Carletta | Barnett Residence - Hawley, PA

What started as a passive solar home design changed direction when our clients said that they wanted to preserve the natural wooded character of the site adjacent to a forest preserve.  Their year round home is in Kentucky, and this new house would be a summer home until they retire, so they didn't want high fuel bills to be a burden.  When our engineering consultants ran some solar calculations with the climatic data available for the poconos, however, we realized that because of the amount of cloud cover during winter months, the amount of solar gain from south facing windows during the day would equal heat loss during the nights.  So passive solar space heating just wouldn't be appropriate for this site.  This feedback let us to design a super-insulated home that would minimize heat loss and achieve the overall energy savings that our clients were looking for.  With double stud, 12 inch thick exterior walls, air sealed and filled with dense-pack celluose insulation we were able to achieve an R-50 rating.  The roof areas were similary detailed with an R-60 rating.  With this high performance exterior envelope, and a radiant floor, they are able to heat the house with just a conventional domestic hot water heater delivering 90 degree water.  No furnace, no high heating bills, what's not to like.