Lisa Meline, of Meline Engineering, is a key member of our design team as she designed our geothermal heat exchange ground loops and completed the initial design of our radiant system inside the house.  Importantly, Lisa introduced us to Matt Jung of 88HVAC.

Lisa sent an e-mail last week saying that she had some meetings in the Bay Area and she would like to visit our site and see the progress to date.  Perfect.  Lisa showed up 15 minutes early and reviewed the site with Bryan.

Lisa arrived at the site early to review our progress to date.

Lisa taking photos of the PEX in the concrete piers.

Lisa was most impressed with the PEX in the concrete and took a photo of the PEX that was pressurized to 100 PSI (and holding the pressure!).

Quick Trip to Watsonville to See Jackel Enterprises

After Lisa left, Bryan and Christie Tunnoch, who was visiting from Vancouver, Canada, went ‘over the hill’ to Watsonville to Jackel Enterprises so we could measure the reclaimed beams from the original structure and to take a quick look at our resawn redwood decking.

Since we need 6×10 beams, we will need to identify where we will use the original beams in the remodelled ground floor.

Bryan and Christie met with Steve Jackel, who showed them some of the FSC inventory of FSC lumber that he had as well as other large timbers from British Columbia, Canada.

Steve Jackel showing FSC lumber that he is holding in his inventory.

Original Douglas Fir beams from 1969.

More original beams from 1969.

The original 2x6 tongue and groove redwood decking that has been cut in half and remilled (now is 5/8-inch thick) with a new tongue and groove.

Huge 14-inch by 14-inch Douglas Fir beams from British Columbia (not FSC).

Steve showed us some wood that he is drying slowly in his kiln.

Given the wet weather and limited on-site work underway, we scheduled a meeting today with our LEED evaluator, Darrel Kelly, so we could understand our Title 24 report.  We engaged Davis Energy Group to certify our house under the LEED for Homes program and they assigned Darrel to our project.  He is with Builder’s Energy Services, Inc.

Our Title 24 Report was prepared by Meline Engineering.  They modeled our house using Energy Pro software (by EnergySoft) and, with that model, evaluated the projected performance of our house.  Based on the model that Meline Engineering developed, our house came in at an amazing 72.9% better than the standard, or baseline, design.  In California, if a house is 60% better than standard then it will receive the maximum points available under the LEED-H program. 

Graph showing how a maximum of 19 points can be earned by exceeding Title 24 by 60%.

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Bryan was up early this morning and on the road before 7:00 am.

His first stop was in Davis to meet with Davis Energy Group at 8:45 am.  To obtain LEED certification requires independent verification of the design and actual construction.  Davis Energy Group, located in Davis, CA, certifies buildings in northern California for the U.S. Green Building Council.

Bryan met with Patti Heath and Pepper Smith on time and presented our project to them.  They liked the project and everyone left the meeting feeling like it will be a good fit.  Next steps are for Davis Energy Group to send us a questionnaire and an agreement.

Next stop was Meline Engineering in Sacramento.  We engaged Lisa Meline and had been working with her and Josh Perkl since July but had not met either of them in person.

We met for almost 90 minutes in a conference room and walked through some of the remaining issues that needed to be addressed.  It was another good meeting and we’re looking forward to refining the geothermal design.

Leaving Sacramento, Bryan called Rusty Weston so schedule a lunch and vanilla latte.  He was available and we agreed to meet at the ‘usual’ Mexican restaurant in Lafayette.

As Bryan was driving, he called Matt Jung of 88HVAC.  Matt is a wealth of knowledge regarding geothermal and we needed to speak with him while the conversation with Lisa and Josh was still fresh.  We spoke and he gave us some deeper insight into the actual equipment alternatives that Lisa had outlined.  Also, Matt suggested that we visit one of his job sites on my way through Orinda.  That sounded great so Bryan took Matt up on the offer.

Lunch with Rusty was relaxed and fun.  After lunch, Bryan jumped on the freeway and then exited at Orinda.  It took a while to find the job site but it was worth the effort.  Matt has some excellent clients and he is definitely one of the most experienced with geothermal heat exchange projects in the Bay Area.