Undecided with Matt Ferrell 
Net Zero Home Build: My Biggest Regret Building My New House. The first 100 people to use code UNDECIDED at the link below will get 20% off of Incogni: https://incogni.com/undecided. There are a lot of different paths you can take to get to a net-zero home. Everything from passive homes to earthships to modular and factory built houses. You can retrofit an existing building or you can build a new one. All of the options can make your head spin and there are pros and cons to each of them. In my case, I’m building a new, factory built net zero home with a lot of solar panels, which has been in the planning stages for a while now, but is scheduled to start construction very soon. I thought it would be interesting to share what I’m doing and why my wife and I chose the path we did. So let’s see how we came to our decision … and if I have any regrets so far.
Join the waiting list for my big solar product launch:
https://undecidedmf.com/solar-waitlist
Visit my Energysage Portal for homes – Research solar panels and get quotes for free!
http://www.energysage.com/p/undecided/
Watch Exploring Passive House Design – 90% Energy Savings! https://youtu.be/secB3R0sIYU?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi7UWp64ZlOKUPNXePMTdU4d
Ricky Roy/Two Bit Da Vinci: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FjFQSHBHf4&list=PLHebb5GJgeFexelR1gU-7_xA9cMuIcj8b
Video script and citations:
https://undecidedmf.com/renewable-energy/7524/
Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:
https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide
Follow-up podcast:
Video version – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-aWB84Bupf5hxGqrwYqLA
Audio version – http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm
Join the Undecided Discord server:
https://link.undecidedmf.com/discord
👋 Support Undecided on Patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/mattferrell
00:00 – Intro
01:21 – Passive houses
05:16 – Why I’m doing factory built
08:13 – Smart home
08:45 – Is it worth it?
10:58 – What about a retrofit?
12:37 – Regrets?
⚙️ Gear & Products I Like
https://undecidedmf.com/shop/
Visit my Energysage Portal (US):
Research solar panels and get quotes for free!
https://link.undecidedmf.com/energysage
And find heat pump installers near you (US):
https://link.undecidedmf.com/energysage-heatpumps
Or find community solar near you (US):
https://link.undecidedmf.com/community-solar
For a curated solar buying experience (Canada)
EnergyPal’s free personalized quotes:
https://energypal.com/undecided
Tesla Referral Code:
Get 1,000 free supercharging miles
or a discount on Tesla Solar & Powerwalls
https://ts.la/matthew84515
👉 Follow Me
Mastodon
https://mastodon.social/@mattferrell
X
https://X.com/mattferrell
https://X.com/undecidedMF
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/mattferrell
https://www.instagram.com/undecidedmf
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/undecidedMF/
Website
https://undecidedmf.com
📺 YouTube Tools I Recommend
Audio file(s) provided by Epidemic Sound
http://bit.ly/UndecidedEpidemic
TubeBuddy
https://www.tubebuddy.com/undecided
VidIQ
https://vidiq.com/undecided
I may earn a small commission for my endorsement or recommendation to products or services linked above, but I wouldn’t put them here if I didn’t like them. Your purchase helps support the channel and the videos I produce. Thank you.
source
About The Author
Would you want to build new or go with a retrofit? The first 100 people to use code UNDECIDED at the link below will get 20% off of Incogni: https://incogni.com/undecided.
If you liked this video, check out: Exploring Passive House Design – 90% Energy Savings! https://youtu.be/secB3R0sIYU?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi7UWp64ZlOKUPNXePMTdU4d
Well. if it was me I would have definitely avoid the heat pump for water heating. Instead a nice solar water heater is the best eco friendly solution. As far as heating since you are building the home from ground up big windows on south and a nice dark concrete floor should be fine. As far as cooling, I think it you just buried underground (similar to the geothermal heat pump) a pipe were air can pass by, it should come up cooler.
Hi Matt, love your work. My question is, do we want a green house that is effective or a house full of electrical an mecanical support do temper our house. I do think we can have efficient house without too much of mecanical support. I built my self a 1500sqft log house dove and tail solar passive house, facing south, big windows… only have a radiant floor to eat and don't need any air conditionner, the concrete floor those do the work. So all year long the temparature stays around 20, In winter time it can get down to -30. The more stuff you need to build our house the more it cost to nature and she is the one we need not to forget and protect. We need to think about the carbon foot print.
these white privileged folks, have all the money to buy new technology, alas but still is not sufficient.
They worship technology as being a fix… to all climate change, global warming, flood, fire and ocean rise.
What they worship also is energy, nothing about ecology nor the living planet.
It is NOT ' A NET ZERO HOUSE'. It may be a very efficient house, by American standards. Incidentally, I am very impressed by your lack to breathe while talking!!
#hempcrete
The only reason to build a netzero totally energy efficient home is because i dont want to give the greedy corrupt bully energy companies a penny.
Hey Matt, could you recommend any companies that have helped you? I live in the Tri-city area and would be retrofitting our home.
Some chinaman might be watching you on those smart cameras
Looking into it. Contacted 3 passive home builders / architects so far. Think 2030 active 55+ house for the masses.
We built our version of energy saving home seven years ago . Icf walls , concrete floors with radiant floor heat , ground source heat pump. Really happy. Lastly we added 14 kw ground mounted solar. I did most the work.
Why do you need to get certified as a passive house? Is there something stopping you from just doing it anyway and making it apart of your house build?
Living in a flat now, but someday in future (~15 years) I want to build my home. I think I will go with passive home. In Poland it is not common to build house with wood, most houses are from bricks. I think I will also go with my own solar panels.
Hi Matt. Thank you for this video. I really appreciate your insight and honesty. I live in central Texas and decided to build a Netzo home that can adapt to the recent drought and hotter summers we had here, which required more AC runtime. I do feel things won’t get better until we changed and live more in balance with our planet. The issue that I am running into is the HOA not allowing modular build homes as the perception I think is that it is similar to a manufactured mobile home. Do you have suggestions for me to empower and educate the folks in HOA and hopefully, they can allow the build?
HEY!? SHOULD A HOME OR HOUSE B OF [ORGANIC DESIGN] ]A POOR EDUCATION WOULD ARGUE DISTINCTION] HOWEVER,SUCH, HAS TO FUNCTION ON THE PARAMETERS DICTATED BY IT'S DESIGN PRINCIPLES & AS DISTINGUISHED! AN ORGANICALLY DESIGNED HOUSE TO MY UNDERSTANDING SHARES IT'S SURROUNDINGS!! BUT OWNS THE GROUND!! ALL BASED ON THE INTEGRITY OF AGAIN! CLEAR DESIGN PRINCIPLES! ENCOURAGING A SIMPLICITY OF COMPLEXITY OF SORTS!! SO IN THIS MANNER OF APPROACH IS GAURANTEED A NOT TO CREATE!! BY ESTABLISHED BARRIER OF DISTINCTION A DISFUNCTIONALY AESTHETIC OFFENCE TO ALL!! THE HUMAN ANIMAL SENSES!!!. & AN INSULT!! TO IT'S GROUND…
I bought a home that was built in 1975. While I'm not going to obsess over full net-zero, i am working hard to retrofit it to be as efficient as possible.
First, replacing the old gas appliances with heat pump electric. Next, I'll be encapsulating the crawl space and upgrading the insulation throughout the house. Eventually, ill add a smart breaker panel, battery backups, and solar
"Solar will provide 100% of our global energy needs by 2027." – Ray Kurzweil
For this to be true, solar costs would have to come down a lot but Ray is never wrong so I tell everyone to just wait a few years.
Air tight houses can have moisture problems. It is the number one issue we see in passive houses is moisture issues. Erv needs to suck from problem areas like kitchen, bathrooms, and basements. Also rim joist pockets need breathable insulation. Especially with icf walls and no where for the moisture from the masonry to go. Masonry loves to wick moisture. And how does it dry out in an icf wall? Besides at rim joist pocket. Then thermal breaks around windows. This stops cold and moisture going into wood around windows. It's why you should use mineral wool or spray foam in bays next to windows or doors.
The term 'Net Zero' is pure nonsense since CO2 was produced during all the manufacturing processes of everything we use to set up 'Sustainable' houses. Unless we all stop breathing there will never be 'Net Zero'.
However, having some sort of reduced home running costs, energy sovereignty and long term security in the event of a grid-down situation is always a great investment.
Good one, man.
having thought about batteries I decided that I would prefer to go with 2 times the kwh that would be put out by the solar array. Batteries have dropped dramatically in the last year When I say dramatically I am talking about $520 for 10lwh
Hi Matt,
I’m a big fan of your videos. It is my desire to understand the best way to save and conserve energy.
I know a few scientists who have told me that solar panels in the northeast are carbon positive because they are made in China using coal furnaces. Do you have any insight into this claim?
And is there any way to quantify whether to calculate this.
Also, is there a course or school where I can learn how to do this kind of research and analysis
Thank You
Steve Guiosky
Hope you go where bezos, Zuckerberg, buffet and gates end up… And we all know where is that, you, them and your agenda.
Want to know one part about all that trendy bandwagon wording that you sooo love saying out loud as if you understand it? Net zero, net zero, net zero…
Want to know what also includes the net zero? What you haven't heard, haven't been told because it's hard to swallow and you wouldn't (or maybe would) go ahead with , well, here it is. Part of net zero is also to adjust (nice word, isn't it) the acceptable number of citizens of this planet. A number that's acceptable and sustainable for the balance and existence of this planet on the long run. And our supreme overlords believe that figure is around 500 million…. So, ummm, what do we do with the rest if they're ummm, releasing too much carbon, which is extremely damaging to our planet? We're trying to turn everyone vegan right now as we need to reduce the amount of pigs/cows because they simply just fart too much, it's uncontrollable and bad! For the planet, but so do humans… Welcome to net zero, where the plan is for you to become a zero.
I would like to build a Passive home someday, but your cost estimate was misleading. The Passive house isn’t 16% more expensive it is almost 100% more expensive, $84 a SqFt vs $159 SqFt.
Your video title is also pretty “clickbaity”, and you didn’t give very much information about your passive house build, or even a passive house in general, considering the length of this video.
Not just the savings in energy cost, passive house design brings an additional level of comfort. No more cold floors or even a need for heated floors when you focus on thermal bridging.
Very dense content. I love it. Thanks for distilling a myriad of sources into an understandable format. You rock.
Great post! My spouse and I are halfway through what should be a near-net-zero build. We looked at prefabricating part or all of the home, and the cost compared to traditional build techniques was significantly higher. We were quoted ~$100/sqft for framing, insulation and air sealing [not including doors and windows]. Note that we're in soiuthern BC, Canada, and local labour rates for apprentice carpenters are bumping into the $40/hr range. Regardless, the prefab route was a bit rich for us, even though it would shave months off our build time. Instead, we're spending around $60/sqft on a standard build with R40 walls and R60 roof, and I'm air sealing the &%$* out of the house myself with tape and sealant.
I'm guessing that the difference in cost between prefab and traditional building techniques is not as significant as in our neck of the woods. Can you share what your $/sqft is going to be on the new house? Cheers!
he hasnt even built it yet! title is misleading
I'm concerned about my wallet, if it helps the environment fantastic bonus, but I'm just being brutally honest.
I've gone 'renewables' because it's better for my bank balance, simple.
There's another reason for going net zero … off grid builds. In which case you can't just achieve net zero over the course of the year. Every week in the year has to achieve net zero, because battery banks leak over time so producing excess electricity in summer in order to heat your house with that electricity in winter is not a viable solution. You have to produce your winter heating energy in winter.
please review the net zero Alibaba homes !! great video
Interested in building a passive home but scared of cold floors while walking around barefoot (big no no). What’s the best/energy efficient floor hearting system?
Hi Matt, This belated comment is more of a question. Whilst a low leakage home is great for energy efficiency, my concern for you is what, if any, impact is happening to your health from any toxic off-gassing from modern building materials, systems and glues etc.? Phil
Will your new dwelling survive a nuclear strike?
Wonder how many sleepless nights you've had and if you are now in the climate cult headed up by the doom goblin Greta?
Kind of a clickbait title don't you think?
I am sad your Regret Building a Net Zero Home
Beware of smart homes — they cause cancer and major health problems due to EMF exposure. LEARN THE FACTS !!!!
As I guy in the HVAC field this build gives me red flags. I get somebody wants to be energy efficient, but in my experience the more energy efficient someone tries to be, the more expensive repairs are when a system breaks down. And generally they do right after the warranty expires. And then because of the sophistication of the equipment parts tend to be hard to come by or are backordered for multiple months. Give us an update after a few years.
Bad manners, you didn't provide a link to your friend's channel in the description.
Our version Doug and Ruth’s house journey. Thanks for showing your dream
do you belive in the western wide net zeo con scheme whixh will maje more people poor and elites even richer and gov members
I recently built a 1800 sq. ft. house in central NC. 2×6 walls, R3 Zip, Marvin windows. No solar or energy efficient appliances except induction cooktop. Old school top loader washer and resistance dryer. 15 SEER HVAC, sealed crawlspace.. My electric bill is $100 average. The house is very comfortable (mainly due to the excellent ductwork and HVAC design) With the rates here of about $0.10 per KWH, I can't imagine I would ever payback all the expensive nifty gadgets that your house contains if I include maintenance, repair and replacement costs.. Pretty cool house that you have though.
This seems like a perfect time for being able to enjoy the time now 🎉