This Maine home can stay 70 degrees without a furnace, even when it's freezing outside [View all]
What if you could design a house that on a cold day in January would stay at 70 degrees inside — without running the furnace? Or even having a furnace?
It's already being done.
In fact, what's known as the Passivhaus concept came to the United States in 2006, and is being used to construct buildings throughout the U.S.
Maine Public recently visited a passive house in the town of Hope to find out how it works — and what it costs.
It's 31 degrees outside when Patrick McCunney greets a reporter on the porch of his newly built passive house.
He moved here from Philadelphia with his wife, Madeleine Mackell, and their two young daughters a little over a year ago, and the couple says that they decided to build the 1,500-square-foot, two-story New England farmhouse-style home knowing that they would save money on energy over time.
While it was 31 degrees outside, the inside was much cozier.
"It's about 70 degrees in here," McCunney, who is a mechanical engineer, says. "And once you set that temperature the house, because of its airtightness and amount of insulation, it maintains that temperature pretty efficiently."
https://www.mainepublic.org/environment-and-outdoors/2023-01-25/this-maine-home-can-stay-70-degrees-without-a-furnace-even-when-its-freezing-outside
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