The fact of the matter is you cannot have a truly energy-efficient home without airtight construction. Therefore, it is essential to choose the type of construction that will ensure the house will be airtight.

Why not just “more insulation?” We’ve all heard the weather person say that while the temperature of the air is five degrees, wind gusts make it feel as if it’s well below zero.  But think now of the last time you flew on a commercial airliner, and the pilot announced a cruising speed of 500 miles per hour, at an altitude of 30,000 feet, and an outside temperature of 30 degrees below zero.  The pilot does not tell you what the wind-chill factor is, but with a temperature of 30 below and a speed of 500 miles per hour, if we relied on insulation to keep us comfortable, the aircraft would have to have walls several feet thick.  Yet the thickness of the walls of the aircraft is no more than a few inches.  So how do we account for the comfort of the cabin?  The airplane is an airtight tube.

What do the Eskimos live in when they are hunting seals? An igloo. How much insulation does an igloo have? None. What is the outdoor temperature? About minus 40. What size heating system is used? How about a whale oil candle?.....

The igloo is airtight with No air infiltration !

How then, do we attain air tightness in our homes? By using Insulating Concrete Forms (ICF) for the wall and outer structure of the house it is easy to make the house airtight. Then the polyurethane foam that we spray to the underside of the concrete tiles does “triple duty.” It bonds the roof tiles to the steel trusses, insulates the roof, and gives us a airtight house envelope. The attic becomes conditioned air space.

If the house is airtight, where’s the fresh air? With the house now tightly sealed, won’t the air become humid and stale?  The answer is no, because at this point, we employ an air-to-air energy recovery ventilator.   This air exchanger not only replaces the moist, stale air from the interior of the house with fresh air from the outside, but it also recaptures up to 83 percent of the heat from the expelled air and transfers it to the incoming air, so that the new air approaches room temperature as it enters the house. Before the fresh air enters the house, it passes through the innovative and state-of-the-art LifeBreath Turbulent Flow Precipitation air cleaner. A newly developed technology that removes close to 100% of airborne particles from your home, day after day, year after year.

The primary objective of airtight housing is, of course, energy efficiency.  Owners of airtight homes report fuel-cost savings of as much as 80 percent.  They boast of quieter, more comfortable home in which fresh air circulates constantly.  There is another positive development.  Many owners of airtight homes reveal that physical symptoms they commonly endured during the winter months in prior homes, such as sinus infections, coughing, frequent sneezing, shortness of breath, irritation of the eyes, nose, or throat, digestive problems, headaches, fatigue, laziness, and lethargy, no longer plague them.

They can thank the air-to-air energy recovery ventilator for their improved health. Not only does the energy recovery ventilator expel indoor pollutants, but its LifeBreath Turbulent Flow Precipitation air cleaner extracts impurities from incoming air, resulting in a perpetual, contaminant-free environment that reduces the house work, and makes a house every women wants, as there is no dust or dusting.

The case for an airtight home, in conjunction with an air-to-air energy recovery ventilator, is the only one to consider with new home construction.