All Forum Posts by: Seth Borman

As a general rule, I think lots that are served by city water or sewer shouldn't have density limitations. A new apartment should be a by right project.

In practice that mostly means 2-4 unit projects would be manageable for homeowners and small investors.

 I worked for an outfit with 1,000 units and the average was lower than that in the stabilized apartments.

Install low flow showerheads, new toilets, and lock the hose bib. Your water bill should be 1/10th of what you are paying now. Look for leaks.

The simple answer, without getting into building science too far, is that you should have an insulator use a small amount of spray foam to seal the attic at the ceiling level, to prevent air from going in and out of the house, then blow in insulation on top of it. That will create the least number of additional issues for you, and be the cheapest

What are you trying to learn and what scale are you trying to work at?

I'm not in Montana, but I've seen Chuck a few times over the last 10 years, and he's great, really insightful, super nice. I highly recommend that everyone see him speak.

 Mitsubishi ductless. Not sure which one.

 Most of the minisplits don't even have backup heat. One of the guys in a group I'm in shared his data log today... under 0° and still putting out twice as much heat as it is using in electricity.

Parking is the huge variable that you left out, but you are talking about 29 units per acre, that's basically garden apartment density. Actually, on the low side of it (28-32 is a good assumption). I would guess that you'll be able to fit all 89 apartments on that site.

Your building efficiency is really low, it's going to be a lot higher than that, you can get as high as 95% and as low as around 85%. 65% would be a particularly poor example of a breezeway product.

San Diego? FAR is 1.35 so it will not be a constraint.

If this is San Diego, they have one of the weirdest most complicated sets of incentives I've seen for everything from ADUs to micro units, and I don't understand it. Plus the state density bonus law. I would talk to an architect that works there to get the real scoop.

This sounds a lot like I am doing homework for you, but you figure out how much you can build by using the lesser of FAR or the net buildable area x your height limit, but you also need to keep in mind that you will likely have a site coverage limit and completely covering a site is expensive because you have to deal with stormwater.

I can't speak to your energy prices there, but you can use heat pumps in that climate year round. They work down to 0°, they are extremely efficient, and you can pull the gas meter so you aren't paying the monthly meter fee. 

Some parts of the US are cold enough that heat pumps won't work... but the majority of the country, even in places that get pretty cold, aren't that cold.

Ducted heat pumps will give you better performance with better ventilation and better dehumidification. Mini splits have a warmer coil so they don't wring as much moisture out of the air.