certified. #passivehouse #phius

That's right, it's official, we're living in a passive house.  It's been a summer to test this passive house too.  With highs in triple digits and power outages from Los Derechos, we've just about experienced everything mother nature could through at us with the sun at its highest angle.

[The certificate to prove it.]

Just a few weeks ago we received our Energy Star certificate and HERS index rating (38).  Not that i ever want to leave this mountain, but I'm anxious to know if carrying an energy rating will help sell this house one day.

[Our new home.]

[After Los Derechos.]

 

I will admit it got warm after 8 days without power but we were still able to maintain 80F interior temps with just the ERV running.  About 5 days into the aftermath, we had the mini split heat pump wired into the generator and we were back to mid 70Fs inside.

Since we moved in we've built a bat box (still vacant), a road sign, landscaped, battled with a snake bite, featured in The Roanoker magazine and now we're working on a chicken coop; the future home of 4 guineas and 4 chicken hens.

[Welcome home.]

[Cover shot.]

As fall sets in and we retire the A/C for the next two seasons, we're looking forward to the energy bills.  Our highest bill this summer topped out at $60 but we're anticipating bills in the mid to upper $30s over the colder months.