The First Now House
The Retrofit Process: Basement floor
Insulate basement floor
Heat is also lost through the basement floor. In part of the basement, we removed the concrete floor, created an insulation layer and vapor barrier between the concrete slab and the ground underneath. The insulation will keep the warm air in and the vapor barrier will keep unwanted moisture out. Owens Corning provided the Celfort 200 PINK rigid board insulation.
Install radiant floor heating in the basement
To improve the comfort of the basement we installed radiant floor heating prior to pouring the new concrete floor. The heat from the floor will radiate up through the home, reducing the amount of energy required for heating.
In Now House, the radiant floor will be heated by the solar thermal system mounted on the roof which means the sun will be heating this floor of the basement.
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The Retrofit Process
To achieve our goal of a near zero energy retrofit we made the following changes to this home. As all existing houses have a unique set of conditions and characteristics, the application of the Now House process to another house would produce different design specifications. What follows is not a prescription for the near zero retrofit of all homes.