I’m a big advocate of net zero. Its basic goal is to have a house that’s net energy input is zero. This is achieved by building a tight envelope, being realistic with size requirements and using efficient heating where the energy can be generated on-site. Site generated energy is usually solar with possibly a small woodstove to cover below zero days.

This allows you to look at energy consumption over a year not day or week as with passivehaus. Because you’re actively heating the house you drastically lower then envelope requirements but at the same time on a yearly basis you’re a net zero consumer of energy.

The solar/minisplit/woodstove/tight envelope compliment each other very well while still being reasonably priced.

For envelope I’m a big proponent of simple rectangular houses and double 2x4 walls with dense pack cellulose. With a little planning it’s easy to air seal effectively and costs much less than foam for the same r value. Im also a fan of still foaming rim boards as it’s just so much more consistent.

Ventilation is easy as sizing an erv based on house volume. If you want to splurge the zehnder system is a very elegant way to get even balanced air exchange.

Edit: spelling

You are getting downvoted but you are absolutely correct. Even the article says this is best used on large apartments buildings and condos. doing this to single family homes is more of a lifestyle / branding choice than anything.

Regardless of the merits of expanding comuter rail throughout VT, and regardless of the costs of building even a portion of this network, I think such an endeavor will fail by pure virtue of the BANANA NIMBYs across VT that will, no doubt, object to and try to prevent this project in a myriad of ways.

• Noise concerns
• Safety concerns
• Environmental concerns
• Impacts on local vehicle traffic
• Taking/buying/using public or private property for creating/enlarging right-of-way
• Impacts on local wildlife

There would be no end to the opposition. It's the VT way.

This reads like an add. Keep in mind you would have to cut down all trees in a huge radius. Not live on a mountain side. And the house doesn't have a furnace but it does have a heat pump. Like almost all new construction. This really just seems like a modern construction home with a few improvements tacked on to make it slightly more efficient. However I wonder if the gains from doing this offset the utility costs at all. It cant be cheap to build 15" thick walls.

Even the article states this is best for appartment buildings and condos.

So you think scummy people can't make it in today's restaurant business. That's cute. I think I'll pass on continuing with the many other reasons you're wrong. But thanks for the conversation.

That was my first recommendation. My 7 year old absolutely loves wayside. Cheap, good, simple food.

Burgers = Worthy Burger, South Royalton, VT https://www.worthyvermont.com/

Pizza = Woodbelly Pizza Montpelier, VT https://woodbellypizza.com/

Mexican = The Mad Taco, Montpelier, VT https://www.themadtaco.com/

BBQ = Prohibition Pig, Waterbury, VT https://www.prohibitionpig.com/

Fine Dining = Hen of the Wood, Waterbury, VT https://www.henofthewood.com/

Would love to know your approach if you think passive isn't worth it.

Fridge

Although it is not necessarily applicable for everyone, I think environmentally it makes a lot of sense to focus on using as much natural materials as possible and reduce embodied carbon in building materials even if it's at the expense of performance. Ultimately, this doesn't need to turn into some sort of competition of who can have the least energy input to heat (regardless of energy input to build). If we use wood heat, even if the house is not R100 walls, we are still using a renewable and eco friendly resource, and performance of the walls is less important. What will matter more in this case, is that the house was built from sustainably/locally harvested timber, with minimal imported/highly processed construction materials, whose embodied carbon has a huge impact on the overall environment effect of the house.

Wait. The disco craze ended? Dad's not gonna want to hear that.

There’s a few actually!

Spray foam insulation would solve the rodent issue probably right?

Sure, sure.

Vermont Rail Action Network. They're more "art of the possible" than this long-term vision, though.

For the other issues, would they even be issues if the boyfriend wasn't getting paid?

Portland, Rutland, Oswego and Chicago Railroad

For sure Vermont style but also this should just be "Rural America Style"

I remember ordering pizza once in the middle of nowhere. We asked a local if there was a pizza place and he indicated that there was one 20 minutes away "if you like that kind of thing."

That kind of thing being...pizza. Fuck.

Shoutout to the PIZZA CHEF chain in the upper valley. Although the Quechee location has a killer beer list.

All of Vermont's rail-lines, except for a little bit in the north up around St Johnsbury, have been owned by the state since the 1950s and apart from Brightline, which only started a few years ago, all the passenger service in the US is provided by public agencies.

All the haters on this sub saying it won't work for whatever reason are 100% wrong. They don't know jackshit about public transportation, railroads, or the whole century plus where train travel was the main way to get around the state. Admittedly, that puts them in with around 80 or 90 percent of North American transit planners, for whom acknowledging that Asia or Europe exist, or that rail doesn't have to cost $500 million or more a mile is absolute heresy.

Pizza is Vermont style when it’s 90% dough, has bottled Prego sauce, and tastes like disappointment.

Vermont’s not a museum you can traipse through, people lives in them and deserve privacy. Visiting public stone buildings is a different story, but just stop it otherwise.

I saw that place online it's gorgeous!

My only concerned in sharing stories like this is that it really feeds into the Police’s propaganda that they are the “Thin Blue Line” and all the shit.

So just so someone is saying it, the increase in violent crime is 100% about growing economic hardships. That’s the reason this is happening. When people are desperate they are obviously going to turn to crime.