AUGUST 30, 2011: Today we walked out to the clear patch in the woods that will be our building site. We pulled a line North / South and considered how the house might sit. I squinted at the orange tape strung between two stakes and squinted at the house plan. My conclusion: The machine doesn’t care about the view. A wall of windows faces South and all other walls have few if any windows. But, but, but, our big view is West South-West. Should we abandon the Passive House concept in favor of a more traditional house with a picture window and the pleasure of watching herds of deer graze in a wide-open hayfield?

We could go for a normal energy-efficient house. It seems easier. The Passive House feels smart and special but I am constrained by the PHPP equation. Glass is a carefully controlled part of the math that makes all the difference in energy use. To make a long story short, we have decided to go for the Passive House and do whatever it takes to make the machine work at its best. That means we need to set aside our worries about West-facing windows and keep the house on a North-South axis. So – to elevations.