The season has truly turned – the temperature has dipped into single digits and the ground is white with fresh, fluffy snow. But don’t worry – our superior insulation of the foundations and slab ensures you can walk barefoot around the house, even in sub-zero temperatures, as mentioned in our last blog (see What’s Down Below). But what about the rest of the house? What innovative techniques are we using to keep it durable, efficient and cozy through the harshest weather?
Start with the envelope. Our panel manufacturer, Bensonwood, has just raised two Red Hill shells at TCP, with one more to come next week. Each house raise takes about five days to materialize, complete with doors and windows. The name of the game at this stage of construction is airtightness and a continuous layer of insulation, achieved through a few key components: roof, walls, windows, and doors. It’s also important to eliminate any thermal bridges in the envelope at this point.
Walls in regular contemporary construction tend to be about 6” thick. However, TCP’s walls from Bensonwood measure 10”, packed with compressed cellulose for superior insulation. Additionally, these walls feature a 3-4” service cavity for the installation of plumbing and electrical systems, bringing their final thickness more than double of typical walls (with an R-value of 49 for you energy nerds…).
And look at – and through – these windows. Our triple-pane windows, imported from Germany, are a game changer for both insulation and tranquility. Not only do they keep your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer, but they also make it unbelievably quiet inside.
To illustrate, I recently attended a Passive House event in a Brooklyn brownstone while an ambulance passed by just outside. Lights flashing, sirens wailing – except inside the house, there was no sound to be heard. The soundproofing was astonishing. Now, at The Catskill Project, we don’t expect urban ambulances to be a concern (at most you will miss the occasional coyote call or the sounds of gusting wind), but the stillness and serenity these windows provide are truly something to savor.
Next up: thermal bridges. These are areas which provide conductivity for heat to travel from the inside out in the winter, and vice versa in the summer. Proper thermal breaks eliminate these, thus providing another critical component of the overall house performance. Bensonwood’s precision-crafted panels really shine here. Built in a fully mechanized factory process, their panels are highly predictable and replicable, ensuring an airtight envelope that is leagues ahead of traditional construction methods.
With such high-performance envelope in place, you may wonder: how does fresh air actually get in and out? After all, we need to breathe, and that air should be clean. Enter the “lungs” of the house: the Zehnder Energy Recovery Ventilation (ERV) system, another top-notch German import. The Zehnder ERV continuously circulates fresh, filtered air throughout the house, 24/7, 365 days a year. Its genius lies in energy exchange. Two adjacent vents – one bringing air in, one channeling air out – are separated by a thin membrane that transfers energy between the two air flows. In winter, warm outgoing air heats the incoming cold air, significantly reducing heating demands. In summer, outgoing cooled air lowers the temperature of incoming hot air, reducing cooling needs. The system achieves an impressive 80% energy exchange, meaning less energy is required to keep your home comfortable year-round.
The result? Monthly energy bills for the entire home hover around $60 throughout the year – yes, for everything.
But there’s more: the air quality inside is as pristine as it gets. Thanks to advanced filtration, even the tiniest particles – pollen, allergens, and smoke – are kept out. During the peak of the Canadian wild fires in the summer of 2024, when skies turned orange and stepping outside made your throat burn, the air inside one of our homes remained completely clean and refreshing, just as it would on any other day. So, there you have it. A home at The Catskill Project is more than just a place to live – it’s durable, healthy, energy-efficient, and easy to maintain. It’s peace of mind and comfort in an increasingly unpredictable world.