The original 1899 detailed survey of our neighborhood

I love the old style lettering. In the upper left is the compass pointing north. It looks like the declination back then was 11 degrees 13 minutes. Today it is 14 degrees 28 minutes. I have a little trouble with this still, but it appears to me that the north south compass is pointing to solar south and north, not magnetic.

Close up of our lots (8 and 9 now combined)

Sewer and water stub lines already run under the sidewalk = Savings

If you look at the sewer and water lines on Vernon St. you can see that there are stub lines already run under the sidewalk, which is great. It means we don’t have to pay to cut and repair the street. Unfortunately it also means we can’t tap into the gas lines. Greenfield won’t cut streets that are 5 years old or younger unless it is necessary.

I’ll be needing a pickup truck while building the home so its time to sell my Nissan Sentra. Here is the link to the Sentra for sale page on Craig’s List.

http://westernmass.craigslist.org/cto/1587104902.html

Let me know if you are interested! Family and friends get a discount!

I have had quite a number of folks interested in the Sentra, hopefully someone will go for it soon. I also found a pickup truck. My mechanic is selling it. Will post more soon.

I borrowed a Solar Pathfinder from GCC yesterday and used it to analyze the solar access and gain for the site (once the trees are cut).

How the Pathfinder works:

The device is quite simple. (pictures below) A semi reflective/semi transparent dome that sits above a sun path chart for our latitude. The dome reflects the entire horizon and sky and effectively superimposes it on the sun path chart. You can than see what trees and buildings obstruct the sun throughout the entire year. One can do out the calculations by hand, it is easier and quicker to take a digital image looking down on the Pathfinder and load it into the associated software.

Setting up the Pathfinder:

Orient the Pathfinder so that the it is level and pointing towards magnetic South using the bubble level and compass that are on it. Make sure there is no magnetic metals near the pathfinder including nails and belt buckles. The tricky part is correctly rotating the sunpath chart so that it is facing the solar south and not magnetic south. The amount and direction of rotation depends on where you are on the planet. For Western Massachusetts the difference between magnetic south and solar south (declination) is about 14.5 degrees West of North. It is somewhat confusing to explain without pictures which direction to rotate; suffice to say one rotates the chart clockwise. If one is in the western part of the country one would be rotating the chart a certain number of degrees counter clockwise. If you are in the correct location in Mississippi river valley, there is no declination, magnetic south and solar south align.

Links:

Declination Calculator http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomagmodels/Declination.jsp

Declination World Map http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/WMM/data/wmm-D05.pdf

Results:

As you can see (at least for the center of the lot) the solar gain is fantastic once the trees are gone. All of the trees will be cut except for on large silver maple on the west side of the lot. Incredibly, this silver maple is situated so that it won’t impinge on the winter sun and will block the summer afternoon sun from the west (which is typically the most problematic from the point of view of overheating). What luck!

I need take more readings with the Pathfinder from different locations so I can get a better idea of what the house will experience. Also, I need to recalculate the kWh/m^2/day with a 64 degree tilt. Sixty four degrees is the optimum angle to maximize winter gain.

Picture of me with the pathfinder. You can see the large silver maple in the back left.

I just wrapped up my class at GCC on Archicad. I am really grateful for having and being able to use a CAD program. Attached is my first run through on a design for the first floor. I haven’t drawn up a second floor or roof yet for it.

Solar hot water and air class started yesterday and Piping and Passive Solar start today.

I am certain now that the house will have two floors. Although I haven’t been to the site with a solar pathfinder (to determine the amount of sun the site gets based on obstacles) I am fairly certain the neighbors house to the south will block a significant portion of the winter sun. Having the panels on top of a second floor roof will mitigate this issue.

Looking back at where I was 3 years ago I would have never guessed I would now be in the position of building my own home. During the fall of 2008, I read Building Green and was quite inspired. I ended up taking a few building science courses at Greenfield Community College (GCC) in their Renewable Energy/Energy Efficiency program. I can’t recommend these classes enough–especially to anyone who owns a home. I also learned timberframing with Devin Smith in Rockingham VT. You can see pictures of Devin and I working at his Flickr account here.

In preparation for building our house I will be taking a half a dozen classes at GCC–all oriented towards designing and building the house. In fact, one of my classes, Green Building 2 with Scott Baum,  is exclusively about designing your own house.