Spotlight: Bull Run House | Margaretville
Architect: Brad Will, Ashokan Architecture and Planning
By Joan Vos MacDonald | Photos by Franco Vogt | Fall 2024 | High-Performance House
Brad Will, principal architect at Kingston-based Ashokan Architecture, recently spoke to the owners of Bull Run House, the energy-efficient home he built for them in Margaretville. The homeowners were happy to report that it costs less than $1,000 a year to heat their 2,500-square-foot home. Will’s design gently nestled the home into the hillside to make the most of surrounding views, but he also worked with a certified building performance professional, Pasquale Strocchia, to incorporate energy savings into the design.
“It’s a combination of active and passive performance,” says Will. “The active is a very highly efficient electric heat pump. We put in a hybrid electric water heater that is unbelievably efficient.”
The passive part of the energy-saving endeavor is the facade. “On the side of the building that faces southward, there’s a lot of glazing at both levels, and that is essentially a passive solar gain component,” says Will. “So in the heating months, the house benefits from that lower sun coming through those windows and doors, warming the space. Then if you look again at the design of the house on the south side, there’s a very deep overhang.”
The six-foot overhang is integral to the design because during summer months, when the sun is high, it provides shade for the glazing and for enjoying that balcony with the southern views.
The southern side of the house features a six-foot overhang to provide shade during the warmer months.
Extra glazing on the windows acts as insulation, enabling the homeowners to enjoy the surrounding view without heat loss.
The house was constructed with an advanced framing technique that uses greater spacing, 19.2 inches instead of the usual 16. This technique requires less material.
Materials used in the house’s construction have zero off-gassing and emissions, resulting in a very clean interior environment, refreshed constantly with an ERV ventilation system.
The home’s first level is built into the ground, into grade with an insulated concrete form wall that has a very high R-value for better thermal performance.
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