Oct 3, 2010

Bilyeu Homes Passive House: Salem, Oregon



Bilyeu Homes was proud to be a part of the 2010 Green and Solar Tour, yesterday, here in Salem, Oregon and have another opportunity to showcase our building of the very first Passive House in the Pacific Northwest.

A Passive House is a very well-insulated, virtually air-tight building that is primarily heated by passive solar gain and by internal gains from people, electrical equipment, etc. Something as simple as using a hair dryer, almost instantly warms the internal temperature of the home.

Without even having a furnace, and using today's highest energy standards techniques, the heating energy consumption of such a home is cut by an amazing 90%. To date, the owners, Sarah Evans and Stuart Rue, have spent $0 on all heating costs, including hot water, and are expecting that number to remain constant, even during the cold weather ahead.Even during the hottest 103º days we had here this summer, they only had to turn on their modest air conditioning unit a few times.

To paraphrase the home owners...if the house ever gets cold, all they have to do is invite a a few friends over to visit, and their body heat will actually heat up the house, itself.You can't beat that for a true housewarming party! And you can have them over....as often as you want... or need them ;)

For certification, my son, Blake Bilyeu, had to undergo rigorous passive house training and certification, to learn how to build this incredibly efficient home. He uses sophisticated software that factors in fixed elements such as climate, shading, and other characteristics of the house site, for both designing and working with blueprints and in the actual building construction.

We're gonna be on TV...check out the Rue-Evans blog:
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We were contacted by KATU Channel 2 in Portland, which does a weekly segment called Green Living and wanted to feature a Passive House.>>


Serious Energy Savings With Passive House Design - Green Homes ...

MOTHER EARTH NEWS!

If you're dreaming of a home that's the ultimate in energy efficiency, ...
www.motherearthnews.com/...homes/passive-house-zm0z11zphe.aspx?... - Cached -
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2011 Postnote:
After one entire year of living in this home, the Rue-Evan report an almost unbelievably low energy bill for the year. With all use combined, and this includes heat, air conditioning, and hot water...the entire home, for the entire year cost under $80 to heat/cool, have hot water...COMBINED FOR THE YEAR! Sounds preposterous doesn't it? That is how unbelievably amazing this house truly is!

Top Ten Green Building Trends for 2011 Selected by Earth Advantage Institute


Passive House Conference...visits 16th and Nebraska: on Youtube

First Passive House on the West Coast USA: 16th and Nebraska: the owner's ongoing blog

Statesman Journal newspaper article on the house only ignore the error on heating costs, there costs have been $0, NOT $300! They did the potential not real math computation.

Passive House in the news

Passive House Certification

Bilyeu Homes, Inc.

Passive House US

Passive House Northwest

**One year.....less than $70 for the total healing/cooling, hot water bill ...one entire year!

 Latest in the news for this amazing home:

 

Articles about the house

4 comments:

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

That sounds so interesting. How many passive homes are out there, besides yours?

Michele Bilyeu said...

Excellent question! Now why didn't I add that??

It is 1 out of only 13 in the entire U.S. There is also one in Vancouver B.C. that was built for the last Winter Olympics and many, many more in Germany, where 'Passiv Haus' began, as well as other countries around the globe.

Anonymous said...

This is wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing.

Clare said...

I think I'd like to live in a Passive House. Can you son knock down this heap of stones and rebuild it please!