Arlington County Government, VA Environment, 4 Jun 2015

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From YouTube: How to Build a Better Home - Living in the Passive House

Description

In the concluding segment, green homebuilder Patty Shields talks about the lessons learned from building a totally passive house and we hear from the perspective of the homeowner. The segment is introduced by Arlington County AIRE Green Home Choice program manager Helen Reinecke-Wilt. http://freshaireva.us/2011/11/greenhomechoice/. Links to all nine segments can be found at http://environment.arlingtonva.us/energy/how-to-build-a-better-home/

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Hello, I'm helen Reineke wilt of Arlington County's initiative to rethink energy and green home choice program you're about to watch one of a series of videos. We call how to build a better home, the story of the construction of a passive house. We hope you'll find some useful tips about making your home greener and more cost efficient, whether you're building a new home or simply upgrading your present one. Here's green home builder, patty shields of Metro green.

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About lowering your energy bills consume.

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Less energy in water, we take up a look less.

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Carbon footprint more comfortable and super quiet.

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You will reap the rewards for the life of the home, I. Think.

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It'd be great: if people see homes like this and think about green design, when they're building a home.

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So now we're done and they've moved into the house and it's beautiful and what they're enjoying right now after a pretty difficult and cold winter, is a house where they are comfortable a day in and day out, whether they're, standing next to a window or sitting on the couch or sitting in their kitchen or walking through their basement and that's important comfort is important. But comfort and energy efficiency are two things that can go hand-in-hand.

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Really great to be in the house now we love it. It's fantastic! This the spaces are great and it's it's very comfortable. We love the light. It's very easy house to live in. This has been quite a test this winter. It's been one of the coldest a couple of weeks and months and record, but it's been very comfortable inside every house we've lived in before this. We would feel drafts when the wind was blowing and- and you don't get any of that- it's very even temperature.

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It's super quiet. We never hear the HVAC come on. We don't hear noises outside. We don't hear jets, we're in the flight path, the national here and but we don't hear the planes at all. We barely hear a car going by or truck going by, the house, so it's nice and quiet. But if I was an owner thinking about building a house, why would I consider an energy-efficiency? Well, you know to me that one of the first reasons is already concerned with the environment.

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Housing housing uses up a big chunk of the energy in this country and if you're gonna build a house, why not building build something that can help protect the environment and contribute to the less energy use? Less global warming impact the.

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Passivhaus standard is incredibly rigorous, but there are many principles in this house that carry over to every single house and every single home project, whether it's a renovation, a remodel or a new home.

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You know making sure that we are keeping air from coming in the house, so making sure your windows are sealed, really well making sure you have the right amount of insulation, making sure that you have good day lighting in the house, so that not only can you see but you're getting the benefits of the Sun you're, getting the benefits of the Sun in the winter, to keep your house warm and with proper shading you can keep the house cool in the summer.

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These are all things that any project can can use. Thinking back to the way we've been building, you know, for the last there years we're still building walls with two-by-fours and sheathing.

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The outside and that that white house wrap that everyone sees those were good technologies in 1980, but they're, not good technologies. Today this is the science of building a better house. Science advances so building science advances, and these are things that every builder and every homeowner can implement in their home without great cost, because at the end of the day, is not about the fancy mechanical systems. We have it's about. Building a better house and I feel really proud that we've been able to do that here in this house.

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I think the homeowners are happy about it and I really hope that he can serve as a model from things going forward in the county. It certainly is a model for me going forward as a builder.

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That's really up to current standards. You know the state of the art in terms of what you can do with the house. It just didn't didn't make sense to me to build a house and use old old technology when we know how to build much better houses. Now I.

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The end result is fantastic. That's a wonderful house for very pleased.

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If you would like more information on the green home choice program, please visit our website at Arlington energy, dot, u.s., slash, green home choice or call us at 7:03, two, two, eight four, seven, nine, two: four: the air and green home choice programs, I'm helen Reineke, wilt,.