Green Building

We are all about Green on Taproot Farm!

Installing a SIP panel on the roof.

Jon Hensley Architects helped design our home.  In order to lower our energy consumption and costs, we utilized the following environmental practices in the design of the house and outbuildings.

• Structurally Insulated Panel (SIP) Construction – our house is built with SIPs panels manufactured by Pittsburgh-based company SureTight.
  

  Stacks of Sip panels

  SIPs construction utilizes custom fabricated panels of expanded polystyrene (EPS) sandwiched between two sheets of oriented strand board (OSB).  The wall and roof panels are 8 and 10 inches thick, respectively – achieving an R value of 28 and 35.  SIPs construction achieves a stronger, tighter structure, with faster assembly and much less construction debris.

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  Geothermal trench

• Geothermal Heating and Cooling –our home’s climate control system uses a WaterFurnace geothermal unit that captures and dissipates heat through buried pipes.  Utilizing the earth’s constant temperature of 57 degrees, fluid is pumped through the buried, closed loop and distributed back to the house.

• Radiant Heat in Floors – the primary heat is fed through radiant piping enclosed in WarmBoard subflooring.  These pre-engineered 4 x 8 foot floor panels are routered and metal-panned to accept tubing that distributes the heat

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  Green roof plantings

  Water Retention- we installed a living roof over the porch carpeted with succulents and other water-wise plants to absorb and slow down rainwater.

  In addition, a rain chain and rain barrel guide and store roof runoff.

• Passive Solar Design – our home is oriented to the south-western sky to capture the winter sun while our porch roof shields us from the hot summer sun.  Our insulated windows are aligned to provide ventilation from the prevailing western winds for cooling.

• Reflective Metal Roof – our roof is an Englert metal roof with a reflective coating and color so as to not absorb solar gain.

• Interior Finishes – we selected renewal finishes such as bamboo and local bluestone flooring and concrete countertops rather than exotic imports.  Wood trim is pine and all lighting is florescent.  Low flow plumbing fixtures and EnergyStar appliances were also installed. Flor recycled carpet is installed in the loft.

• Photovoltaic System - In June 2010, Taproot went “solar” with a 5 kW grid-tied, photovoltaic electric generation system.  The 22 PV panel array is mounted on the south-facing carport roof and will generate 45% of the electricity we use in a year.  The system is connected to the electrical grid so our meter will “run backwards” when we are not using the electricity our system is generating.  Thanks to federal and state tax credits,this 25-year system will pay for itself in just 8 years!
  

  Full solar panel array on carport

  The 230 watt Solar World PV panels are American-made and were installed by PIMBY Energy, a West Virginia-based solar contractor. (www.getPIMBY.com)

  

  Installing a solar panel

  Our inverter is a SMA Sunny Boy (manufactured in Germany) and converts the DC to usable AC electricity.  We also plan to sell our “green energy credits” to the secondary market for up to $300 per kW!

• We also plan to look into wind or water power in the future.

Our little yellow "green" house

• Natural Building Construction- In spring/summer of 2011 we’re constructing a strawbale and cob cottage called Querencia. The 600′ ft round building will utilize the sun to maintain a consistently comfortable temperature- its passive solar design includes lots of south facing windows, insulative strawbales, cob plaster (clay/sand/straw) and earthen floor for thermal mass . A living roof will also stabilize heat gain and loss. Sigi Koko of Down Earth Design will be leading natural building workshops so anyone can join us and learn first-hand how to construct a healthy, earth-friendly shelter.     Come learn about natural building- hands-on workshops on the farm. Check out our blogs about the workshops:   Cobbin’ Fun ,