2021 Best of the Best Award Winner
Efficiency Vermont awarded our Ames Hill Passive House project the 2021 Best of the Best, Healthy Home Award for Residential New Construction. The awards are announced each year at Efficiency Vermont’s annual Better Buildings by Design conference, to celebrate leaders in delivering energy efficiency services to Vermonters. This project in Marlboro, Vermont was a collaboration with HELM, Mathes Hulme Builders, studioWebster, CPHC Chris Miksic, PHIUS Rater Karen Bushey, and many amazing consultants, trade contractors, and vendors.
Our team set out to design and build a primary residence that met the client's goals for their (5-person) family while also achieving Passive House certification. It wasn’t clear from the start whether or not going for certification would be viable given the budget restrictions and bank-loan financing limitations. We worked very closely as an integrated team throughout the design and planning process to incorporate cost-savings measures and provided numerous estimating “interventions” to stay on track. There was a significant effort to value engineer what we could, to ensure there were funds available for the desired energy goals. Each member of the team contributed towards getting the project over the finish line and ultimately PHIUS+ 2018 & PHIUS Source Zero certified!
Some of the specific challenges outside of the budget were dealing with a lot of ledge on site, resulting in a slab on grade in lieu of a full basement. As a result, we had to troubleshoot how to get sufficient R-value under the slab and needed to design around placing the heat pump hot water heater safely in the second-floor mechanical room. Hitting the PH airtightness standard was a challenge as this was our first certified Passive House, including detailing the air barrier details around windows and doors. Lastly, determining what the needs were for solar PV in advance and dialing in the optimum system for both budget and energy efficiency. Exceptional team communication, a lot of pre-planning during the design and pre-construction phase, utilizing a blower door at several critical milestones, mocking up window details in advance in the shop, and support from our CPHC and PHIUS rater all helped us to face and overcome these challenges. Not only did we meet the Passive House airtightness level but exceeded it.
This project was completed with indoor air quality in mind. The clients have three young daughters and keeping their home comfortable, safe, durable, and healthy were big priorities. After much deliberation, we decided to utilize the Minotair PentaCare V12 for our HRV and our primary heating and cooling source. This was both a cost savings measure compared to air source heat pumps + a ducted HRV, and the clients were excited about being innovative and seeing what this so called “magic box” could do. Finding a qualified and competent installer in our rural part of the state was the heaviest lift, but after reviewing the manual front to back, numerous site meetings to coordinate, and final commissioning efforts, the team (including the Owners) are happy with the results.
In addition to this being a fossil-fuel free building, we minimized foam insulation by utilizing only cellulose in the walls and ceilings with continuous smart air and vapor control membranes throughout. All applied finishes were low or zero VOC. The walls were plaster in lieu of sheetrock, left with a clear coat finish instead of paint reducing both dust during construction and cost overall. The slab on grade allowed us the opportunity to use the concrete floors as the finish floor on the ground level. Instead of applying a toxic finish over the concrete, we incorporated an integrated pigment mixed at the plant with decorative control joints cut into the slab on site. The recirculating kitchen range exhaust was fitted with a custom charcoal filter and we installed the required bathroom exhaust ventilation. The clients have noted how quiet and comfortable the home is and with fresh balanced mechanical ventilation, airtight, super insulated construction and tri-pane windows, the home should continue to have healthy indoor air and maintain building durability for future generations.
In our region in Southern Vermont, it is rare that we have the opportunity to design and build a home for a family with similar values around energy and climate who also share a love for good design. Finding the balance between fitting into the local vernacular but with a modern twist takes a lot of effort and Architect Andrew Webster of studioWebster led the team through skilled integrated design process. A partial cathedral ceiling with lots of natural light, numerous fun architectural touches from the arched doorway to the kitchen ceiling details to the custom wood entry grate (recessed into the concrete floor) to a built-in fish tank atop the open stair all make this home unique and personalized.
Throughout the project, we utilized locally sourced materials; all the interior trim was cherry and maple sourced from trees harvested from the client’s property. The siding was locally sourced and milled hemlock. We used a local custom cabinet vendor for all the cabinets and built-ins, and the stunning bright green (wool-insulated, airtight) entry door was fabricated by Gryphon Door from New Frameworks. Our team’s relationship with our local trades and vendors is a key part of our success with this project and others. With a national labor shortage in the trades, skilled craftspeople are hard to come by and we pride ourselves on having developed lasting relationships with these companies that enable us to maintain quality and stay on track with schedule.
The clients were fantastic partners throughout the process. They put a lot of trust in our team and played an active role in the design and finish/fixture selections. They are ceramicists and it was important to them that the home be designed in a way that reflected their point of view and aesthetic while staying in line with their budget. They even created custom-built molds for ceramic tiles which they fabricated, fired, finished and installed in the kitchen. The clients have told us that if they had to do it all over, they would do it over again with our same team.
Given our integrated project delivery-lite approach and our experience with detailed fixed price estimating, we were very excited to see that the project came in within 1% of our estimated costs (not including owner-requested change orders). We were also generally on schedule with the exception of a delay at the end due to COVID and the shutdown. The clients are happily moved in and have been occupying the home since the spring of 2020.
During construction, the project was featured in the 2019 SEON Sustainable Energy Home Tour, a 2020 NESEA virtual ProTour, and a Vermont Green Building Network virtual tour. The clients have opened the doors of their home with pride and recognizing the value in it as an education tool.
Professional photography by Lindsay Selin Photography and styling by Joanne Palmisano Design.