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Pumpkin Ridge Passive House

    • Hammer and Hand built this 3,599-square-foot home near Portland, Oregon, to the performance criteria of the U.S. Department of Energy Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) program.
    • This high-performance two-story home has been certified to the criteria of the DOE's Zero Energy Ready Home program, the Passive House Institute U.S., and the Pacific Northwest's Earth Advantage program platinum level.
    • The 10-kW solar electric system on this highly efficient home contributes to a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) score of 5. In other words, this home has virtually no net annual energy consumption.
    • Sliding cedar panels on the south side of the home allow the homeowners to manage solar heat gain in the natural comfort home.
    • The ultra-efficient windows feature triple-pane glass with argon fill, insulated wood frames, and advanced low-emissivity coatings on two of the glass surfaces to minimize unwanted heat gain and loss.
    • High-efficiency appliances including an ENERGY STAR-rated refrigerator, dishwasher, and clothes washer help to reduce energy and water usage. One high-efficiency mini-split heat pump was ducted with the balanced fresh air system heat recovery ventilator to deliver heat and cooling throughout the home.
    • The home's stained concrete floors provide natural comfort balancing by absorbing heat during the day to avoid excessively high temperatures and releasing it at night when the rooms need heating. Heat gain is controlled using exterior cedar panels that can be slid in front of windows to block out unwanted sunlight on hot summer days.
    • Under the attic rafters, an OSB air sealing layer was installed and all seams were sealed with an air sealing tape. A second drywall ceiling was installed below this providing a mechanical cavity in between the two layers for wiring or ducts while minimizing holes into the attic.
    • A second wall cavity was created on the outside of the exterior walls by first constructing 2-by-6, 24-inch on-center walls with plywood sheathing then attaching 8-inch engineered truss joists to the outside of the plywood and installing a second wood-and-resin sheathing over that. The 5.5-inch and 9.5-inch wall cavities were then filled with dense-packed cellulose for a total wall insulation value of R-60.
    • The exterior walls with their double wall cavities were filled with a total of 15 inches of blown cellulose, providing an ultra-efficient, continuous thermal blanket of quiet comfort around the house.

      Pumpkin Ridge Passive House

      Project Address

      Portland, OR

      Conditioned Square Footage
      3,599 sqft
      Number of Bedrooms
      4 Beds
      Number of Bathrooms
      4.0 Baths
      Number of Floors Above Grade
      2 Floors Above Grade
      Home Type
      Custom
      Climate Zone Humidity
      Marine

      With PV

      HERS Index with PV
      5HERS (PV)
      Average Monthly Energy Bill PV
      $20Average Monthly Energy Bill (PV)
      Annual Energy Cost Savings with PV
      $1,800Annual Energy Cost Savings (PV)
      30 Year Savings with PV
      $78,00030 Year Savings (PV)

      Hammer And Hand, LLC

      ZERO

      HIA Year
      HIA Status
      Winner
      HIA Category
      Housing Innovation Award

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      Key Features

      Key Features
      All-electric home Energy / Heat recovery ventilator Heat pump water heater Photovoltaics Triple-pane windows ACH 50 < 2.5 or CFM50/SF of enclosure ≤ 0.25 Hot Water Recirculation Pump

      Additional Details

      Additional Details
      Basement

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      Testimonials

      Video Testimonial

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      Home owner (or occupant) Testimony
      Dealing with all of the things you deal with in a normal house – when you know that 90% of those can disappear when you put a little more thought and a little more attention into the engineering of the house, you have a house that’s really comfortable, that you really enjoy, that you can stay in for the rest of your life, and that you don’t ever want to leave. I don’t know that I can say that for any other houses I’ve ever lived in.
      Testimony Citation
      Homeowner

      Additional Media

      Finished Elevations

        Finished Interiors

          Under Construction

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            Floor Plan