What do y'all think of these houses?

[Paula]

Did a search on here for log cabin kits, and one of the posts mentioned this company:
www.enertia.com
I am fascinated by these houses. They're not log, but timber houses and the company claims you don't need heat/air-conditioning. They have a really interesting design. Anyone ever heard anything about them? They say on the website somewhere that southern yellow pine helps the design work - don't remember the reason, density, sap, something like that - I wonder if they are claiming that because it's cheaper, easier for them to work with, lighter to ship, etc. We have lots of timber and a small sawmill, I'm wondering if there's any reason the design wouldn't work with oak timbers. I also wonder if they show enough of the design on the website that we could make it work without plans. As far as I can tell they don't sell plans, just kits.

[Terri]

That comment about "geothermal stability" makes me wonder if they are not using some sort of solar-powered heat pump.

[Gary in ohio]

August in Ohio you will need AC regardless of how the house is built.

[Paula]

I think the geothermal stability thing is that the bottom level is buried about 9 feet in the ground. If you look on the "science" page they have a diagram showing how the air flow works. They say it rarely gets above 80 degrees inside. With ceiling fans I think we could stand that.

[Wolf mom]

sure looks like passive solar with all those windows, large roof overhangs and some pictures show solar panels. Bet if you go insude you'll see lots of stone flooring etc. Wood? Some wood is denser than others that makes for better insulating.

[kabri]

We looked at the enertia houses as well. But for us on the West Coast, shipping of the kit would be VERY expensive. Plus, from all the pictures I've seen on their web site, the double windows on the south side really limit the views from inside the house. I just can't get past that, when our next house will be in the woods/pasture with lots of views.

That said, the energy efficiency of the design is fascinating to me, and I see no reason why another type of wood could not be used - they use pine because it's available and the most sustainable wood near their manufacturing facility.

[homebirtha]

They look really neat, but wow, REALLY pricey. $72k for the kit and it doesn't include that much of the house. I think you could do much better with local materials.

[BetsyPage]

This is just fascinating... I'm from NC & hope to move back there... I can see the price of their kits but I'm wondering what total cost would really be in the end... we do not have construction experience (well my dad does) so I wonder how much construction costs would be. I would *love* to talk to someone who owns one of these homes!

[CraftyDiva]

The roof lines and overhangs remind me of Frank Loyd Wright homes. Only difference, he worked in concrete for the exterior walls. Good thing you have all those southern windows, houses that size would be a bear to heat in winter in the northern states.

[Mudwoman]

Paula,

You can take any of these floorplans and draw them out yourself. Our floorplan of our house was on 4 sheets of graph paper taped together. Our house came from a timberframe design, but we built it with standard 2 x 6 construction. These kits end up being a lot of money. We were looking at Lindal homes for a while until we figured up the cost of the kit plus the finishout and what it didn't include. Finally got the sales guy to tell us the truth about what we were looking at. The kit ran $35 sq ft, but he told us that they had never sold a house that didn't end up costing around $250K by the time it was finished. Ouch.

[Terri in WV]

You might like the www.thenaturalhome.com website. It has the home I'd like to build.