Built Well

On rare occasions, a home like this is built from a vision of environmental stewardship and achieves the perfect balance of fine craftsmanship and sustainability…a home that is built well so you can live well.

A solar chimney, SIPS R-48 roof and R-24 walls help make 2093 Balsam net carbon neutral. Energy Star rated appliances, a roof mounted solar 4.9kw PV solar array and a HERS rating of 30 will allow you to enjoy utility bills of around $70 – $90 per month!

Passive Solar
2093 Balsam has a southern orientation, which allows for great solar gains through the front windows. The massive 11 foot tall window in the front of the house allows for a great amount of solar energy to enter the home, and the open floor plan allows the warmed air to circulate freely. In the summer, an awning over the great window provides ample shading. A sun-room and clerestory roof area, directly over the stairwell, opens all the way to the basement, allowing light into most areas of the house during the day. Sunny days provide a significant portion of the home’s heating. The stairwell is designed as passive cooling chimney, vented from basement to clerestories to carry heat upward and minimize the need for air conditioning.

Solar Photovoltaic System
Solar photovoltaic panels are the best known method for generating electric power by using solar cells to convert energy from the sun into electricity. The photovoltaic effect refers to photons of light knocking electrons into a higher state of energy to create electricity. At 2093 Balsam, an estimated 50-100% of electric needs are provided by system, which is tied to the local grid and has battery backup.  During the day, if you are producing more electricity than you are using, your meter runs backwards. At night, when it is dark and your solar system is not producing electricity, your meter runs forward. At the end of each month Xcel Energy bills or credits for your ‘net-usage’. All of the appliances and heating/cooling systems in the home were intentionally selected to be electric units. With the electricity generated by the solar panels on the roof, and by enrolling in the Xcel Windsource program, the house will operate at carbon net zero – meaning it requires absolutely NO fossil fuels to generate its power!  The only time you’ll use fossil fuels at 2093 Balsam is when you enjoy the fireplace.

Geo-Thermal Heating, Cooling & Hot Water
Geo-thermal three-zone heating and cooling uses a geothermal heat pump, or ground source heat pump (GSHP), as a central heating and cooling system that pumps heat to or from the ground. It uses the earth as a source of heat (in the winter) or as source of cold (in the summer). This design takes advantage of the moderate temperatures in the ground to boost efficiency and reduce the operational costs of heating and cooling systems.
• Very high efficiency WaterFurnace Envision 064 geothermal heat pump
• 2 stage operation; circulating fan operates at ~65watts
• 3 zones (one per floor) for heating and cooling
• 2 ground-loops, 280 feet in length and 4 ¾ inches in diameter
• Ground-source heat pump has a de-super heater to preheat water in a tank that feeds into the main hot-water supply

Carbon Neutral Operation
House is designed to be 100% operated by electricity (heating, cooling, kitchen appliances, hot water) to be supplied by either the roof-mounted solar photovoltaic system, or purchased through Xcel Energy wind-credits.

Energy Efficient Windows & Doors
A blower door test is a measurement of air-infiltration in natural air changes per hour (NACH). An average well-built house today gets an air-infiltration rating of 0.3. Some older houses are rated as high as 1.0. This number is a calculation of what percentage of the air in your home exchanges with the outside air every hour – so a 1.0 means you exchange 100% of the air every hour. The higher the score, the more you are constantly heating or cooling the air in your home. The blower door test for 2093 Balsam yielded an astoundingly low score of 0.042 – an air exchange of every 10-15 hours – making it one of the lowest scores (tightest houses) in Boulder. Energy efficient windows and door are present throughout 2093 Balsam.
• Marvin Integrity Windows—Picture, casement, awnings for lower infiltration; Low E II insulated glass (15-33% recycle glass), E-star rated. Wood-Ultrex (8x stronger than vinyl) uses10% recycled products and requires 39% less energy to produce than traditional wood windows. Average whole glass R-Value = R-3.
• Therma-Tru Smoothstar exterior doors
• Hurd aluminum clad 4-panel sliding door.
• Clerestory windows and south facing windows to provide lots of natural lighting throughout entire house.

Green Building
• Engineered lumber that is Forest Stewardship Council certified
• All hardwood flooring is carbonized bamboo
• Low VOC/non-toxic low VOC paint
• Decking is made from 100% locally recycled tires
• All carpet is 50% wool
• Primarily CFL, LED or dimmer-controlled lighting fixtures with motion sensors in all closets
• Kitchen counters are Eco by Cosentino, and are made from 75% post-industrial or post-consumer recycled content bound by an eco-friendly resin
• In demolition of previous structure, 13.5 tons of material diverted from the landfill through recycling or re-use

SIPS Construction
SIPs are high-performance building panels for floors, walls and roofs in residential and commercial buildings.  Each panel is made using expanded polystyrene (EPS), or rigid foam insulation, sandwiched between two structural skins of oriented strand board (OSB). The result is a building system that is very strong, predictable, energy efficient, and cost effective. The benefits of SIP buildings are a higher R-value, fewer drafts and air leaks, quiet interiors, minimal waste, and savings of 50% or more on energy over traditional stick frame construction. The structural characteristics of SIPs buildings are similar to those of a steel I-beam house. The Structural Insulated Panels used at 2093 Balsam yield R-24 walls and R-48 roof. Basement Insulation is Icynene (foam and air-barrier) blown 4-6 inches thick on interior living spaces.

Water Consumption
Xeriscape lawn for low water use. Low flow fixtures throughout. Dual flush toilets.

Recharging Station
This was home was designed with 2 dedicated 50-amp charging stations in the garage to provide rapid charging to the new fleet of electric vehicles that is coming.

HERS Rating = 30
The HERS Index is a scoring system established by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) in which a home built to the specifications of the HERS reference home scores a HERS Index of 100, while a net zero energy home scores a HERS Index of 0. The lower a home’s HERS Index, the more energy efficient it is in comparison to the HERS Reference Home. A typical American home today rates 150 on the HERS scale… 2093 Balsam received an exceptional HERS rating of 30.