Crawlspace Vents

[Allen Brown]

I attended an energy seminar put on by "The King Of Caulk And Talk", Doug Rye.
http://www.dougrye.com/ he is THE Energy Guru. He sells dvd's on his website that tell you how to fix an existing home, or build a new home, so you will only have a $75.00/month annual average energy bill in the Midwest. He also has several other links on his site for good stuff. I have been using many of his techniques for many years now: Geothermal HVAC, Blown-stabilized cellulose insulation, sprayed polyurethanes in the crawl, no wood burning fireplaces, no gas water heaters, etc., but he did teach me a few things I used on the last house I just built. One was 7/16 OSB roof decking that had a silver coating on the bottom side for sun reflection (I had to look long and hard for this one, but found it), and a water heater that is totally plastic with 6-8" of polyurethane foam insulation in the body, that is at the total bottom level of the energy usage scale, even though it is 75 gallons.

The homeowners move in in two weeks, I can't wait to see what their bills are going to be. I do believe this house will be the most energy efficient home I have ever built, and one of the most energy efficient homes in this whole area!

PS, to eliminate crawl moisture from construction time, put hvac supply into the crawl. The moisture and air will work it's way into the rest of the living space and dissapear from the dehumidification process, but you must also put heavy plastic down, and seal it to the crawl walls to create an "envelope".