The Builder’s Notes

At Clarum, we work with families to leverage Passive House home building practices for extreme performance opportunities in their custom home building projects. A Passive-Certified home is one that employs a set of advanced building technologies to achieve extreme energy efficiency. Energy consumption is reduced by up to 90% compared to a conventionally-built home. The History of Passive Homes The Passivhaus house concept originated in 1988 with a conversation between Professors Bo Adamson of Lund University, Sweden and Wolfgang Feist of the Institute for Housing and the Environment,...


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When you’re planning to build a new custom home, it’s easy to focus on upfront expenses and costs of construction without thinking about ongoing costs once the home is built. These operating costs of your home are equally important and have huge effects on the lifetime return on your investment. Higher energy efficiencies lead to higher home values. Meet the Average family Mr. and Mrs. Average built a conventional 3,500 square-foot home in a northern California neighborhood where they pay about $130/month for their electricity, which is the average for California residents. The cost to build...


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The average American spends 90% of their time indoors, and air pollution levels inside the average new home are 2 to 5 times worse than the air pollution levels outside. These statistics are especially concerning as the weather gets colder: because we tend to stay indoors more often, pollutants can have an even greater impact on health. Plus, for those who suffer from allergies or asthma, unhealthy indoor air can trigger attacks. Immediate effects of exposure to indoor pollutants include irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, headaches, dizziness, and fatigue. Other health effects including...


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When an architect, designer, and builder set out with the intention of building a high-performance home, they often determine a sustainability goal based on an established certification program. These third-party certification programs define the parameters and expectations of the custom home’s ongoing energy savings. They include suggested materials, recommend efficiency engineering practices and can demand applied environmental quality controls. There are some popular and emerging high-performance home certification programs on the market today. Homeowners are increasingly familiar with...


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If you're considering building a new custom home, there has never been a better time to take the benefits of passive home construction to heart. Climate change, rising energy costs and a greater awareness of our impact on the earth leads us to question our traditional methods of home construction. For those striving to reduce energy costs, and their carbon footprint, passive home construction is becoming increasingly attractive – and viable. The inventory of passive-certified homes is growing in the US [Fig 1], with certifications more than doubling in 2017 over the previous year. By the end of 2017...


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It's summer! Fresh breezes are blowing through the open windows and clearing out all those indoor air pollutants that built up over the winter months, right? Only, maybe not. If you’re in a traditionally heated and cooled home in California, you’re probably cranking up the air conditioning right about now. Worse, you’re keeping the doors and windows firmly closed against California’s terrible smog and wildfire season. Unfortunately, summer months can have a worsening effect on indoor air quality if you're using an AC unit. Beating the summer heat with air conditioning causes high...


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If you live in California, you're probably well-versed in the concept of water conservation, especially in the Valley. Everyone knows a big swath of lawn to water and mow isn't a great reflection of a sustainable ethos. In fact, drought resistant and water-efficient landscaping is even mandatory in some jurisdictions like Menlo Park. What you may not know, is that passive homes take a commitment to environmental conservation up a big notch. Passive and extremely high-performance homebuilding considers the entire impact of the home on the landscape, including the reverse – the effect of the landscape...


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When you build a custom home to high-performance or passive home standards, one of the primary objectives is to lower the home’s heating and cooling costs. In traditional construction, heat loss through your walls, roof, and windows can drive up your heating bill. It might surprise you to learn that most heat loss is through the walls – about 35 percent! And, even though warm air rises, you're losing ten percent more heat through your walls than out your roof. The opposite holds true when temperatures outside are hot. A standard home will absorb heat through the walls at higher rates, even...


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From where you put your windows, to how you position your home on your lot, the right location is a significant consideration in high-efficiency homebuilding. To build a modern custom home at the highest end of energy conservation and comfort, a whole-house approach to design and systems function takes careful consideration and planning. Harnessing the sun, nature's most potent energy source, can be done in a way that is both incredibly cost-effective as well as aesthetically beautiful. By utilizing passive home building techniques, the sun becomes our ally in energy efficiency, environmental...


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Good custom home design is a perfect mix of needs, trends, and priorities. When you build a new home, you decide how you want to live, what you want to live with, and the price you’re willing to pay. Whether you’re into following closely or running away from, the hottest trends in home design, a custom homebuilder like Clarum Homes can bring your dream to life. One of the core benefits of building a new, modern home, is the high level of customization. We dived into what’s heating up in home design trends for 2018 and made some pleasant discoveries. Mainly, custom modern homes have...


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