Sitting on a stunning 5-acre lot nestled into the woods and surrounded by wildflowers and berries, the Samish Solar Home is a resilient oasis for a growing family of mountain bikers and nature enthusiasts.

This 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath, 2,345 square foot single family residence was built for a young family in Bellingham, Washington. The primary goal of this home was to serve as the owner’s permanent residence, even as their needs change over time, while adding a layer of resiliency towards our changing climate. The home was designed to support a growing family, temporary or permanent aging parents, a home office, and ample storage for outdoor recreation gear in the 1,936 square foot garage. Samish Solar home also features an additional sunroom on the south side of the house to enjoy the sunshine year-round.

The home is built using a post and beam structural system in addition to structural insulated panel (SIP) exterior walls and roof. The double-height, vaulted ceilings in the living room provide excellent daylighting for current use, but a floor system and internal walls could be added in the future to transform this 4-bedroom home into a 5- or 6-bedroom home.

Sustainable Envelope & Mechanical Details

Working in conjunction with the graphite infused SIP walls and roof (R-29 and R-59 respectively), triple pane Vinyltek windows, an R-20 insulated slab-on-grade foundation and R-23.6 ICF foundation walls help complete the envelope of Samish Solar Home. Due to the sandwich design of SIPs, the envelope of the project started out very airtight, however in order to push the tightness even further and achieve an ACH of 0.27, Aerobarrier aerosol sealant was used to complete the air sealing. This project also features the tried-and-true TC Legend Homes HVAC model combining a Chiltrix CX-34, Fantech Hero 250, and rooftop solar. The CX-34 heat pump unit provides both domestic hot water and space heating/cooling through a zoned radiant hydronic system on the first floor and a fan coil unit on the second. These superior insulated materials coupled with our HVAC system and tight envelope create this high efficiency and high-performance home.

Climate Change Resiliency

With significant south facing windows and shading eaves, this home takes advantage of passive solar heating and cooling, which will help regulate the home’s temperature as summer and winter temps become more extreme. The triple pane, argon-filled windows also help to create a better barrier to the extreme outdoor temperatures. Since the roof will take the brunt of the solar heat, Cool Roof certified metal sheeting was installed to further prevent the home from overheating in the summer by increasing the albedo. The Fantech Hero 250 HRV provides the home with a constant flow of fresh air filtered through its built in HEPA filtration. This home maintains healthy indoor air quality even at the height of wildfire season, providing a safe haven for its occupants, friends, and family. The biggest resiliency feature of this home is the 28,000 gallon rainwater catchment system that supplies water for the fire suppression system and domestic water. The rainwater is filtered through a sediment filter, activated carbon filter, and UV filter to ensure it is fit for domestic use. The catchment system, which was required due to site water availability limitations, was significantly upsized in order to add resiliency. With the understanding that significant periods of drought are likely in the future, the larger catchment system will ensure adequate domestic water for the home and provide self-sufficiency in the future. Low-flow and water sense labeled plumbing fixtures also help to reduce water demands. The homeowners also opted to upsize the rooftop solar array to a 10.8kw system with Enphase microinverters. The solar system is battery ready for future resiliency additions and provides the home with more power than it needs, making the project net positive and allowing the owners to power an electric vehicle in the future. There is also plenty of roof area where additional solar could be installed if energy needs of the home change in the future.

Accessibility

In designing this home, it was important to the client that we future proof for aging parents who may need to utilize mobility aids and to ensure they, themselves, can grow old in the home. This meant designing with the essential spaces, such as the laundry room and kitchen, located on the first floor. All of the doorways were also widened to 3’ and the first-floor shower was made curbless to help ensure this home is functional in all phases of the owners’ lives. The unheated breezeway between the house and garage provides a central, stepless entry point and protection from the elements. This space also serves as a shoe removal area with a built-in bench and coat storage. At both the main entry and side entry, a stepless large, covered patio was installed, which can serve as a fantastic gathering area for everyone without any limitations. Lastly, in a less conventional form of accessibility, Powerhouse Designs will be adding Samish Solar Home’s premade plans to their website so others can build this home with a lower upfront design cost.

According to the Carbon Leadership Forum’s Carbon Avoided Retrofit Estimator’s (CARE) website, “Renovating an existing structure typically has a much lower carbon footprint than building a new one because it reuses most of the carbon intensive parts of the building—the foundation, structure and building envelope.” Sylvan Court, which was originally constructed in 1964, recently underwent a renovation to upgrade the existing building instead of tearing it down; and also constructed a new building on the property’s former parking lot, doubling the amount of rentable housing units. While the original building doesn’t earn points on the new building’s checklist, their strategy was a great approach to minimizing their carbon impact, reduce waste, while still promoting urban density by constructing more units on the same lot.

The new building, a 20-unit apartment building, obtained a Built Green 4-Star certification on the 2017 multifamily checklist. The building was able to do so by claiming a variety of points throughout the checklist. Some of the highlight features utilized in the Built Green checklist to get the points were using drought-tolerant and native vegetation and low-flow plumbing fixtures to minimize the amount of water used on the property; BIBS insulation and a lower blower door score to keep energy costs down; low VOC paints, finishes, and interior products with indoor air-quality certifications to keeps tenants safe and healthy; and utilizing local and durable material to keep the building standing for a long time to come.

In addition to the variety of green features utilized by the construction team, the building offers bike storage with a repair station to incentivize tenants to ride their bikes or walk. The building is located within of the urban village zone and has a walkability score of 91. This in itself will help encourage more healthy living while reducing the need for a car.

The project is located near many public transportation routes, sits three blocks north of the Burke-Gilman trail and, with a Walk Score of 92, daily errands do not require a car. The building offers bike storage and a repair station to further incentivize tenants to ride their bikes, thus reducing dependency on cars and the project’s overall carbon footprint.

A large factor contributing to the project’s overall sustainability is its efficient use of space. Despite their small size (323 square feet on average), each studio includes a built-in Murphy bed, shelving, and desk. These fundamentals allow the tenant to create extra living space when they’re awake while still maintaining density in a fast-growing neighborhood.

To meet Built Green 4-Star standards and reduce the building’s overall energy consumption, the project focused on energy efficiency via domestic hot water, appliances, and lighting. Two high-efficiency gas tankless water heaters with recirculation pumps service the building, and water is sparingly used via low-flow plumbing fixtures. Each unit’s kitchenette comes with ENERGY STAR appliances as well as in-unit laundry and quiet, energy efficient ventilation fans. LED lighting is used throughout the entire building to further reduce the amount of energy needed for each unit and optimize building security. In addition, an array of solar panels was installed to help offset some of the energy consumed from plug loads, unit heating, appliances, and more.

Built Green Highlights

Site and Water

• No turf grass and drought-tolerant landscaping.
• Low-flow plumbing fixtures.
• Partial green roof with amenity space.

Energy Efficiency

• Energy consumption reduced by more than 28 percent compared to code.
• ENERGY STAR appliances and LED lighting.
• 1.7 kW of solar panels.