I don't blame your girlfriend for freaking out. Building and remodeling can be very stressful. If the building process isn't something that you both can enjoy is it really worth spending a year or two of your life living with that stress? That's not meant to discourage you, but rather to encourage you to find the way to get what you want done with a process that works for you. That can be remodeling, or hiring a General Contractor, or Doing it yourself. Do right by yourself and your relationship first.

Also I'd say hold off on deciding what equipment you are going to use until you have a good idea on what the energy requirements are going to be. Then you'll be able to make a decision based on likely install price, performance, etc...

yea we will see how it goes. i think i found a way to get her to go along with it but time will tell.

anyway. if I really want to have some serious insulation values in the walls and ceilings i have an idea. the pole barn idea will work pretty well for this. on the same principle as the double stud wall except only better? i dont have a diagram but starting from outside in.

2x4 girts(run horizontally spaced every two feet virtically)then would be the 2x6 3ply posts then a 2"gap with a standard 2x4 wall framed for the inside... that would be about r-50


Although I have no intentions or budget to build a passive house.

Speaking of budget I think I've set the budget at 100k for the house build. Should be able to do that pretty easy I think. Whenever my house actually sells I'll just put that money in the bank we should be able to get to the 100k in about 2-3 years of saving. That way the house can be started and finished without waiting on money.

Don't be so sure on that. Passivhaus on a Budget | GreenBuildingAdvisor.com That's with the old German standard, not the bit more relaxed new US standard. With value optimization, you really can get down to a reasonable price for the passive house standard. Take a look at the house posted above It is done pretty well. For example it has:

• Close to the ideal form. It is almost a cube, a sphere would be ideal for energy use, but those are expensive to build. As is it only has 2 extra corners, and is missing a story.

• Very little Thermal Bridging.

• Easy air sealing

• No double hung windows

About the only thing I'd do differently with that house is use advanced framing, and reducing the exterior insulation by an inch or two.

If you were DIYing the build further money could be saved by using recycled foam insulation instead of nailbase.

Passivhaus on a Budget | GreenBuildingAdvisor.com
Regarding the URL and the post above.
Agree, cube is great. A sphere is not only expensive to build but people usually put furniture and appliances flat against walls too, if things had to be centered to allow for the curved wall, it would require a larger structure with wasted space. Something is nice about a flat floor too. :)
I agree with advanced framing. I think that using 2x6 with 24" framing with a cellulose stud fill would be more ideal with 4" of XPS, although with *proper* installation of fiberglass and air sealing done well, I can't fault R21 fiberglass that much. I think R40ish is great for my climate.(winter design temp is -13f here) For a winter design that doesn't go under 20f, I suppose 2x4 walls with dense pack cellulose and 3" of XPS or 4" of EPS to get to roughly R30 would be decent too. I think appropriate windows for the climate get critical here, especially in the sunniest and coldest regions. I think they went with more foam on the outside versus the inside for thermal bridging purposes. I think things get better cost optimized when you have about 20 in and 20 out if the total goal is R40. Once you've got 15 or 20 on the outside, thermal bridging is in good shape. Seems that many new publications that I've been reading prefer to have at least as much foam on the outside as the amount of insulation on the inside. ..granted my mid-80s house has R5 polyiso on the outside and R13 on the inside, it seems to be surviving just fine but it seems to avoid potential condensation issues, the current recommendation is to have at least half of the insulation on the outside to keep the indoor side of the moisture impenetrable zone above the dew point.
Great idea, where do I find this?

The 50/50 works everywhere except for the coldest climate zones (basically close to or in the polar circles), it's about the safest advice you can give. However in reality you just need to ensure you have enough exterior insulation to keep condensation at bay for your wall assembly. But the exterior is not always the most cost optimal place to put insulation, after all fiberglass batts are cheap. As long as you are hitting your clear wall insulation targets, and have the appropriate amount of exterior insulation it really doesn't matter where you put the insulation.

As for recycled foam, try craig's list often commercial roofers will put it up on there after they replace a flat commercial roof. Also a google search for "recycled rigid foam insulation" brings up a lot of re-sellers.

If you're still in the wall design phase. Have you looked at buildingscience.com? that's where greenbuilding get their ideas.

they have lots of techniques to explore. Including a section on high r value walls. Well illustrated and often peer reviewed published reports.

I found the recycled polyiso insulation I used on my "winter bedroom" at a roofing contractor. The sheets came off of failed large building roofs (hospitals, ice rinks etc). Mine were in mint condition.

i searched kijiji. I think in the US you call it craigslist. but a quick scroll through roofing contractors should give you some leads.

My winter bedroom used a modified "perfect wall." I like double stud walls and the larsen truss as well.

Lots of used poly iso available online and Craigslist. Prices by the truckload are pretty good. The older polyiso is better than some of the newer as the older used better gasses for insulating. The newer stuff looses it's effectiveness much faster.

As for round houses... It didn't go too well for the Dymaxion house as only one has survived. Round is not a good shape for people or their belongings. Lots of wasted space that you end up needing much more cubic feet of round to equal the same usability as a square would.

Also with houses the master bedroom always goes on the first floor as does a seccond bathroom. Spare bedrooms upstairs if you really have to have a two story house. One story houses are much more livable especially as you get older.

Well we ended up finding a house that is what we wanted. So we won't be building a house. But the garage needs some tlc so I will be starting a thread on that. Also I Will be expanding my solar and I still have to finish my oil heater idea.

Well you can just rip the siding off do some airsealing and put about r-10 exterior insulation on. Then your girlfriend can enjoy the stress of remodeling since she missed out on the stress of home building. :D