FAQs

A: The primary ingredient is wood. Our insulation is dense-pack cellulose, which is made from recycled newspaper, and the wood structure—sheathing, framing, and furring strips—are also wood. They’re wrapped with a high-performance weather barrier that is both water-proof and vapor open. Put together, the assembly includes sheathing, framing, insulation, and a smart air barrier.

A: In the building world, performance refers to how well your house is insulated and air sealed. Our panels enable really tight building envelopes, with roughly twice as much insulation and many times better air sealing than code-built homes. So, high performance. In concrete terms, homes built with our panels need between eighty and ninety percent less energy to stay comfortable. On a cold winter night without the heat on, a home with our panels will only lose a degree or two of temperature. The same is true in the summer—our homes will stay cool even when it’s hot. We sometimes compare our panels to stainless-steel insulated thermoses. Sure, they’re more expensive than paper coffee cups, but they keep your coffee hot for hours. Our houses do the same thing.

A: No. While we work closely with builders, we’re a hybrid company with two parts: We design and sell building panels, and we design houses using those panels.

A: Technically, these panels are SIPs—Structural Insulated Panels. That said, our panels do much more than the typical SIP, in that they come installed with high-tech membranes, airtightness, and are ready to receive windows and siding. The other important difference is that while most SIPs use petroleum-based foams for insulation, we use cellulose, which is wood-based. We are proudly “foam free”! That dramatically lowers the embodied carbon (or upfront carbon impact) of each panel.

A: Our panels are made with service cavities that allow for face access inside the air barrier for electricity, although they don’t come pre-wired or plumbed. These envelopes are designed for all-electric for heating, cooling, and cooking. Of course, utilities have to be on site when you build. We can accommodate the gamut of utility options, whether you plan to be grid tied, on a municipal sewer system, have a septic system, or be fully off grid. Speaking of utilities: In the United States, all new homes are required to be solar-ready, and our homes are. We do suggest living in your house first before installing solar, however. Why? People who live in super insulated homes often use much less energy than they expect.

A: Probably, but it depends on where you live. B.PUBLIC panels are a great place to start if you’re interested in certifications, whether Passive House, LEED, or for tax credits, but keep in mind that the envelope is just one piece of a green building. We’re happy to help you find information about your region and talk through the systems and materials that will help with certification. Starting with a tight building envelope makes certification much easier, and many of the additional systems and materials you’ll need have the added benefit of making your home nicer to live in, too. We are not certifiers but are happy to connect with you with a professional consultant for Passive House or LEED. We do, however, provide data and technical reports to allow for ease in certifying a B.PUBLIC home or B.PUBLIC building envelope performance.

A: Yes! Not only can you modify our designs, you can do it quickly and easily. You can add a room, get rid of an extra bathroom, add a deck. Our tech team is able to utilize our standard panels and architectural details to customize a standard plan to suit your location and building needs. Revising designs takes little time, and our designers can talk you through all the changes and give you an immediate quote for the panels.

A. Well, we like your spirit! Anything is possible, but this is not a kit home. Although our system greatly streamlines the technical aspects of creating a high-performance envelope, panel installation is best left to trained tradespeople. We recommend working with a local builder and experienced installers.

A: Yes. Independent engineers from WUFI have evaluated our panels and verified that the panels will perform in Zones 2 through 7. That covers most of North America. More specifically, we make our wall panels in three R-values: 35, and 52. Our roof panels come in two R-values, 59 and 80, and our floors are R-51. For comparison, our thinnest wall panel is nearly two times the R-value of a code wall.

A: This is a really important question. Indoor air quality plays a big and often-ignored role in our health, and a home that didn’t breath would be unhealthy. On the flip side, the average home loses about thirty percent of its heat through leaks in walls. That’s also a problem. The solution is to build airtight homes and ventilate them using low-energy mechanical systems that heat or cool fresh air as it enters the house. These systems are known as Heat Recovery Ventilators or Energy Recovery Ventilators, and they work really well. Airtight homes that use HRVs or ERVs typically have better air quality than leaky homes without them. The final question to consider in airtight homes is water vapor. If water gets stuck in walls, the walls rot or develop mold. So, while our homes are airtight, the panels are built with a membrane that lets water vapor move through. In other words, even though the panels are airtight, water can evaporate out.

11.a It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout.

12.a It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout.

13.a It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout.

14.a It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout.

15.a It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout.

16.a It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout.

17.a It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout.

18.a It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout.
 

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