Once the majority of the structural framing is complete, we tackle the critical areas that affect its performance: air-sealing, insulation, and efficient mechanical systems. In a house that has a complicated air barrier like ours, some of the air-sealing and insulating happens during framing, so sequencing is key to not overlooking important air-sealing details. Once the performance of the building envelope is maximized and the mechanical systems are as efficient as possible, the amount of PV needed to take an all-electric house net-zero is more attainable. The goal isn't to just put a lot of solar panels on a roof-it's to use as little energy as possible and then offset this energy use to create a zero-net-energy (ZNE) home that is also comfortable and healthy. As Dave always says, it makes sense to go after the low-hanging fruit of efficiency first!
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