Chapter 5 The factory

Steve and I toured the Huf Haus factory in Hartenfels during our initial visit. 

As the project progressed to the permitting stage, a very detailed Quality Assurance Manual was developed and submitted to the entity that provided our permit.  Permitting for the Pennsylvania project was outsourced to PFS Corporation which is a third party plan review agency and building material certification agency that consults with the wood-related construction industry (http://www.pfscorporation.com/).  The manual outlines the meticulous process that goes in to the construction of these homes from the design stage to delivery.  Here are some photos from the manual about the construction process.

The home is constructed of glue-laminated beams using precision milling machinery:

The beams are then stained.  Huf Haus uses their own proprietary stain, developed and produced by Remmers (www.remmers.com) a leading manufacturer of environmentally-friendly paints and stains. 

The timber panels are insulated with STEICO insulation boards (http://www.steico.com/en/products/wood-fibre-insulation.html) and then plastered.

 

 



The interior walls and "installation walls" (with plumbing, pipes etc) are constructed of Fermacell (http://www.fermacell.co.uk/en/content/boards_1622.php).   All the glass panels are then glazed and assembled. 

 

 

The gutters, roof panels and floor panels are then assembled.

 

 



 

The final inspections are done and an elaborate process of packing and shipping is initiated.  Huf Haus has outsourced the loading, packing and sealing of the shipping containers for overseas customers.  The containers are lined with specialized airtight and moisture-proof linings, loaded and sent to port.

 

 

 

Our containers left the Port of Antwerp in Belgium on May 29, 2013 on the container ship Atlantic Concert

 

 

 

 

The containers arrived at the Port of Baltimore on June 13, 2013 and were delivered to our site on June 26, 2013.

 

 

 

The vast majority of these homes have been constructed in Germany and in the UK.  There are a few homes elsewhere in the European Union and also several in China.  Prior to our project, there were two homes that had been shipped to the US.  I haven't been able to gather any information about the first project, even its location; I certainly would welcome any details from any source.  A Huf haus was recently constructed in Seattle WA; I learned from their architect that the owners also own a Huf haus in Germany.  Their architect Sage K. Saskill of S.A.G.E.Designs NW tracked the project by blog on his own website :.http://www.sagedesignsnw.biz/uber_green_prefab-8 

 

 

 

He also provided extensive details about the project on this website:

http://www.ecobuilding.org/seattle/green-home-tour/2012fi/2012-tour-spotlights/german-prefab-project

 

 

 

 

He was also very helpful to me on the phone at a point in our project timeline where its entire future was uncertain.  More about that next week. 

 

 

 

Chapter 4 Site preparation and factory work

One aspect of our project that took us by surprise at the outset was that site preparation including our foundation were not included in our contract and contract pricing with Huf Haus.  In my Internet surfing before we signed our contract, I had come across an amusing YouTube video about a couple in the UK who were worried that their foundation wouldn't be poured in time for the arrival of their construction team.  But we didn't initially put two and two together to figure out that all the prep work had to be done separately.

We were also surprised in February 2013 when the Huf Haus team visited our site for the first time and expressed concern that our 1500 foot gravel driveway might not accommodate the required 70-ton crane and shipping containers without significant modification.  In the fine print of the contract, this is the sole responsibility of the owner and we might have incurred significant unanticipated costs.  Fortunately our designers had connected with Chris Kontour of CPK Construction in Cleveland OH (CPK Construction). 

Chris was previously involved in the construction of SmartHome Cleveland.  He met Alexander Kolbe during a walking tour of the passive house before it was moved to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.  He actually made several trips to Hartenfels to familiarize himself with Huf Haus' trademark precision construction techniques.  He prepared reasonable estimates for the road work which involved 200 tons of stone, for the foundation including storm water management, excavation and back-fill, utility tie-ins, and for the geothermal system.  As a construction contractor, he has proved to be extremely accommodating and knowledgeable.  His crew did a great job, as we could see during our visit on May 4, 2013: 

 

 

 



 



Speaking of the factory, immediately after our February 2012 site visit, work was started in Hartenfels on the house. 

 

 

These panels will look very familiar when I post photos of the completed project.  By May 7, 2013, all of the components of our glass and timber home were loaded onto trucks for their transatlantic trip.

 

 

 

More about the high tech construction in my next chapter. 

Chapter 3 - An energy surplus home

More details about our energy surplus home:

Our original energy plan in our house quotation in February 2011 included both a passive solar system (12 high output solar panels) and a photovoltaic system estimated to produce 5.58 kWh and a ventilation system with heat recovery. 

By the time of my 2nd trip to Hartenfels for the formal fit-out, we had elected to have a geothermal heat pump installed for under floor heating and cooling (as opposed to an air source heat pump).  This required an upgrade in our PV system.  redblue energy eventually recommended installation of a Bosch/Aleo PV system with a total load of 11.25 kWp. 





 

Torsten Schneider (redblue energy) chose Morrison Inc. (http://morrisongeothermal.com/index.html ) as our geothermal contractors.  They have 30 years of experience in turn-key geothermal systems in central Pennsylvania and did of the design, drilling, excavation and installation for our 3 ton system.

 

 

 

 

As naïve as we were at the outset, we didn't fully realize that the basic components of a Huf Haus (included in the original quotation) don't typically include any mechanism for cooling the home. 

In fact, the topic of cooling the house didn't come to the forefront until the Huf Haus team came to visit our site in January 2012.

During that visit, Steve casually asked Torsten Schneider (redblue energy) how the geothermal system worked to cool the house.  That led to a very technical response that left us confused and worried about having gotten that far without clarification on cooling.

What followed was a series of e-mails educating us about passive cooling and active cooling.  We leaned that use of our ground source heat pump for passive cooling would require installation of additional mechanical and electrical equipment (including an additional plate exchanger between the source outside and the heating system).  redblue energy also did an extensive analysis of installation of an active cooling system and concluded that the installation and running costs would be significantly greater. We queried him on the use of "inverter technology" to reduce inefficiency but he didn't recommend application of that technology in our project.  He also calculated that active cooling with our geothermal system would require approximately 30% more space in our plant room. And we would no longer have an energy surplus home. That was a deal breaker.

He ended up recommending passive cooling via our under floor system and addition of an adapted refrigeration system on top as an "innovative, easy-to-manage, energy efficient and space saving concept."

Here is the new Plant Room: 

To be honest, we are still worried about whether the house will be comfortably cool in the summer months or whether we will need to flee back to our apartment in Maryland when the weather is blistering hot. Apparently with our system, an interior temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit can be achieved when the outside temperature is 90 degrees.  redblue energy wasn't able to do a temperature simulation analysis for the cooling (like they were able to do with heating) because of the complexity and requirement for specialized software, but they did perform a simulation for their Plus Energie show house in Cologne, Germany (green(r)evolution Plus Energie hausl), 

We got another big surprise during our initial site visit which I will describe in my next post . . .



Chapter 2 - Siting and design work

From the beginning of the project, it has been difficult to envision our completed Huf haus.  Our property in Clearville, PA has a old rustic lodge on it which has housed an office of the Western Pennsylvania Land Conservancy. 

The old house is located close to a man-made pond; it sits at the lowest elevation and is close to relatively dense woods.  We had initially thought the replacement house would sit at the same location.  However, because of the need to optimize south-facing exposure of our solar panels and the requirement to build in the minimal protection area, our home is sited about 100 yards away.  The old structure will need to be demolished; only one residence is permitted.

We only needed a single face-to-face meeting to approval our initial drawings.  We made only two changes in 2011 - the addition of a carport and the addition of a window panel on the front of the house.  The latter was an attempt to break up the fairly monotonous "non-solar" front of the house.

The most challenging aspect of the design work proved to be ensuring that all of the high tech energy features would fit in the Plant Room.  For a small home without a basement (2292 sq. ft.), it wasn't easy.  From the outset we also decided that we wouldn't quibble about bathroom fixtures, floor tile, kitchen cabinets or counter top materials.  All of those decision were made during my second trip to Hartenfels to review and sign our "fit-out protocol."  Huf Haus partners with StilART (http://www.stilart-moebel.com/en.html) to provide interior design for their homes.

 

The fit out was a two day marathon trip to make those decisions and also establish the location of every aspect of the layout including the doors/windows, electrical system and plumbing.  I returned to Hartenfels alone; Steve had a conflict.  I streamlined the process by explaining to our project manager that we wanted the interior to look like another model home in the Huf Village and by deferring to him regarding the location of all of the switches and outlets.  Using their computer simulated drawings, the kitchen and bathrooms should look something like this:

 

    

 

The house also has a very cool entrance way, part of the design for energy efficiency. 

 

More details about the high tech construction and energy features with my next post.  

Chapter 1 - A Wall Street Journal ad

This is the story of a one-of-a-kind home building project that started five years ago.  My husband Steve and I live in the Washington DC area.  In April 2008, we set out looking for a peaceful and quiet place for our eventual retirement.  Using Google maps, we drew a circle encompassing land within 2 hours of our home at the time using Google maps and found the 70 acre Lipsett Tract in Mann Township, Bedford County, PA which was owned and managed by the Western Pennsylvania Land Conservancy (http://www.wpconline.org/22/land-and-water). 

The property is about one-third Virginia pine forest.  There is a man-made pond and a fresh water creek which feeds into Sideling Creek, part of the Potomac watershed.  There is an old two story lodge on the property which housed some Conservancy staff. 

After agreeing to strict environment easements including home construction is a small minimal protection area of the property, we completed the land purchase in August 2008 and started reading about green home building.

Building a green home from the ground up is a daunting task for a couple with full time jobs and no experience.  We have been somewhat energy conscious:  we commute to work year-round by bike and public transportation.  We had a short wish list:  unique design, use of as many forms of alternative energy as possible, and for simplicity's sake involvement of as few contractors as possible.   I ordered a few soft cover books, did a lot of web surfing and starting subscribing to Dwell magazine. Then in December 2009 we saw an ad in the Wall Street Journal for Huf Haus (http://www.huf-haus.com/en/home.html).

Now in its 101th year, Huf Haus is a German company based in Hartenfels, about 30 minutes south of Frankfurt which builds award-winning timber-frame prefabricated ("turn-key") homes primarily in Germany and the UK.  In 2009, they founded red blue energy (http://redblue-energy.com/home) to incorporate advanced energy saving technology into a new line of sustainable homes they call green(r)evolution.

The Huf Haus model differs from conventional home building in the US in many ways, most prominently in the requirement that the eventual owners do all the site preparation work including the foundation and in the schedule of cash payments (in Euros).  Our project became very complex.

In November 2010, we met with Alexander Kolbe of DotGreen; he had placed the WSJ ad.  He is a former Huf Haus architect/designer who had moved to Cleveland OH with his wife Michelle, also a designer. The couple planned to bring Huf Haus to the US market.  They help customize one of the Huf Haus models (Art 3) and applied for a residential site plan and survey. 

In February 2011, we flew to the Huf Village in Hartenfels as guests of Huf Hauf.  We met Managing Partner Georg Huf and our Project Manager Patric Muller.  We were amazed at the craftsmanship on display at the immaculate factory and in the show homes.  We signed a Sales Agreement for the first green(r)evolution Huf Haus to be constructed in the US, had a celebratory lunch and then flew home. 

To be continued . . .