81–90 of 133 posts
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> "The unit has produced a public awareness film urging people to ventilate their homes properly by ‘keeping vents or windows open when cooking, showering and cleaning..." Why showering?
Why cooking? Only minority of people in developed countries cook on gas nowadays.
The main reason to make a building airtight is for energy efficiency. But it's pointless to go to such lengths for airtightness if you have massive thermal bridges in the walls and roof in so many places. If you want to be really efficient, the insulation should be constant thickness with no nails or screws poking into it, and certainly no bits of wood across it. Since the insulation has no mechanical strength, that…
And unless you're building an ICF house, some minor thermal bridging is unavoidable. But it does not matter because you can just insulate more somewhere else to make up for it. Exterior foamboard insulation around the entirety of the house is already quite common and cost-effective.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Opening a window is free, and not everyone has the freedom to modify their living arrangements(rented houses etc)
Opening a window in winter in Wisconsin is very much not free... It's a classic OPEX vs. CAPEX tradeoff, plus the climate impact (of course building the ventilation system has a climate impact too, so there is a tradeoff there as well).
I'm curious about the "vent chute": the asphalt-coated fiberboard above the ceiling insulation, but set below the roof sheathing. It creates a cavity beneath the roof that is vented through the eaves. Anyone know why this is done?
Venting the roof is standard in new construction, to protect the roof structure from moisture and excessive heat. They did the fiberboard chute so they could densely pack blown-in cellulose. Otherwise the insulation wouldn't have a good surface to push against (you don't want the insulation to touch the roof sheathing). On typical homes with blown-in ceiling insulation the insulators will staple cardboard against the…
Do you know why this isn't done for walls as well? It seems like the cellulose is packed directly against both the interior and exterior surfaces of the walls.
Is it simply that hot air rises, and so it's needed more for the roof?
While always neat to read about, I have no idea how you'd ever build one of these homes where I live. If you look at new construction, the poor quality work usually means the the home doesn't even meet the existing weatherization standards. Not to mention you'd have to convince an inspector that everything done is to code. While I'm always impressed with such structures, they seem mostly out of reach for someone livi…
While always neat to read about, I have no idea how you'd ever build one of these homes where I live. If you look at new construction, the poor quality work usually means the the home doesn't even meet the existing weatherization standards. Not to mention you'd have to convince an inspector that everything done is to code. While I'm always impressed with such structures, they seem mostly out of reach for someone livi…
I keep hearing that, but those who are in the trade listen to engineers who have done real analysis. What looks good often is bad, what looks bad is often good.
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Aren’t there heat exchanging ventillation systems that do this (maybe even better) without wasting a ton of energy?
We had a good one like that in our previous apartment. They consist of a large cylindrical metal "heat sink" where cold air coming in goes through the bottom half, warm air going out leaves through the top half, and the entire thing rotates at ~ 5 RPM. Not any more noisy than regular kitchen ventilation. But they need to be big, ours was the size of a small dishwasher and that was adequate for a 75 square meter apart…
Why would you want airtight home (unless you are WW3 prepper)? Sounds to me like asking for problems with mold and stale air. But I guess I should not be surprised seeing supposedly intelligent people wearing face masks for health reasons.
Are you including doctors, nurses, vets etc during surgery?
While always neat to read about, I have no idea how you'd ever build one of these homes where I live. If you look at new construction, the poor quality work usually means the the home doesn't even meet the existing weatherization standards. Not to mention you'd have to convince an inspector that everything done is to code. While I'm always impressed with such structures, they seem mostly out of reach for someone livi…
> the poor quality work I keep hearing that, but those who are in the trade listen to engineers who have done real analysis. What looks good often is bad, what looks bad is often good.
It's interesting to me that hacker news likes building-related content so much, which happens to be my education other than... well, computers. Air tightness is a critical step forward. I'm glad we are talking about it. Thinking more holistically, I would not go with the double-stud wall. You get lots of thermal bridging, and when it gets cold, your outer studs freeze. I know it's considered a straightforward system,…