Onsite Wastewater Treatment System: Work Commences!

Jeff checking out the new surge tank

AGB Team Member and Water Expert Extraordinaire, Bill Wilson, at work in the old septic tank

Site area for the Food Forest that will be irrigated by all the treated wastewater

This is what the BioPCM looks like installed

Installing the BioPCM insulation was simple, we stapled the sheets to the studs along the ceiling and walls. You can feel the difference in temperature when you walk into the room.

Welcoming Bosch-Thermador as our latest Project Partner

We are thrilled that Bosch-Thermador will be partnering with us to provide the kitchen appliances for the project.

Most appliances will come from the Bosch line, but both the refrigerator/freezer and the induction cooktop will be coming from the Thermador line.

Bosch-Thermador is not only known for the high quality and pleasing design of their products, but also their energy efficiency... of utmost importance to us for this Passive House project.  We are especially excited to be placing Thermador's "Freedom" induction cooktop in the kitchen.

Induction cooking is, hands down, the most energy efficient way to cook.  Europe has been utilizing induction cooking for a long time, but movement towards induction cooking is growing fast in the U.S.  It has been described as similar to cooking with gas but is actually electric, and electric allows for a quicker cook time than with gas.  Faster cooking is good not only for convenience, it also reduces the potential for unwanted heat to accumulate in the kitchen.

One wonderful feature that the Freedom cooktop has is that you can place pots/pans anywhere on the surface to cook and the cooktop recognizes where they are placed. It also comes with a full-color, touch screen interface.  Fun cooking! Click on the image of the cooktop below to learn more about the Freedom Induction Cooktop.

Thermador "Freedom" Induction Cooktop 

Our New Project Partner - AEP Span

We are pleased to announce AEP-Span as a new Project Partner! They will be providing us their Design Span®hp product for our Standing Seam metal roofing. We have specifically selected the color of "Metallic Champagne" not only for its incredible beauty but also its cool-roof qualities. With a very high solar reflective index (SR) of 52 we can be sure that the roof material helps keep our roof assembly cool in the hot summer months, helping us achieve our Passive House goals of dramatically reducing or even (hopefully) eliminating any mechanical cooling requirements.

Successful BioPCM workshop last week

Here is a picture from the workshop at Casa Aguila last week with our friends at Sustainability Matters and Phase Change Energy Solutions. The workshop was held to discuss the use of bioPCM in the project (you can see some installed in the roof assembly here, the white material) which has the thermal mass of 12 inches of concrete but is flexible and lightweight. The bioPCM will dramatically reduce requirements for heating/cooling and make for a much more comfortable home.

Welcome to our latest Project Partner, CertainTeed

We just had all of our CertainTeed "AirRenew" Drywall delivered to the jobsite, ready to be installed after we completed insulating and then installation of bioPCM.  We are excited to have CertainTeed come on board as Project Partners, and this will be our first opportunity to utilize AirRenew drywall in a project.

The AirRenew® family of products are the only gypsum boards that actively clean  the air. They feature the industry’s first formaldehyde-absorbing technology which actively removes formaldehyde from the air, converting it into a safe, inert compound, improving indoor air quality for generations

Blower Door Success!

Congratulations to Jesse Heilig, our Site Supervisor / Project Manager, for obliterating his target of 354 cfm @ 50-pascals of air leakage (depressurization) prior to insulation stage. He measured at 148 cfm, that represents just over 0.25 ACH (Air Changed Per Hour) and our max threshold for Passive House is 0.6 ACH. We bet there isn't better air sealed home in all of San Diego County. Even for Passive House, this is an extraordinary outcome.   Thanks go  to one of our Project Partners, Prosoco, for providing us their R-Guard system for air-sealing the envelope.

On to insulation installation today!  And assuring nobody drills a hole in our envelope and messes up our future blower door test results.

The Record of Proof

AGB New Champion and Record Holder

Jesse setting up the Blower Door

Some Envelope Penetrations utilizing Prosoco R-Guard System

Current Photo at Casa Aguila

The Insulation Truck Arrival