The Gouin Home Project

Two and one half years ago we, Edward and Melissa Gouin (pronounced Go-In), set out to create a home we could afford to live in by keeping energy costs under control. We are finally near the end of the planning stage for what has the potential to be one of the most energy efficient and cost effective homes in the United States, and the first of its kind in the world.

Special thanks go to Penn Lyon Homes, The Murus Company, and Avalon Building Systems for their patience, understanding, and willingness to listen to, undertand, and try "Gouin's Crazy Ideas." Without their concerted efforts this house will never materialize.

Our home design is modeled after other similar houses that came before ours (see the "Avis Solar Home" and the "Hathaway House" shown below). We also did our best to improve upon their designs by taking steps recommended by energy experts at the Oak Ridge National Lab and the National Renewable Energy Lab (see case study here 1.22MB).

Since our budget is tight, we are doing our best to spend money wisely. Specifically, we are focused on the items that will "pay for themselves" with energy savings, increase the appraisal value of the house (by more than their cost), or on items that can not be economically changed at a later time (i.e. you can easily add granite counter tops later, but you can't economically change the roof pitch or the insulation in the walls).

For starters, we've concentrated on upgrading the "shell" of the home. The structural engineers at Penn Lyon Homes and The Murus Company are working to design the world's first true SIP/modular hybrid home. The exterior walls will be constructed using Murus' R40 polyurethane core 6.5" structural insulated panels (SIPs) rather than the 2"x6" dimensional lumber and R19 fiberglass insulation that is standard in the modular industry. The majority of the home's construction (up to 90%) will be completed in the Penn Lyon factory in Pennsylvania and trucked to our site in Massachusetts for final assembly. Today Massachusetts building code allows for 2"x4" R11 ("stick and batt") construction. The R40 Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) improves the R value of the walls by over 350%.

Massachusetts state building code also requires windows (in our area) to have U values of 0.35 or lower. We have been working with a custom window manufacturer in Colorado (Alpen) who will provide windows with U values as low as 0.16, representing ~200% improvement over code. Initial estimates are that these two shell improvements alone will reduce heating and cooling loads by over 80% compared to an identically sized house built to code. Our home will feature:

R40 Structural Insulated Panel (SIP) Exterior Walls (www.murus.com)
Triple/Quadruple Pane Krypton/Xenon Filled Windows (R=6.25 U=0.16 or better) (www.alpeninc.com)

Currently under evaluation or consideration for inclusion in this project include: