>> Hi, we're here with Hunter Mantell-Hecathorn in Durango, Colorado. He's the son of, or I guess co-owner now- >> Yep. of the business. And they do high-efficiency residential building mostly in the mountains of Southwest Colorado. And he's agreed to tell us a little bit about what makes a high-efficiency, low-energy house. >> Yeah, so we're here today in the timbers in Durango. This is our project for Sarah Ryling just nearing completion. She, in fact, moves in this weekend. So you can see going on behind us, one of the final things going on is the solar panels on the roof. So at the end of the project that's an important thing for us is to try to tie that back in to bringing your house down to producing as much energy as it's consuming. So to rewind back to the beginning stages of construction as far as a few important things that we start with is just, for energy efficiency, is insulation levels. So you can start with your foundation. And a normal eight inch concrete foundation wall only has like an R2, so there's really no insulating properties there. So you start insulating your foundation walls with two inch rigid foam and then you go up to your main walls. >> How thick would those be, six inches? >> It ranges so that's a good question. So there's obviously a myriad of different construction techniques that you can build a house with. So if we're talking about Sarah's house here, what we did here was a typical two by six wall. That's our load bearing framing wall, 24 inch on center. So therefore you've spread the studs out instead of the standard 16 inch on center. And that just allows for more insulation in between the cavities. But also helps minimize the thermal bridging so the transfer of the heat or the cold through the wood into the house. So the less framing lumber you have, basically the more comfortable, better insulated the house is. But what we also did here was around the whole house is two-inch ridged foam. So that's basically putting a jacket on your whole house. So you add the insulation in your wall, which in this case we did a flash and fill technique. Which is they spray about two inches of closed cell spray foam against the inside of the sheeting and then fill the rest of the cavity up with fiberglass, and then we also put the two-inch ridged foam on the outside. So this one nets out at a R34 or so, and your standard co-built house, depending on what code you're talking about, but R19 to R21. So, it's definitely more robust. So just quickly on once again in the very initial stages a really important thing is to try to capture passive solar. So orienting your house facing south so you can capture the free energy of the sun coming in through your windows and openings in the house. So another important aspect on high efficiency, high performance building is well-made windows with good insulating property. So we used triple pane windows, these are made by Kolbe but all American window manufacturers pretty much have triple pane, European does better but that's getting into the details. So, siding of the house? Well, insulated windows and- >> Appliances maybe? >> appliances, sure, absolutely, and your lighting package. So trying to use LED lighting throughout. That's what we've done here 100%. Every can, bulb, even the garage, they're not the fluorescents. They look like them but they're LED, and then, yeah, Energy Star appliances. It's so easy now. Almost every manufacturer offers that. So, it really does. It saves you energy and that relates back to the size of the solar panels that you're using on the house. Once you start using better appliances, more efficient appliances, LED lighting, now you're reducing your load so you don't need as big of a solar panel system. >> Are you putting any storage in here for energy? >> No, we're not on this. And that's something that we'd like to work towards. >> Pretty expensive. Hunter, you know, one of the big obstacles for businesses or individuals moving toward sustainability has always been this initial cost. >> True. >> What do you think all of these wonderful features add to the cost of the house? >> Yeah, that's a good question. And that's definitely, that's reality, is that incorporating high-performance building and building science into homes costs more money. So for us it's roughly ended up being 12 to 20% more, >> Wow. >> Depending on what the clients choose. But as far as what we build in, I'd say that's roughly around what it costs, in addition, so. >> But, what we're buying are energy savings for 35 years. >> Exactly, exactly. And the life of the home, same thing. I mean, all of this stuff that we do, and not only is it saving you energy, but it's a better built house so it lasts longer. All of the siding materials, all of the different techniques that we use throughout the home also just make it a longer lasting house. So it saves you energy but it also, low maintenance. So I see that. Yes, it costs you or costs the client a bit more, or if it's a Spec House, it costs a bit more, but it will save the client or the end user money. Those are just facts. >> That's great. Thanks so much for your time. >> Yeah. Thank you.
