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Catskills - Sullivan County - Ulster County Real Estate -- Catskill Farms Journal

Old School Real estate blog in the Catskills. Journeys, trial, tribulations, observations and projects of Catskill Farms Founder Chuck Petersheim. Since 2002, Catskill Farms has designed, built, and sold over 250 homes in the Hills, investing over $100m and introducing thousands to the areas we serve. Farms, Barns, Moderns, Cottages and Minis - a design portfolio which has something for everyone.

May 3, 2014

Stone Ridge Farm Whole House Energy Evaluation



You know, we build pretty good homes - we put a lot of power 'under the hood', be it the spray foam insulation, the on demand hot water heaters, the high efficiency furnaces - all just part of our standard build specifications.  It's pretty uncommon.  I think our clients just expect us to be doing this - since we don't get much arguments like - 'can we use batt insulation and save $5,000 today so we can spend $50k over the next 10 years in wasted energy costs?'


But the metal really hits the road when they bring the post-build performance tester in and they perform a blower door test to test the efficiency of the structure.  This isn't a wink and a nod pre-construction theoretical exercise.  This is a test, and the results are black and white.  Most towns don't require it, but it is code and law - but since just a few builders can actually pass the test, that I think most friendly code enforcers don't want to be chased from town so they choose to ignore that part of the code/law.







So, up above, where it says 'Results' and then '1.8 ACH -50' - that means 1.8 air exchanges per hour - which is 3x better than energy star (the sought after level) and more than 5x standard construction.


It's serious business and means direct savings.   Plus its a validation that our typical and assumed standard practices are far above when other companies try real hard.


And like I think I've said about our clients over and over, they get what we are doing and how we are different in our seriousness of approach to aesthetic and functional details.  


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