Yeti Cooler House

Our wildflowers are poppin’ and the compost is workin’! We planted the native wildflowers and grass last season and it makes me smile to see them back. I was initially frustrated last year that we had to use any irrigation but now that they’re established, they’ll be able to thrive in their natural environment. We do still water them, but it’s minimal. Not to mention, the pollinators love ‘em!

Next time you have the opportunity to plant native grass or flowers instead of Kentucky Bluegrass (aka ornamental turf), you should absolutely choose native. Stay tuned on our garden venture as well. 🌱🌼🪻🐝

A HERS rating is essentially a MPG rating, but for a house. We are officially HERS 0! Check out those utility savings! We also achieved and certification.

After living here for over a year, we are paying slightly more than the predicted "annual cost", but this payment is for the Tesla batteries that we are leasing to own from the electrical utility.

It's neat what you can save when you put a little more legwork into the design... from proper orientation, air tightness, insulation values, good windows, etc. Homeowners should consider their utility costs as this is something that they are stuck with for the extent that they live in the house.

Code requires makeup air only if your kitchen hood is in excess of 400 CFM. This may not be the case if you have a moderately sealed home. Read on to find out why and watch the video on our page! You'll see that even with a 100 CFM hood, a sealed house can easily go into negative pressure.

Importance of Ventilation: Any homes built to an air tightness level of about 1.5 ACH50 (or less) needs to carefully consider ventilation, and this is not only mechanical ventilation for fresh air, but also how any exhaust systems can impact the house. Being able to control the airflow in and out of the home is very important and helps to increase indoor air quality (IAQ) because fresh air is filtered and stale air is exhausted at measurable rates, reducing energy loads. Note that a balanced mechanical ventilation system is always preferred over a supply-only or exhaust-only system, but the kitchen hood is always independent and will therefore still have a negative impact on the house.

Negative Pressure Concerns: Kitchen range hoods can create significant negative pressure inside a sealed home. Negative pressure is a serious concern, particularly in homes with gas appliances, due to the risk of harmful gases. Negative pressure also affects how well the range hood can actually exhaust. Think about trying to drink out of the straw if there is something stuck at the bottom of the straw... it doesn't work very well.

Makeup Air Solutions:

Passive solutions, like opening a door, can mitigate negative pressure but are not always practical.

Mechanical makeup air systems that are automatic, possibly with preheaters, are a more effective and permanent solution, but do add costs.

Range Hood Sizing and Efficiency: Correct sizing of the range hood is crucial for efficiency and safety. The range hood should be capable of handling the output of the burners.

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlAe301kvEo&t=60s

Thank you for the shout out AE Building Systems! We procured our Alpen HPP windows from these guys and they were so awesome to work with!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlAe301kvEo

The building code requires makeup air if a range hood is in excess of 400 CFM (IRC M1503.6), but it turns out makeup air may be required for any range hood if your house is airtight. Makeup air allows the range hood to operate efficiently and also ensures proper indoor air quality so that any open combustion appliances aren't backdrafting into the house.

Kitchen Hood Makeup Air - Why you may need it even though the building code doesn’t require it The building code requires makeup air if a range hood is in excess of 400 CFM (IRC M1503.6), but it turns out makeup air may be required for any range hood i...

The YCH Blog has been pretty quiet for awhile, but it has been awakened with a new post about the concrete countertops! I hope you learn a few things and try this out on the next project!



https://yeticoolerhouse.com/concrete-countertops/

I can’t believe it’s already been a year in the ! The goal was to at least be and we have managed to meet that goal even with a very snowy winter and quite a few visitors.

Our PV system managed to produce 10.6 MWh this past year and the house used 9.8 MWh.. making us ! Woo wee! The screenshots are from the data from the Tesla app.

The wildflowers are finally coming in! Apologies for the lack of recent posts. Earlier this summer, we spent a lot of time moving rocks and dialing in the landscaping. Anything that requires irrigation is either a native grass / wildflower mix or a garden bed. Once the grass and wildflowers get established, we will no longer need irrigation for these. That was the goal with the landscaping.. drought tolerant and native landscaping. Side note.. the amount of time and effort to do the landscaping was drastically underestimated.

When you ask for a bed frame so you can stop sleeping with the mattress on the ground and he instead builds a beautiful bed! The headboard was made with leftover pieces from our gable siding and the whole thing was then burnt to match and sealed. Love it!

https://yeticoolerhouse.com/all-electric-house-why-how-and-the-benefits/

New blog post! This post is an overview on why you would want to build an all-electric house and how to do so. Our first blog posts will be fairly introductory and we'll dive deeper into more topics in the near future.. stay tuned!

All-Electric House – Why, How and the Benefits – Yeti Cooler House All-Electric House – Why, How and the Benefits Leave a Comment / 100 Level - Introductory, Electrical / By Amanda There are many benefits to having an all-electric house. These include increased sustainability, reduced utility bills and healthy indoor air. How do you make a house all electric? I.....

https://yeticoolerhouse.com/

We have a blog, check it out! We'll be posting about living in a net zero (all-electric) home, as well as steps to take if wanting to pursue your own build and the many lessons we have learned along the way!

Yeti Cooler House – A blog about a house built like a Yeti Cooler… airtight, insulative and energy efficient. A home built with the concept of a cooler... simple, airtight and insulative! The goal of the project was to reduce energy bills and increase indoor comfort.This site offers education on construction basics as well as the steps / techniques / materials to implement an efficient and comfortable build...

Heat pump water heaters are great. They are super efficient and effective. They do, however, use the heat from the air to heat the water and therefore exhaust cold air. How cold? Check out the photo. During the summer, this is more than welcome as its essentially free air conditioning, but in the winter, it might be a different story. Some options to mitigate this cold air include ducting this to the exterior, offsetting the cold air with a deep freezer in the same room, or ducting this to an area of the house that is consistently warm, such as the kitchen. Check out the most recent blog post on this topic at https://yeticoolerhouse.com/rheem-heat-pump-hot-water/

The finished product! The larger black tiles are all reclaimed from a job in . We didn’t quite have enough to finish the backsplash so we added the accent strip of black mosaic tile that was leftover from the guest shower.

Thank you AE Building Systems for helping us with our windows and writing this awesome blog post about the build!

The post really captures the values that were core in this project as well as information on all things nerdy that went into the build!

Passion for Sustainability at the Poindexter House - AE Building Systems Combine a little bit of personality and A LOT of passion for sustainability and you get an amazing home! The Poindexter/Kavan Project is living proof of this, and we’re thrilled to be a small part of this home’s story. We can’t wait to share this amazing project with you.  About Amanda and CJ...

Our first piece of art! This beautiful photo was taken by my friend when we were in Japan. I was standing next to her when she took this so that’s neat. The mountain is and the clouds are sulphur steam from the it’s vents. This mountain is actually the largest in Hokkaido at 7516’.. that’s almost the elevation that the is at! Crazy perspective. We are beyond stoked for this piece.. thank you!

It’s been pretty awesome getting to settle into the ! The solar is performing well and we’re able to use the solar to power the home during the day as well as charge the batteries, using the stored power at night. Thanks again to for being awesome and installing the solar. And thank you to Holy Cross Energy for making the acquisition of the batteries attainable.

Now it’s time to finalize the deck design and overhang on this south side of the house so we’re ready to get it installed in the spring!

With our batteries, we get to see how much power our solar is producing and how much the house is using at any moment. We can also see and modify whether we want the house to be powered from the PV, batteries or the grid. It’s pretty neat! We’re able to charge the batteries from our solar panels during the day and pull power from them at night.

All of the work on the countertops were totally worth it. We did concrete countertops on the perimeter of the kitchen as well as half of the island. The bar section of the island is a piece of black walnut that was planed and sanded and sanded again with epoxy finish. Thank you to the homies who helped with this crazy long process! Ha

Also pictured is our induction cooktop, which is amazing! It boils water in no time and you can dial in the temperature of each burner to a T. Not to mention, the cabinets turned out pretty good as well!

Here’s some final bathroom pictures! The glass will get installed in a couple of weeks but other than that, the showers are fully functional! I budgeted a couple weeks to tile these bathrooms and it turned into months. It was the first time we built our own shower pans and tiled a ceiling as well. We used epoxy grout for the tile at the shower pans thanks to a recommendation from my dad and we are pleased with that! We are also thankful for a break from tiling lol.

Finally got the second blower door test done! We’re pretty close to where we wanted to be but not quite there. The goal was to reach the standard of 0.60 ACH50. I’ve detected some leaks with the infrared camera and think that we’ll be able to fix the leaks that I’m seeing and possibly get to our goal.

Big week.. we passed the final inspections and hope to be moving in any day now! We are so stoked to live in this house.. it’s comfortable, quiet and everything we could ever want. It’s been a very long and exhausting 16 months, but so worth it. Hundreds of lessons learned, we cried, we laughed, and we still love each other so that’s cool.

Homestretch on the house here. We’ve got the first seal coat down on the wood countertops and will do our flood coat when we are done with the concrete countertops. And we’re also getting light fixtures! All of our lighting is dimmable and LED. This chandelier was also purchased secondhand and was a great find. 🤘🏻


https://www.instagram.com/reel/CiBhcG3A8cb/?igshid=NDRkN2NkYzU=

Amanda & CJ on Instagram: "Homestretch on the house here. We’ve got the first seal coat down on the wood countertops and will do our flood coat when we are done with the concrete countertops. And we’re also getting light fixtures! All of our... Amanda & CJ shared a post on Instagram: "Homestretch on the house here. We’ve got the first seal coat down on the wood countertops and will do our flood coat when we are done with the concrete countertops. And we’re also getting light fixtures! All of our lighting is dimmable and LED. This chand...

Big day! WE HAVE GARAGE DOORS!! It’s amazing. We’ve been waiting a long time for this day. These doors are super-insulated with a rating of R18 and are air-tight so the garage will be a pretty comfortable spot to spend time in when it’s all built out.

Update.. still tiling! We drastically underestimated the time it would take us to tile both bathrooms. 🙄 Hopefully only a few days left, however!

The solar panels are installed! Thank you for providing these. This 6.4kW system will get us to be , producing the energy we use because we are ! We will have a Tesla Powerwall installed as well to help with any grid outages and also serve as a micro grid for the local electric utility.

The main supply and exhaust aren’t yet hooked up, but I am stoked to get the and all of the tubes (aka medusa) set up! This unit is the lungs for our house and will consistently be supplying and exhausting and keeping a steady level humidity for the whole house. It’s called an ERV, an energy recovery ventilator. The core has an 88% energy recovery and is used to pre-condition the incoming supply air. Pretty neat.

This book is a must read for any builder, Architect, homeowner or simply anyone who is interested in the building science fundamentals and how buildings should be built to be durable, comfortable and efficient. There are a lot of great details and easy explanations that simplify building science and all of the associated concepts that differ with climate zone / location and project goals. The detail shown is very similar to the wall detail that we built at the .. a double wall with the primary air barrier in the middle of the assembly. Ours ended up being in the outer third of the wall assembly, but similar concept. Thank you and for making this awesome, affordable, book!