A recent Danielsen Construction home was featured in two new articles: in the Green Energy Times and in Contracting Business. The project is an experimental home for Habitat for Humanity. It proves that energy efficiency and an immense reduction of energy bills is possible for about the same construction costs as a conventional home. These results are replicable at scale and should and most certainly will become a new standard in the construction of new homes.
“We’re not doing anything crazy here, […] there were no expensive building materials or methods used. We installed basic equipment, and employed best practices.”
There were no restrictions on energy use, the occupants were encouraged to make their home comfortable.
“It costs less to power this house for a year than the average home in California for two months,” said Tom Danielsen who has been adopting net-zero as the goal early in the design process and keeping his projects simple, without sacrificing comfort or convenience.
Danielsen kept the project on budget, his heat pump design trimmed 50 percent from the HVAC cost, allowing more money to be invested in other areas, primarily insulation. None of the techniques Danielsen implements are radical, but each small improvement builds on the next, adding up to substantial energy savings. The secret: a tight building envelope, a correctly-sized HVAC system, smart ductwork design, robust insulation, and finally selecting and properly installing the correct appliances and systems.
