This afternoon I took the wet-stamped blueprints, the signed and certified engineering drawings, the energy code compliance report, and the 200-some-odd other required doodads to the Lindon City Offices. Along with a check for $100. The house plans have been officially submitted. [read more…]
The city of Lindon requires—among a billion other things—a model energy code compliance report to prove, I suppose, that your model energy code is complaint with whatever Lindon officials have deemed necessary to comply with in regards to the energy code.
So, obviously, I have no idea what the heck this is or why we had to do it. But an HVAC guy kindly went through our plans and figured R-values and U-factors and UAs. So it has something to do with energy efficiency. Unless I’m an idiot. Which is entirely possible.
Anyway, the maximum allowed UA is 775. Ours is 617. The report says our plan is 20.4% better than code. We were told it’s the best rating he’s ever seen.
So going with the words “better” and “best”—two words actually in my current vocabulary—I’m taking that a a very good sign.
While reconfiguring the house plans, Sam asked for a complete list of appliances. For some people this is easy, but for me it’s been a chore. I’ve purchased so many rotten appliances in my life — dishwashers that can only clean pre-washed dishes for example — that I’m ultra-wary of every advertising claim. And there are so many choices that it’s mind boggling.
To get started I went to a couple of my favorite online appliance stores. But today I found out one has a great tool, if you’re in the open market for an appliance and don’t know where to start. [read more…]