This work is in collaboration with lead design architect Robin A. Johnson (robinaj9988@gmail.com, 231.326-3637) – a local architect to northern Michigan, whom local clients approached with the desires of a mid-century modern feel. In addition to the breezy cool of mid-century, the owners wanted to explore being net-zero. All this while in cold Climate Zone 6. Challenge: Accepted. This house, while being expansive, light, and airy, is also slated to be net-zero with the help of the sun and battery storage. With Robin Johnson, meticulous attention to detail was spent on the thermal envelope, orientation of windows, slopes of roof planes, as well as to both interior and exterior materials. Combine ample amounts of south-facing roof slopes with Solar PV panels and Solar hot water panels for radiant slab heating. The entire slab the house sits on is essentially a radiator in the heating season and a heat sink in the cooling season. No boiler is required. Daytime through early night, the slab is warmed by solar hot water panels, with excess storage in thermal tanks fed through a sub-slab thermal retention field, where daytime-heated water is stored to offset the first sunless hours of the day. Overnight heating is compensated with an air-to-water heat-pump system powered off of battery storage from the large array of PV panels. Open mid-century has met modern energy efficiencies.
