Kill’n a hog….an Energy Hog

Our home as it was purchased in 2005

Back in 2005 my wife and I purchased this ranch with a walk out basement. It is/was your typical 1960′s stick built home. Very low levels of insulation, single pane aluminum windows, with an unfinished basement and a huge backyard for the area, with lots of old growth trees. The view out of the dinning room window was the selling point. Some other nice amenities is that it is in a developed neighborhood with schools that are within walking distance, grocery within a mile. The town also has a very active year round farmers market. Plus the home was the mid point between both of our jobs at that time and is relatively close to a bus route.

The back of our home as it was purchased in 2005

However during the home inspection we found some troubling things. There was little to no insulation in the attic, the basement walls were uninsulated. And what makes that even worse is the fact that half of the house foundation is above ground. Not to mention the aging heating and cooling equipment. So we looked at this house as a blank slate, giving us the opportunity to not only renovate the home to fit our needs, but to do everything in an environmentally friendly way and to do it within our limited budget.

So this is where “Symbiotic Home” originally began. A website to help educate others on what can be done to green their existing home. Now with a good portion of the projects done, I will be developing this new series of posts that will backtrack and document each of the projects that we have tackled, and will even discuss future projects that we would like to accomplish. Giving you a glimpse of what we have been doing, how we have been doing it, and why as we green this energy pig.

So follow my home renovations as I walk the walk and show that green/sustainable construction can happen on the typical working families budget and I look forward to the discussions that this may create.

-Josh

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Sym-Home Re-Launched

Symbiotic Home (sym-home) has expanded upon its mission of documenting the “Greening” of a typical 1960’s home on a modest budget prioritizing projects in terms of needs, environmental benefits and financial paybacks.

Sym-Home is now providing residential design services, home energy audits and consulting. Sym-Home specializes in energy efficient, healthy & durable homes. Joshua Lloyd, owner of sym-home, draws from a decade’s worth of experience in the architectural field. In addition, his experience includes producing construction documents and coordinating LEED documentation for Ohio’s first LEED Platinum Home, located in Columbus, Ohio.

Sym-Home also provides home energy audits, helping home owners to take control of their homes energy usage by providing them the appropriate information after a thorough inspection and test on the home to see where the most energy is used and prioritize a list of recommended projects in terms of financial payback. Joshua Lloyd, is a certified Building Analyst through the Building Performance Institute (BPI) to conduct home energy audits.

Sym-Home also provides consulting services to homeowners, builders and other design professionals. Sym-Home can assist project teams with issues related to high performance structures, from building science issues, schematic level energy modeling for both commercial and residential structures, and LEED documentation and coordination.

Sym-Home considers residential design and home energy audits as a complimentary service to each other, especially for home owners looking to renovate or add on to an existing home. Home energy auditing tools can be a valuable resource during the design and construction phases of a new home and renovation.

For those of you who have been following the renovation process, we will be re-posting all the projects with more images and information regarding each project in a series called “To Kill an Energy Hog”

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Video Friday: Geek Builds Green

I am always telling people with green design and construction, you have to draw a line in the sand somewhere with what goals you are going to try and obtain for any project. Are you going to focus on energy efficiency, indoor air quality, renewable materials, etc.

Catherine Mohr makes her decisions to building a green home by analyzing the numbers and examining the embodied energy of the materials and systems going into the home. So watch her presentation, and ask yourself this; if you are building a new home home, what is important to you, and where would you draw the line?

Catherine Mohr builds green

Check out Catherine Mohr’s blog as she ventures into green home building.

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Who’s Next?

Partially to give me something to do, and partially to help build my portfolio, I entered the FreeGreen.com “Who’s Next?” green home design competition. FreeGreen.com has been attempting to bring progressive home designs to mainstream America by offering free home plans to download. However the “Who’s Next?” competition is intended to kick off the launch of a new plans site with designs that are for purchase.

With over 400 entrants, the competition is stiff. Public voting began on March 2nd 2010, and will close on March 18th. The top 3 submissions will receive $5,000, a chance to develop the design and offer it on their new for sale plans site. All entries are 1,800 square feet or less and in two separate categories. The first, “The Starter House” for a young married couple looking to expand their family. The second “The Not So Empty Nest” for an older retired couple looking to downsize, yet still want to accommodate family gatherings and take into consideration potential mobility issues by the homeowner. I had the chance to enter a submission in both categories, one with an old co-worker and friend, as well as a submission on my own. So please take some time to review my submissions as well as others, and I would appreciate your support and vote. You can vote for each entry once per email address.

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A New Purpose

Again I have been absent from the blogging world. With all good reason this time around. At the first of the year, I have found myself in the same position as many others in the architectural profession, searching for employment. Even though I am looking for a full time job, I am not hopeful. I know too many that are unemployed and just heard about a couple more firms that have let people go. However I am looking at this as a great opportunity not only for myself, but my family and taking this opportunity to take my passion and knowledge to the next level. As a few professionals in this video I came across last week, I am making Lemonade and am going to be transforming Symbiotic Home from a personal project, to a home performance business.

Symbiotic Home (sym-home) will be offering residential design services, as well as energy auditing, home performance contracting and LEED consulting (both at the residential and commercial level). Luckily in the state of Ohio, an architectural license is not required to practice residential design work. So until I complete my Architectural Registration Exam (ARE), design services will be limited to new homes and home renovations/additions.

In the mean time I am running what we jokingly refer to as Daddy Daycare. Staying home with my two kids to help cut our costs until I can start bringing in some real money. Last week I attended a week long training session in Cleveland to become a BPI Building Analyst, which will give me the training and certification to perform energy audits. The written exam was a piece of cake. Now the 4-6 week waiting period to find out the results of my field exam. I am confident that I passed, as I see it as a great additional service for future clients. Especially when Ohio adopts the 2009 Energy code (more about that in a later post).

Therefore in the meantime “The other side of the drawing board” is going to get incorporated into the Symbiotic Home website with a hopeful relaunch of the site in the next couple of weeks. So stay tuned for a whole new look and purpose.

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sym-home

Kill’n a hog….an Energy Hog

Sym-Home Re-Launched

Video Friday: Geek Builds Green

Catherine Mohr builds green

Who’s Next?

Read the rest of this entry »

A New Purpose

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