Hmm, so many possibilities for building a house from scratch these days. I think that radiant under floor heating and heavy walls are probably a good start, either masonry or rammed earth walls. Air tight but with good air exchange. There is a company in Germany, can't remember the name, but they make windows that are the most efficient in the world. They have triple seals or something and have a lever that pulls them closed and seals them. Plus they are triple pained and low E and all that. However, you can probably spend the better part of your 80 grand just on the windows.
Is your goal to make a house that costs nothing to run, or do you want to build the largest house you can get for the money even though it might cost a bit more to heat and cool? They are kind of mutually exclusive. In either case, I envy you as I think it would be quite a lot of fun to design and build a house from scratch. -- Blue skies. Dan Rossi Carnegie Mellon University. E-Mail: d...@andrew.cmu.edu Tel: (412) 268-9081
