When I started researching this post, the subject was going to be on the different options out there today for affordable whole-house audio. After some research and a bit of hands on testing, it became clear that there is one system that stands apart from the others in terms of features, ease of installation, ease of use and scalability. Dang, I sound like a recent marketing grad. I’ll try to do better.

Why Sonos Multi-Room Music System Stands Apart

The system I am speaking of is the SONOS Multi-Room Music System. Lets get right down to why this system is better than the rest out there and then we’ll visit the technical details of Sonos vs. more traditional whole-house audio setups. The reason Sonos is better is that it can wirelessly play music anywhere in your house (or within a few hundred feet outside) from ALL of the following sources:

• Your music collection on you computer whether it’s in your iTunes library, and MP3, WMA or any of 9 of the most popular digital files.
• Any external source such as a CD player or a friend’s iPod.
• Any internet radio station.
• Any one of the following popular music services: Last.fm, Napster, Pandora, Rhapsody or SIRIUS.

This is the key. They have pretty much left nothing out as far as available sources of audio that the kids like to listen to today. Personally, I listen to Pandora a whole bunch, my iTunes library is a close second and occasionally I’ll dust of my 5-disc CD changer and select 5-discs to put on shuffle for a few hours. My colleague, Nic, is a big fan of vinyl which I can admire and we would both enjoy a subscription to any one of the other music services listed above. Sonos has us covered on all fronts. We can even plug in our friends’ iPods when the stop over to share the latest musical sensation that is pleasing their ears or simply want to take over our party’s playlist when they’ve heard two songs in a row that they don’t like from our own playlist.

No other whole-house audio system that I have come across in my research can claim all of this. In fact, if we were to go with another whole house audio solution, I would still get the Sonos player to hook up to it in order to be able to select seamlessly from all of these different sources.

So how does Sonos work? It’s pretty simple. You can choose from one of three devices that will connect to a wireless router and stream music to up to a couple dozen other Sonos players in your house. The Sonos ZonePlayer 90 will connect to an existing stereo system as well as a router to communicate with other Sonos players in the house. The Sonos ZonePlayer 120 is the same thing, but includes a built-in amplifier to power a set of speakers in a room without a stereo or dedicated speakers. Finally there is the Sonos ZoneBridge 100 that simply connects to your router to transmit music to other players, but does not have the capability of playing music itself. These players run from $500 for the powered version to $100 for the ZoneBridge alone.

All of these players can be controlled by any one of three ways. First, Sonos will sell you a wireless controller with charging cradle for about $400. The unit is quite lovely and very easy to use. If you’re not interested in shelling out the cash for the controller, you can simply use the free desktop software provided. And last but not least, Sonos just came out with a free iPhone App. I am getting to the point where if something doesn’t have an iPhone App, I’m not interested, so this is a big plus in my mind.

How do other whole-house audio options compare?

There are basically two types of whole-house audio systems out there today. Ones that are primarily wireless like the Sonos system and ones that are fully wired. The other wireless options are very similar to Sonos but do not stack up in my book because of the lack of options on the audio source end.

The wired options are very nice, but as you could guess, much more costly and labor intensive to install. They will hook up to a central amplifier and music source often and distribute music signals via CAT-5 cable to various controllers throughout the house that will adjust the music and volume being played to speakers hardwired in that room. Again, the limitation is with available sources of music. With a fully wired system, I would still prefer to have one Sonos player hooked up to the main amplifier in order to select from my desired music source.

Will Sonos work for the 100K House?

The bottom line is that I’m not sure. Adding even the $500 - $1,000 it would take to setup the Sonos system would not make sense on our budget most likely. The great thing is that it could be a very easy upgrade option to offer those interested. We could supply a ZoneBridge for only $100 that could communicate to any number of ZonePlayers that the homeowner desired to install themselves.

I would argue that we could take this to the next level and bridge the gap between the wired and wireless systems for a nominal upfront cost. How would we do this? Simple. Speaker wire is cheap and easy to install. For about $100 in in material cost and one hour of our electrician’s time, we could have the entire house wired for speakers. Make a nice diagram of where all of these wires are being terminated and leave a spool a couple feet long wrapped at each termination. That’s it. Cover it all up with drywall and make sure to pass the diagram off to the homeowner.

Should the homeowner decide to upgrade the whole-house audio system on their own, the hard part is done for them. Simply drill holes in the ceiling wherever you want to install integrated speakers as shown on the diagram. Hook the other end of the speaker wire either to your own amplifier that is hooked to a Sonos player or to a powered Sonos player. This gives the homeowner the choice of what level and cost of speakers they want to install and how many Sonos players they would like to use. They could spend as little as $500 or as much as a few grand depending on how important this is to them. The beauty is that is costs us almost nothing up front to give them quite a bit of flexibility in setting their own system up in the future.

Sonos saw me tweet about their system a few weeks ago and has offered us a free trial system for a few weeks. I think we will take them up on this and I’ll keep you guys in the loop as far as our plans with the audio system for the houses are concerned.

Switching to the Delta Arzo should save us about $500 overall and also allow all of the bath fixtures, including the accessories (towel & TP holders) to match. This savings may also free us up to use the full Kohler Stillness line in the 120K House depending on how the budget shakes out. We are trying to leave upgrade options as open as possible right now for the 120K House to be determined at a later date…

Images can be seen below of the complete Delta Arzo line and if you want to see better than list pricing, Faucet-Warehouse is a pretty good place to check pricing.

Click on the image below to view the full slideshow

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Much like the way in which the gas shortage of the seventies and the recent high prices we have seen at the pump have begun to change our view on energy consumption, the hops shortage made brewers take a closer look at their supply chains. This has led to a movement toward localization for many craft breweries, including partnerships with local farmers to grow hops and grain in close proximity to their operations. This adjustment lowers the effect of price fluctuations, reduces the impact of transportation and allows breweries to have better quality control regardless of their relative size. It turns out there are great hop growing climates throughout the country that have gone unused as the model shifted toward large multinational producers. Now, with prices on the rise and scarcity threatening the brewing of great beers, the local grower is starting to look better and better.

The same thing seems to be happening, in a small way, to our food industry. As the cost of transportation rises, both monetarily and environmentally, we are seeing increased interest in local production. This has resulted in a growth in urban farming experiments (like Greensgrow in Philly) and local food sales. There is a balance, I think, between locally grown food and the global market, a balance that we swung dramatically past in our pursuit of centralized mega-farms and cheap, outsourced food production. What we are beginning to see might be described as a correction, a move toward regional sufficiency. And, while it may not be rational, or even sane, to expect a complete reversion to early agrarian practices, one can imagine a scenario where the local countryside once again provides a significant amount of food for the populated urban centers.

Unfortunately, the suburban boom has damaged the feasibility of such a shift. We have carved a good portion of the arable land around our cities into small, unproductive fiefdoms, over-shadowed by staggeringly out-sized, if moat-less, castles. The demand for land on which to erect McMansions and their ilk (McFortresses? McCitadels?), made farming in the areas outside the major cities economically untenable. Rather than grow wheat, beans, vegetables, cattle or, dare I say, hops, we have grown pavement, cul-de-sacs, manicured lawns and massive homes. In the process we have isolated ourselves from our food sources and stranded large portions of our population miles from the places they work, shop and learn. We have, it seems, managed our land resources badly.

With this in mind, I wonder if a real return to local food production is even possible. Can we make it economically feasible for farmers to operate on lands that are “local” to our cities even though that land is also in demand among those looking for the best in suburban living? If so, how much of a role does the current market play in that possibility? What might the government have to do to move us in this direction?

Or, am I way off base? Is this move toward localization a myth or even a mistake? And, what, incidentally, does this actually have to do with beer? Or, a better question . . . when can I have one?

What do you have to say? The best comment gets a pint on me next time our paths cross.

Tomorrow the Nic and I will be headed to this year’s Greenbuild conference and expo. This is the only must attend green building event on our calender that we told ourselves we would go to no matter how poor we were. To cut costs we will be taking the Bolt Bus ($110 round trip total for both of us!), staying with Nic’s extended family and only paying for tickets to the expo portion of the show ($150 ea vs. $700). For $100, we can get a CD recapping all of the conference presentations that we can view from the comfort of our office. This is how we bootstrap…

We are looking forward to finding new products and meeting new partners for future projects. We have a couple of meetings setup, but if you will be attending and want to meet, you can reach us by any of the methods below. We especially like meetings over good food and beer which Boston has an abundance of. We’ll also be posting regular Twitter updates of our best finds throughout the show. Give us a shout.

chad [at] postgreen.com
nic [at] postgreen.com
100K House on Twitter
Chad on Twitter
Nic on Twitter

Nothing props up tradition like prosperity. When things are going well there is little reason to change, little cause to adjust. Even if there are better methodologies, more effective processes or more progressive ideas, people will generally cling to what they know. Significant change usually has its impetus in some sort of crisis or, in the case of our current socio-political situation, many crises. Change (as overused as the term might be right now) is a reaction, of sorts, to a problem big enough to jolt us out of our rut.

Now, if I might be allowed to hit you over the head with a metaphor: “Stuck in a rut” is a term that comes originally from old wagons or carriages. The wagons, passing down the same path over and over on thin hard wheels, would dig deep ruts until, at some point, they were committed to their path nearly as completely as trains to their tracks. It took a large jolt or a concerted effort to remove the wagons from their determined course. Even when there was plenty of cause to change course it could be difficult.

Ruts are formed by repetition. This repetition occurs because the repeated action “works”. The path those embedded wagons took was a successful one, a good way from Point A to Point B. Sure, a better way might exist, but why take the risks involved in finding it if your ends can be accomplished via the proven route? The building industry is “stuck in a rut” for this same reason. Builders have developed techniques, sourced materials and used plans that “work”. They generally take on projects in the path of their rut and avoid those outside of it because they are averse to the risk involved. Can you blame them?

Our project, for many reasons, is definitely not a path many builders take with any sort of regularity. We are a rut free zone in many ways. The margins are small. The materials are strange, and the techniques are virtually untried (in their opinion). In a boom time, when business is up, they would not even glance casually at the plans for a project like ours before telling us to roll those plans up and insert them in an uncomfortable anatomical location. Even Brian, our current builder, who is now as on board as they come, admitted that he would have passed had our project arrived a year earlier when the living was easy.

We have been helped by this economic downturn that many are lamenting. Sure, it has made other things more difficult. The banks are in full on turtle mode, terrified of sticking their necks out for anything. Home buyers, even those that know this is a good time to buy, are having trouble getting mortgages, but the economic dip (or whatever you want to call it) has brought willing participants to the project. They have had to lift their wagons out of some deep ruts, but our framers are learning to put SIPs together, our HVAC guys are figuring out solar thermal and our builder is following (and growing to appreciate) an involved LEED certification process. Would any of that have happened last year? And, if so, would it have happened within the tight budget constraints we set for ourselves?

We are in the midst of change because we are in the midst of crises. The economy is hurting, our reliance of fossil fuels is politically problematic and environmentally irresponsible and war has its dangerous, unpredictable grip on our country. While these are certainly unfortunate events and issues, they are the types of problems from which change arises. I have given you my individual, selfish reason for appreciating (in a way) this climate of crisis, but what could your reason(s) be? What kind of change can we expect in the coming years? How will these and other crises open up new directions and possibilities for you, for our country and for the world?

Let’s talk crisis driven change in the comments.

One thing that would’ve been helpful was to get more detailed instructions from the manufacturer and even a short video. Seeing simple tips on the connection details and important steps that differ from traditional framing would have been invaluable. As I was thinking about this last night, I realized that we overlooked one of the most valuable learning resources of our time. YouTube. There are not a lot of videos on SIPs construction methods and most that exist are just as much sales videos as they are instructional. Below are two of the better ones I found. If you are considering SIPs for a future project, I would encourage you to watch them both.

Good overview and instructional construction video from Premier SIPs

R-Control Structurally Insulated Panel Instructional

Lessons we have learned about SIPs construction so far

• Taking extra care to make sure your foundation is square, level and built to the correct dimensions is invaluable. We had a number of minor errors in the foundation dimensions and plans that have caused a few hours of modifying panels by hand in the field
• Err on the side of too much construction adhesive to create a tight house. Sealing all joints during SIPs construction is critical. This is something that is not needed in typical stick framing. Next time we will have a dedicated worker to applying construction adhesive all day to ensure no unions are missed.
• If you have to make up extra space on a wall, never do it in a corner. Our foundation was a bit long and required us to lengthen some walls. The corner is the worst place to make up the extra space as you lose the most heat out of corners as it is and a big benefit to SIPs is improving the insulation value and tightness in each corner. Always make up extra space on a straight section of wall where you can take care to insulate properly and reduce thermal bridging.
• Have the majority of panels made to 4′ widths. The 8′ wide panels are easier for the manufacturer to make, but a lot heavier and more difficult to handle and install. Four foot panels would be significantly easier. An alternative is to get creative by attaching custom handles to the SIPs or hoisting with a forklift from above while two people guide into place. Trying to slide an 8′ x 10′ SIP into place with two or three people is not easy or fun…
• Have an instructional meeting with the entire crew on the important connection details of SIPs prior to starting construction.
• Ensure that everyone understands both the panel layout and construction plans in regards to all panel placement prior to starting construction

We are learning these lessons the hard way. You don’t have to. Watch these videos and heed our lessons learned.

Additional SIPs Resources:

• SIPs.org - Best site on SIPs around complete with facts and connection details.
• Foard Panel’s Guide to Enclosing Your Timber Frame House (pdf)- While this talks a lot about timber frames, it is a great resource on SIP construction from some of the most knowledgeable guys in the field.
• Builder’s Guide to Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) - How did I not buy this book already? Dang it!

The project is called “Fishtown Houses” and will be going up at 1702-22 Tuplip St, Philadelphia, PA 19125. If you live in the area please come out to the Fishtown Rec Center at 7:30 PM to listen to the presentation and vote on the project. The official zoning announcement can also be viewed here. If you love modern architecture, it’s important that you make it out and vote because the neighborhood doesn’t always see the vision if it’s not covered in builder grade brick and vinyl windows… Be there Fishtowners!