by Anna Bobbitt
In week 9 of our semester, we worked on fine tuning and unifying our CAD drawings. Monday of this week (3/31) was spent listening to a fantastic lecture from Lia Douillet, a HERS rater. We learned about HERS – Home Energy Rating System – and the softwares used to get the rating. HERS is a great tool to quantify the energy and carbon usage of a functioning home and for understanding what kind of energy sustainability a household has. In Massachusetts the minimum HERS rating for new construction is 42 for a fossil fuel based build, and 45 for an all-electric. There are more sustainable standards that, when met, are rewarded by Mass Save with energy efficiency incentives. As a HERS rater, Lia assesses new builds at the halfway point for construction and at completion. She then gives the home a set of scores that combine to get the HERS rating.
Our HERS and BEAM (software to measure embodied carbon) team were able to meet with Lia to get some deeper insight on the software while the rest of us met to present our work up to that point. For this meeting, and the past week, we have mostly been focused on nailing down a floor plan. Or, at the very least confirming enough of it that the section, elevation, and interiors team can start to line up some of their work with the general layout of the home. We discussed some proposals for the floor plan and determined some ways for the teams to work directly to ensure effectiveness and collaboration.
On Wednesday of this week (4/2) we enjoyed another lecture, this time from Carl Fiocchi on MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) systems. We focused mostly on the history of residential heating and cooling systems as well as what the numbers are for carbon usage and CO2 emissions. We also looked at the intended heating and cooling systems for the build which is a very simple unit built into the wall framing that focuses on efficiency and lots of fresh air flow.
After the lecture, the floor plan and interiors team met to nail down two different options for the floor plan. The basement stair will be on the NE side of the building with the bathroom across the hall and the bedroom in the SE corner to maximize natural light. The kitchen-living took up most of the conversation with one option including a U shaped kitchen in the SW corner and the other with a linear kitchen on the North wall. We are still working on creating a balance between entry, kitchen, dining, and living space but with some fine tuning I think we will have some great options. We were also introduced to a new organization and collaboration system with specific file naming and cross referencing so we are all working on cohesive CAD documents. We closed the week with some updates from all the teams and action steps moving forward. Especially looking at the deadlines for the window schedule and BEAM numbers!
