The Education of an Architect

Hans decided that before we build our dream home he should attend a course to become certified in designing a passive house.  What is this you may ask?  Apparently we are going to have a very green home. A passive house, which is a concept first utilized in Germany,  is built in a way that it needs to pass an air-lock test when finished.  The windows are as insulating as the super insulated walls.  The end result is a very energy efficient home, more so than pretty much any other type of dwelling.  In Germany these homes are not very attractive but then Hans was not their architect.   We plan to have the very first all new construction passive house in the Sacramento-North part of California and it will look great!

So, Hans went to a class on learning this new specialty and I would get daily phone calls from my very excited fiance telling me every new tidbit he was learning.  "We can heat the house with a hair dryer!" would be an example of an interesting money saving tidbit.  There were also a few less exciting things I learned
1. The windows  are all custom and only come from 3 places- Germany, Canada and Yay! the US. Of course since these are custom I am worried about the $$$$$$
2. No outside venting is great for saving on energy but means my clothes dryer must be a condensation dryer with a drying closet in the laundry room.   I don't know about you, but I have used a condensation dryer. I lived in Belgium for 6 years and at first, had no dryer so I dried everything on a rack in my living room.  When I finally got a condensation dryer it was a Godsend!  However, compared to drying clothes the conventional way, it takes a lot longer.  I am not jumping for joy but it isn't the end of the world  to use a condensation dryer.  $ wise it is not too bad but  it is not easy to find a high end condensation dryer in the US.
3. This has nothing to do with building a Passive House but, the good old state of California has decided all new construction of single and multifamily homes must have a sprinkler system installed as of this year. Crap!!  More $$$$

The Rules:

Per the homeowners association our home must be a minimum of 2,500 s.f.
Per my loving fiance the home must be a Passive House

Goals:
Get the home built for less than $200 s.f.  with the quality and design features we both want
Move in before the end of 2012