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I'm disappointed in that Why are God's name are you using wood to build your home!!! Why are you murdering trees!!! You're supposed to be setting an example for going carbon neutral!!! I'm so disappointed in you!!! How much carbon dioxide did you make building your home!!!!
All depends on the QUALITY control. Ive owned 4 homes. We had one pre-fab that was atrocious and a stick build that was phenomenally efficient. However, in New England, why build a slab on grade home without at least a partial basement? Unless I missed it...
Hi Matt. Have you given any thought to using EV battery(ies) i/o dedicated solar power system batteries. I would imagine the savings would be considerable since you get so much bang for your buck with EV batteries. For instance, 75-, 80, 90 or even 100 Kwh EV battery could be had for anywhere between $8-12k, whereas you would be spending that much or more for a 10-12 Kwh dedicated solar battery.
Looks awesome man. Just want to let you know they also have this new thing that pressurizes your house and blows silicone in the air to fill all the little gaps & pin holes to make it as close to100% sealed as possible. If you haven't seen it yet you should look into it before you finish the interior.
My wife and I were looking for a house around the time you and your wife were. The way the housing market was after the pandemic was to say the least, crazy. I have been following your channel for about four years and plan for going as green as I can within my means. One of your topics you had covered was modular homes. That modern modular homes are a close second to a passive home like yours will be. This is the direction my wife and I took. After nearly a year of looking for property and material and labor shortages, our house was built. It took them only a day to place the pieces of the house on the basement foundation. Our house walls are R29, the attic R49 and the windows are all Low-E, argon filled. We moved in about six months ago, and in about two weeks, our solar panels are going to be installed. The whole thing is an exciting process. One I wouldn't have missed for anything. Patience is the only thing needed. I wish you and your wife luck going through your process.
We moved into a pre built home 20 years ago not far from you here in NH. From the get-go we found it an incredibly tight home. Even today, 20 years later, bright sun low in the sky put the interior temp up to 73 degrees. South facing windows help a ton but the tightness remains and the house stays warm. Someday we will put on solar panels but until then we are very happy with our New England built home. Thank you for sharing your journey
The first house I bought was a factory constructed home I had built in NE Connecticut back in the mid 1990's. It was easily the most efficient home I've owned as the walls were all closed cell foam insulated which essentially meant I lived in a giant thermos. My heating and cooling costs were a fraction of other home owners I spoke to in the area. I wouldn't hesitate to build another home in the same manner as the cost, speed, quality, and over all experience was just better than going "stick built" traditional construction. Knowing my new home had a long term warranty from the factory was also a nice perk most home builders never get.
@@CUBETechie insulation is equally effective no matter which side is the colder one. So cooling works as well as any other home but requires way less energy and probably a smaller AC system in general.
I researched prefab homes in my country and found they were either more expensive or just as costly as traditional construction methods. Additionally, the lead time for delivery was longer than hiring workers and building, and the warranty for the walls was limited to only 5 years. And finding the info about warranty required close examination of the agreement.
It's interesting seeing the different extents to which pre-built homes are in fact, pre-built. There's a factory in Edmonton called ACQBuilt which claims a 1-day set for most single-family homes - as opposed to a 3-day set which Matt got. Perhaps opting for the roof trusses had a large factor in that.
Yeah, this. In fact looking at the video my thoughts are this isn't a pre-bult / pre-fab house at all, just pre-fab wall panels basically. The "pre-built" houses I'm aware of leave the factory as modules that contain all fixtures and fittings (flooring, plumbing, electrics, wall finishing / plastering, kitchens, bathrooms, etc. all done in factory). Crane into place onsite (think they do six houses a day with one crane), hook up services and basically move in (there are some joints to finish as well).
One other interesting thing to me is that the builders continued in poor weather. While you probably didn't see the direct benefit- that does reduce the cost of the building, since it reduces weather related building delays. And being able to build it that fast also helps with catching up with home demand. (among all of the other cool things for this structure)
Hi, Matt. We are considering a build with Unity and love the fact you are documenting your experience. I am hoping you have a little more information on the foundation. I know slabs are popular in some parts of the country, but here in New England, basements are more common. I am wondering why you chose the slab. Was it a cost consideration or did the slab add to the energy efficiency of the build? I am guessing you thought a lot about the foundation and just wanted to hear your thoughts.
@@scubascoob7441 I will let Matt give the official response but if you imagine an envelope (or better a box) you lose a lot if you neglect to put the last side on. The bottom is important. I like my basement too but the "bottom of the box" is important and to close the loop with a basement would increase the cost possibly by a factor of .5. Now I'll wait with you to see what Matt says.
I imagine that having a basement or not is affected a lot by the type of ground material below (digging is expensive and timeconsuming), underground hydrology and risks of water penetration into your basement, as well as exposing additional concrete surface to the ground which is much harder to insulate (much more surface area etc.), if you are aiming for a Passive house. These factors all increase the costs of building; single level is much cheaper, if you have sufficient space/lot size (and are not constrained by other regulations or municipal/zoning requirements). Finally, a basement is also a choice that may be very important in some regions (e.g. tornado-prone areas), or unnecessary/undesirable in other areas (especially if there is a lot of surface water/rain/flooding). I have no idea which of these factors were relevant for Matt; it's possible that they simply didn't even think about the option of a basement.
I am hoping to see radiant floor heat. Basements are nice for all the mechanical equipment. Thinking Matt must have built where the water table is high...
I used to work for a company that built ICF homes in Houston, Tx. It was fascinating to see how the home went together. The framing was made from steel, and the walls were around 8" thick with 2" of foam on each side, with a center of poured concrete. The walls were rated at R50. We would turn on the HVAC systemand chill the house to around 60 degrees - then we would turn it off. It literally took weeks for the temperature to rise despite the upper 90s temperatures outside. I am sure that opening and closing the doors multiple times a day didn't help, but it absolutely was a huge selling point. Unfortunately, compared to stick-built homes, they couldn't really compete price-wise, but the homes were amazing and incredibly beautiful.
As a European with triple glazed „European style“ windows and windowed doors, I can highly recommend those windows and totally get why Matt is so in love with them. They changed our 70 year old house from something heavily leaking warmth to the environment to something cozy. It is not only the temperature, that triple glazing does wonders concerning noise. I had construction going on outside and was able to sleep inside. And to be open those glass doors to the outside is nice in the summer. They and the windows just feel sturdy. In Europe, plastic windows are the cheapest, wood windows however look nicer but don’t last that long and wood windows with Aluminium outdoor shielding are imho the best (but also most expensive). Our wood Alu windows are 20 years old, but look and work like if it was the first day.
I am really curious about your battery storage solution and your geothermal setup along with costs and the research you did to choose who you went with.
@@VoltairePower He is connected to the grid (otherwise there would not be a possibility to sell electricity). However, Im curious about if his house alows electrical islanding (this is the possibility to automatically or manually disconnect from external grid and just run of the own power from solar and batteries), not sure abot this in his new house. What most people don't know about solar installations is that all installations depend on external working grid to use the power from solar panels, so if a storm takes down the external power lines there will be no electicity despite having solar roof and battery bank. 😞 If the installation is built for iselanding, then the house can work as normal temporarly offgrid. My cottage is fully offgrid (installing main grid was crazy expensive, thats why) and solar power works extremley well.
@@moongooat not sure that precisely correct- if you have battery backup you are charging from the grid, yes, but you definitely have electricity in a storm.
@@johnwhite2576 If he can sell electricity to the grid. He is connected to the grid. As simple as that. It does not make you offgrid if there comes a storm and disconnects you from the grid 🙂However, if the house has islanding, then he can temporarly run without external grid.
I am a little surprised that you didn't include a basement. That would seem to be a relatively cheap way to add space, and with lots of insulation on the outside of the basement walls, a way to ground temper a portion of the house.
@@MrDeicide1 Most houses with a basement will have HVAC, Fuse Box, Water Tanks, ect plus Washer and Dryer all in the basement rather than taking up space in the above ground portions. Basements also add extra storage for any kind of good (holiday stuff, alcohols, non-perishable foods, stuff for guest, whatever). In the US when selling a house basement space isn't supposed to be counted in the square footage of the house (looking for a house myself I've noticed many listings cheat). A house with a basement, especially a finished basement, will usually be worth more than the same square footage house without (since it's supposed to be extra space). One down side to basements is that they are more likely to leak or otherwise breakdown than a house built on a slab alone. That said a lot of the houses I've looked at seem to have issues with the grade (angle/tilt) of the land suggesting insufficient time was given for the land to settle. Combined with people not fixing the grading of the houses and allowing water to get in and under the foundation means there's a whole lot of houses on the market with terrible foundations (and the asking price is as if there were no problems and everything had just been updated with the latest and greatest tech).
For those not building with SIPs-style walls, standard stick frame, ZIP sheathing, and Aerobarrier get astoundingly good air sealing. There's also the TStud, which is a mostly-drop-in replacement for standard studs that vastly reduces thermal bridging.
@@CUBETechie He very briefly covered that in this video. There is a ventilation system to exchange air, but it recovers the heat from inside before sending the air outside. It was like 5-10 seconds in the video, so no clue how that works. I'm assuming it allows the outgoing air to heat the incoming air to reduce energy loss.
@@CUBETechie The idea is to seal the house tightly and control the ventilation with ERV. That way you efficiently ventilate the building to control heat loss, indoor humidity and drafts.
@@CUBETechie yes. With mechanical ventilation you can pull warm air out of moist rooms (bathrooms and kitchen) and use it to warm up air being pulled in from outside and pushed into the rest of the rooms.
As I sit here in my drafty conventional stick built home, I am envious! I look forward to updates Matt! Well done! As an aside, a friend of mine was trying to tell me the electric vehicles wouldn’t have good heating. I pointed out that heat from ICE vehicles is a byproduct of their low energy efficiency and that realistically you could turn the heat on in an EV without ever running the motor. Thanks for proving my point!
As a residential carpenter and new home builder I can say you went the best route by going with 2x6 walls covered with the zip sheathing. A lot of company's have been using foam for exterior sheathing covered in vinyl siding, both of which you could punch through using your first with no problems so just imagine what a decent thunderstorm could do! I can also tell you that these materials are fine being outside during the couple weeks of framing, in my instance we build the entire house on sight from the foundation up and at most it takes only 2.5 weeks to complete and the roofers to start shingling and that they get done in just a day or day and a half so the house is weather tight within three weeks from start of construction.
And I wish that my house here in Georgia had 2x6 exterior walls but sadly they generally only do 2x4. 🤯 I would have loved the extra insulation and increased R value.
I live in a Pulte built home near Chicago. Our previous home was custom built with 2x6 walls, plywood sheathing and double pane windows. We had cedar siding which was a pain because it wouldn't hold stain. We've been in our Pulte home for 17 years. It's built with 2x4 walls and Dow 1" foam sheathing (the corners are OSB with 1/2" Dow sheathing. There are a few places where they had 1x3" cut in bracing. The walls were all built off site. So far, this Pulte house is just as comfortable as our custom built house. High winds don't seem to affect it. My biggest complaint is that our Pulte home is rather transparent to noise. If someone is talking outside I can hear it. When the paper thin vinyl siding heats up and cools down I can hear it inside. Finally, we've had a few houses burn down in my neighborhood. When the vinyl and Dow insulation starts burning it's hard to stop. If the fire makes its way into the truss roof -- game over.
Nobody is using foam for sheathing. They will still be using osb underneath it. Foam is great and is a good way to insulate. Zip even glues it to a lot of their sheathing types.
As a European, I am used to the outermost surface being stone, brick or concrete, providing excellent mechanical protection for the insulation and inside rooms. This also adds to the total thickness of walls, thus providing windowsills deep enough to sit sideways between the window and curtains. For prebuilt houses, the outer stone layer is part of the factory delivered walls, thus needing heavier trucks and cranes. Various stuff is cast into the concrete at the factory, including pipes for water and electricity.
You had the best winter possible for building a house in New England this year. We've had some rain, but hardly any snow. When my neighbors house was built they had to shovel out the first floor every morning for a week straight while they were trying to get the second floor built - then do it all over again until they could get the roof on.
I'm glad to see that this is picking up in the US. My parents had one of these "Fertigteilhaus" built in Germany in 1996. It took one day to set the walls and another day to put the roof on, including the clay shingles. They also had a solar water heater installed with 3 panels on the roof that work flawlessly to this day and provide hot water for most of the year, even at 51 degrees latitude. When I moved to North Carolina in 2006 I was a bit shocked to see how much energy it takes to pump the heat out of a stick built house, only to burn more gas or electricity to heat up the water for a hot shower. I really wonder why solar water heaters aren't a widespread thing, especially in the southern US.
If you get enough sunlight solar water heater combined with electric tankless it's pretty amazing. I have a duda solar water heater with a 40 gallon tank on top. The water is fed into a thermal value which regulates hot water down to 123 F. This water is fed into the tankless which will heat anything below 122. During the winter the solar water heater will keep the water closer to 100 F, which will cause the tankless to draw very little power. ( 2/3s of the year my tankless is pretty much off )
Great video. Love your house. My 4000 sq ft shop is no match for energy efficiency but my Amish neighbors put it up from start to finish in 4 days. 😄. To be fair, there were 30 of them and they are crazy good at working together and building fast.
I like your manufactured home. Nice choice. When I had a garage built some years ago, the contractor who dug the foundation, and prior to them pouring the concrete, he was very surprised when I laid sheets of 1 inch foam board into the trenches along the OUTSIDE walls. He got excited when I explained that this will greatly help to pull up the ground heat into the building during the winter, and reduce thermal cycling structural movements. This extra warmth will also help to reduce condensation on the floor. I also set large 1" steel eye bolts into the wet concrete at all four corners. He asked WHY? I explained: To install heavy duty chains for securing important things, like trailers, tool chests, motorcycles, big air compressors, etc. (Thefts from garages are a problem in every nation, and my little security measure will help to prevent any such BS.) I tried to insist on Sheet Metal Roofing (because it lasts from 75-100 years AND is Fireproof from falling sparks from other fires), but nobody in the area offered it). So I went with the white, 40 year Architectural shingles AND then I got up there and applied 2 coats of 20 year, exterior, white house paint. Why? To insure that I will never need to pay for a re-shingle job for at least 60 years. (Reroofing jobs typically cost 400% more than the original prices, so a little extra money now will save TENS of thousands in the future.)
Your geothermal install should be very fascinating to me. I am very curious as to what size the system will be and what type of loop system will be put in. I plan on retiring to Minnesota in the near future and going geothermal with a passive home seems like the best long term situation. Also, the ERV could use some explaining. I don't think many people understand the need for them.
We used to build sip houses, but fire rating so don't no more. We build passive solar masonry houses now. Usually D.C. electric because more energy efficient and long term cost. We go R60 in floors and roof. We over engineer for solar gain. We use a wick style system for moisture. To keep it drawing moisture out. We use exposed trusses with insulation on top of ceiling finish. That's usual weather to build in. We use thermal breaks around windows. We don't use forced air either for heating. Been doing a lot of off grid work.
I would love a video of all of the costs of the project from beginning to end, including some hidden costs like stuff you did on your own (because of your knowledge) that others may have to pay for. It would be nice to know how it compares to buying a new build in traditional fashion. Great video!
Remember to evaluate the long-term costs of ownership, not just the short-term construction costs. It's like owning a Tesla vs an ICE car. Think long term.
@@482jpsquared Oh absolutely agree with you. I just really like Matt's detailed cost videos and I think this particular one would be incredibly valuable.
I ordered a factory built house - much alike yours - 7 years ago, and moved in about 11 months after digging started. This is not a "passive house", but quite efficient nevertheless. In southern Finland we have had proper winters, and this year we have this cool season with occasional snow. Nordic standard on windows is argon filled sealed triplex glass panel inside, and single glass pane outside.
There is a channel (mostly forging now) that built a spec house in Washington to show how a house is built. The host of the channel was an old framer/carpenter said that construction was 50% logistics. To him planning where to store supplies on site and what directions the construction crews would be working from was just as important as the actual work. The fact they started at the point furthest from the crane and worked their way towards the crane illustrates that point. It's easiest and safest to "fly those walls" to their final position without having to navigate around or above other objects. This also creates a safer environment because you don't have to worry who's getting hurt or what's getting damaged should the wall smack into something or the chain carrying it fails. I'd be suspicious if your building crew wasn't constructing the house in the way they did.
@@Reason0684 Yeah, it's been a while, so I didn't remember the channel name. Not that into smithing, so I have since gone on to other groups' projects, like The Tally Ho Reconstruction by Sampson's Boat Company.
Long-time watcher; first time responder. I love your presentation and your energy, and your house is amazing. Have you ever considered dome homes? They are fire-proof, termite-proof, and have R values of over 100. My wife and I are retiring in two years, and we are thinking a dome is in our future. We do not want a lot of upkeep in our golden years. Keep up the great work, and I look forward to your next video.
Currently working on both the windows and insulation aspects on my old house remodel. Windows being replaced with similar type and adding rock wool exterior insulation. The insulation is consisting of Rock Wool Comfort board panels which allows an near thermal break.
A Q&A video would be great. Does it/can it have a basement? Also, wondering if you will do the insulation technique, when the house is a white box, that sprays aerosolized plaster-like material that are then air blown to seal any small gaps.
@@Jehty_ He totally can have a basement, but appears to have chosen not to. We built a factory-built home in MA with a full basement (ICF forms for the foundation of course.)
To avoid problems of construction in lousy weather I recommend only building in areas with wonderful year-round weather. It makes things so much easier! Smiles from northern Arizona!
In 1983 I was hired as a mfg engineer in Regina Saskatchewan, Canada where I was involved with manufacturing Air to Air Heat Exchangers. One of the Principals developed a standard for the construction of energy efficient homes which was incorporated into the National Standard a couple of years later. The first home Enercon built was a show home on the edge of Regina, basically in a field at the time. Many visitors came through that home even in winter, and although the house had the capability to use up to 10Kw of electric heat, only one element (5Kw) was ever used. The air was always fresh smelling and the atmosphere comfortable. That was 40 years ago! Yet you said that the passive house concept was designed in Germany 20 yrs ago?
I'm looking to sell my house and move some time in the 2026 Calendar year, and your videos & breakdowns are a big contributing factor to my wife and I planning to look into Unity homes as a possibility. I LOVE the idea of going with a passive house design, but I don't know if the finances will be there for us. Hoping to really start serious planning end of 2023/early 2024. Your videos have been an inspiration, thank you.
Seems like a wonderful process. We are planning our home here in Canada, and this approach is very appealing. The more technical, specific your vids, the more helpful, so keep bringing it all on!
Matt, if your house is still at the stage before the interior is finished, I highly encourage you to check out this video from Matt Risinger's channel for an aerosolized caulking system that uses the leaking air itself to entrain caulk droplets so fine that they stay suspended in the air to find and fill even the tiniest of gaps. In this video Matt Risinger was using this system to seal his own house to try to get it down to the passive house standard of an ACH50 of less than 0.6. Now this house was entirely built on-site with different trades coming in and say drilling a hole for an electrical cable that penetrates through the envelope that they don't mark for caulking, so it doesn't benefit from the highly automated and repeatable process, including the taping and caulking, of a factory built house. The result was that he started out with a pressure door test giving ACH50 of 1.14 despite trying to find and fill every gap and hole they could to make the house as airtight as possible. But after the aerosolized caulking process fill all the tiny gaps the ACH50 rating dropped to 0.1. So while an ACH50 rating of 0.54 for your house is AWESOME, you could potentially drop that even more. Note, I have no involvement with this company or Matt Risinger. It is just that as an engineer, I love really good engineering solutions that take a new and highly creative approach to solving important problems, and in my opinion, this is a great solution to getting houses, even existing houses, sealed just about as tight as is physically possible. Here is a link to the video at the point where they rerun the blower door test showing the before and after ACH50 numbers. From the description of the company representative, this method can be used on existing houses. The issue is that it would take a lot more prep to cover all of the horizontal surfaces since there is some settling and so it would be a bit more expensive. The recommendation is for an existing house, the best time to do it is just before moving in when the house is completely empty. But it sounds like they can also deal with a house that is currently occupied, but again it would require even more prep and thus cost more. At some point soon, I am going to see if this can be done for my old 1950s house that currently leaks so badly that I am afraid to get a blower door test to confirm just how bad it is. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JYugiSwWoPk.html
@@chazdomingo475 That is why people generally aren't inside during the processes. And if anybody has to be, they wear a respirator that will filter out the droplets. And even if a little gets in your lungs, it won't like coat the entire inside of your lungs. Likely it the droplets will stick in the mucus layer and the travel out of the lungs along with all of the other gunk that we breathe in.
@@chazdomingo475 Most likely they open a door or window before turning off the blower door so that most of the caulk suspended in the air is blow out of the house before much of it can settle. But for sure some of it likely does settle out. That is why this process is best done immediately after the envelope of the house is sealed as best as can be done with conventional taping and caulking, but before finished flooring, drywall or things like cabinets and countertops are installed. Then if some caulk gets on the subfloor or sill plates of the walls it isn't an issue. Like the guy from the company said, this process can be done in an existing house, but it takes a lot more prep, and thus a much higher cost, to cover the floors, countertops and any other finished horizontal surface so that the caulk that does settle out doesn't get on these surfaces. The cost probably gets pretty steep if the house is also fully occupied since all the furniture would also have to be protected or moved out of the house while the process is being done.
Matt I'd like to see the layout of the power & networkconduits, fresh and wastewater. How you want to keep it clean and slick while guarantee upgradabillity? Are you gonna install a heatpump waterstorage tank to lower roomtemp in appliances-rooms such as Heating or server & IT stuff, while using the wasteheat for warm water?
Quick question, was the decision to not have a basement a choice to save on costs or are you not able to have a basement with this type of build? I don't see why you wouldnt be able to but i have yet to see one on a modular home build. Congrats on your home btw.
A lot depends on where the house is located. Here in WI, a basement is almost required due to sub zero F temps in winter and possibilities of tornadoes. Some parts of the US, basements are not common. Almost any house can be built on a basement or crawl space but there is added cost.
I'm not sure Matt's reason for not building a basement. In New England basements are common but also not feasible in many locations due to bedrock or water tables. Not building a basement does simplify the insulation and air sealing, and saves considerably on the "carbon" costs for building the house due to using much less concrete and energy to excavate.
Congrats Matt! House is looking great. I hope to acquire land and start the process (some day). Very interested in geothermal heating and what do you expect your daily energy consumption to be. Keep up the great work.
Your new home is looking great! Did you consider building your home over a basement? Just curious if it was due to energy savings. I’m thinking about building a ranch and I feel I would build one with a basement, mainly for added storage and a finished man-cave/family room.
A basement is a very logical idea it adds minimal cost to the building and means for a very low cost of adding more space later this was made clear to me by a church I attended the original church was built on slab and when an addition was needed it was an expensive project but they were smart enough to have a basement under so when a second addition was needed later they finished the basement same square footage of additional space at 25 % of the cost now it cost more for putting a basement under because of codes needing them to be insulated but what's added upfront is taken off the cost to finish the basement as additional living space
@@douglaswindsor120 Adding a basement under an existing house is also a practical problem as you will have to dig up the foundation without removing the house. Foundations built to contain a basement are dug deeper by at least the height of the extra rooms and place the weight of the house and all its parts on a structure just like that of an upper floor. No problem with the weight of the kitchen stove being supported by the ground under the kitchen and sinking into the ground at a different speed (inches per century) than the walls. Similarly all the plumbing will be routed to allow for the basement to function. Now building an unfinished and unfurnished basement instead of completing the basement from the start is a saving in case it's never needed.
Damn, I can't believe this video is only a couple of month old... It feels like forever... This is my third time watch, and holding my breath for part II, hopefully sooner then later, and perhaps part III or more.... Thank you!
I'm pleasantly amazed. My preconceived notion of a factory built house was essentially a trailer without wheels. You can't tell, from the street, that this wasn't built on site over a six month period. Good job.
I think you should make an entire website about your build so you can point out all of the benefits and cool things that make your new home great. I would love to see that.
One area that I am interested in has to do with the bathroom. At Epcot they had/have a display that uses shower water drain to preheat hot water tank water. The same system was used to use waste shower water to to flush toilets which was suppose to cut water usage by 20% to 33%. Since utilities are moving to purchasing power at wholesale rates, would a solar storage battery below the garage be a consideration. Heat in summer and use in winter like polar ... battery. Assume your using ground loop heat pump to be all electric.
Very cool!! We did a custom modular home last year. The neighbors in our rural area were coming from far and wide to see what all the commotion was about. Foundation went up in one day, house went up in one day. It was crazy. Looking forward to more of your house videos!
I'm looking for a lot now and just started communicating via email with Unity Homes. I am looking at a couple of other options as well. My budget is fairly small and tight, so price will be a big factor, but my hope is a well-built house with little or no utility bills that I can age out in. I am loving what is going on in the prefab industry right now. Can't wait to see how your build goes - thanks for sharing.
Great video. I ordered my house in similar manner here in Finland 7 year ago. have to say, here we are a bit ahead on this. In one day my house was covered from weather and the walls came ready made also inside, not only external insulation. Outside and inside only paint (and putty inside) is needed. Great to see that also in US the factory building is getting popular!
Please discuss the financial planning requirements for a build like this. I’m interest in how the planning and sequencing worked, and how you managed financing (if any) around a non-conventional house construction. I’m also curious how you got around traditional incumbency in the construction industry to get all the features you wanted (.i.e passive house, heat pump, solar energy, etc). Did you consider non-detached single family home structure at any point? Did you learn anything about how a simile effort could be done for a duplex, townhome, or other small residential structure? Do you think you’ll build an ADU? I appreciate these videos! Please organize as a list for others that want to follow in your footsteps
I'm really interested in the airflow efficiency. IIRC way back when, homes used to be built for an efficient flow of natural air, achieving a nice breeze effect. With the advent of forced air systems, this has largely gone away, but here in the midwest could/would seriously reduce some energy costs associated with running HVAC systems just to avoid stale air, or overly recycled air. With your prebuilt home design, how well do you expect air to flow during the warmer months of the year? Thanks, as always, for such patient and descriptive content.
It's kinda fascinating how we went from building with big fat walls, because that was the only way to make them stand up, to building these really skinny walls because it was cheaper, to now building big fat walls again because it's cheaper over time. Another way of saying it is standard building has the internal part of the wall being load bearing with insulation and sheeting being tacked on and within. With this system you have the load bearing wall with insulation and sheeting and then you have the internal wall tacked on
The high point ( frame / section ) of a tilt & turn window is towards the outside as they open in While suitable for mainland EU not so good for Ireland with plenty of wind / rain from Atlantic Ocean Open out windows suit us better weather wise as said up-stand of window frame is towards the inside & they rarely leak or be draughty & hence get a better weather rating here & the all around locking mechanism is tricker to deal with Enjoying the build & best of luck to ye guys
My misses is German and her prefatory made home she watched when she was 3 back in 1973. Her mum still lives there, its has a cellar/garage, which covers the whole footage and has 4 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms its massive compared to our UK home.
Factory built for consistency is great. These systems are very material heavy often with a lot of foam, plastic and other materials that are difficult to recycle. The lifetime cost of the material includes the disposal cost at the other end. Looking great. Looking forward to some deck, fence and landscaping videos. As a landscape architect from New Zealand.
we're (it'll be my partner's house) thinking of building a passive home in a year or so and don't have a factory kitset option in my country, so it'd be great to hear more about options for things like the the air exchanger, heating and cooling, hot water... and also how your power setup works and what's required for that.
Honestly, I really want to see every aspect of your house build. Even the interior decore. This is something I am very passionate about and hope to be able to do one day.
Your pr-fab home reminds me of how modern Swedish homes are build. They too are VERY airtight passive homes. You can even have them imported to the US.
Regarding advances in construction, two additional services worth viewing are "B1M" and "Tomorrow's Build". Topics strictly related to architecture are deftly presented by Stewart Hicks. Matt Ferrell is of course tops!
Wood stick 2x4 houses aren't the way of the future though. I'm really excited about the interlocking wall and ceiling panels that already come with insulation and all, that you just tighten into place with a wrench, or undo later if you want to take the house back apart. And you don't need multiple people or heavy machinery to put such a house together for you. A single man can build an awesome house as if it's built out of Linkin Logs with those. Show us more of those, please!
Having worked as a 'Draftsman' (back-when, Ink was on Mylar per-a-plan) for Northern Energy Homes, I can appreciate this Build! Put it 'in it's place', and enjoy that you have (hopefully) met your goals on Energy Consumption. I'd add, You may want to look into a 'Deep-Drilled' Well, to have Water when the Town doesn't. And, an LP-gas Generator (and one Stove on that LP line!), as power back-up. Welcome to New-England weather! Wait ten minutes, if you don't like it; it'll Change, for the Worse.
I know it is probably too late, but have you heard of spray caulking. They set up spray nozzles around the house and instead of blowing the air out of the house they blow it into the house and when the pressure starts to rise they start spraying a liquid calk into the house. The liquid caulk will flow with the air through any opening that will allow air out and start building up until it stops the air flow. Once the air pressure stops building for a little while they will stop the spray caulk and then turn off the fan a little while later. In this way even the smallest leak in the envelope will probably be sealed and make your house even tighter to air escaping out or infiltrating inside. It will require covering windows and doors and anything else you do not want the spray caulk getting all over.
I had friends that purchased a prefab house and it was amazing. It took very little to keep it warm during the winter and cool during the summer. And this was back in the mid 80's so I can only imagine how much better they have become.
All houses should be built this way! Old school might cut it somewhere, but a passive house or near as dang it should be a standard we strive for! Love the videos Matt, be interesting to see if you choose underfloor heating as it's a winner on every level if do e right!
Interested in indoor air management... Air filters changing often? Smells? Dust? Can you ever have a window open in the summer or is everything staying shut closed? Smoke? Kitchen, cooking, oven, grill... Oxygen levels...
We've got a UK self-build using a similar larson strut cassette system based on my plans. The main difference was the TF was factory-assembled without insulation and a specialist company did the window and door installation on day 8-9 of the build, but all was weather tight and lockable by day 10. A separate crew did the blown cellulosic fill and taping up on-site a few months later after we had the slate roof on and finished. 0.58 ACH on first test; 0.4 ish after some tweaks (some of the windows closers needed slightly tightening. UK layout: so 2 full storeys + a warm roof bedsit for my live-in son. Cotswold stone exterior skin for looks and to keep the local planning permit guys happy. Like you electric only, low energy. The main thing to watch out for in 1st and 2nd fit is tradesmen screwing up your air tightness: we banned all trades from cutting into it and where needed we added through-panel access pipes (properly sealed) for the trades to run plumbing, electrics, etc. then foamed and silliconed these ourselves, before plastering out / decoration. In everything: trust but verify -- before it is too late to remedy cock-ups. 😊
Strange that in sealed walls they're using cellulose and not some sort of spray foam or something more rigid. In a couple years, really need an IR camera to see if it's settled. It definitely does in attics.
Matt, are the walls built with conduit to run cable in the future? For instance, I prefer Ethernet to wireless and that can be challenging in a structure that doesn’t have available conduit to run cables. When designing remediation systems, we would recommend the owner pay for 1 extra pipe run parallel to the design runs. It did not add much to the total cost, and at sites were change or expansion became necessary, those unused pipe runs were very useful.
Have you covered retrofits to get closer to net zero or ph standards for existing housing stock of wood frame brick sided with nat gas heat built in the 50-90’s? (Ie sealing, 3G windows, roof materials, insulation, recladding to add wall sealing AND R value, sill plate and floor joist bay sealing and insulating, best basement insulating (walls, floors), hybrid heat systems (nat gas -asho), how about a series on “near off-grid and near net-zero changes to existing housing”?
Stuff I would like to know more about. 1.) Cost breakdowns 2.) Moisture/ mould suppression techniques especially in the heat exchanger 3.) Is this type of build good for allergy sufferers? 4.) How much expense and feature change was required by local building codes or HOA versus what you actually wanted? 4.) Any subsystems that are fully off-grid, and do they save you money vice the on-grid alternative? 5.) Is your Tesla gonna integrate with the home power system?
Don't forget to oil your fancy windows every year. A few drops can make a difference. And make sure the handle is at either exactly 12 o'clock or 3/9 o'clock before you open/close. They can last for decades if treated right, but the complicated mechanism doesn't like being manhandled. It will wear prematurely if you're being careless.
I am surprised at just how good the quality appears to be. At the same time I'm not a fan of building the main floor directly on top of a concrete slab. That puts all the pipes either in the walls or in the attic where issues can cause enormous damage, rather than in the basement and then coming straight up to where they are needed. Among other things.
I was blown away by the R-values, but it turns out that in America they express it in imperial units which converted is about 5.7 times higher than the SI variant. So in SI units the values are as follows: 6.2 for the walls, 8.8-10.6 for the attic and 1.2-1.4 for the windows. Which is still impressive but not straight out of sci-fi future tech impressive which I initially thought.
I'd be keen to know more about the ERV. In attempting to make an existing house as efficient as possible (maximizing insulation etc.) a fundamental problem is ensuring an adequate supply of fresh air. The best remedy *seems*(?) to be to just throw windows open for a short period of time to try to get a complete air change as quickly as possible - as air doesn't have a huge thermal mass this minimizes heat gain/loss (depending on season). I'd much rather have a continuous system though if it would be possible to retrofit - if that makes sense.
Matt that was exciting to see. Hope you share the specific product / manufacturers you're using. We are not building a new home but this old country home (140 yrs) needs some TLC and some of the elements you are adding I'd like to add too. Happy House Building
With the house walls open you should really think of ways to minimize future wall punctures by layout a complex cable channel system so that you don’t risk creating an air flow problem.
Since you're going all electric have you checked out the Invisacook induction stove? It's a smart stove that hides underneath your counter and allows you to cook through the surface without heating your counter. I was at the KBIS expo in Vegas and talked with Chef Hans from their company. He showed me some pictures of the camper bed for the Cybertruck that is going to be installing their stove.
Would love to see your planning and layout for networking cables through the new house to fully cover the normal needs as well as all the smart home appliances.
Hey Matt hopefully your house is going smoothly... I figured you would go with some of the hemp create insulation that you have mentioned in the previous videos. Surprised you didn't. What are your thoughts on heated floors/ driveway? Radiant heating from the floors always made the most sense for me logically but Ive always wondered how they actually perform when applied.
Thank you Matt. We have been following Unity Homes for some time now. Interesting to see your project coming together. Very much interested in future vids detailing the performance of the building. Cheers and congratulations!!!
I had a factory built home done in 1986. Just like yours, they brought the walls in on a flatbed and put them up with a crane. It was one of the best houses I've ever had. Mostly because of the solar orientation. I do miss that house but not the West Texas desert!!!
I work for a double / triple glazing manufacturer in the UK and those u-values for the windows are insanely low. Would love a breakdown on the configuration of the glass they used and if the 0.15 & 0.13 is just the glass u-value or the whole window u-value.
Would love to see your MVHR set up and a schematic of the ducting integrated into the home, also the choices about what rooms or spaces are receiving and extracting air would be cool to see too
Matt, I'm so excited to see you finally at this phase! I love your choice of panelized design contractor! I love blower door tests! 🤪 Quantifying the results along the process is critical, as you know. One of my biggest blower door challenges was all the plumbing, electrical, and appliance air leaks. Haha, everything from sink drain traps, sealing ERV & Make-Up Air intakes/exhausts, whole house vacuum, range hood & dryer exhausts. 😆 Just like you, it was fun and exciting! Cheers, Eric
I'm really interested now! My wife and I want to build a house eventually, and I had no idea modular homes could be assembled as quickly as 9 days! And seeing this gives me hope we could find a modular home builder in our area willing to do a passive house. I just see it as the best way to balance what we want in a home with cost to build and cost to run.
I like the idea of preassembled homes. I had a small lot in a town we lived in. I sold it. The person who bought it had a preassembled house delivered after the basement was completed. The house came in four sections. Two for the first floor. And two for the second floor. Half (mostly half) roof panels attached to these second floor sections. It was very interesting watching the crane lift the sections off the trailers. We have pictures in photo album of the “ show”.
Future Video Topic Request: How did you or will you go about selecting solar pv and battery size when you don't have prior use data to for estimation? Or do you have to wait? I had to have a year's worth of data on the books for my application. And secondly, how were those sizing choices affected by how your energy utility provider treats or sets the price of excess generation?
Very Interesting. I'd like to know more about costs including land and permits. Also, can expand on your reasons for choosing individual truss over panels as the manufacturer had recommended. I live in the Central Valley of California with a very moderate winter climate which seldom freezes. Summers can be very hot exceeding 100 degrees for several weeks straight July and August. I imagine the build would be significantly different than in New England, but I think a "tight envelope" would apply to keeping a house cool in the summer as well as keeping a house warm in the winter.
Please show how you are going to wire your specific smart home tech. I want to see if you just run a bunch if cat 5 cables or power or both. Or are you going wireless hubs....etc. I want to see what you come up with and how it works. Thanks for the awesome videos I hope your house construction continues to go well.
That low U-factor has to be the glass itself and not the whole window with frame and everything? If so, then those numbers are amazing and I want the same! I installed 3 layer energy saving windows that looks a lot like yours and they have a total U-factor on the whole window roughly about 0.8 depending a little bit on how well you install them and and make sure they become airtight. My windows are filled with argon gas, I could have paid a lot more and gotten windows filled with krypton gas instead for better isolation.
Great video. For plumbing look for pex type c pipes and instant water heater for each batt or kitchen. this way you only need to run cold water lines n each instant water heater will emlinate single point of failure and you wont need to install ciculator at your water main water heater to get instant water.
There is a polymer mist system that can lower your blower door score. the polymer tries to escape (pressurize the house) and plugs the holes. Seen it on the Build Show.
Your Passivhaus looks great, Matt ! We don't have that level of production or insulation/airtightness in AUS, more is the pity. And still the houses are expensive !
