Halifax County, NS
Sheet Harbour Passage
Keywords: passive
I wanted to combine passive solar principles with timberframe's potential for open concept; seeking energy efficient environmentally clean house where I could live safely (chemical sensitivities)
After first winter here (granted it was an easy one with surprising mounts of sunshine) I am not too unhappy with my electricity bills...still under $800 which includes domestic hot water. Used perhaps a cord of wood as backup, often too warm to bother with the stove on thos sunny February days. Also higher than it would normally be because I had my ninety-year-old father here and had to keep house considerably warmer at night than I would have just for me.
ten acres total but the house is on a point, oceanfront (open water all winter), thick woods and hill behind house (north) but not amenable to berming
This is my wonderful bizarre staircase which winds around salvaged (Hurricane Juan, remember?) ash tree, one of the two central posts which run from slab 22 ft to the peak.
Two-story timberframe (timbers, exterior board & batten, and red pine ceiling courtesy of Hurricane Juan which flattened my woodlot in Debert...salvage!) 2" SM under slab and on exterior under siding, five inches of styrofoam on roof, six inch fibreglass batts interior. Slab is eight inches but fourteen deep for two feet around the perimeter. Four inch air ducts, HRV, electric furnace/fan, electrostatic filter
from the staircase one can see both levels...all open except for the two bathrooms and the downstairs bedroom I created for Dad when he decided to move in.
windows by Polytech (Baddeck): LowE, Argon, tripleglazed, ductwork by SunRoss Energy, Nortron furnace (Kerr)
Munroe Foundations, Ervin Beaver, master carpenter, Nathaniel Malay, electrician, Dufferin Mechanical, plumbing, John Ross, SunRoss Energy, Clarence DeCoste Burner Service,
email jmaybee@ns.sympatico.ca
Don Roscoe was right, of course, about the complications of timberframe and additional expense involved, but I'd still do it again because that's what I wanted. If the construction process hadn't been so chaotic I would have installed solar domestic hot water up front, because it will be much more difficult retrofitting.