The Sun-Tempered Super-Insulated Home (or - The Super-Insulated Home)
Location: Yestermorrow classroom & Warren building site

Instructor: Robert Riversong

Course Description

This class will explore various super-insulation strategies - examining the pros and cons of each - but will focus on the one I have found to meet all the criteria for a sustainable and healthy building system. These criteria include: conventional construction, efficient use of forest resources and recycled material, minimal use of non-renewables, uninterrupted thermal blanket, breathable, fire/insect/rodent/mildew resistant, healthy indoor environment, and cost-effective. This system is the modified Larsen truss system using native lumber, cellulose insulation and passive solar design. A moderate-sized home can be heated with less than a cord of wood per year, with about half the heat load supplied by the sun. Such a house is uniformly comfortable and quiet in winter, naturally cool in summer, and well-ventilated without high-tech equipment.

This will be a hands-on class helping to build the thermal envelope of an off-grid cabin. In addition to the daily field work on the project, the class will explore the principles of heat loss and heat gain in building envelopes, the characteristics of insulation materials and insulation systems and their effects on the living environment. You will learn to perform a heat-loss analysis on a wall section and an entire house plan and calculate the solar and internal gains from passive strategies. We will consider the embodied energy of building materials as well as their contribution to future energy savings, health effects of materials and design, the importance of ventilation both inside and outside the thermal envelope, and the efficient use of forest products in building design and construction.

Course Objectives

The students will have an opportunity to explore the theories of heat loss, insolation, insulation, healthy indoor environment, and sustainable resource use. They will learn the methods for analysis of heat loss and internal gains, passive solar gain, and be introduced to cost/benefit analysis and the concept of ecological footprint. We will also investigate a variety of design details and construction methods for passive solar super-insulated homes, discuss their pros and cons, and gain experience in the use of hand and power tools, building skills, and the application of the classroom experience in a real world project.

Suggested/Required Reading

Books:

Sun/Earth Buffering and Superinsulation, by Don Booth, 1983, Community Builders, NH
available new or used at Amazon.com

Visual Handbook of Building and Remodeling, Charles Wing, Readers Digest; 1999
available new or used at Amazon.com

Articles:

"Superinsulation For The Masses", Mother Earth News, Issue #101 - Sep/Oct 1986

"Superinsulated Houses", Northeast Sun, journal of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, Fall 2001

"Energy-Tight Framing", Journal of Light Construction, Oct 2002

"Practical Details for Energy Efficiency", Journal of Light Construction, Feb 2001

Tools/Materials to Bring

Tools: carpenter's tool apron and basic hand tools, including 16-22 oz. Straight-claw framing hammer, 25' tape measure, speed square or combination square, cat's paw nail remover and flat bar or combination bar, carpenter's pencils, comfortable work gloves and leather work boots, eye protection, hearing protection, hard hat. Yestermorrow will have tools and equipment for students who don't have their own tools. Bring clothing for any weather - no rain days!

Course Schedule