...Us! We did a manual J calculation of our SIP (Structural Insulated Panel) home and found out that our house was very efficient at 941 sf per ton! The average HVAC contractor normally sizes HVAC units at 450-550 sf per ton.
What does the ton mean? Your HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) system is sized by the ton. Typical sizes for single family residences are between two and five tons. Each ton equals 12,000 Btuh. Basically, it means our house is so air tight, insulated and efficient, it would take a 3-ton HVAC unit to cool our SIP house compared to a 5-ton HVAC unit to cool a stick built house that is the same size as our SIP home.
Our future house, a 2419 sf home, is the most energy efficient home that our green architect has ever designed. :-) Sorry to toot our own horn, but it makes us a bit proud to know this.
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Way to go myleenjan-- you
Way to go myleenjan-- you guys have worked very hard to get it right and to share it with us-- you do in fact deserve an award! - maxmsf
This is why people are using SIPs
This is exactly why people across the country are using SIPs, and will begin to demand that their new home to be built with these panels.
One thing to keep in mind though: as you noticed the internal envelope of your house is extremely tight and will save you energy and money. Keep in mind it is very important to have a good ventilation system to keep the indoor air quality healthy. Using low VOC paints, carpets, furniture, etc can also help with that indoor air. Just remember that air inside your house is not going anywhere, so try and keep it fresh.
That is wonderful. Toot
That is wonderful. Toot that horn all you want, you should be proud. Now just wait until you start getting your energy bills and then over the course of a year compare them to your old bills or the bills of someone with the same square footage. Then you will want to toot that horn even more. The savings should be incredible not to mention the carbon footprint of your house, compared to a stick built of equal size, is much much smaller.
Kudos to you !! ;-)
Cardinal Building Systems, Inc.
Building Efficiently for Energy Savings