If you are starving to death like me...

[backwoodsboy]

A few thoughts:
If you plan to berm your basement inside a hill, aim it south for solar gain. Jim Carter gave us a $4,000 tax credit for doing that, which is what we were going to do anyway. That credit isn't available any longer, but there are more government incentivised renewable energy programs. Super insulate each story. You can build your own stress skin panels using rigid foam glued together and wrap the entire structure without stud breaks every 16" OC. 
Buy an old Mercedes diesel, or just a plain diesel generator. With a conversion kit run either of  them to produce usable electricity from biodiesel.  
Find a source of cheap wood (pallets) and burn it in a high efficiency wood stove with a catalytic combustor as backup. 

[mike_belben]

Hang in there, it gets better.

[stavebuyer]

Good to see you on the forum Mike!

[rusticretreater]

I am a big fan of the geothermal heating and cooling setups.  Seems to be a pretty low cost way to cool a house.  Few parts to break.  I recently replaced both a/c - heat pumps and much of the electronic components and the bill was nearly 10k.  For that kind of money you can build some whiz bang solar geothermal stuff.

Also you want to plant a tree near a corner(12-20ft away) of the house on the southern exposure side to provide shade during the summer months and reduce A/C usage.  This is actually a housing regulation in many parts of the country.

I have a log house and the basement is sunk into a hillside so we get the natural cooling effect of geothermal.  I ruminate on how to move this cool air upstairs other than just fans blowing it up the stairway.

[newoodguy78]

Rustic it's interesting you mentioned the tree on the southern corner. Here in New England it's very common to see big old sugar maples planted around old farmhouses. They provide shade in the summer and in the winter allow the sun through. I've always marveled at what the old timers took into account and did when they built a house. A lot to be learned from working with Mother Nature rather than against it.

[rusticretreater]

I also favor things like 2x6's on the northern exposure instead of 2x4's to put in thicker insulation.

[thecfarm]

Them old sugar maple also provides maple sugar for them too. Notice I said sugar and not syrup.
Sugar was a big deal back in the early 1900's.
My father was born in 1923 and would talk about that.

[John Mc]

I also favor things like 2x6's on the northern exposure instead of 2x4's to put in thicker insulation.

Around here, it's 2x6 all the way around if, you are doing stick-built.

Our house is a timber frame with 6" thick stressed skin panels surrounding the frame and something thicker on the roof. (I forget exactly how thick.)

[Don P]

These are the codebook tables for minimum insulation levels by climate in the lower 48 and that climate zone map (don't confuse this with ag climate zones)


 

 

Where you see something like 10/13 it is referring to continuous or cavity insulation levels, is it foam sheets over the frame or insulation between the framing. The roof is the real kicker, it is hard to get there without foam. Early on our old building official said "They will never outlaw a 2x4 wall". I have not built an exterior 2x4 wall in 4 decades. I can't remember building a 2x6 exterior wall with Dad.

[Magicman]

I very seldom, if ever, saw 2X4 exterior studs for homes.  Homes are all 2X6 exterior studs and 2X4 interior.  The majority of the studs are 10' rather than 8'.