View of the front of the house when I purchased it in 2007
In this age of tract home development, homes of a given type built in the same period have a lot in common. Building practices and technologies change very slowly and in a lot of ways aren’t much different now than 50 years ago. That said, every house is different and perhaps more importantly different people and families use their homes in different ways. So while some things about reducing energy usage at home will be universally applicable, and others won’t be. So part of what I want to capture in this series of blogs is the process; how I do it, what I look for, and the tools I use to get there.
My house is a little different than most. It was architect designed and built in 1978 and somewhat contemporary in style. It is essentially a big square with a little square in the middle.
The center atrium has a transluscent ceiling and lets in a lot of light
Most of the interior ceilings slope up towards the center of the house. In the three bedrooms and kitchen there is a little attic space with a lot of heavy insulation blown in. Having done a bit of renovation work I have learned that all the walls (and I think the ceiling joists) are insulated with a foam product that has since been discontinued (urea-formaldehyde I think). It seems to work pretty well, but has shrunk a bit over the past 30 years and turns to powder if it is touched.
View of the living room - prior owners
Most of the floor plan is pretty open, but there are not a lot of exterior windows so it can be dark. The lot is heavily wooded as well which shades quite a bit. The atrium acts sort of like a car in a parking lot in the summer and can get really hot. There is a fan to push air around and clerestory windows to let hot air out. Both the Atrium and the kitchen have brick floors which can act as a heat sink, though I’m not sure how effectively that actually works.
Living in North Carolina means both cooling in the summer (often with very high humidity) as well as some heating in the winter. Overall the weather is great here; plants start coming up in February, a stark contrast to what I’d grown used to in Chicago (May, sometimes later!), so there are a number of months each year when I don’t have to run the heat or A/C. I have a heat pump that does both and seems to be original to the house.
Otherwise, there is a 2-car detached garage; a 70’s era solar hot water heating system (not sure how well that works either); propane that is used in the living room fireplace, cooktop, and outdoor gas grill; roof eaves that overhang about two feet, wood siding, and an asphalt roof that is just about at the end of its life.
Overall it’s a great house (in part just because it’s different, and I like different!), but the atrium panels have presented some heating/cooling problems. But I expect that most of the aspects I’ll address won’t be impacted by the unusual aspects of the building.
