The Key: A Great Builder

Happy builders Alex Carver and Phil Bartch of Northern Timbers peeking out of the window of a new 2200 square foot private residence in Bridport, Vermont.  The house sits on a beautiful piece of property at the south end of Snake Mountain.  Blessed with exquisite views and a variety of natural systems, the property invites a house that integrates into its site while minimizing impact.  This includes minimizing the amount of energy consumed in its operations and eliminating the need for consumption of any fossil fuels.  Since the onset of design in the Spring of 2012, Alex has been at the table assisting with budgeting, detailing, and overall constructability planning.  With assistance from Efficiency Vermont, Alex has been instrumental in researching and modeling a variety of energy efficiency strategies from envelope and air sealing strategies to a variety of building systems approaches.  As the house nears completion, we believe it will meet passive house standards and offer our client net-zero energy opportunities, with minimal – if any – energy costs.  Once complete, we will perform cost analyses to see if the added envelope upgrades balance with the reduced mechanical equipment costs.  We will also monitor on-going energy production and consumption. We hope to share that there is little or no upcharge to design and build buildings this way and that the performance is exceptional.

Having Northern Timbers involved in this project from the very beginning of the project has been key to its success, and we can’t say enough how talented and thoughtful these fellows are.

For more information, see www.northerntimbers.com, or give Vermont Integrated Architecture a call at 802-989-7249.