The Pretty Good House • Hacker News Board

Re: The Pretty Good House

#231

Post by alfor » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 2:07 PM UTC

Is there open source plans?

It seem to me that we could have open source full plans for a few models of cost effective houses.

Then builders and prefab manufacturers could bid on the price and selection of parts to build it.

The houses I see builded here are terribly inefficient. Complex shape and roof lines with a lot of unused space. They are made to look like an old house that was upgraded multiple time instead of being one large rectangle or square with simple roof. Furthermore the ratio of exterior walls to inside space is far from optimum, resulting in larger material and heating cost than necessary.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#232

Post by nileshtrivedi » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 2:08 PM UTC

nordsieck wrote: post #110

jonasdegendt wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Frequent checking on the work and hounding the people to fix it. Isn't this partially what you pay your architect for? If you're willing to pay top dollar you should be able to find one that's very hands on and coordinates the whole building process as your representative.

>> Frequent checking on the work and hounding the people to fix it. > Isn't this partially what you pay your architect for? There simply isn't a way to eliminate the principal-agent problem.

If the agent insures the quality and is contractually bound to pay all expenses for repair and maintenance, that could avoid a major chunk of the principal-agent problem.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#233

Post by orthoxerox » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 2:09 PM UTC

itsoktocry wrote: post #146

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Invest 40-50 hours of your time, and do the following: 1) interview 5-6 contractors/builders; then, go look at 2-3 houses that they finished - you pick them, don't let them pick. Try to observe bad issues - here's a funny video about "snagging" [0]. 2) pick one. Ask a lawyer to draw a contract and have them sign it. The lawyer should be experienced in construction contracts. A good contractor/builder will be comforta…

> go look at 2-3 houses that they finished - you pick them, don't let them pick. Does this work in practice? How can you "pick them" without the builder telling you which houses they built? Do you expect people living in the houses to let you wander around their homes looking for contractor flaws?

You ask them for the last X houses they've built and pick randomly. People are generally happy to do this: this proves to them their house is good enough for their contractor to show to others and most people don't move into a finished house right away anyway.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#234

Post by bloak » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 2:10 PM UTC

tlb wrote: post #148

bloak wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd expect the insulating properties of a gas at normal temperatures and pressures to depend only on the molecular mass. That's 40 for argon, and 28 for nitrogen. This web page ( https://www.pressglass.com/noble-gases-and-thermal-insulatio... ) says the thermal conductivities are 0,026 W/(mK) for air and 0,018 W/(mK) for argon. 26/18 is about 1.44; 40/28 is about 1.43. So perhaps the conductivity is inversely proport…

The heat capacity of the gas depends on both mass and molecular structure. Atoms like argon have no structure, but molecules like O2 and N2 carry extra heat energy in their vibrating bond, so they have more heat capacity per unit mass.

That's a good point. Perhaps the result of that argon/nitrogen comparison was a coincidence, or perhaps heat capacity doesn't much affect thermal conductivity.

Here's an argument that heat capacity shouldn't affect thermal conductivity in a solid: imagine a block of material with a smooth temperature gradient through it and the temperature at any point remaining constant, so there is heat flowing through it. Now imagine you have some tiny beads of some other material with a super-high heat capacity. Distribute those beads throughout the block of material, preheating each bead to the correct local temperature before inserting it. Then intuitively it seems that neither any local temperature nor the rate of flow of heat through the block should change much. Yet the heat capacity of the new composite material is significantly higher than that of the original material. Does that argument make sense? I did physics at school but not since then!

Re: The Pretty Good House

#235

Post by moffkalast » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 2:14 PM UTC

zootboy wrote: post #10

Rebelgecko wrote: post #2

I always assumed that "defenestration" was one of those words like under/overwhelmed where it's only ever used with a prefix. Cool to see a book with a section on fenestration

There's a term for that: unpaired word https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unpaired_word

If a 'rebuttal' is an "instance of rebutting evidence or an accusation" then 'butting' ought to be making the said accusation.

And it seems being 'whelmed' is already in common use, as a mediocre middle ground feeling between over and underwhelmed.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#236

Post by Gravityloss » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 2:15 PM UTC

Here double pane has been the standard for about a century and triple pane after the eighties. No problems whatsoever. I don't even know what's the standard nowadays. Newer windows also quiet down traffic well and reduce the drafty feeling. So there are really very few excuses to not use them.

But I don't know what's the name of the phenomenon when someone who uses some primitive technology comes out with all kinds of esoteric reasons why they would not like to use these. Can't use an electric car. Can't use fluorescent or led lights. Can't use a heat pump. Can't use induction stoves. Can't put insulation into walls. Can't use double or triple or quadruple pane windows.

"Does light really come through a multiple pane window". Yes it does.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#237

Post by peteradio » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 2:16 PM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #193

93po wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one uses hardwood 2x4 for framing houses. If they did it'd add, at minimum, six figures to your home cost with effectively no benefit. You can absolutely choose between grades of 2x4, however, and if you're working with a builder you can specify with them.

> No one uses hardwood 2x4 for framing houses Not anymore, but we used to. Lumber was whatever trees were nearby. And cut to the size they were actually sold as.

In the USA, 2x4s were cut from old growth pine from southeastern Appalachia and railed all over. My home from the late 1800s was built with Southern Yellow Pine and I live in the Midwest. This is not technically a hardwood but in terms of density it is just as hard as most hardwoods because it has such tight rings (20-30 per inch).

Re: The Pretty Good House

#238

Post by mnw21cam » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 2:18 PM UTC

switch007 wrote: post #135

123pie123 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still amazed seeing "x panes" windows that are supoosed to be great with a "trinkle vent"/ aka adjustable gap - at the top of them to let air in/ out!!!

Exactly! I pleaded with the window company not to put vents in the new windows, as my house is already very draughty. They said it’s the law. They are cheap and poorly designed so they let in lots of noise too. And I had to tape them off because of the draught they let in even when closed.

A house does need ventilation. It's incredible how quickly humidity and carbon dioxide build up in an enclosed space from just breathing. The carbon dioxide is bad for you (reduces your ability to concentrate), and the humidity will have to condense out somewhere (on the coldest part of the house, which will usually be the windows, but wherever it is, it'll help mould to grow).

However, getting that ventilation using trickle vents in windows is just a stupid way to do it. You're letting all the heat vent out, and letting the noise in. A better way is with a mechanical ventilation heat recovery (MVHR) system. That sucks air out of some rooms (the bathroom and kitchen are recommended), and passes it through a heat exchanger before pushing it outside, while simultaneously pulling in fresh air from outside, heating it up in the heat exchanger (for free) and blowing it into other rooms (such as bedrooms and the lounge). This is the proper way to do it.

A MVHR system only really makes sense if your house is otherwise fairly non-leaky. However, if you do install it, then it can take over the bathroom and kitchen extraction, and it allows you to plug all those leaks and insulate well, without causing stale air problems.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#239

Post by literallycancer » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 2:21 PM UTC

carabiner wrote: post #11

I'm looking at building a home as a first time home owner in the next few years. One thing I'm wondering is how many headaches can I avoid if I just choose an expensive builder and not try to haggle or save a buck at every turn? I just want a 2-bedroom, 1,000 sq ft bungalow and am willing to pay 60-70% more than the average $/sqft in my city if they do a good job. I'd rather have a nice small place rather than a huge…

If you want to do things properly: you ("the investor") get a "investor's supervisor" which is a person that goes to the building site daily and checks that everything is done properly. For example every time there is something that's going to be covered up and not possible to inspect later, the contractor's crew has to wait for approval of the investor's supervisor before covering it up and continuing the work (simple example -- pouring foundations).

If they don't call your guy to sign off on it, he makes them redo that part. This is the only way to be sure they didn't just throw some garbage there or quickly covered up some shoddy work or usage of cheaper materials than agreed.

Note that you can't rely on the builder's supervisor for this, it has to be your guy. Some architects can come check the site and supervise a bit, however this is not enough and you still need an actual supervisor.

So you can kind of throw more money at it, but you still need to know what you're doing. Perhaps the closest to what you are saying is finding an architect that has reliable contractors in their rolodex. It won't save you from having to run the project properly, but there are going to be fewer issues.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#240

Post by tlb » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 2:27 PM UTC

bloak wrote: post #234

tlb wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The heat capacity of the gas depends on both mass and molecular structure. Atoms like argon have no structure, but molecules like O2 and N2 carry extra heat energy in their vibrating bond, so they have more heat capacity per unit mass.

That's a good point. Perhaps the result of that argon/nitrogen comparison was a coincidence, or perhaps heat capacity doesn't much affect thermal conductivity. Here's an argument that heat capacity shouldn't affect thermal conductivity in a solid : imagine a block of material with a smooth temperature gradient through it and the temperature at any point remaining constant, so there is heat flowing through it. Now ima…

Yes, I don't think they're strongly related in a solid.

But in a gas, heat transfer is mostly driven by convection. Gas near the hot surface heats up, rises, moves to the cold surface, falls, and repeats. So what matters is the specific heat capacity * the flow rate between hot and cold surfaces.