Greg Shaw will be giving a seminar entitled "Net-0 Energy Home, a Home that Produces as much Energy as it Uses."
This seminar will show how you can build a home where your utility bills will be minimual or where you can even make a profit from it. He will look at how the Net 0 Energy Home we built was constructed and how we used modern technology to produce and save energy resulting in a Net 0 Energy Home. 
We have accomplished a lot of work in the last month in a half and the time has come for the blower door test. The blower door test will measure how tight the home was constructed by measuring the air flow through the blower door when the house is place under negative pressure. 
Drywall is going up! 
Who would have known that insulating a can light could be so complicated? We completely enclosed the entire can light so there was no chance of air infiltration. We used 1" foam with all the seams taped and foamed to create a unbelievable tight seal.
We didn't stop with the walls, we took it all the way to the top! The attic was another important area for air sealing. We sealed all the top plates and all penetrations that came through the attic. You can see that we used spray foam again to create a superior air seal. When you look at the picture you can see a foam shoot that is stapled to the bottom side of the roof. This is called a proper vent and this allows air to travel from your exterior soffit to the attic.
I have talked a lot about the building shell and the importance of having an air tight home. When you look at a home, the most vulnerable areas for air infiltration would be at the box sill. The box sill is located on the outside wall where your floor system meets the outside wall. It is impossible to use standard practices with fiberglass batts to create a air tight system. That is why we use 3" of spray foam insulation in all the box sills.
Insulation can be one of the biggest home improvements that you can do on your existing home and your new home to make it more energy efficient. In the Scheller home we chose to do a insulation system called BIBS. 
It looks like a can light, it feels like a can light and it is. One of the major requirements when we started the Green Max Home was that we could not use any incandescent light fixtures. So, we looked at fluorescent and we didn't care for the dimming options that you are limited to. We then looked at LED lighting and there were no restrictions on dimming. This was a huge plus for the Schellers and the Green Max Home electrical use. 
This is not your ordinary electrical box! What we are using on the exterior wall and our 2nd floor ceilings are electrical boxes with a pliable rubber gasket. This works as a great wall seal between our drywall and the electrical box. 
