Bright Built Barn is Built, Bright and Beautiful
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 12.30.08
All images by Naomi Beal via Kaplan Thompson Architects
Perhaps I should just rename these design posts the "Jetson of the Day" since I am getting so many from Preston at Jetson Green. Back in September he introduced us to the Bright Built Barn; Now Naomi Beal's latest pictures of it almost completed are up and it looks great. The designers are very proud of the "light skirt" around the building; I think it makes it look pimped out like a tuner Honda. However they serve a purpose:
The barn glows GREEN when it is producing more energy than it consumes; YELLOW indicates a borderline condition; RED means that energy usage is current higher than required to meet our yearly NET ENERGY goal. These colors are indicators of real-time energy usage, and will soon be visible on our website.-Talk about airing your linens in public.
Kaplan Thompson did very good renderings, and it is remarkable how the finished building is almost indistinguishable.
The interior is elegant, restrained, looking very Japanese; the closet doors look like Shoji screens.
Preston writes:
since it can be almost entirely prefabricated off-site, BrightBuilts will be replicated and proliferated all over the country. So let's expect to see more of these in various places.
I certainly hope so. Congratulations to Bensonwood Homes, Kaplan Thompson Architects, Gibson Design Build and a very lucky client. More at Bright Built Barn via Jetson Green
More on Bensonwood and Bright Built Barn in TreeHugger:
Bright Built Barn is Net-Zero Energy
The Wired Home Goes Green: First Pix of Loblolly House
Open Building
The Open Prototype
What Makes a Building Green? Kieran Timberlake Architects
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- So Long 2008, and Thanks for All the Posts
- Acorn/ Deck/ Empyrean Born 1947 Died 2008
- Quote of the Day: Building Green Houses is Like "Polishing a Turd"
- Cabin Kits from Copeland Casati
Uh, anyone else see that huge central AC unit to the right of the house? No furnace needed, but this monstrosity needed? Like one or two of those super efficient LG split units could not have fit the bill for those very few days in ME where AC even needs to be considered?
Sounds like you're jumping to conclusions. Who's to say it's not a air source heat pump?
LA: I wondered what it was as well and asked the architect, Jesse Thompson:
"It's the outdoor unit from the heat pump (heating and cooling). All the winter heat (even in our climate) comes off the heat pump, powered by the grid-tied PV. Even in -5, we should still get a COP of better than 1, so we should be better than electric baseboard.
The heat pump is oversized on this model, the mechanical engineer was very nervous. For production we would move to a Japanese mini-split, something like the Mitsubishi Mr. Slim, will be able to handle most climates with a single tiny mass-market box."
I don't want our engineer getting mad at us, they were great, and their job is to be careful, because they get the blame if things don't work. When you are in fairly uncharted territory ( a small, no fossil fuel, no combustion, conditioned building in a 7500 degree day climate ), the first model will always have some variance from a perfect system. Belt and suspenders!
Just for clarity, there is an Energy Recovery Ventilator that circulates fresh air constantly because the building is so tightly sealed ( less than 0.6 ACH50...). In between the ERV and the air grilles is an air handler that we dump hot or cold water into from either the solar thermal tubes or the split heat pump that changes the temperature of the ventilation air.
And honestly, we don't expect this house to use heating or cooling more that 3 months of the year, the rest of the time there is just fresh air being moved around and the heat pump isn't doing anything, and the Barn should just naturally stay comfortable.
Admittedly, that unit is way too ugly, and we're going to hide it as soon as possible. And shrink it in size. And make it simpler!
LA: OK, but you are in Maine, in the country, with decent overhangs and sun protection, cross ventilation. Did you need air conditioning at all?
As to the air conditioning in Maine, we don't need it. We only have 2 hot weeks every year, and most people don't even consider them very hot.
When you are trying for a fossil-fuel free / no combustion building, your energy source is going to be electric, and the best use of electricity is a heat pump. We look at it that we are heating the building with the heat pump, and getting the AC for free...
One of our other goals was that this building be able to be purchased and set in other climates than Maine's. The east mid-atlantic of the US has such high humidity that mechanical dehumidification is tough to be without, and that influenced out design. We wanted this building to travel...
Jesse Thompson
Kaplan Thompson Architects
Portland, ME