I’ve had some questions about my Klearwall Doors.

 I love them, the only problem is that they are stronger that American frame walls.  We toured Ireland two years ago and I noticed all the new construction used masonry construction..  Our basement door is in a poured concrete wall, the other three are in normal framed walls.  There is just a difference closing the basement door, a very solid feeling, like closing a refrigerator door, but the frame wall (The only way to describe it is) just a little “Soft” feeling. They work seal 100% the locking system is unbreakable. If I were building again I would use the doors for sure, but just beef up the wall around the door.    The doors have a number hinge adjustments and there wasn’t a manual when we bought them, but they sent a Tech out after the house was finished to do the final adjustments.

LEDs will Give you Brain Freeze.

First LED really are a good thing,  a great thing.  If I were to have put in incandescent light bulbs in the house (over 60 bulbs) I would have over 4,000 watts in light bulbs.  But with LEDs I have less than 400 watts of light bulbs.       For you electronic guys    P = I X E     or  to get current      I = P/E     That’s  33.3 Amps vs  3.3 Amps of current to run the lights. A 90% reduction in El usage.

That’s the first part of the Brain Freeze.  You can send your kid out to replace an incandescent bulb. “Hay Kid go get me a 60W bulb”.      Done.       So you think you just have to buy a LED that is listed as a 60W equitant.  Not really.  Just go to Lowe’s or Home Depot light row and take a look, Brain Freeze.

LED’s have many options:

First the old friendly Watts, but there isn’t really a direct match even though the manufactures puts on the label some numbers. Most 60W replacements are around 8Ws but I’ve gotten equivalent light (lumens) out of 4.5W LEDs.

Second: Lumens, which is a measurement of the amount of light a bulb puts out.  But I haven’t found that a 60W putting out 800 lumens.  A 6-8W LED puts out about 800 lumens but I find them brighter than incandescent.  In a fixture that I’d put two 40W bulbs I only pit one LED equivalent.  A 4.5W LED.

Third is the color:  or kelvin (K).  The K measurement of an LED is between 2500K to 6500K.    This is a pure personal choice. 5,000K is considered “Daylight”, the sun at high noon. But I find this light way to bright indoors.   An incandescent bulb is around 2,800 and a florescent bulb around 4,500K   .

Fourth is projection: Yea Projection options. That is how the LED transmits it light.  An incandescent projects its light evenly around the bulb, but with LEDs there are many different ways a bulb will projection the light.

Fifth the some LED shouldn’t be in contained covers.   It’s written on the box.  I have heard they may burn out fasted or my (mini) explode.

Sixth is a replaceable bulb or fixed.  Some fixtures have non replaceable bulbs. At first thought with a 20-25 year projected life who cares.  But if you have 4 like fixtures and in five plus years one goes out can you get parts or will you have to replace all 4 fixtures to keep them matching.  Also with a replaceable bulb in 5 years a 6w bulb might be replaced with a 0.5W. If you bulbs are replaceable you can easy upgrade.

Socket: I never had thought about the size of a bulbs socked.  Edison 27 or T10 or  ???????

My Experience:

The watt comparison is really of  little help, but I’ve found a 60W equivalent LED produces more light that a 60W incandescent bulb.  I don’t care want the Lumens are.  I’d say about (unscientific)  20% more light. Example the second floor hall lights.  Two bulbs in each fixture, I would had put two 40W incandescent bulbs, but with 2 40W equivalent it was way too much light, so I cut down to one bulb in each fixture.

Color is personal.  We have 10 high hat fixtures in the kitchen, so I went to Lowe’s and bought 6 different bulbs and put them in the high hats and had an onsite test.   We like 2,700K bulbs, 3,000K are OK, but nothing higher. A couple of the closets have higher, the electrician installed them, I can tolerate them in a closet. I think the 2,700K just has a nice warm effect. Now for a shop light a 4,500K or higher, the light is bluer but I think it better for working with. 

 Projection just depends on the fixture, and what kind of effect you want.

 Fixed vs replaceable.  We went with 95% replaceable for the reasons I point out above.  It one set of fixtures I wanted a certain effect and could only find it in a fixed bulb fixture

Prices are dropping like crazy.  I bought a big bunch on 40W Philips  equivalent  from Lowe’s on sale for under a dollar.  

As for lasting 20 to 25 years w can only wait. I had one Halogen type replacement o the range hood go bad in 3 weeks.  But the others are all working.

Here are some photos of the finished house.

It’s been about a month since my last entry.  I don’t think I’ve taken a day off in those 30 days other than last Sunday.  Just to much to get done. To many inspections and details to follow up.

The outside is near done, less landscaping. The sidewalks will hold off to go through a freeze and thaw cycle over winter. Grass is in and coming up.  All the mechanicals installed and running.  It’s purely amazing how easy the mini-splits cool the house.  The other day the Great Room mini-split had a problem, so I just left it on fan, and put the master bedroom unit on 72 degrees at 9:00 in the morning, and turned the ERV on.  It got to around 94 that day. At noon I shot some temps: the MBR was 72, as expected, The rest of the house was around 74. By 4:00 PM the hole first floor was 72. That’s only one 9,000 BTU unit run, that’s 0.75 tons of A/C for you old schoolers. The first floor is 1640 sqft.

We will need to experiment of how to balance the house out between the mini-splits and the ERV.

The deck is complete.

Inside in 97%, the kitchen cabinets and counter tops are  is in waiting the doors and drawer fronts.   everything is painted but the stairs to the second floor (Wednesday).   I’ll have to post interior photos soon.  Joan has a specular color scheme

Tomorrow is the inspection for the NJ Zero Energy Ready Homes program.

Here are some photos of the outside.  The house faces east and these were taken in the morning sun.  The front porch is a great place for a morning coffee.

Now the dumpster is gone for good, and the rock piles are gone.

I’ve been neglectful to this blog.  Just been to busy with the house and to tired when In get home to update the blog.

Well we are on the homes stretch, the drywall is done, and painted, hard wood floor in, master shower walls installed, doors and trim.  Starting  to work on closet shelves and final details.  The water service trench and pipe is in to the street (hooking up maybe an issue), electric in and house “lighted up” (as the electric company installer said) the septic system is in and inspected. The appliances have been delivered.

Just waiting for the kitchen cabinets, then the counter tops can be templated. The plumber says about one day of work left and HVAC has a day.

The rock piles are moved, 9 truck loads of topsoil was delivered Friday.  I’m guessing about two week to get the U&O inspection.

Bad news.  The guys are installing the doors, but once they are done we will be idling.  The next step is to pour the concrete porches, but because of the cold snap we can’t.  The finished concrete has to have an over night temperature above 32 degrees to cur, and in the 10 day forecast there are none.  We need the porch floors in to set the height of the siding.   So the siding is on hold and the close cell foam doesn’t like the low temperatures either.   Better to just wait for the January thaw.

Today our garden shed arrived. In the fog, but ahead of the pending rain.   A better driver the me, he backed up the 300 foot driveway. Then the big challenge getting up from the parking area pad to the shed pad. There was some mud and a ditch to cross.  The driver was amazing,  pulse the trailer had a fifth wheel and a built in motor to move it sideways.  Then the thing they called a mule got it to it’s final position.    See the photos.