About

About this Blog

The purpose of this blog is to detail the building of a super insulated home for my family, in Peterborough, Canada.  This will take the form of posts sharing practical, technical information, photos and general background details, starting with the design phase, through completion.  In addition, I will list resources and tools I found useful.

It is also my intent to provide the reader with my opinions, perspectives and lessons learned on the various topics that make up a high performance, super insulated home.



About the Home

For those not familiar with the term Super Insulation, as it relates to homes, it basically means a home with (a lot) more insulation than normal.  Normal might be defined as what your local building code mandates, or as what is typical for your area.  The purpose of, and advantage to,  super insulating a home is a well discussed topic online.

While super insulation might be one of the defining characteristics of the home, it is not the only one worth mentioning.  A durable air tightness layer, mechanical ventilation, heat recovery, passive solar design and many other high performance features are planned.

In future posts, I will discuss these features in depth, our reasons for pursuing this building method, and more specifically, the technical details involved.



About the Author

My name is Jason, and I live in Peterborough, Canada (Climate Zone 6A) with my family.  I work in the construction industry, specifically bridge construction.  It has always been my dream to build a home for my family.  WIth a background in construction, and family members who have made a living working in the trades, it is my hope to build the majority of the home without the help, or cost, of sub trades.

Originally, the home was just to be simple, sturdy, and customized to suit our family.  Sometime in 2011, I starting thinking about the home being "better than code". 

An ambiguous term to be sure.

Eventually this change in thinking led me to GreenBuildingAdvisor.com.  From there, my journey to learning about super insulated homes began.


"Millions have already been spent to conclude that it makes more sense to put on your coat, instead of trying to swallow it if you want to stay warm and dry." Thorsten Chlupp.


This quote always stuck with me, so I thought I would share.  You can read it here, where Mr. Chlupp was discussing the merits of outsulation with other posters on the GBA website.  Post 36.



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