One of our goals while building is to create a home that is as efficient as possible. There are thousands of products available today to reduce electric and heating bills and we hope to use as many as possible to create a home that will provide minimal operating costs in the many years to come.
Our first step will be pouring the foundation and floors, we plan on using ICF's (insulated concrete forms) that will provide a high level of insulation in the basement. These will hold in a large amount of heat from the radiant coils that will be run through the basement slab, which would otherwise dissipate through an ordinary concrete wall and be lost outside.
Here is a short WIKI explanation of ICF's:
Insulating Concrete Forms (ICFs) are form work for concrete that stays in place as permanent building insulation for energy-efficient, cast-in-place, reinforced concrete walls, floors, and roofs.
The forms are interlocking modular units that are dry-stacked (without mortar) and filled with concrete. The forms lock together somewhat like Lego bricks and serve to create a form for the structural walls or floors of a building. Concrete is pumped into the cavity to form the structural element of the walls. Usually reinforcing steel (rebar) is added before concrete placement to give the concrete flexural strength, similar to bridges and high-rise buildings made of concrete (see Reinforced concrete). The forms are filled with concrete in 1–4 foot "lifts" to reduce the risk of blowouts like with other concrete form work. After the concrete has cured, or firmed up, the forms are left in place permanently for thermal efficiency.
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