The Hilmers wanted a much more efficient house for their retirement years, plus they preferred a single-floor floor plan instead of the 2-stories they had. They also wanted to live closer to nature. They achieved all this with their new traditional 1-story home with its large covered front porch and rear patio looking into a woods full of wildlife. Their new house has more than twice the living space with only 1/4 the energy bills of their prior home! The Hilmers selected their own homesite and designed most of their floorplans before hiring designer John Robbins to produce the energy-efficient construction design. The Hilmers even did their own general contracting to ensure the outcome.
This is not a solar house, but a superefficient one nonetheless. The Hilmers are proud of it! They had attended an AEA hometour 2 years ago, joined the group and then asked if they could put their new home on the tour, even though it wasn't solar. Since AEA's tour is primarily about energy efficiency, the answer was a definite "yes."
All the Hilmer's walls are insulated to the mid R-20s, even in the basement. The ceilings are R-50. The windows are HeatMirror tripane glazed units with low air leakage ratings. Special steps were taken to make all envelope assemblies airtight. The windows were placed for effective cross-ventilation and the plan is as open as possible to promote good ventilation and daylighting. When there's no sun, there's plenty of compact fluorescent lamps for efficient light. The Hilmers also picked efficient major appliances. The propane furnace and water heater are very efficient, and so is the AC. Because of the house's airtight design, a central air-to-air heat exchanger is installed to maintain good indoor air quality.
Although Robbins had presented predictions of how low this
home's major energy bills would be, the Hilmers say they are surprised
how much lower their bills are now compared to their neighbors'
houses and their prior home! They expect this will make an even
bigger difference in the future as energy bills continue to rise.