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What features should I consider when selecting a site for my dream home?
Innovative sun space used to heat water & home in Longmont, Colorado
We’re offering a special promotion through the ReDirect Guide
Sign up for the next FREE tour: Wednesday, August 18th

What features should I consider when selecting a site for my dream home?

Thinking about building your dream home?

One of the first major decisions to make is where to build.  Whether you are seeking ten acres in the country or an urban infill lot, the site you select will affect many other decisions in the design process.  The architect Frank Lloyd Wright used to camp overnight on a site before starting to design a home.  He felt it was the best way to experience the weather patterns and the nuances of the site first-hand.

There are many important aspects to consider during site selection.  This list will help you get started:

Natural Features

1. Topography – The slope of the site can affect your structural engineering costs, views, and the layout of the home.  It can also affect your access, as a steep driveway can be difficult to navigate in the winter.
2. Trees – Trees can provide useful shade and serve as a buffer from the wind.  They can also be expensive to remove if deemed necessary.
3. Soil – It is important to test the soil quality and structural strength to determine what type of foundation the home will need. Testing for groundwater is also important; if the water table is high, building a basement may not be feasible.
4. Solar – Hire a solar PV specialist to measure the site’s solar access and to determine its renewable energy potential.  If you are planning on installing a solar system, ensure that the roof will not be shaded by trees or other structures, and consider having the architect design the main roof line along the east/west axis, as this allows for the greatest southern roof exposure for optimum solar energy production.  Also check with the local utility provider to see if they offer incentives for solar PV and/or solar thermal.
5. Seasonal Considerations – Talk to neighbors to find out about local weather patterns. If the area experiences excess snow or wind, be sure that your site’s features will protect your home from the elements.

Municipal

1. Water source – If the site needs a water tap, contact the local building department to determine the tap fee.  If there isn’t a water line, the site will need a well.  Drilling a well can be expensive.
2. Electric/Phone/Cable – Contact local suppliers to verify that these amenities are readily-available and that signals are strong (particularly for cell phones).
3. Building Codes – The local building department can provide information on building height restrictions, utility location easements, and any other restrictions specific to the site.
4. HOA – If you are planning to build in an existing neighborhood, read the by-laws to learn what building styles are permitted.

Other

1. Local Seasonal Recreation – Research the prevalence of hunting, hiking, local festivals or other activities in the area.  These events can be disruptive and intrusive if they are frequent.
2. Neighbors – Spend some time on the site to ensure that you will be compatible with the existing neighbors.  Also find out if any trains can be heard.  Consider contacting the local building department about any future development plans in the area.
3. Title – Contact a reputable title company to confirm that the land will be sold free and clear of all liens.

Choosing a site should be done carefully and methodically.  The right site will make the design process simple and smooth; conversely, the wrong site will lead to complications, disappointment, and regret.  Don’t settle for anything less than perfect.  If you are building your dream house, you probably plan to stay in it for a long time.  Keep searching until you find the place where you can plant your roots and watch your dreams grow.

After you’ve purchased your dream site, consider contacting a design/build team, like Ecofutures, that can put you in touch with masterful architects that incorporate aesthetics and high-performance home techniques in their designs.

Innovative sunspace used to heat water & home in Longmont, CO

In any climate, the first step in home design and building is to harness what is most abundant.   In this region, that resource is the sun, and it is important to keep exploring ways to use the sun’s energy as the core strategy to future-proof our clients’ homes.

Solar thermal systems are a great way to use the sun’s energy to heat a home’s domestic water and contribute to space heating.  Typically, using flat plate solar thermal collectors, the radiant heat from the sun either heats the water passing through the panels directly, or it heats a glycol mixture that is piped through a water storage tank.  It’s best to place the collectors in direct sunlight, often on a roof, but what if that’s not possible?

At the near-zero net energy home we’re building in Longmont, a large photovoltaic system (used to generate solar electricity) covered the main roof, leaving only the garage roof available for a solar thermal system.  The clients preferred not to have solar thermal collectors visible above the ridge line of the garage, so a new home for them had to be found.

To solve this dilemma, Ecofutures devised a unique and relatively simple way to heat the water using a combination of direct gain and super-heated convective air surrounding the collectors.  At the back of the house behind the garage, facing south, a 38-foot long, three foot deep sunspace was built.  The floor and walls of the space were painted black to allow for more heat absorption.   Double pane low-iron windows with a solar heat gain coefficient of 0.82 were used, allowing the space to reach high temperatures (130˚F to date).  The six solar thermal collector panels are housed in the sunspace, and as the temperature in the room rises, the water in the panels is heated and fed into a 400 gallon storage tank.  From there, this heated water is used throughout the house for domestic purposes as well as for heating the outdoor hot tub.

This unique experimental system should provide the family will almost all their hot water needs.  During cold and cloudy weather snaps, a wall-mounted, high-efficiency gas boiler will supply any necessary additional heat.  Current estimates are that this backup heat will cost less than $5 per month at today’s natural gas prices.

During winter, in addition to heating the domestic water, the hot air in the sunspace will be pumped throughout the house, serving as the primary heating system.  The air handling unit that distributes the hot air from the sunspace is called an Enerboss.  This multi-talented unit has an Energy Recovery Ventilator for providing continuous fresh air, as well as a fan coil for backing up the space heating system.  For this backup, hot water from the boiler circulates through a radiator-type of material in the air stream, heating the air in a clean, non-static-creating way.

During the summer, the hot air in the sunspace will not contribute to the home’s cooling loads, since it’s located outside the thermal boundary of the home.  Hot air produced will be expelled through an exhaust pipe, but domestic hot water will still be captured.

As the home is not yet occupied, the system has yet to be fully tested.  It will be interesting to re-visit this home in a year, after we’ve collected full temperature and humidity data, as well as kWh and gas Therms consumed, to see how well the sunspace and its solar thermal collectors performed.  While this specialized design may not be suitable on a large scale at today’s energy prices and due to opinions regarding appearance, but it is anyone’s guess as to what will become acceptable, or even compelling and necessary, when energy costs escalate to a certain level (energy costs are cited as the second-most important factor in home foreclosures).

We’re offering a special promotion through the ReDirect Guide

Ecofutures is a member of the ReDirect Guide, the one-stop sustainable lifestyle directly and resource guide featuring hundreds of qualified, green and eco/earth-friend businesses and organization in the Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Colorado region.  We are currently offering an iSaveGreen coupon for $250 off of Design Services for your custom high performance home or deep energy retrofit or remodel project.  Give us a call at 303-440-9695 or fill out a Needs Questionnaire to get started!

Sign up for the next FREE tour: Wednesday, August 18th

We offer free quarterly tours of Solar Harvest, our flagship zero net energy home and residence to Ecofutures’ Founder/CEO Eric Doub.  The home has received numerous awards and is the first home of its kind in Colorado.

Our next tour is scheduled for Wednesday, August 18th from noon to 1p.m and will be lead by Eric.  Spots are limited for this popular free tour, so consider signing up now by filling out the sign-up form on our website.  There is one more date this year (October 19th) that you can sign up for now if our upcoming date doesn’t work for you.

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