Getting some quotes back for a new ICF house I'm having built in northern Indiana.

I have two questions. One is about the ICFs themselves, the other is about the HVAC quotes I'm getting back.

The ICF installer is saying 6" ICFs for basement and 4" ICFs for the main level (BuildBlock). Is this adequate? I'm reading that it's fine for some brands, but not fine for others (waiting on a callback from BuildBlock, but curious the thoughts of pros on here as well).

My first quote coming back for HVAC is as follows:

- (1x) 90K BTUH Furnace (Main / Lower Levels - Zoned)
- (2x) 9K BTUH Mitsubishi Mini Splits (area above garage)
- 3 Ton A/C

These are the plans (not yet converted to ICF, and will be changing to floor trusses, not I-joists):

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1gaHwk8wweyc8wkQJfU3crnATPP1enpjX

Does this look to be adequate for northern Indiana (near Fort Wayne, IN)? I've read 20-30 BTUH per SF for a stick-framed home, but then I read around 10-20 BTUH per SF for ICF, which this is in line with. Again, I've sent this information over to my ICF guy, but curious the thoughts of pros on here as well.

Thanks SO much for your help!

Questions: Is this for a walkout basement? That is, at least one side without backfill. If so, then will all walls be ICF? What will the tallest backfill be? For example, the front wall will have 7' of backfill and the others less. Will the footer and walls be a monopour? That is, footer and walls will be poured at the same time (monolithically)?

Thanks for the response!!!

- Walkout basement:
-> One side without any backfill
-> One side with 1/2 backfill (see drawings)
-> Two sides with full backfill

- All exterior walls, both above and below grade, will be ICF
- I haven't asked about monopour, but he said something about rebar every six inches

To guess at heating and cooling you need to know a lot and best to do a heat loss calculation.

We built a 3700 sqft ranch with a walkout with half the walls that are exposed and half aren't. We have 3.5 ton AC and 80,000 btu heater.

We used 6 inch Build block on the lower level and 6 inch Global Block (a Build Block Product) on the top floor. We did mix in some normal Build Block on the upper floor with the Global Block where needed like over and around large openings so there was solid concrete for headers and stuff. That is a nice feature of those to blocks that you can mix and match. The only bad part of Global Block is that the plastic ties aren't as big/long. Global Block uses a lot less concrete, and has more insulation (R30).

I've recommended Energywise for hvac layout for 15 years. They're specialist in high performance building systems. They even do duct layout. I'm not sure if they still do it, but they used to give a guarantee of utility cost.

Do you have a website where I can get in contact? When I Google "Energywise" it just comes up with random companies called that, none of which are in northern Indiana.

Thanks!

EnergyWise Structures. Dallas