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Building a modern home in the woods

johnnyrodgers.is

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Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#251

Post by mips_avatar »

crowbahr wrote: post #69
MezzoDelCammin wrote: post #50

"The bigger issue was that the energy demands for the house, which included hot water heating for the pool and hot tub, outstripped the electrical supply we could get on a rural residential build: 400A" Am I the only one who almost spit out his coffee when reading this paragraph? I mean, building a remote home in the middle of a forest is a cool idea, sure. But then end up feeding the whole thing with 400A worth of e…

As a European you probably don't have an outdoor heated pool & hot tub in a frigid northern climate. I also think it's ridiculous, for what it's worth. 400A is a wild amount of electricity for a supposedly high efficiency, modern home.

You'll find a hot tub/sauna in most Scandinavian cabins.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#252

Post by belval »

> BC Hydro’s solar payback plan is regressive: generation on grid-tied installations only allows you to pay your bill down to $0. You cannot earn money or credit for producing more than you use.

It's not regressive, it's because BC is not California and peak power consumption in the mid-late afternoon is not a thing. Paying people to feed the grid when the sun shine just doesn't make sense in that region.

I'm usually pretty cool with these success blog post, but something about this one really makes me angry. It feels like the author just consider himself to be above the people that actually lives there.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#253

Post by rootusrootus »

cols wrote: post #168

Beautiful house and there was a day I would have been extremely jealous but... I live in Oregon and in 2020 chose to (was not officially in an evac zone but the smoke was awful) evacuate when the horrible Beachie Creek and Lionshead [0] fires ripped through the Santiam Canyon. Houses that my wife and I had looked at possibly purchasing were torched, as well as some of the most pristine ancient forest I've seen [1]. M…

Funny, I've actually considered buying property in that area now that it's been cleared of houses. With a bit of planning, it should be possible to make it more resistant to another wildfire roaring through. I'd still build myself a couple of contingency plans anyway, of course, and buy good insurance.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#254

Post by carabiner »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #210

First comment from my partner was “I don’t know if this is the Parasite house of an Apple Store” :-). But really, so many weird decisions here that make no sense: why would you put your kid’s bed next to your bedroom in a new build? Why the bathrooms next to the bedrooms for your kid? Why cement floors and no floor heating? How did you end up at 400A/96kw of service (my car charges slower than that!). Why not buildin…

It's the REI HQ: https://www.geekwire.com/2020/facebook-buys-reis-new-hq-367m...

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#255

Post by cromulent »

mips_avatar wrote: post #251
crowbahr wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a European you probably don't have an outdoor heated pool & hot tub in a frigid northern climate. I also think it's ridiculous, for what it's worth. 400A is a wild amount of electricity for a supposedly high efficiency, modern home.

You'll find a hot tub/sauna in most Scandinavian cabins.

Yeah, but wood-heated right, and emptied before it goes solid.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#256

Post by petters »

MezzoDelCammin wrote: post #50

"The bigger issue was that the energy demands for the house, which included hot water heating for the pool and hot tub, outstripped the electrical supply we could get on a rural residential build: 400A" Am I the only one who almost spit out his coffee when reading this paragraph? I mean, building a remote home in the middle of a forest is a cool idea, sure. But then end up feeding the whole thing with 400A worth of e…

I have 3*25A in a relatively old, three-story house in Sweden. Heated with a heat pump. I assumed 400A was a typo but apparently not? I guess it makes sense considering the heating of the pool, the large surface area and maybe an EV.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#257

Post by cromulent »

dleslie wrote: post #156
nostromo wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A heated pool for a single-family home in the wilderness seems particularly decadent and indulgent. It looks like they wanted a California house, with flat a roof and giant windows, in the Canadian Wilderness. But there's a reason houses in the mountains look the way they do. This house looks as out-of-place as a ski chalet would on the beach in San Diego. In any case, it looks as if they have enough money not to car…

In Pemberton, no less. An outdoor pool, _very_ large windows, open/not-enclosed outdoor patios, etc etc. They've basically planned to heat the outdoors when it is below 0C a few months out of the year; and most of the year it's below 18C. And all that exposed, non-insulated concrete. The thermal mass they have to heat is practically unbounded. Bonkers. They're going to have a hell of the time with the weathering on t…

Single-glazed windows, by the look of it. I was expecting triple.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#258

Post by [deleted] »

jannyfer wrote: post #54
milesvp wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I saw those flat roofs, and talk of whistler, and thought what a nightmare. Peaked roofs exist for a reason. I wonder what their snow strategy is? Because one day of rain on top of several feet of snow causes severe structural strain if it can’t just slide down.

The last photo is in snow... I wonder if they actively melt snow on the roof?!

[deleted]

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#259

Post by pbuzbee »

cols wrote: post #168

Beautiful house and there was a day I would have been extremely jealous but... I live in Oregon and in 2020 chose to (was not officially in an evac zone but the smoke was awful) evacuate when the horrible Beachie Creek and Lionshead [0] fires ripped through the Santiam Canyon. Houses that my wife and I had looked at possibly purchasing were torched, as well as some of the most pristine ancient forest I've seen [1]. M…

Yes, I'm also looking at buying a house in California, but I too am afraid to buy a home anywhere that could realistically burn in the next 10-30 years. It's a shame since it rules out many of the best (and more affordable) areas of the state.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#260

Post by DeRock »

shtopointo wrote: post #125

Google "climate change site: https://johnnyrodgers.is/ "

I did that and found: https://johnnyrodgers.is/On-Earth

I honestly cannot connect the person who wrote the above with the one who designed and built what is an absurdly inefficient unnatural mansion in what used to be some pristine wilderness. Talk about cognitive dissonance.

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