you through your options and can provide you with a tour of the Alpen facility in person! It’s a great way to get up close and personal while making your home the highest performer on the block! 

A little off the beaten path in Hastings Mesa, Colorado, you’ll find a residential gem amidst views of the San Juan mountains. Just about 30-40 miles outside of Telluride sits Hastings Mesa, and is the location of a recent project highlight our team at AE Building Systems had the pleasure of working with. BTB Construction and Consulting, led by Brad Wallis, was an integral part of the passive house design and pushed for sustainable building strategies on this project. The architect, Justin Wallis (Brad’s son), and the homeowners were also integral in making this home as energy efficient as possible. 

BTB Construction & Consulting’s Sustainable Approach

BTB Construction and Consulting has been designing and building Passive House-inspired custom homes in southwest Colorado for ten years. Brad has more than thirty years of experience building custom high-efficiency structures. When he found the Passive House design criteria, he was hooked. 

Brad is passionate about Passive House design and believes it’s the path forward for all new construction in both the micro and macro worldviews. Designing with energy efficiency as the primary goal from the start is the best methodology. It’s much easier to design with energy efficiency from the beginning. While retrofitting can be helpful, it’s often expensive and difficult to do (you can see one retrofit project that’s close to our hearts here at AE Building Systems).

In the past, building design in the United States was driven by the premise that energy is cheap and unlimited, both of which are false and unsustainable ideals. Brad asks any of his clients to read the book “Not So Big House” by Sarah Susanka before they begin designing the home. People should seek better energy design and reduced size in their homes to reflect their real needs, not as a status symbol for wealth. Brad hopes to get the whole team (contractor, architect, and homeowner) all on the same page about the direction before they dive in. 

“The best compliment I can get is when a client says their new home is warm, very comfortable, and feels like home from the first day.” – Brad Wallis

The Hastings Mesa Home 

The Hastings Mesa House is a mountain haven with 360-degree mountain views on 40 acres. Due to the regional needs, the homeowners were concerned about preserving and maintaining comfort. The wall assembly was designed with a double wall 2×4 framing to create a 12” deep wall cavity. The wall assembly was filled with a blended system of on-site foam, as well as netted high-density infill, which brings the walls to R-58. The house was also designed with large Alpen windows on south and east-facing elevations to maximize daylight and solar gain, while also maximizing the views. 

The house has an HRV system, which includes bathroom returns. They also have a recirculating range hood. BTB also utilized Siga Fentrim to help with air sealing. Radiant floor heat is a favorite of Brad’s, and the homeowners agreed! 

During construction, the project was delayed due to access in the winter season. The team finished the highly-insulated shell of the house before winter set in, but needed to keep the house at 50 degrees Farenheit to get through the winter. The propane heat system worked marvelously. By snowshoeing into the property, Brad and his team checked on the project periodically to ensure the heat was still running. They were pleasantly surprised to find that minimal propane was needed to actually keep the structure heated to the 50-degree temperature needed! The house’s insulation was performing so well that it was able to maintain this temperature relatively easily despite frigid winter temperatures ranging between 11-32 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the winter! 

The upfront cost to build with the Passive House approach was roughly 10-12% higher, but the homeowners can expect to recoup these additional costs within 6-7 years due to the energy savings. 

Passive House Design Works!

Whether you are building in the heart of the mountains, or you’re closer to foothills and plains, sustainable design IS within reach. Projects like this Hastings Mesa home are reminders that Passive House design works in extreme conditions, and can be done in a way that still truly makes a house feel like a home! 

If you are considering a new build or a retrofit, contact our team at AE Building Systems to learn more. We can walk you through air tightness and window and door options for your situation! 

One of our long-time product partners, Alpen High Performance Products (Alpen), has been making headlines recently, and we couldn’t be more excited! Alpen recently shared news of receiving a substantial grant of $5.8 million from the United States Department of Energy (DOE). This funding is part of a broader DOE initiative, allocating $275 million to seven companies to enhance domestic supply chains and expedite clean energy manufacturing. Alpen also announced they are welcoming a new CEO, Andrew Zech, as longtime leader Brad Begin moves to the chairman role. Both of these announcements signal new changes for the company as they make moves to grow and scale!

DOE Grant Recipient

This DOE grant is a testament to Alpen’s dedication to manufacturing high-performance windows and doors. They’ve worked steadily for years to provide the best in high-performance glass, so it’s refreshing to see them receive such a great honor in the form of this grant! The New York Times reported that the DOE’s program plans to distribute $275 million to seven projects in its initial round, with expectations of attracting approximately $600 million more in private investment. 

Alpen anticipates the creation of over a hundred new jobs as a result of this funding, providing enhanced opportunities for Alpen’s diverse workforce. Alpen also announced the opening of a new facility in Vandergrift, PA, to better serve the eastern half of the United States and allow for increased capacity. Alpen aims to continue leading the way in comfort, efficiency, and environmental sustainability.

The Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains’ (MESC) report indicates that Alpen’s production is expected to increase tenfold, generating well-paying jobs through investment in automation while significantly reducing customers’ energy consumption and heating/cooling costs.

“The capabilities unlocked by the DOE grant are staggering. It advances our goal of making the clean energy revolution a good thing for American communities and companies and jobs. The investment will create substantial job growth not just for Alpen but for other companies that supply Alpen.”

– Andrew Zech

About Alpen:

For over forty years, Alpen has been dedicated to transforming the built environment in the United States by designing cutting-edge windows, doors, and architectural glass. They build some of the most energy-efficient window and door products in North America and the world – AND they are right in our backyard. Alpen calls Louisville, CO, home and has provided a unique opportunity to the AE Building Systems’ customers and contractors. Their entire team has always been so supportive of our customers.

AE Building Systems & Alpen:

We’ve been proud partners of Alpen for over 10 years! With a true passion to provide top-of-the-line products and sustainable windows, Alpen was a natural choice for our team. With this new announcement, we’re thrilled to see how they grow and expand, making sustainable and energy-efficient windows even more accessible for our customers. 

If you have questions about your window options, our team would be happy to walk you through the possibilities and help you make the best-educated decision for your next project! Contact our team to walk through any questions or ideas you want to explore! 

A brief overview of the high-performance principles explored in 2023 reveals intriguing insights.

As we approach the year’s end, our data-driven curiosity led us to analyze the most resonant topics from AE blog posts. After scrutinizing our performance stats, we’ve identified the standout themes as the “hottest high-performance topics from 2023.”

What stands out from this analysis is a notable interest in comprehending the intricacies of the building envelope and airtightness. It underscores the significance of energy-efficient windows within the broader project context and the increased desire to prevent energy loss, resulting in a growing consciousness regarding Passive House Practices.

1. Passion for Sustainability at the Poindexter House

Combine a little bit of personality and A LOT of passion for sustainability, and you get an amazing home! The Poindexter/Kavan Project is living proof of this, and we’re thrilled to be a small part of this home’s story. 

This blog interviewed Amanda and CJ and dug into the mission behind their personal build called the Yeti Cooler House. They are a unique couple in that they both have solid construction backgrounds, as well as big passions for sustainability. When you combine their knowledge and passion together, you get amazing energy around a project!

We think it’s safe to say they are a “power couple” with a passion for building in lasting and energy-efficient ways; they walked us through the following considerations for the build.

• All-electric
• Sustainability
• House orientation
• Overall simple design they chose
• Vented Roof Assembly
• Wall Design
• Window selection
• Ventilation
• Mech
• Air-sealing and its importance

Read the complete story and products selected for the Yeti House.

2. The Same, Yet Different: The Key Differences in Window & Door Design from Europe to the United States

So much of our life in the United States is heavily influenced by and similar to Europe. However, one area that has some pretty significant differences is in the design and construction of windows and doors. When you look at how life in Europe evolved and has more mixed-use, urban influences to residential design, as well as some of the climate factors, it makes sense that the focus around window and door design would vary some.

In this blog, we detailed window differences: how European windows and American windows vary.

• Materials in windows
• Installation of windows
• Opening and closing: in or out
• Focus on efficiency
• Sash clearance
• Frame/jambs
• Balcony doors
• Sliding doors

We’re starting to see more lines blurred between US and European design. Many of the European features are starting to cross over and impact designs here in the United States. As a result, we’re seeing greater efficiency and performance, lower barriers to entry in cost and availability of designs, and greater ease of building a house with Passivhaus principles! 

Don’t miss the trends we’re seeing changing, and understanding the differences that help contractors and homeowners make the right decisions.

3. Energy-Minded Design: The Balance Between Form & Function

There are some pretty snazzy design ideas out there in the world. If you look at design contests, architectural school projects, or even just down your own street, you’ll probably see some very beautiful designs that simply don’t make a lot of practical sense. It comes back to the age-old question of form vs. function. Designers have been walking that delicate balance for thousands upon thousands of years, and in today’s world, it’s no different. Simply put: certain design attributes cause complexity with energy efficiency and force project owners to make hard decisions. 

To focus on energy-minded strategies, we wrote about:

• Complex design attributes
• Common culprits of design “features”
• Conditioned breezeways
• Poor orientation
• How simple is better
• Materials matter
• Purposeful corners
• Exterior living spaces

This floor plan is for a house that has not been built yet. Every corner is an energy penalty—corners are more difficult to air seal and generally include thermal bridging.

Bump-outs, cantilevered floors, dormers, and knee walls are some common culprits. Often, these are poorly insulated and add extra exterior wall surface area and seams in a wall or roof construction. These factors lead to energy losses due to air infiltration and thermal bridges.

Are we saying your house needs to look boring to be energy-efficient? Absolutely not! Some of the most efficient, sustainable homes we’ve encountered are true works of art. However, an energy-efficient home doesn’t happen by accident—read the full article.

At AE Building Systems, our monthly newsletter is packed with invaluable insights on Passive House and high-performance construction. Have you subscribed yet? 

We wish all our clients, colleagues, and industry friends a fantastic New Year. 

Two years ago, we watched in horror as the racing winds spread the Marshall Fire faster than anyone could imagine. The location made it all even worse as we saw entire blocks of homes go up in flames. With any tragedy, we all want to help but we often forget about the needs after the dust settles a little bit. However, for the families affected, the journey is a long one, and to this day many families are still in the process of rebuilding. 

At AE Building Systems, we’re proud to be a small part of the rebuild story in Louisville, CO for the Marshall Fire. We are actively working with several builders for products. We’re also actively talking with homeowners to answer questions. And just as the fire came through fast and furious, the rebuild efforts are moving fast too. 

Better Than Before

When you’re faced with the need to rebuild, in many cases you have a blank slate to start over. We all have ideas of what we would do differently in a home, and in this case, many homeowners now have the opportunity to make those ideas a reality. Many want to source products to help cut down on their energy costs, while getting a quality product. We’re seeing many homeowners who just want things done right this time around, especially when it comes to their windows and doors. So many homeowners had just been putting up with builder-grade products in their home, but now are making the priority to get high-quality windows to make their home operate and perform as well as it can. 

More Resilient

Being ready for anything is the name of the game, and so there’s been an interesting focus on rebuilding something that is resilient and that will last. No one wants to go through this again. There’s a clear focus around building homes that can withstand the elements while being fire resistant in the future. The focus on rebuilding has been centered around elements like air-tightness, simple home shapes, enclosed eaves, covered porches/decks, and attention to fuel bridges. Another major consideration is the windows and doors used in construction that can hold up better in extreme heat like nearby fires. Safety AND sustainability have become a bigger player in the conversations. 

There are many resources for architects, builders, and homeowners, and the topics range from designing a more healthy home (air quality!) to a resilient home, to rebates and incentives, and help finding your team! 

Sustainable

Recent climate crises have put sustainability at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Events like the Marshall Fire show us how quickly fires can get out of control in climates like Colorado. We all know we can do our part in sustainability. These rebuilding efforts are a great opportunity to lean into these sustainable goals. 

Incentives

There are many rebates and incentives available to those rebuilding from the Marshall Fire. They range from equipment rebates, to solar, to other home system rebates and more. It’s worth looking through the links below to view all of the various rebates that could be an option for your rebuild. Many of these allow a home to be built better, and more sustainable than before! 

Resources for those affected by the Marshall Fire:

• Boulder County Rebuilding Better

• Home Builders Association of Metro Denver – Marshall Fire Resources

At AE Building Systems, we’re passionate about building homes that are safer, healthier, and more efficient. But, we’re also passionate about empowering architects, builders, and homeowners to make smarter choices. That starts and ends with education. If you’re in the process of rebuilding from the Marshall Fire, or working on a project in general, we want to help you understand what you’re purchasing and why. You should have full confidence in your decisions and we are happy to help. Please contact us as you’re making decisions!

Sustainable Building Events You Won’t Want To Miss

Wanting to get involved in the local conversation around building and sustainability? At AE Building Systems, we’re very active in local and regional conversations, and we believe strongly in the importance of knowing what’s happening in the industry. Education is key, and involvement helps move the needle. Since we have a pulse on so many of the amazing events and resources in this sustainable construction space, we wanted to share some of the best upcoming events as we look into the last half of 2023. 

Four Can’t-Miss Events This Fall

Greenbuild Conference + Expo

Greenbuild’s fall event features their decades-long legacy and longstanding commitment to the green building movement. Their focus is in transforming the built environment to serve, prepare and protect our communities. Greenbuild features four days of fantastic content, innovative speakers, and quality networking. 

September 26 – 29, Washington DC

Learn more

PHN Conference

The Passive House Network Conference is here in Denver this year! As a result, it feels like an exceptional opportunity to experience this renowned conference without the extra work of travel. Join like-minded professionals who all care about expanding the Passive House movement for a more sustainable future. They are featuring 30 sessions over 2.5 days with the most up-to-date industry insights from leading expert professionals. Many sessions also provide AIA and PHI learning credits.

October 3 – 6, 2023, Denver, CO

Learn more

2023 Rocky Mountain Natural Building Conference 

The RMNB Conference is headed back to its roots in Boulder, where the association was originally founded. The event will feature classroom-style presentations and round-tables, “mainstage” keynotes, and outdoor workshops and demonstrations. They also are looking forward to rouse of some natural building projects, as well as time to explore the great city of Boulder. 

October 20 – 22, 2023, Boulder, CO

Learn more

PhiusCon 2023

Hot and humid climates are a huge focus this year, and Houston is a great place for PhiusCon to host! The need for efficient, reliable buildings designed with the grid in mind has never been greater, especially in humid climates. PhiusCon 2023 will be a great opportunity for local practitioners, developers and policymakers to be equipped to build more grid-friendly, healthy communities. Join in to meet local professionals while learning about this regional climate need! 

November 7 – 10, Houston, TX

Learn more

What other events are on your radar? We’re always looking to learn, as well as be part of the conversation. Drop us a comment about where you’re headed this year to be part of the sustainability conversation!

Todd’s Involvement On Golden’s Community Sustainability Advisory Board

One thing you’ll notice when you get to know the AE Building Systems team is that Todd Collins cares A LOT about sustainable design. He lives and breathes it. So, it’s no wonder he has spread that passion for sustainable building and design into his community interactions where he lives. This time on our blog, we are sharing a personal angle from Todd. We hope you enjoy hearing about his passion and the why behind what he does!

My journey is probably like so many others out there: you find something you’re passionate about and it slowly infiltrates your entire life. I’ve always had an interest in architecture and passive solar design, even though I studied computer science in college. After college, I ended up in sales and marketing roles and later went on to meld some of these interests and sales experience to help build what is now AE Building Systems. I love it! I get to geek out on sustainability and passive house design concepts day in and day out – AND get to help others do it too! 

When we had kids, I started thinking more about the built environment and also started thinking about future generations. I started realizing how so much of what we do is setting them up for failure down the road. Instead, by focusing on performance and climate change, we can work to make things better for future generations. 

As a longtime resident of Golden, Colorado, I started getting involved in the local conversations around sustainability. I started as a member of the Planning Commission (PC) and functioned as a sustainability expert as it relates to buildings. Eventually, I was asked to participate on the Community Sustainability Advisory Board (CSAB) and PC  joint committee in developing the new sustainability code. Having now transitioned to CSAB only, one of my primary focuses is to help complete the new sustainability building code. 

CSAB Considerations

As a member of this joint committee for CSAB, I’ve had a unique perspective on the topic and have been able to understand the issues from varying angles. The City of Golden also hired an outside consulting firm that ran three meetings with approximately 20 participants each to get community feedback. We looked at the energy situation from different perspectives to really work toward a solution that focuses on achieving the goals of a 2019 ordinance passed by the City Council that largely aligns the City with the Parris Accord and the State of Colorado goals. .

One of the more significant constraints is the fact that Golden is a small municipality with limited resources and we knew the processes involved to change and manage the new code could be costly. We also knew there were industrial, or process energy, situations that posed difficulties. So, we focused our attention on facilities where energy is being used to operate the building (including lighting, plug loads, heating and cooling, etc.). 

We also looked at zero, zero-ready, Passive-House, NBI, and other performance-based designs to help mold our energy code recommendations. One big focus of these new codes is a reliance on all-electric and is related to GHG emissions. At the same time, we realized that all-electric isn’t a perfect solution, as some energy production is still using fossil fuels. While Xcel is reducing the percentage of energy produced by fossil fuels, code changes like these will actively reduce that percentage as well. 

Prescriptive vs. Performance:

Our joint committee decided on a performance-based direction due to the fact that performance is modeled. Therefore, the responsibility for doing a model would be placed on applicants vs. the municipality. This reduces the city’s burden for resources to move the code along quickly. We do know there may be some situations that require a more prescriptive requirement in addition to the performance approach. For example, reflective roofs and the heat island effect may need to be addressed down the road. 

Where are we now? 

The current path is still all-electric, NZE and on-site renewables and for all construction types – residential, multi-family and commercial.  In February of 2023, City Council requested additional community feedback, which included three more meetings to discuss challenges with developers and the built community. There have been concerns about buildings over three stories, as well as some for industrial/warehouse buildings and affordable housing. We also know there are some hurdles related to solar access.  The City does not protect solar access rights. In summary, the City has a fair bit of work to do to build out a variance/exception process and to build out the criteria for these scenarios. 

There are still a lot of questions to answer, but I’m excited to be part of the process to help our community move toward more sustainability! 

-Todd

Note: The views and opinions listed above are specific to Todd Collins and do not necessarily represent official views of the City of Golden. 

The high-altitude hamlet of Golden, Colorado is making waves with its initiative to mandate all-electric building construction in 2024. This new construction requirement is aligned with the city’s climate action goals, which aim to achieve 100% renewable energy for heating by 2050. In doing so, Golden is setting the example for other towns and cities as they embrace grid electrification and less reliance on fossil fuels. 

Grid Electrification

Electrification refers to the process of replacing technologies that use fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) with technologies that use electricity as a source of energy. Many local jurisdictions in the region, including Golden, are taking a hard look at how to retrofit their existing infrastructure to move away from fossil fuels and how to set codes and regulations for future construction. 

Building a Roadmap

The city has already adopted the 2021 national building codes and has identified several initiatives to pursue renewable energy in line with the Paris Agreement. However, the city council is taking another step further. They have directed staff members to continue working on a roadmap but with additional research and public meetings to resolve concerns about a proposed requirement for all New Construction for now.  This requirement includes all-electric, net-zero with on-site renewable generation, that some community members see as problematic.

The efforts to eliminate natural gas from buildings are gaining traction in local communities. Many Colorado jurisdictions are still undecided about whether to ban natural gas or other fossil fuels for space and water heating. Some have decided to lay the groundwork for all-electric without actually raising that bar. In contrast, Crested Butte was the first jurisdiction in the state to ban natural gas for new development, except in special cases like restaurants and certain commercial uses. Golden is gathering intel on all of these use cases to set a roadmap for their guidelines. 

The Golden Challenge

Golden faces a unique challenge as the city is largely developed, which limits new construction primarily to infill or replacement of existing buildings. In the last five years, Golden has had no more than 17 new single-family houses in any given year, and the maximum for one year was eight commercial buildings. Theresa Worsham, the sustainability director for Golden, emphasized that “each community’s needs are likely going to be different, and its decarbonization plans need to be similarly different.”

Four Strategies Toward Electrification & Sustainability

Golden has adopted four strategies to achieve its goals:

One strategy is to require owners of commercial buildings of 5,000 square feet or more to track their emissions. The state now has a similar requirement for buildings 50,000 square feet or more. The idea is to get building owners and managers to understand their emissions, with the potential for instituting programs in the future that may seek to reduce emissions. Among the city’s goals, adopted with the Paris Agreement, is to squeeze energy use in all buildings by 15% through efficiency measures.

The second strategy is to commit the city to further research during 2023 and beyond about how to convert existing buildings toward net-zero all-electric in the coming years. This strategy did not receive much attention during the city council meeting. 

The third strategy is to find ways to address building retrofits. Ken Jacobs, a former member of the sustainability board, suggests that the most effective policy would trigger the net-zero requirement if the remodeling is extensive enough to require new heating systems.

The last and most prominent strategy is the proposed requirement for on-site renewable generation. While it might easily be possible to import all of Golden’s electricity from distant wind and solar farms, the groups concluded that the city has a moral responsibility to generate electricity locally. This also has the advantage of furthering the city’s interest in resilience. The proposed regulation would require that on-site energy storage be deployed or off-site solar via solar gardens located in Golden. The last resort would be to purchase renewable energy credits for renewable energy systems located in Colorado.

A Complex Challenge

It sounds like a great idea, but when you dig into the nuts and bolts of executing requirements like these, you start to see where it becomes a challenge. For a town like Golden, which is largely developed and landlocked, you can easily understand the limitations for access to solar fields or physical space to produce its own energy. There are often added costs to newer technology and infrastructure, as well as new questions and concerns no one has had to think about yet in building code requirements. And, the question of what to do with existing buildings is a challenge as well, posing many to consider if a dual source between fossil fuels and electrification can coincide. 

It’s simply a complex problem. 

Even though it is complex, towns like Golden are willing to tackle it! The benefits of sustainability are obvious, especially when they align with the town’s values. Building an energy ecosystem focused on electrification also allows for greater resilience when one energy source is lagging due to cloudy days, skyrocketing fossil fuel costs, or other hiccups that cause disruption in the energy source availability. 

It’s fun to see a local municipality taking on the challenge! The hope is that other towns in Colorado, and the region, take on the challenge as well. As a result, we’ll see better management of our earth’s resources, greater sustainability, greater resiliency, and greater awareness of how electrification can benefit a community. We’re excited to see how this plays out in our own backyard here in nearby Golden, Colorado!

Passive is passive, right? 

When someone talks of passive designs, they are pretty much the same, correct? 

While both Passive Solar Design (PSD) and Passive House (PH) may sound similar, they are actually two distinct approaches to design and construction. They often get lumped in the same category, and people can confuse the two easily. They have many similarities and share a few goals and approaches, but they are not exactly the same. Let’s break down a few of the qualities of each. 

Passive House Approach:

A Passive House (or Passivhaus) focuses on a few core principles:

1. Airtightness: Goal is to build a building as airtight as possible to prevent heat loss through drafts or thermal bridging.
2. Thermal Boundaries: Goal is to have continuous insulation around the outer perimeter of the building to create a defined thermal boundary. 
3. HRV Usage: Use a heat-recovery ventilator to allow fresh air into the home without the need to open windows. 
4. High-Performance Windows & Doors: Special attention goes into the selection of windows and doors to ensure minimal heat loss at these openings. 
5. Thermal-Bridge Free: While eliminating thermal bridges entirely is likely not possible as there are some tricky areas, the energy modeling accounts for all thermal bridges in the building and minimizing them is critical for meeting PH certification requirements. 

Passive House Design’s approach is focused on heat losses rather than solar gain, and while it may take solar positioning and thermal gains or losses based on the house’s orientation into consideration, that is just part of the equation. Passive House design is focused on minimizing temperature swings for improving comfort within the house. Passive houses don’t rely on the sun to get to their energy-efficiency goals. The solar piece might be like the cherry on top to help a house perform efficiently. 

Passive Solar Approach: 

Passive Solar Design is focused on leveraging the sun to heat and cool a home. The orientation of the home becomes extremely important. Often described as the “glass and mass” approach, the focus is largely on positioning large amounts of glass toward the South to maximize the sun’s warmth, as well as incorporating significant thermal mass to store the sun’s heat which can be released from that thermal mass for hours later. That said, Passive Solar Design considers more than just orientation and thermal mass.  While less important, PSD also considers zoning, shading, insulation, ventilation, and convection concepts. 

Passive Solar Design homes are often designed to operate with minimal (or without any) mechanical cooling or heating, as much as the climate allows. These homes may incorporate airtightness, but that is not the most important focus of the design, as compared to Passive House design. 

Related, But Different: Passive Solar vs. Passive House Design

Based on a quick look, it’s easy to see that both design approaches have a similar goal of creating a more passive approach to energy efficiency and overall comfort in a home. The execution and the core focus, however, are extremely different. Passive Solar is focused on leveraging the sun and mass to achieve this goal, but so much of this approach is based on limiting factors with weather/solar availability, inconsistencies in temperatures, and a less calculated approach. 

Passive House Design focuses on calculated steps to achieve an optimally efficient home with minimal thermal bridging, air leakage, and heat loss. The Passive House Design can more accurately predict the comfortability of a home based on the design, while still accommodating for whatever temperatures are waxing or waning outside. Passive House Design doesn’t discount passive solar concepts (e.g. Mass and Glass) but instead incorporates them within their design as part of optimizing the whole design as a system of systems. 

It’s important for homeowners and designers to understand the subtle differences here. While Passive Solar Design paved the way, in many respects, for the Passive House movement to emerge, Passive Solar often falls short of meeting energy-efficiency goals for homeowners. 

At AE Building Systems, we lean more into the Passive House direction because it IS so much more comprehensive for homeowners who want to build with efficiency in mind. We also see Passive House Design working better in our region here in Colorado where intense sun from a bluebird day can make some PSD homes a hotbox, forcing residents to turn on their air conditioning on a cold day, which is counterproductive! The shoulder seasons of fall and spring when the sun is still lower in the sky can also be quite difficult to regulate. 

Thinking of building a home that is a little more passive, and works FOR you in the long run? Start by talking to our team about how to pursue your goals. We can help point you in the right direction on products, ideas, designers, and more! 

Combine a little bit of personality and A LOT of passion for sustainability and you get an amazing home! The Poindexter/Kavan Project is living proof of this, and we’re thrilled to be a small part of this home’s story. We can’t wait to share this amazing project with you. 

About Amanda and CJ:

Amanda and CJ are a unique couple in that they both have solid construction backgrounds, as well as big passions for sustainability. When you combine their knowledge and passion together, you get amazing energy around a project! 

Amanda has a degree in Construction Management from Colorado State University and has worked for years with her father building homes and learning the trades. She’s worked as a Project Manager for multiple general contractors and finally settled into her own business with Full Circle Construction Services. She also currently consults with the Town of Basalt and runs their Sustainable Building Regulations and helps to implement and enforce the IECC through plan reviews and inspections. Amanda is a HERS Rater, LEED AP, BD+C, an ICC B5 Inspector, and an all-around bad-ass. 

CJ also has a construction background with a degree in Construction Management from Colorado State University and grew up with construction in his blood from his father, who was a home builder. CJ has worked as a Project Engineer for larger commercial contractors in the past. He’s owned his business, Fulcrum Enterprises, for the past 15 years and it has evolved from landscaping and remodeling to currently working as a subcontractor/Project Manager for a land development construction management firm and picks up side projects in construction for fun. 

We think it’s safe to say they are a “power couple” with a passion for building in lasting and energy-efficient ways.

Keys to This Project

Sustainability: Just take a look at their backgrounds and you know it’s a common thread throughout the entire house. However, it wasn’t just a “nice to have” kind of thing; they took it seriously. The net-zero build was a huge priority for them and drove many of the keys in their design. 

All-Electric: The building is all-electric, allowing the energy usage to be offset with onsite solar. Also, Amanda and CJ were able to take advantage of the “Power Plus Program” offered by their local utility, allowing them to install five Tesla batteries. The solar charges the batteries during the day and the house is able to use power from the batteries when the sun goes down. Not to mention, they’ll have power if any outage were to occur. Key word here…resiliency! 

Orientation: The orientation was absolutely key on this project, and the couple says they lucked out to be able to find a lot that not only allows for great orientation (south-facing solar gain and PV orientation), but also one that has a killer view! 

Simple Design: They knew a simple shape was going to be the easiest to keep airtight, so they started with a rectangular shape design. Interesting fact: they didn’t have much of a budget for an architect, so Amanda learned Sketchup to map out the design. The layout was designed by cutting pieces of construction paper to play around with how to arrange the rooms. 

Wall Design: They originally had multiple wall assemblies in mind, but finally settled on a double-wall design due to construction ease. It fit the bill for their budget, while allowing for a high-insulation design without thick exterior continuous insulation. 

Window Design: The couple was intent on a lower u-value and wanted to also support a local business, so they turned to AE Building Systems and Alpen products. The window specifications (and price!) were right on target. They even went and visited the factory to see the product up close, and ended up going with the Tyrol tilt/turn design. It was also a minimal cost to upgrade all of the windows to “tempered,” so they did that to help if there was ever a forest fire in the area. 

Vented Roof Assembly: The couple wanted a vented roof assembly, so they turned to raised heel trusses and blown-in cellulose throughout the home (R40 in the walls and R60 in ceilings!). 

Ventilation: Amanda and CJ did all of their own ductwork, so the system was kept as simple as possible. They went with the Zehnder ERV, allowing every room to have a fresh air supply and every kitchen/bathroom to have an exhaust. The entire system is balanced with an amazing energy recovery rate of 85% in the core! 

Mechanical: The home is heated and cooled with Mitsubishi Hyper Heat mini splits. A non-ducted design was used and there are four zones. In the winter, the Hyper Heat system allows the system to operate at full capacity down to single-digit temperatures and the system is able to operate down to a temperature of -22°F. A heat pump hot water tank was also utilized. 

Air Sealing: This home is close to the 0.60 ACH50 goal and once they finish off their basement, they’re confident they’ll hit that number. Air tightness was one of their top goals, and dictated so many of their decisions from construction techniques down to materials. 

Was it a perfect project from start to finish? Far from it, but the photos speak for themselves: this couple knocked it out of the park! It’s not only a gorgeous home but a high-performing home. We’re confident they’ll make many great memories here, not to mention all of the amazing memories that went into designing and building the home. 

____________________________________________________________________________

“AE was great! They were so responsive, spent hours with us to give us a tour of the factory before we ordered any windows/doors, and followed up on any and all loose ends that we may have. Thank you!” 

Amanda and CJ were a joy to work with and we’re so glad they had a great experience with our team as well. All of us at AE Building Systems are passionate about sustainability and quality regional products. If you want to geek out over net zero building tactics like Amanda and CJ did, we would love to geek out with you too. 
Want to see even more from this project from start to finish? Check them out on Instagram: @yeticoolerhouse and at their website www.yeticoolerhouse.com.

What do you get when you cross a sustainably-minded contractor with a home in deep need of an energy overhaul? You get the LaDuke Residence remodel, and the final product is truly something to admire. Jonathan LaDuke has a passion for green building, and as a contractor by trade, he oversaw this remodel on his own home to help bring it up to a higher energy standard. If you are in the Gunnison area, look Jonathan up if you need assistance with your home or building. 

The house was originally built in 1982 as an all-electric envelope house. The ceiling’s radiant heat was starting to fail and not operating efficiently. However, the house had potential! And Jonathan knew it. The passive solar gain gave the house amazing potential to operate more efficiently, so Jonathan moved to pursue a net zero energy house. 

With Jonathan’s experience as a contractor and extensive knowledge in energy efficiency, he knew he could get the house to where it needed to be. He’s a founding member of an insulation and air sealing company, as well as a certified thermographer. He uses an infrared camera in energy auditing and troubleshooting building science issues. Jonathan definitely knows about energy efficiency! 

As a contractor, working largely in energy efficiency, it felt natural to put his money where his passion lies. Pursuing net zero energy on this house felt like the right thing to do, and an effective use of budget with the long-term in his sights. 

Project Features

Jonathan focused on some key areas of the home to make it function well and reduce energy loss throughout the home. The quantitative analysis was important data to guide his decisions but ultimately the way he wanted to “feel” living in the house was a considerable driving force as well. Here are some of the highlights:

• Wall Assemblies: All wall assemblies have thermal breaks built into the design by way of Zip-R Panels or double interior walls. R- values range from R-42 – R-60 in the walls with hybrid closed-cell foam and dense-pack cellulose. The roof thermal envelope is an R-70 with loose-fill cellulose.
• Air Infiltration Mitigation Techniques:  All two or more sistered framing members were caulked for air sealing measures and all windows were extensively air sealed with window foam and/or caulk, as well as any thermal envelope penetrations.
• High-Efficiency Windows: Alpen Tyrol 625, with the help of AE Building Systems, were used throughout the project, offering higher efficiency and lower thermal loss than the previous builder-grade windows. 

We all want visually beautiful homes, but it is equally important to have a highly functional house that is energy efficient and has healthy indoor air quality. These details are often overlooked and the fashion of our homes eclipses the healthy function of our homes. Always consult professionals in energy efficiency when making building decisions. At AE Building Systems, we’re always available to help consult on the top products to use on your next project. The LaDuke Residence Project is a great example of remodeling and retrofitting a home to increase energy efficiency, and still loving the home you’re already in. 

Love the Home You’re In: LaDuke Residence Remodel

What do you get when you cross a sustainably-minded contractor with a home in deep need of an energy overhaul? You get the LaDuke Residence remodel, and the final product is truly something to admire. Jonathan LaDuke has a passion for green building, and as a contractor by trade, he oversaw this remodel on his own home to help bring it up to a higher energy standard. If you are in the Gunnison area, look Jonathan up if you need assistance with your home or building. 

The house was originally built in 1982 as an all-electric envelope house. The ceiling’s radiant heat was starting to fail and not operating efficiently. However, the house had potential! And Jonathan knew it. The passive solar gain gave the house amazing potential to operate more efficiently, so Jonathan moved to pursue a net zero energy house. 

With Jonathan’s experience as a contractor and extensive knowledge in energy efficiency, he knew he could get the house to where it needed to be. He’s a founding member of an insulation and air sealing company, as well as a certified thermographer. He uses an infrared camera in energy auditing and troubleshooting building science issues. Jonathan definitely knows about energy efficiency! 

As a contractor, working largely in energy efficiency, it felt natural to put his money where his passion lies. Pursuing net zero energy on this house felt like the right thing to do, and an effective use of budget with the long-term in his sights. 

Project Features

Jonathan focused on some key areas of the home to make it function well and reduce energy loss throughout the home. The quantitative analysis was important data to guide his decisions but ultimately the way he wanted to “feel” living in the house was a considerable driving force as well. Here are some of the highlights:

• Wall Assemblies: All wall assemblies have thermal breaks built into the design by way of Zip-R Panels or double interior walls. R- values range from R-42 – R-60 in the walls with hybrid closed-cell foam and dense-pack cellulose. The roof thermal envelope is an R-70 with loose-fill cellulose.
• Air Infiltration Mitigation Techniques:  All two or more sistered framing members were caulked for air sealing measures and all windows were extensively air sealed with window foam and/or caulk, as well as any thermal envelope penetrations.
• High-Efficiency Windows: Alpen Tyrol 625, with the help of AE Building Systems, were used throughout the project, offering higher efficiency and lower thermal loss than the previous builder-grade windows. 

We all want visually beautiful homes, but it is equally important to have a highly functional house that is energy efficient and has healthy indoor air quality. These details are often overlooked and the fashion of our homes eclipses the healthy function of our homes. Always consult professionals in energy efficiency when making building decisions. At AE Building Systems, we’re always available to help consult on the top products to use on your next project. The LaDuke Residence Project is a great example of remodeling and retrofitting a home to increase energy efficiency, and still loving the home you’re already in. 

Change happens slowly and in small ways, with every single purchase and every decision we make. As consumers, we each have opportunities to make decisions and at AE Building Systems, we’re at the core of these small, everyday decisions that are making a real difference in our world. But, another way change happens is when we see regulations and laws change. 

The process of making real change for the better has so many other applications outside of sustainability and doing right by our earth. However, we’re beyond thrilled to see recent changes in municipalities throughout the state of Colorado regarding energy efficiency. These are signals to us that change is finally coming on things that used to be mere suggestions now becoming a requirement.

Creating a New Normal

We don’t always think about it being a big deal, but small changes to building codes can actually make a big impact. Simple requirements force everyday decisions to higher standards, and in the case of these energy-efficient trends, the higher standard means a lighter carbon footprint across the board. In the past, some of these building decisions might have been a nice idea, but when push came to shove or budgets got tighter, the energy-efficient measures might have been the first thing to go. However, when they’re a requirement, there’s simply no room to question it. With each new code change to be more energy efficient, you start to see a better carbon impact across the board. 

Changes On All Levels

As we’re based in Colorado, we pay close attention to the local municipalities and those in our immediate vicinity. We’ve seen municipalities including Denver, Boulder, Golden, Fort Collins, and others increasing their energy-efficient codes across the board. However, on a national level, we’re seeing significant increases in code requirements as well, including New York City and Boston. And, Passive House Design plays a larger role in these municipalities because it easily meets, and often exceeds, the new code requirements. 

However, these changes are not just happening here in North America. In fact, the global push for energy efficiency has been largely attributed to the Paris Agreement, established in 2015. The agreement is focused on addressing climate change with goals to reduce greenhouse emissions, support developing countries’ efforts, and collaborate together. While the United States was part of this unifying group originally, the 2020 administration pulled the US out of the Agreement. US involvement or not, the Paris Agreement has had a major influence on the carbon impact on the globe and we’ve seen countries make significant changes in just a few short years. Others have followed suit, realizing that energy efficiency has major benefits from so many angles. This global initiative has put climate concerns and energy efficiency as a top priority for many governments, and as a result, we’re seeing the effects even in our local municipalities! 

How do we enact even greater change? 

While there’s much to celebrate, there’s still a huge opportunity to do better by our planet. Here are just a few ways to continue the journey toward better energy efficiency and lower carbon impact to the earth: 

1. Vote with your dollars: Put your money where your mouth is and invest in energy-efficient systems and products when you build your next project. It’s worth it! 
2. Vote with your vote: Think about sustainability when you’re casting your ballots and work to elect officials who care about sustainability initiatives. 
3. Share the wins: Talk with friends and family about the progress communities are making toward being energy efficient, and even any wins you’ve experienced on your own end. Don’t preach, but be willing to share. 
4. Research: The more educated you are on energy efficiency, the better decisions you will make. Don’t rely on others to simply spoon feed you the highlights. Be a smart consumer and resident, and learn how you can support energy-efficiency initiatives that might be happening in your own backyard. 

We get excited over here about building codes, especially when they support energy efficiency. We also love seeing the ripple effect of what these codes do for the local carbon impact. As an integral supplier of energy-efficient products, we know how important these building codes can be toward a bigger, more energy-efficient future! 

Green geeks united this summer at Emu Building Science’s 2022 Passive House Open Days! What a great event, and amazing that this event will be coming back again later this fall! 

Emu started creating a Passive Haus Days Tour to celebrate local Passive Home designs and construction. Similar to other home tours, attendees can sign up and tour the homes on the list. Emu’s tour is specifically focused around Passive House Construction and seeing the work in action. It helps give people a vision for what could be a reality in their homes and helps make passive construction strategies more mainstream and accessible to homeowners. 

AE Building Systems was excited about the Summer 2022 tour by Emu, specifically because our team was part of multiple homes on the tour, including the Fisher Residence and the Kirsch-Stroupe Residence.

Fisher Residence (Milhaus)

This Fort Collins home is the modern farmhouse you always dreamed of. AE Building Systems was proud to support this resident, who was also the architect and builder, with Smartwin, Alpen windows and doors, and SIGA weather/air barriers. 

Read more about this project and the amazing design! 

Kirsch-Stroupe Residence

Sustainably-minded homeowners drove the desire for Passive House practices, and the result is simply stunning. AE Building Systems was honored to contribute to this project with SIGA exterior air barrier (Majvest, Wigluv, Fentrim 430), SIGA IS 20 for window details, and SIGA Majrex/Rissan for the interior air barrier materials. 

Read our full profile on this resident in Tabernash.

Donath Lake House(s)

These Fort Collins spec homes were constructed by Black Timber Builders, and the Donath Lake Community is the only single-family community of Passive House Certified Homes in the nation! We know the folks at Black Timber Builders well, and they have a reputation for excellence. Walking through these lake houses was a real treat! While these homes were largely pre-sold, they were spec builds, and the possibilities with Black Timber moving forward are simply endless! 

Ogden St. Complex

This multi-family certified passive house in Denver is an innovative look at sustainable design for multi-family construction. It has a sleek, modern design, infusing new life to the block, and is Colorado’s first multi-family passive house! This appeals to a different market of homeowners who are looking for multi-family construction but also want sustainability. The project also achieved a 0.28 ACH50 with a firewall, which many professionals didn’t think was possible. The project is literally paving the way for future construction performance in Denver! 

Interested in checking out another event like this? Emu’s upcoming Passive Haus Open Days is coming up on November 11-13! Follow them on Facebook to find the registration details when they’re released. 

We bet you have thought about air quality a few more times since 2020 than you ever did before! The recent pandemic has made so many of us aware of the particles in the air we breathe that can make us sick. Those of us in Passive Home design have always been aware of air quality and how we can make the air we breathe inside of our spaces as healthy as possible. It’s always been front and center in our design approach. That’s why we focus so much on Energy Recovery Ventilators in our conversations with customers and partners. 

Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERV) are a vital piece of equipment for passive or high-performance homes. Most existing homes are super leaky and get plenty of “fresh” air through the holes and cracks in the building envelope. Newer homes are getting more and more airtight and need more fresh air. ERVs are designed to provide ventilation that removes stale air and sometimes humidity, while delivering fresh air into the home. That “stale” air contains CO2, humidity, and toxins. We breathe, creating humidity and CO2, and cook, creating humidity and toxins. That new couch with the new couch smell – well – that smell is usually not good for you. The smell is generally toxins off-gassing from the materials the couch is made of. 

At the very core, ERVs have blowers and a heat exchanger. Their primary objective is to improve indoor air quality by bringing in fresh air. In the winter months, ERVs help recover warm air that may have otherwise been lost, especially in leaky, older homes that get plenty of fresh air through the holes and cracks in the building envelope. ERV systems capture some of the warmth from the exhaust or stale air stream and transfers that warmth back into the fresh air stream it’s pulling from the exterior. Likewise, in the summer months, ERVs help keep the heat out and the cool in by reversing the process. They put the “warmth” coming in via the fresh air stream into the exhaust air stream. In doing so, ERVs improve the HVAC system efficiency of a home as a primary benefit! 

What’s the Difference Between an ERV and an HRV?

When you start looking into ventilators, you will see the acronym for Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) pop up. At first glance, it may feel like ERVs and HRVs are the same. The primary difference is ERVs manage or transfer humidity where HRVs dump the humidity, especially during the colder months when it’s pretty dry and we benefit from the humidity. The entire discussion around whether you should have an HRV or an ERV is changing. The variables historically included the size of the home, average humidity, and whether it is a heating or a cooling climate which is defined by heating/cooling degree days. It is our understanding that ERVs are the current direction in general, especially with high-performance, airtight homes.   

Ducting

With ERV systems, the ducting is a vital piece of the process. While some units do a lot of sophisticated work, the design of the ducting is crucial for success with all types of ERV and HRV systems. 

Here are a few key guiding principles for duct design:

• If possible, keep ducting as short, fat, and straight as possible to minimize static pressure and air turbulence. Static pressure makes it harder for the blowers to do their job and the system wears out sooner as a result. Go deeper into the math on duct design! 
• Set up dedicated ducts for an ERV in new construction. In retrofits, existing ducts can be leveraged as well. There are some important considerations on where to tap into those ducts.
• Insulate Fresh and Stale air ducts as much as possible. R-8 or better is the general recommendation. These are the ducts that go to the outside wall and bring in the fresh air and exhaust the stale air. Also, these ducts shouldn’t terminate right next to each other on the wall. They should be at least 10 feet apart.
• Return ducts are generally for polluted and humid areas – kitchens, baths, or even laundry spaces.
• Supply ducts generally go to the living areas and bedrooms.  
• Consider a sound dampening option with insulated flex or a silencer, especially in high-performance homes. Blowers and airflow generate some sound; generally, high-performance homes are super quiet. Our feedback from clients has been the “ERV is making noise” and silencing ducts help reduce the noise.

ERVs We Love

Our team is a big fan of Build Equinox’s CERV 2, which uses a high-efficiency heat pump to exchange energy(heat) between incoming supply and outgoing exhaust air. The CERV 2 measures and manages indoor air pollutants, CO2, and humidity. It brings in fresh air only when you actually need it. It also has an efficient inverter drive heat pump, which performs the heat exchange. The heat pump assists the primary HVAC system with heating and cooling. Built with the user experience in mind, their color touchscreen controller is easy to read and simple to use, and you can even manage the system remotely! 

Your ventilation system is likely the most important system in a Passivehaus design. We care about air tightness for a home, and we care about good air quality as well, especially for the Passivehaus. As a result, you can’t afford to just phone in this part of the process. That’s why we encourage our customers to talk to their HVAC expert, like BrightSense, to help you create the optimal design with product selection and ducting design. Please note that your HVAC expert should also be able to help you confirm your flow rates with a duct blaster. 

While we aren’t HVAC design experts ourselves, the AE Building Systems team knows a lot about the CERV2 system and many of the nuances you should have on your radar. We’re always here to help point you in the right direction and think through the various angles on your own project! 

The immediate place our minds go when it comes to improving the performance of a wall is to insulate. That seems to be the easiest and simplest approach to improving performance and energy efficiency. But, what if we told you the glazing is where you really get the bigger bang for your buck? Would you be surprised? 

Most people are, and note we are assuming more standard residential construction and assumptions include 2X framing and batt insulation. Construction with steel studs, concrete, continuous insulation, thermal bridging, etc. alter the results in different ways.

A window is essentially a thermal “hole in the dike,” and insulation in walls above certain R-Values becomes less and less helpful when looking at the overall performance of the wall – window included.  

Okay, so we can all get behind the idea that insulation in the walls is a good thing, and surely it’s effective for energy-efficiency. Is it not a pretty bold statement to say that glazing is MORE effective? 

Hang on with us…

Gazing at Glazing Options:

We have single pane glass, which keeps out the elements and is worthless in terms of thermal performance. We don’t see these in modern construction, especially in sustainable, energy-efficient projects. 

Many homes have dual-pane insulating glass, which is two glass panes with a low-e coating, separated by a small sealed air space. When inserted with a gas like argon, it increases its insulation. You can see maximum performance ratings up to about R-4 with most options landing around R-3.5. 

Other windows feature triple-pane insulated glass, which increases that dual-pane concept by an extra pane and an extra insulated chamber. Triple-pane (the glass IGU specifically) can be up to 50 percent heavier, difficult to handle, and require stronger supports. However, you can get insulating properties up to R-10 center of glass (COG). 

On standard walls, we might be lucky to see an R-20 effective R-Value, but in many commercial curtain wall systems, “high performance” can often be categorized as an R-4 wall. A simple look at the numbers above shows the very high-level understanding that if you go the route of energy-efficient windows, you can achieve similar, if not better, performance than a curtain-wall system. In residential wall assemblies like 2×6 construction, effective R-Values run R-10 to R-14 as there is thermal bridging in the 2×6.  This is a whole different topic and we’re going to stick to a basic wall R-value.

Okay, high-performance windows are great, but couldn’t you just beef up the insulation to compensate for lesser-performing windows? 

Let’s do some math:

Let’s suppose a facade is 75% wall and 25% glazed. The wall part is R-20, and the window is at R-3. In this situation, the thermal performance of the overall wall with windows is roughly R-8.3. 

Now, if you double the performance of the wall portion to R-40 (keeping the window at R-3), the R-value for the overall wall (windows included) is slightly better at just R-9.8, so not much difference compared to where we started.  You’d think that 100% increase in wall R-value would yield more than an 18% improvement in the overall wall – windows included. 

BUT, what if we changed out the windows and doubled their performance to be R-6 (and kept the wall portion at R-20)? If you do that, and re-run the calculations, you actually get an overall wall performance of R-12.6! At 53%, that’s a pretty high percentage increase. 

Oh… by the way… going to R-40 walls and R-6 windows takes the overall wall R-value to R-16.5, and R-40 walls and R-9 windows takes the overall wall to R-21.5. However, R-60 walls and R-3 glass is around R-10.5 Glazing is truly the weak link in our wall assemblies.   

Watch this video by Todd going into more detail on frame types, triple vs. quad panes, spacer options, and ​​gas types.

While it feels counterintuitive, going for the high-performing windows actually moves the needle further than beefing up insulation in the wall itself. Curious about what kind of high-performance windows are right for your project? Talk to our team about maximizing your overall R-values. We LOVE sharing our knowledge to help you make the right decision for your next project! 

This project has R-7 to R-9 fenestration products and approximately R-40 walls.

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A quick reflection on high-performance principles discussed in 2021.

Because we are data nerds and love looking at performance (normally energy efficiency), but in this case, we wanted to see which AE blog post topics resonated most in 2021. Below is what Google Analytics told us our top three posts are. 

Here’s what this tells us, there is an increased awareness for Passive House Practices even when building an ADU, people want to invest in a sustainable, lasting home, and the building envelope is getting its due time in the spotlight. This has us quite excited and eager to see what 2022 has in store.

1. The Rise of the ADU: Increased popularity AND energy efficiency

Call it a Granny Flat, a Mother-in-Law Suite, a She Shed, a Man Cave, or whatever you want, an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) has become the BIG THING in residential architecture today. ADUs have become a popular feature in homes from city neighborhoods to rural properties, and they make a lot of sense when you dig into the benefits. What we’re seeing, though, is that people not only want to build these additional living spaces on their property, but they want to build it in an efficient manner so that it works for them in the long term.

What is an ADU?

An ADU is an additional living space added to a property, containing all the essential functions of a normal house. They are a solution to the need for affordable housing, population density, and multi-generational living solutions. As the need and interest has grown, many local governments are passing new laws and regulations, allowing for more homeowners to build and rent ADUs. Read the full post and see the video tour!

2. Modern Farmhouse With a Passive Twist: Profile on Greg Fisher’s Millhaus

Long before the modern farmhouse was a trendy term on HGTV, an architect had a vision for design that had a connection to nature, history, sustainability, and all-around innovative design. Greg Fisher, architect based in Fort Collins, Colorado, embraced the concept with his home/office, which has become known in the Passive House community as an example of innovative design with sustainability at heart. 

The Millhaus

Millhaus is a Passive House project that combines Greg’s personal home, as well as an architectural office that was named for its history as a mill, and the nod to Passivhaus design. Built on the property of a former cherry mill, the 3200 sq. ft. structure became a collaboration between traditional, gabled design, modern aesthetics, and Passive House principles. The house marries traditional materials native to the original structures of the mill with more modern materials like steel. Greg’s project truly personifies his belief that “aesthetics can be part of Passive House.” Read the full post and check out the products selected!

3. Passive House Air Infiltration Hot Spots

Building a sustainable building envelope is easy…until you add in openings. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to make efficient building envelopes in a snap? But that’s not how life works. We need doors and windows and vents and openings in order for a building to function. So, alas, we have to deal with holes in the building envelope that complicate our lives, especially when we’re working to build with Passive House practices in mind. But with each hole we make in a building, we need to pay attention to ensure there is minimal air infiltration.  

Why Should You Care?

Every hole in a building envelope is an area of extreme complexity. It becomes an area where you have to focus structural attention to ensure that it functions properly, but it also becomes a juncture for energy (heat) and air to escape. When it comes to Passive Home tactics, we care about this a lot because these junctures are usually where most of our inefficiencies come into play. Therefore, we need to make sure we pay special attention to these areas to ensure that we can maintain an efficient, effective structure. Read the full post for the top culprits!

The team at AE Building Systems sends out a monthly newsletter with Passive House and high-performance building insights—have you subscribed? We wish all of our clients, colleagues and industry friends a wonderful New Year; see you in 2022.

Project Highlight: Kirsch-Stroupe Residence near Winter Park

What do you get when you cross motivated homeowners, with sustainable builders, and an interest in Passive House design? This special combination is the bones for a truly special residential project up in Tabernash, CO near Winter Park for the Kirsch-Stroupe Residence. This project is a collaboration between Matt Kirsch and Kerri Stroupe, Bishop Built, and other Passive House Partners. The results so far are amazing!

As we write this article, the house is still in process. (We can’t wait to see the final product!) However, because it’s in process, we can see so much of the careful work being done to make this house as sustainable as possible with Passive House best practices. It’s been pretty fun to see the work that goes in, in order to make the final product work and run efficiently. 

The Players:

Homeowners

Ultimately, the desire to pursue sustainable and efficient Passive House strategies has to be a core value for the homeowners, especially in a difficult climate like Tabernash (one of the colder areas of Colorado). Matt and Kerri had a deep desire to live in an energy-efficient home and have an ongoing passion for a more sustainable lifestyle. 

Contractors

Zane Bishop, of Bishop Built, has been an integral part of this project and stepped up to the plate! As the contractor, he has the obvious role in making the building a reality. Bishop Built has been building homes since 1982 and has a reputation for premium craftsmanship, clear communication, and full accountability. However, Zane also took Emu’s Passive House Training Class, which meant that not only was this a great construction plan for the home (also a part of Emu’s Pilot Program), but it is a sustainable one as well. This is huge for the Granby/Winter Park area as the Bishop Built team raised the bar in what local contractors can, and do, offer!

Partners

Our team at AE Building Systems had a small role in this project, as a supplier for SIGA products.  As a belt and suspenders approach, the project leveraged both the Majrex interior system and Majvest exterior system to help achieve Passive House airtightness levels. We also were available to support the Bishop team and answer any questions that arose around the products. While our part feels small, our emotional investment in the success of this project has been huge. And, we’re so thrilled for the Kirsch-Stroupe’s to enjoy their Passive House soon!

Another great partner on this project is Front Range Fenestration. They installed the windows and are great for window installations in the Rocky Mountain region. We’ve worked with them for many years and loved being on the team together for this Kirsch-Stroupe Residence!

Project Features:

While there are countless areas where this project has leaned into efficient practices, a huge focus has been on air sealing and insulation. This is a common thread on any Passive House project. As you can see in the photos, this part of the construction was not just a quick blip, but an intentional focus. For example, double-stud walls allow for increased insulation and reduced thermal bridging. In addition, SIGA products were utilized heavily to provide airtightness and reduce air infiltration.

Project Flow:

Any construction project needs forethought to ensure that the project flows properly. We’ve seen supply chain issues in the past couple of years that continue and have been a significant concern into 2021. When you’re considering a Passive House project, you need to make sure you’re managing timelines and milestones even more. Sequencing was a major consideration and every aspect had to be considered months ahead of time. Communication with subcontractors on the schedule was a huge puzzle to solve and manage, but so far has been a success. 

Find this project intriguing? You might be dreaming about a passive, sustainable home in the future and we want you to know that, yes, it’s possible! Beautiful homes that fit these efficient building standards ARE possible and possible here in Colorado. If you’re dreaming about that future home, talk to our team! We can help educate you, as a consumer, on what materials (like SIGA which was on this project) are helpful to consider. 

If you’re a builder and want to offer more sustainable and efficient Passive House building options for your clients, make sure you talk to our team as well. We nerd out daily on the latest and greatest approaches available. We love to pass on that knowledge. Not only that, but also check out EMU’s Passive House Trainings and consider leveling up your own knowledge on these innovative building strategies. 

Follow Bishop Built on Instagram:  @bishopbuilt 

Follow EMU on Instagram: @emubldgscience 

More construction and detail shots:

Building a sustainable building envelope is easy…until you add in openings. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to make efficient building envelopes in a snap? But that’s not how life works. We need doors and windows and vents and openings in order for a building to function. So, alas, we have to deal with holes in the building envelope that complicate our lives, especially when we’re working to build with Passive House practices in mind. But with each hole we make in a building, we need to pay attention to ensure there is minimal air infiltration.  

Why Should You Care?

Every hole in a building envelope is an area of extreme complexity. It becomes an area where you have to focus structural attention to ensure that it functions properly, but it also becomes a juncture for energy (heat) and air to escape. When it comes to Passive Home tactics, we care about this a lot because these junctures are usually where most of our inefficiencies come into play. Therefore, we need to make sure we pay special attention to these areas to ensure that we can maintain an efficient, effective structure. 

We don’t care just for the sake of being more efficient, but also because if not done correctly, it can lead to future problems. Thermal bridging can occur when openings are not managed properly, causing condensation, warping, and other long-term effects that can damage a structure.

Top Culprits for Air Infiltration Issues:

[And What You Can Do!]

Bath Vents: 

Bath vents are often overlooked and forgotten about as they serve an important, but often invisible role. The mix of moisture management from showers, coupled with the fact that it’s a hole to the exterior elements, means this can be a significant energy loss location. 

For a more Passive House approach consider using:

• An ERV for bath ventilation instead of bath fans.
• The CERV2 to evacuate bathroom air with booster switches. 

Dryer Vents:

Clothes dryer vents are another big culprit when it comes to air infiltration and inefficiencies. This necessary vent can cause some major issues considering the appliance is often NOT in use. 

For a more efficient approach:

• Use a condensing dryer instead of a traditional vented dryer. Never heard of them? You can get a good explanation of this approach to drying clothes and how it differs from traditional vented dryers here. 
• Install a CERV2 to pull air from a drying closet, making for a more efficiently managed venting system.

Range Hoods:

Another big spot where air quality can get iffy inside the home is in the kitchen around the range. Gases and toxins in the air from cooking can be harmful if left to linger in the home, so proper ventilation is vital. 

For a Passive House Approach:

• Leverage the CERV2 and ducted range hoods to help evacuate air from the kitchen. 

Lights:

We don’t always think about lights being an air infiltration trouble spot, but lights can be openings in the envelope where air can leak. 

For a more efficient option:

• Use LED puck lights instead of traditional (leaky) can lights.
• Choose air-tight can lights whenever can lights are absolutely necessary.

Plumbing Stack Hole:

When we think of plumbing, we think of water not air, but the plumbing stack can be a huge culprit for air infiltration. The venting holes, usually in the roof, require flashing and regular maintenance to ensure they are not leaking. Since they’re on the roof, it’s not uncommon for debris to clog these, causing more air quality issues and lack of actual venting. 

For a Passive House Solution Instead:

• Consider using Studor Vents, or Air Admittance Valves (AAV) 

What else can you do? 

It’s impossible to avoid having some holes in your building envelope. So wherever you have openings, it’s vital that you have focused attention to how the openings are constructed. Bring in expert opinions on Passive House Construction to see where you have opportunities (Like the CERV2, for example) to be more efficient and smart in your systems. Another important step you can include in the construction is using SIGA Tape for high-quality air sealing. 

Ultimately, the best approach to managing air infiltration at openings and holes is with a proactive approach. The more legwork you do up front, the fewer surprises down the road and the more efficient your building envelope will be. If you’re working toward a Passive House design, focusing on air infiltration is an important item that needs to be on your checklist. We’re here to help on your next project. Make sure to hit up our team to see how you can improve the air quality in your upcoming Passive House project! 

Ready to breathe easy? Air quality has become more and more of a focus in recent years.  It has more than just mental benefits; air quality has a direct correlation with our physical well-being. Those of us in the construction industry have known this for years, but recently with COVID-19, the world is now aware of how your indoor air can affect your health. 

Dwelling Inside

People often think about air pollution being an outdoor issue, but indoor air quality is actually a larger threat to health. The EPA states that indoor air can be up to two to five times (sometimes 100 times) more polluted than outdoor air. In the United States, people spend about 90 percent of their day indoors, 70 percent of that in a residential home. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) actually calls indoor air pollution the #1 pollution problem in America.

Allergies

75 million people in the United States have a medical diagnosis of allergies and asthma or both! Indoor air pollutants like pollen, mold, and other contaminants can affect air quality. Internal sources include combustion and make-up air for appliances, bath ventilation and general infiltration through unsealed openings. It is among the country’s most common, but overlooked, diseases. 

Allergens can be mitigated through careful home design, thoughtful construction material selection, quality construction tactics, and other lifestyle choices. The use of wireless sensing equipment, automated pollution monitoring, strategic ventilation systems (CERV2), and high-efficiency (MERV) air filtration systems can remove up to 99.6 percent of airborne allergens. 

Proactive Construction

At AE Building Systems, we work with our customers to provide effective construction materials and systems to build homes with good air quality. That’s why we love the CERV2. This ventilation system offers high-efficiency ventilation, while removing contaminants from the indoor air circulation. Our focus is always on proactive systems for healthy, sustainable spaces! 

Below is a testimonial from one of our customers who used the CERV2 in their recent project: 

“Both my wife and I work from home and suffer from pollen allergies. We wanted to minimize the health issues allergic reactions cause us both. To do that we integrated a computerized energy recovery ventilation system, CERV2, from Build Equinox into the home’s HVAC system. When we built our new home we integrated smart ventilation and air quality monitoring into the home’s HVAC system.

After moving into our new home, we were delighted to discover that our allergy symptoms disappeared. We slept better, had better brain function, less illness’, were free from sneezing and inflammation. It was transformational.

New homes are built very tightly and sealed from air infiltration. They do not “breathe” like older construction. Many areas, including Denver, require passing with a blower door test score of 3.0 or better prior to issuing a certificate of occupancy. A home with a blower door test score of 3.0 or below is a very tightly built home and needs ventilation to maintain quality indoor air.  

We chose the CERV2 for a number of reasons. It is a smart ventilation system. It continually monitors for volatile organic compounds and carbon-dioxide (VOC’s and CO2). When user set thresholds are exceeded for these pollutants it automatically begins ventilation. The ventilation process filters the air through 2 separate Merv 12 air filters. The 2 Merv 12 filters remove almost all airborne contaminants.”

-Craig Tessem, Colorado

If you’d like to learn more about how to promote healthy indoor air quality, talk to our team to learn more about the CERV2 and other products that prevent air pollution and help you create a space you can truly breathe easy in!

You know that feeling when you try on your old Letterman Jacket, or the jeans from ten years ago? It feels GOOD to fit into the same size, right?! That same feeling is what we get when we fit triple pane windows in the same standard size of a double pane window and get even more performance! 

Okay, okay… maybe that’s a stretch. BUT, it’s the truth. Alpen’s new Thin Glass technology now makes it possible to get even higher performance out of our windows without significant increases to size and weight of the windows. That’s a BIG DEAL when it comes to constructing high performance and passive houses!

What is Thin Glass?

Alpen is excited to share about their new Thin Glass design with the world and we’re excited to share it with our customers too. This new product is changing the face of high-performance windows and offering great solutions for building projects. Alpen uses a triple-pane window, which utilizes thin glass as the center pane. Historically, double pane windows were really seen as the industry standard, and utilizing thin-film helped increase the performance. However, using a thin glass pane, Alpen is able to increase the R-value while maintaining the same industry-standard thickness of the window. The new style only increases the weight by 12 percent, and allows for possibilities for a quad-pane option that only adds 17 percent.

What Makes Thin Glass So Great?

Thin Glass is proving to be an innovative product for so many applications, but let’s take a brief look at the big benefits:

• The use of thin glass for the center panes provides some of the most energy-efficient windows on the market today. Superior U-factors, increased condensation resistance (CR) and increased visible light transmission (VT)!
• The cost is currently the same as using thin-film, yet with improved performance.
• Tested and verified by the National Fenestration Rating Council.
• Multiple glazing options available.
• Crafted in the United States at local facilities with specific manufacturing space dedicated to Thin Glass production.
• Paired with Quanex Super Spacer for even greater performance! 

Thin Glass & Thin-Film: Cousins in the Industry

Thin Glass is a comparable product to Thin-Film, both made by Alpen and both great options. Thin-Film has been Alpen’s go-to for many, many years, and will still be available for many of their top lines like Zenith and Tyrol. Suspended film still provides excellent insulation and R-values, while providing the lightest high-performance windows available. Thin Glass and Thin-Film are like cousins in the same family:  providing the same functions (at a comparable price) but are slightly different.

Thin Glass is set to shake up the world of high-performance windows. Customers are always looking for the best performing window options, regardless of the climate, and innovation like this sets the bar high. Whether you’re working toward a truly Passive House model, or just looking for a more efficient solution, Thin Glass technology in windows like Alpen’s is a great option! Check out Alpen’s product lines over on our website.

Modern Farmhouse With a Passive Twist: Profile on Greg Fisher’s Millhaus

Long before the modern farmhouse was a trendy term on HGTV, an architect had a vision for design that had a connection to nature, history, sustainability, and all-around innovative design. Greg Fisher, architect based in Fort Collins, Colorado, embraced the concept with his home/office, which has become known in the Passive House community as an example of innovative design with sustainability at heart. 

The Millhaus

Millhaus is a Passive House project that combines Greg’s personal home, as well as an architectural office that was named for its history as a mill, and the nod to Passivhaus design. Built on the property of a former cherry mill, the 3200 sq. ft. structure became a collaboration between traditional, gabled design, modern aesthetics, and Passive House principles. The house marries traditional materials native to the original structures of the mill with more modern materials like steel. Greg’s project truly personifies his belief that “aesthetics can be part of Passive House.”

One-of-a-Kind Features

It’s not every day that you run across a home that utilizes these features:

• History: The property has a long-standing history as a cherry mill. This is a factor that added story and soul, and a starting point for Greg to launch his design. In fact, the kitchen pantry is modeled after the tool crib from the mill. Greg has plans to enclose that here soon, but at the moment it is just an open-shelving section of the home. 
• Unique Walls: The wall cladding on this house is actually tree bark shingles (a cradle to cradle product). Talk about a connection with nature! 
• Breathing Easy: Greg incorporated high-quality ventilation solutions to promote energy efficiency and healthy indoor air quality.  
• Fully Grounded: The home features a two-ton ground source heat pump, which contributes to a more passive approach to heating. The tax rebates aren’t a bad incentive either! They also combined that with radiant floor heating. 
• High-performance Living: This home features a blower door test value of ACH50- 0.44. The lower the ACH50 values, the tighter the building. Greg’s home ultimately is extremely air tight, maintaining temperature and climate throughout. 
• Goodbye Dry Skin: Unique to Passive air-tightness, combined with the use of an ERV in the house means that the house is kinder on the skin, especially in the dry climate of Colorado! 

Passive House Products:

Greg’s nod to the Passivhaus design in naming his project “Millhaus” does not go unnoticed to those of us in the Passive House construction community. This project is a fully certified Passive House project. His project features some amazing products:

• Advantage Smartwin: Throughout the home, fixed, tilt/turns, and swing windows, as well as lift/slide doors were used. They feature Euroglass and offer high-performance design at the openings. They focused heavily on the window to wall ratio and measured that carefully to work with the orientation and sunlight. 
• Alpen 925 Series Windows: While Advantage windows were used primarily, there are a few locations where the Alpen 925 Series Windows were used. We’ve used these in so many projects and love not only the quality, but the maximum performance they deliver. 
• SIGA Air/Weather Barrier: Millhaus features the use of both Majrex interior system and Majvest exterior system for achieving the Passive House required air-tight standard.
• Sequencing:  Emu Building Science (Enrico and Mariana) provided sequencing assistance for the Majrex interior application. [Watch for a more in-depth examination of the power of sequencing on our blog!]

The Millhaus is a true example of how great design can meld with sustainable principles. If you want a Passive House design, you can still have an interesting and well-designed home. We love the innovation we’re seeing come out of this movement, and we love helping our clients make innovative decisions for their next project. Talk to our team today and start brainstorming about how great design can truly be passive too!

Bonus!

We have the privilege of being able to hear directly from Greg Fisher about his amazing project. You can hear his approach and more details about the home on the BS+ Beer show’s interview  from Dec 11, 2020 – Millhaus: A Mild Climate Case Study

Expanded Capabilities with Alpen’s New Manufacturing Facility

Shopping local and supporting local businesses has become a big concept in our world, and as a small business ourselves, we love that so many people want to support local businesses like ours. It’s even more exciting when we can also support local businesses in the products we offer, which is why we’re so excited about Alpen High Performance Products! (And, with their recent move to a new facility in Louisville, Colorado, they’re literally right around the corner!)

Alpen is a U.S. based window and door manufacturer that offers some of the most energy-efficient fenestration products you can get today! They have over 40 years of experience, which has led them to be an industry leader. We’re proud to carry their products, equipping our customers to build energy-efficient buildings. 

Alpen recently moved to a new facility in Louisville, Colorado (voted a top city in the U.S. to live!) as part of their long-term growth plan. This new facility is 59,000 square feet and is nearly 40 percent larger than their previous facility. 

Consolidation

They’ve now combined their glass (IGU) fabrication, frame fabrication, and paint divisions all under the same roof. They’ve also created space for a larger shipping and receiving dock and updated offices. What a difference this will make for faster communication, better understanding of the various processes, and ultimately a better result for our clients! 

Automation

One of Alpen’s investments within this new facility is machinery to automate manufacturing processes. They’ve invested heavily in automation machinery and equipment in fiberglass cutting and drilling, uPVC welding and paint functions  – something their old setup did not include. 

Greater Capacity

The increase in space and streamlined production allows for Alpen to run even more efficiently. The new facility also provides for increased IGU production, which can now be manufactured in the same space! They have also increased their production capabilities for fiberglass frames, plus improved paint booths and plasma prep on finishes in this new space.

Quality Control

Having every department under the same roof allows for greater quality control. The Alpen team has added staff and improved training, tightening their quality control procedures. Alpen has also put a tremendous amount of focus and energy into the fiberglass paint and painting process they will be using moving forward.

Showroom

The Louisville facility also has room for a new showroom that is in the works. Given the proximity of the new facility to many of our clients, we’re excited to be able to showcase the latest products and offerings from this leader in energy-efficient windows and doors! One of Alpen’s new products includes the WinSert window insert! More information will be coming regarding this exciting new product for energy retrofits.

Certified Excellence – Continued

The new facility is also exciting because Alpen is the first US manufacturer to be PHIUS certified, and the first North American manufacturer to be dually certified by both PHIUS and PHI. Alpen will continue to manufacture these high-performance fenestration products in their new facility.

What does this mean for us?

This facility upgrade means better communication, enhanced quality control, greater throughput, and shorter lead times resulting in improved products moving forward. All of this means a better experience for our customers. The fact that we’re just a hop, skip, and a jump away from this new facility makes it even more fun for us to develop and grow our long-standing relationship with Alpen. 

We’ve been selling Alpen products, like the Tyrol and Zenith lines, for around seven years. We’re excited to see the new innovation that comes out of this brand as they move forward. More than that, we’re excited to offer our customers a great experience as a result of this new facility and the great team over at Alpen. 

Curious to see how Alpen windows and doors can support your next construction project? When this 800-pound gorilla called COVID is under better control, we will look forward to scheduling a factory tour.  In the meantime, please chat with our team to see how you can get the very best in energy efficiency from not only our local company, AE Building Systems, but also from a local manufacturer, Alpen High Performance Products! 

Please contact AE Building Systems by calling 720.287.4290 or emailing info@aebuildingsystems.com.

Call it a Granny Flat, a Mother-in-Law Suite, a She Shed, a Man Cave, or whatever you want, an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) has become the BIG THING in residential architecture today. ADUs have become a popular feature in homes from city neighborhoods to rural properties, and they make a lot of sense when you dig into the benefits. What we’re seeing, though, is that people not only want to build these additional living spaces on their property, but they want to build it in an efficient manner so that it works for them in the long term.

What is an ADU?

An ADU is an additional living space added to a property, containing all the essential functions of a normal house. They are a solution to the need for affordable housing, population density, and multi-generational living solutions. As the need and interest has grown, many local governments are passing new laws and regulations, allowing for more homeowners to build and rent ADUs. 

Why are ADUs so popular?

ADUs have risen in popularity in recent years for many reasons. Here are just a few of the top reasons why people are considering adding this accessory dwelling to their property:

Sharing Economy: As sites like Airbnb and VRBO become more popular for travelers or short-term renters, there is a need for smaller living spaces that are versatile. These are great income generators for existing homeowners.

Aging Population: As Baby Boomers become the largest aging population we’ve seen, many seniors are opting to live near their family but not fully with their family. ADUs make that possible in a simple way. 

Affordable Housing: Many municipalities have experienced higher housing costs, and the shortage often falls in the category of smaller apartments and affordable options. Adding more ADUs within existing neighborhoods allows for a simple solution for employees to live near where they work. 

Tiny Living: Most ADUs are smaller in nature (compared to the main house on a property) and are often less than 900 square feet. The recent popularity of tiny homes and minimalism has made this smaller living style more popular at large. 

Increased Property Values: An ADU increases the property value significantly. It’s an investment in a property that easily brings in a return, so it’s often a no-brainer for homeowners who are considering adding an ADU. 

Passive Income: Long-term renters are looking for an alternative to multi-family units such as apartment communities, especially during COVID-19, and a sense of their own space that is not communal. ADUs are a source of passive income to families.

Work From Home: With so many employees working from home (not to mention all the kiddos doing school from home, too), many Americans have turned their ADU into a home office space. An ADU gives you options! 

Don’t Just Build an ADU… Build an ADU That Works For You!

Many people get excited about the prospect of building out an ADU, but they don’t realize that by building an energy-efficient structure, they can actually make the building work FOR them even more than they thought. 

Waste Not Want Not

Suppose you’re using an ADU with renters, whether short-term or long-term folks, you don’t always get people who care about decreasing their energy load. Depending on the rental situation, you don’t necessarily charge renters for utilities. If you build an ADU that incorporates energy efficiency, one with passive house principles, and is built to last, you can help offset your investment. Instead of spending your income gained on utility bills and other regular maintenance projects, you can pocket that money as income or pay for the investment quicker! 

Thinking Outside of the Box

One of our friends, Bill Lucas, decided to build an ADU as a second level to his detached garage in a city neighborhood. While he built the structure with a lot of energy-efficient methods in the insulation, wall structure, window selection, and roof selection, he also considered how his ADU could help make his main house more efficient too. His main house is an older home, and the configuration/layout of the roof did not allow for the use of solar panels. However, the roof of the ADU DOES allow for solar panels. As such, he configured the electrical wiring so that the solar panels on the ADU can not only support the ADU itself, but also help cover the electrical load on the main house. Check out this tour and interview with Bill Lucas to get an insider view of his project.

Do the Right Thing

For many of us building energy-efficient Passive House buildings, we do it largely because it’s the right thing to do. Many homeowners building a brand new Passive House will add an ADU into their design and are intentional about making sure the envelope of every aspect of the build is done right from the start. Many homeowners retrofitting an existing space realize the shortcomings in the original structure and want to build the new ADU the right way from the start. 

Education

Have you ever stayed at a really unique dwelling? Many travelers purposely seek out unique situations to stay in, like converted lighthouses, treehouses, and other extraordinary spaces. While your ADU rental might look like a normal house to the naked eye, it could be a great educational tool and a great marketing tool for future renters. Educate your renters on the features of the home, the story of the ADU, and some simple things that can be done to retrofit any space to be more energy efficient. 

Here are just a few of our favorite rentals that are not only leveraging their energy efficiency, but they are also educating in the process. 

1. Award-winning Passive House on secluded mountainside
2. Phoenix Haus-Powderhorn Mtn Resort 
3. Earthship Off-Grid Rentals

If you’re considering adding an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) to your property, now is the time to dream. Go explore what others are doing to get ideas. See if there are ways you can leverage the structure to work for you, as well as your pocketbook. See if there are out-of-the-box ways to build the structure so that it works even smarter for you in the long run. Do your research now to make a smart plan for your ADU! 

Remember, we’re here to help. Together, let’s think through different options for construction, energy-efficient materials, and what people you need on your team. We enjoy dreaming with people about their next energy-efficient space, and we’d love to do it with you!

If ever there was a time where we cared about our air quality, it’s now. With the recent pandemic, airborne illnesses have caused a huge spike in air quality considerations for construction. Many universities are moving classes to occur in spaces that already have higher quality ventilation; plus, commercial spaces are retrofitting and improving their ventilation systems to meet higher standards, and everyone is aware of the air they breathe. So, it makes sense that people are also thinking about this in their homes too! That’s why the CERV-UV has been such a revolutionary product for our industry and why we’re loving the results it’s bringing to our customers. 

Breathe Easy With the Help of Build Equinox

Build Equinox released the CERV-UV Ultraviolet Air Purification this last year, which is the latest big addition to the CERV family. They’ve been researching the UVGI (Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation) in recent years, and have incorporated that learning to create the world’s first smart ventilation system that includes integrated UVGI. It’s smart, it’s healthy, and it’s innovating homes like never before! 

Effective Kill Efficiency

Ventilation systems have been notorious for spreading germs and contaminants that affect air quality in a home. CERV has done a great job at improving this, but the introduction of UV to their already great system has been a game-changer! How well does UV work? It all depends on the lamp power and air velocity. This system has selected the lamp power in relation to typical CERV airflow to achieve a good first pass kill efficiency of 85%. UVGI radiation breaks up genetic material in microbes, thus providing a deeper layer of health to your home. These microbes are huge culprits for allergies, poor IAQ, and airborne disease transmission. The CERV UV uses an 18W UVGI light source made of titanium oxide doped quartz glass, so it does not produce ozone either.

A SMART Solution

The CERV UV system is not only great for indoor air quality; it’s also a no-brainer when it comes to simplifying your life. Between their touchscreen panel and mobile app, you can maintain control from anywhere. You can also see analytics on your air quality at any time and manage parts and service options as well. 

Maintenance

The primary consideration to maintain a system like the CERV UV system is to remember that you’ll need to replace the bulb on an annual basis. This helps ensure that the UV light is working fully to your advantage. 

Interested in using this system in your home? 

Whether you’re looking at a retrofit scenario or a new build, the CERV UV system is a superb option. Our team can help you figure out what you need and what specifications to include in an order. We can also answer any questions you might have about your own unique situation.