Well, you are only about 15 feet above sea level so the water table may be very close to the surface. Geothermal is probably a good choice for heating and cooling. I imagine most construction there would be on slab so insulating under it and making a good air tight seal with the walls would be important energy features. You could then happily use radiant heat and thus would not require much to keep a pad warm in winter and the rest of the house comfortable. I would guess that it is customary to build the garage to the south of the building to buffer the living space further against the heat of the sun in the summer. Maybe deciduous trees for shade for the same reasons. Up here we tend to protect the north side of the house against the cold.
You may well have building codes requiring additional mechanical fixing to tie building components together against hurricane damage, straps and ties and such. Often this is a problem with panel stiles of construction. ----- Original Message ----- From: Shane Hecker To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 10:37 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] building a house Aransas Pass is where I'm building. Shane ----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Leavens To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 8:23 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] building a house First you must decide what properties you want the exterior to have then find the materials which provide those properties. It sounds to me like you are allowing your imagination to be captured by some or other idea or material and then adjusting your thinking to the method or material. Determine your specifications then find the methods and materials which will meet them. You will succeed much better that way. Can you more accurately locate yourself in south Texas? ----- Original Message ----- From: Shane Hecker To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 8:58 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] building a house I thought about building the exterior wals with a combination of nail base and concrete, but this may be overkill. For those that don't know what I'm talking about, nail base is a structural insulated panel that does not have a skin on one side. Rather, it has the skin, then foam. You could almost say it would be similar to taking a piece of plywood and spraying it with about 4 inches of foam on one side. Shane ----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Leavens To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 7:43 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] building a house the budget is not relevant without knowing the size or sophistication of the fixtures and fittings. Beyond that there are a huge number of things to consider. In south Texas it is cooling which will be the big cost. you want to start with orientation of the building to things like the sun. You want to consider things like the roof overhang to minimize summer solar gains but permit winter solar gains. You might like to consider something like adobe but more waterproof so heavy rains won't wash it away, maybe really thick concrete walls with the inside well foam insulated or even stone construction. Stone can probably be had fairly cheaply if you don't have to quarry it. Then other passive design features like a very light coloured roof to reflect heat. Finally, I expect I would investigate geothermal energy recovery. If you have ground water or a stream or water course near by this could be relatively inexpensive to install but even traditional geothermal, although expensive to install will ultimately allow comfort and much reduced operating costs and those will diminish as fuel continues to rise in price and it will continue to rise in price. If you get any amount of winter sun then the mass of a heavy masonry structure will help store what heat you can accumulate. A good air tight foam insulation will help you retain both that heat and the cool. ----- Original Message ----- From: Shane Hecker To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 6:52 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] building a house I'm planning to build a house in a few months. This question will likely invite some debate, which I think is good. If you wanted to build a house as energy efficient as possible, without breaking the bank, how would you do it? To make things simpler (or perhaps more difficult), there is a $80000 budget for building. Shane [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
