True, there is a whole lot of moisture in that concrete sandwich with no where for it to go.

Nearly all of my concrete was cured and dry at about 90 days. At 6 months, it was really dry and by nine months, bone dry. And that was in Washington in a wet year. The OP said they were about 8 months out. If you are getting moisture problems that far afterwards, it's not coming from the original pour. It's something else.

If you don't control temperature/humidity inside an ICF house, it can appear to be leaking/weeping walls

Planning, planning.... Modeling and proper Hvac is important. Just because you have the equipment or all of the prescription times, does not mean it is designed to work together or installed correctly. Most Hvac trades like to do only to the heating and cooling. Indoor humidity can be more then exterior a lot of time. We prefer Panasonic automated exhaust fans to start with. Blower doors can not be mentioned enough. You should always do testing multiple times on a home. We do it after the shell is able to hold air (ICF, exterior doors, windows and spray foam). Then again before move in. Get your base line. If it's too leaky find the leaks. If it's good continue. Newer homes have cut up ceilings. How do you fix any of the incorrectly applied spray foam if you don't test it? Foam guys hate us because we test (blower door) and use a thermal camera after foamed. You would be amazed and what you think is sealed and it is not.....

I have a 250.00 recommendation that will definitively show you where you are consuming electricity. Install a TED5000 on your electrical panel. http://www.theenergydetective.com/ Once this is installed, you can connect the TED to bidgely.com. Bidgely provides (absolutely free) electrical consumption "disaggregation" which is a big word for saying, break down. It will take about 2 week for the genius program at Bidgely to analyze the electrical patterns used in your home and then, magically, you will see where you are using elecricity in detail. TED Forum page: http://www.theenergydetectiveforums.com/index.php The TED can be installed by a tech/electrical savy homeowner or it will take 1 hour of labor by an electrician and then someone to connect it to your LAN. I'll attach a screen shot. The screen shot is for a 24 hour period on our 3600 sq foot, 2 story icf cottage style home. The a/c system was designed by Richard Rue of http://www.energywisestructures.com/case-studies/. Richard and his team are the guru's of a/c design imho. Screen shot limit is 100k, try this dropbox link. I can also email the screenshot, it is a 117k pdf. https://www.dropbox.com/s/07nnwqlculltngb/Dashboard___Bidgely.pdf?dl=0 If you have any questions, post them here and I'll respond. Dan

I would concur about the windows. Windows, doors, bathroom vents, etc etc. Windows are a terrible R value and a can produce a greenhouse effect depending on the glazing etc etc. In the old days of self breathing homes windows were used for solar gain (heat) hence the whole "point them toward the sun plan". In an efficient house they should be thought of as a burden that is a trade off of great natural light (which people need). I built an icf house and tried to keep exterior doors minimal, and windows installs down. I live in northern MN and went to great lengths and an extra expensive process to get them glazed (cant recall the wording) to actually bounce sun rays away, added two foot overhang and trees in the south (so in summer leaves help with light shading). The house is a 60x60 two level footprint more or less and is very efficient now. (I could've used about two more windows for more natural lighting but I really do like having wall space so I'm ok with it :). Good luck

I live in northern MN and went to great lengths and an extra expensive process to get them glazed (cant recall the wording) to actually bounce sun rays away, added two foot overhang and trees in the south (so in summer leaves help with light shading)

In Northern MN, you would want to collect as much insolation as possible through the apertures you do have, but design them such that Winter sun was preferentially admitted.
That would mean having glass with a high transmittance, but also having larger overhangs to block Summer sun and permit low Winter sun. If you've done the planning right, I wouldn't add trees.

Yes, if you are trying to maximize the energy efficiency of a building, you should aggressively minimize or eliminate the number of doors and windows that don’t provide a net Winter heat gain. You should only have the minimum number of solar heat windows to accomplish the building design objective (passive solar heating, highlight a great view, etc). There should be properly designed overhangs to shade the solar heat windows to minimize undesirable Summer heat gain. The best window is an order of magnitude worse with regard to R-value than the worst ceiling or wall. More building energy efficiency can be easily achieved by understanding and accepting this simple reality than by any other design/build strategy.

I continue to be surprised that windows with insulating shutters aren't more practical. Ie, light when you want it, little heat gain/loss when you don't.

People buying or building homes with massive glazing facing east, west and south with no overhangs and then they have $600 a month A/C bills during the summer and wonder why.

It's because that is the direction of the "the views". I know everyone guessed this, but I just thought I'd say it again because I am so sick of hearing it said myself.

I continue to be surprised that windows with insulating shutters aren't more practical.

Do you mean like motorized or otherwise driven mechanical systems?

Posted By ICFHybrid on 19 Sep 2014 01:56 PM

I continue to be surprised that windows with insulating shutters aren't more practical.

Do you mean like motorized or otherwise driven mechanical systems?

Hinges would work.

Motorized/automatic would be nice, especially if the shutters are on the outside. There are lots of systems out there, but none seem very popular.

I suspect the reason shutters are not practical and are not commonly used to prevent solar heat gain is because they would not work very well at preventing solar heat gain…

If a shutter is exposed to irradiance, it will heat up in temp. Once the shutter reaches a temp higher than the inside room temp, it will begin to radiate heat through the glass and into the room nearly as effectively as if the glass was not even there. The higher the shutter temp, the greater will be the radiation heat gain into the room. You would likely need to have highly insulated shutters to avoid this from happening...hence not very practical and not commonly used...

The reason passive solar roof overhangs are very effective at preventing solar heat gain is because they are located relatively far away from the glass and oriented such that there is nearly zero radiation heat gain through the glass...hence more practical and more commonly used...

Automated insulated drapes are common and work well at night for effectively increasing the R-value of the glass and reducing the associated heat loss. However, insulated drapes do not work well for preventing solar heat gain for the same reason that shutters do not work well...plus they will also generate convective heat gain since they are within the living space.

Shutters, they are used quite a bit, just in other countries. Those who have lived with them realize they actually are effective at mitigating heat gain. Depends on other conditions too, what time of day does the sun hit it and how long, et cetera. And you have to remember to really use them. Forgetting to close them on a summer afternoon makes a very big difference.

Posted By sailawayrb on 19 Sep 2014 08:26 PM
I suspect the reason shutters are not practical and are not commonly used to prevent solar heat gain is because they would not work very well at preventing solar heat gain…

If a shutter is exposed to irradiance, it will heat up in temp. Once the shutter reaches a temp higher than the inside room temp, it will begin radiate heat through the glass and into the room nearly as effectively as if the glass was not even there. The higher the shutter temp, the greater will be the radiation heat gain into the room. You would likely need to have highly insulated shutters to avoid this from happening...hence not very practical and not commonly used...

The reason passive solar roof overhangs are very effective at preventing solar heat gain is because they are located relatively far away from the glass and oriented such that there is nearly zero radiation heat gain through the glass...hence more practical and more commonly used...

Great points, I didn't think about how the metal shutters would radiate the heat back through the window when they were closed.

For windows that are lower on the wall and cannot be shaded by the roof overhang, I like these aluminum louvered shades. They might not work with all house designs but if you have a modern/contemporary design, they will fit a lot better, aesthetically speaking.

I like those shutters Lbear! We actually use metal shutters quite a bit where we build in southern OR. We don’t use them to prevent solar heat gain, because if you ever tried that and actually stood inside next to a window with a closed shutter receiving full sun you would know it doesn’t work well. We use them because of the wildfire threat. Other folks in other areas use them to minimize damage from flying debris in high wind conditions. Shutters work well for those two purposes.

Insulated interior shutters can be reflective (which is partially effective) and don't easy transfer heat (or cold) into the interior (because of the insulation). Outdoors shutters don't even heat up the glass and also don't have moisture/condensation issues (in the Winter).

Right, if radiation significantly heated glass, windows would fail the first day they saw full sun... The radiation passes through the glass and heats the living space.

The right hardware will allow you to position the shutter to stand off the window at the right time, or allow it to be completely closed or open:

Posted By sailawayrb on 20 Sep 2014 12:21 AM
I like those shutters Lbear! We actually use metal shutters quite a bit where we build in southern OR. We don’t use them to prevent solar heat gain, because if you ever tried that and actually stood inside next to a window with a closed shutter receiving full sun you would know it doesn’t work well. We use them because of the wildfire threat. Other folks in other areas use them to minimize damage from flying debris in high wind conditions. Shutters work well for those two purposes.

I will be incorporating such shutters on my design for the lower set of south elevation windows.

Another negative with rolling shutters is that when they are used in the daytime the home can become a darkened cave/tomb. When the exterior rolling shutters are used during the daytime they eliminate ambient light and the room/house starts to feel like a cave. In turn, the homeowner then has to turn on interior lights during the daytime which wastes electricity. Rolling shutters are good for the reasons you mentioned; wildfire, hurricanes, etc. but I believe they are not the best solution for preventing solar gain into the home. There are better solutions and more cost-effective solutions.

With the other louver mounted shutter design they still allow natural light into the home while still blocking direct sunlight. Human beings require light in order to function and studies show it provides a mental and physical benefit.