Storage under stairs to loft

Today is Part 2 of Victoria’s exploration of Ahalani, an owner-designed and built eco-friendly home in Long Island. Read Part 1 and Part 3.

Campbell and Catherine served as general contractors for the building of their home, Ahalani, with Catherine directing the building for the last several months when Campbell returned to his teaching position. In the process of researching, designing, and building, they found 7 primary challenges in constructing their home. These principles highlight the interconnectedness of the whole house into an integrated whole.

#1: Energy Efficiency
Energy Efficiency is made up of several elements that are integrated into a dynamic energy system. 

• Passive solar energy which enters through south facing windows, letting in solar light and heat during the day. 
• An air tight building structure to trap the passive solar energy within its walls. They achieved a tight seal through using SIPS (Structurally insulated wall panels) wall construction and Anderson windows. SIPS panels are efficiently manufactured and utilize trash wood (sapling trees) from sustainably managed forests.
• Thermal Mass: The heat, both passive solar and geothermal is stored in their concrete slab floor and 22 ft. high, painted concrete wall. These two components are the core of the house, storing heat. 
• Active solar system: the roofing panels are laminated with a solar cell material.  Each cell absorbs solar energy autonomously, regardless of shadows or snowfall.
• Geothermal heating/cooling system, with a Desuperheater heat exchange unit. Also, a fireplace will potentially contribute heat in winter.
• Air Circulation: An air exchanger continuously circulates air, flushing stale air out of the house and bringing in fresh outdoor air.  A heat exchange unit on it warms the air coming in and a HEPA filter traps microscopic particles.
• Insulation: SIPS wall panels, at 4” thick provide the equivalent insulating power of a 6” conventional stud wall, and they are also airtight because they’re manufactured as one piece.

I know all this may sound complex, but it’s really not. In learning about the components that make up an energy efficient home like Ahalani, I am becoming aware of all the requirements needed to live healthfully indoors.  It’s not so long ago that the term sick building syndrome was coined.  Now we know more than enough to create modern, indoor living spaces, using more human ingenuity than natural resources.

#2: Affordability
There’s a commonly held misconception that you must be wealthy to afford building an energy efficient solar home. Campbell and Catherine agreed to hire Bill Chaleff as the architect for Ahalani under one condition; that it cost no more than $100/ft2. They designed a house that would cost a total of $110,000. However, due to unforeseen rise in costs, it wound up costing $135/ft2. They’ve come up with 4 C’s, learned as a result of building to educate other homeowners:

• Cost of labor: Labor costs change over time, that has to be accounted for.
• Change: After something is built, as the homeowner you may realize that you want a feature, like a window moved maybe 6” over.  It costs more money to change it once it’s built.
• Corrections: The first framer on Ahalani built a stud door instead of a pocket door, which had to be fixed. He made other mistakes that totaled 25,000 to fix. Campbell had to absorb this in order to stay on schedule and get the house finished.
• Corruption: One subcontractor came with migrant workers who did not speak English. This created a lack a communication when one of the roof turrets was lowered. Also, the labor price that Campbell was billed was not what these workers received.

Campbell and Catherine emphasize searching for contractors who have integrity and who take pride in their work, no matter what. Overall changes in costs delayed the process and increased the price.  So the total cost in the end was $170,000. Still, considering that the typical home in Long Island costs upwards of 500,000, it seems to me that they did extraordinarily well!

#3: Environmental Friendliness
CFC bulbs are used throughout the house. Energy star appliances, eco-friendly fixtures, and a Climate Master geothermal pump were also bought.  Any material that subcontractors brought in was held up to this ideal.  Pressure treated lumber or anything that could potentially off gas was rejected. 

#4: Sustainability
Inspired by selective timbering practices of the Menominee tribe of Wisconsin, they cut down only the trees on their property required to build their home, reserving the trunk of the biggest Oak.  It now stands in the center of their home in the exact spot where it once grew. Also, the wood in the SIPS wall panels originate from sustainably managed forests.

They were attentive to the placement and type of trees planted around their home.  They kept deciduous trees on the south side which provides shade in the summer and when their leaves fall in autumn, lets the sunshine inside.  Coniferous trees live on the Northwest side which block winter storms.  There’s also a berm (mounded earth) located in front of the conifers acts which works with the conifers to redirect winter winds away from the house. 

They considered the tilt of the earth through the seasons in the house design.  The sun’s rays shift 47 degrees from June to December, that’s a lot of sun movement to play with. Campbell and Catherine note that with this information, anyone can design a house and yard that literally dances with the sun! 

#5: Mass Appeal
You don’t need to build a home that looks like a spaceship to achieve energy efficiency and eco-friendliness. Catherine and Campbell proved this point by hiding all the alternative sources and building something that includes old world charm like Queen Anne turrets, cathedral ceilings, and travertine tiles in the bathroom.  The main space is open and airy, yet there’s also spots to cozy up with a book and cup of coffee.

#6: Small but spacious, Mini but Mighty
They started with keeping the house footprint small (they could have legally built it a bit bigger all around), leaving more outdoor yard space.  More yard space in combination with building more windows that open up to it allows the feeling of spaciousness and openness while still being indoors. This design is in keeping with their philosophy of embracing nature, rather than wrestling with it. In comparison, a typical suburban home is built bigger, shrinking the yard space.  Homes are close to each other and homeowners keep their curtains drawn most of the time. This domino effect of design cuts occupants off from nature and discourages the feeling of space.

Indoors, they’ve employed strategies to fit lots of living into a small space.  So there are pocket doors which slide open and close, built-in shelving galore in the baby’s room, high ceilings to give an open sense of space, and repetition of windows to bring in light and give the illusion of space. For example, there are 6 windows in the baby’s room, and one of them looks out into the main living space which looks out a southern-facing window to the lake.

#7: A Healthy Home
We spend 80% of our lives indoors, so in thinking about what causes disease, what’s inside the home should be seriously considered. It’s imperative to choose building materials and household cleaners that don’t slowly poison indoor air. Catherine and Campbell made sure that the building materials they chose wouldn’t off-gas as they aged. So the composition of the concrete in their air radiant first floor doesn’t off gas; neither does the kitchen cabinetry. The paint has a low VOC level. They also have a policy of “shoes off” when coming inside to make sure that pesticide and herbicide residues don’t get spread around the rest of the house. They use no harsh detergents such as bleach or ammonia and a HEPA fresh air filter continuously exhausts stale, indoor air while filtering incoming outdoor air.

Tomorrow Victoria will share some of the resources Catherine and Campbell used in building their home.