Introduction

Welcome to the Beagle Brook blog! Aspen Design Inc. is a custom home design/build company that focuses on design that appeals to the style and taste of our clients while maintaining a sustainable and green approach. We invite you to join us on the journey as we build the “Beagle Brook Farm” home, a passive solar structure in Northeast Ohio. The goal of this blog is to accomplish three things. First, we want to introduce our company and the service we provide to our readers. Second, we want to share our passion for building a more sustainable future, and third, we want your feedback. We look forward to reading your comments and questions, so please share them with us.


Wikipedia defines a passive solar building as one that aims to maintain interior thermal comfort throughout the sun’s daily and annual cycles while reducing the requirement for active heating and cooling systems. Our main objective in designing Beagle Brook was to produce a passive solar home with a thermally comfortable interior environment that expends minimal energy to support the mechanical heating and cooling systems. Healthy indoor air quality and reduced utility bills are important to the homeowners. Working with them, we determined that the direct gain system was the best approach for Beagle Brook. The main principles that are incorporated with the direct gain system are:

1) Allow maximum solar radiation to reach the interior during the colder months.

2) Shade the interior from solar radiation during the warmer months.

3) Use thermal mass to control and disperse the solar radiation, and

4) Design a well-insulated structure to control the different interior and exterior environments.

During our Beagle Brook journey, we will explain how these principles guided our design decisions and highlight some of the special details and features we are using to create a well-insulated structure.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Here is a detail of the wall to floor connections with the attached exterior sheeting. We have sealed up the air gaps with a building adhesive that blocks any air or water vapor leakage through the buildings shell. As the construction proceeds we will develop our drainage plane on the exterior with rigid foam in order to increase our wall 'R' value as well as make for a more durable weather proof building than the typical Tyvek house wrap.
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