My concern for the environment led me years ago to become acutely aware of the role that energy plays in our lives. The following quote sums it up nicely:
There is no substitute for energy. The whole edifice of modern society is built upon it…. It is not “just another commodity” but the precondition of all commodities, a basic factor equal with air, water and earth. E. F. Schumacher (1973)
Energy is something that we all take for granted. In its easily obtainable (ie. fossil fuel) forms, though, it is being depleted at blinding speeds.
So when we moved into our newly purchased 1954 raised bungalow in Edmonton seven years ago, I was determined to make it an efficient home. We did major renovations to it - replacing one of the furnaces, putting in all new windows, sealing the cracks and gaps in its outer shell, and covering the outside of the house with rigid foam insulation.
Our home was given a rating of 71 by an Energuide for Homes inspector. The Natural Resources Canada web site says that a rating between 66 and 74 is appropriate for "a typical new house".
So everything should have been OK, right? End of story? Not so much. I realized that typical new houses are very poorly built, and that our upgraded home still consumes a vast amount of energy.
How much energy?
For space and water heating alone, our home consumes about 150 GJ of energy per year. That's the equivalent energy of burning 140 pine trees each and every year (for 10" diameter trees - sources here and here).
For several reasons, including the environment and energy security, I don't feel good about living in a home that constantly requires such huge inputs.
An idea is born
So, I began to realize that in order to get to my happy place we would need to build from scratch. We would need to build a home that had energy efficiency and harvesting of solar energy as its primary design driver.
In the summer of 2005, the 92-year old house two doors down from us came up for sale. We bought it, and the Mill Creek NetZero Home project was born.
(cross posted at raisingspaces.com)
exciting
i am ridiculously excited for this house.
seeing the grotesque houses that are being thrown up in the mill creek area is jsut sickening.
and i think of it.
with all the want to live in this neighborhood, there are those people, who knock down a house, build a sickly hug box home and just to sell it for a higher cost,
and as you said conrad, most of these houses are below the 70 rating.
simply weird if you ask me.they rather put the large soaker tup in the third master bedroom bathroom then putting up a solar power water heating system or simply upgrading their insulation rating
people are strange, it is just my hopes that poeple (who can afford it) become more like you.
peace man
and congratulations on helping the rest of us!
w.
Yeah, people are so oblivious to how much energy their homes use. And the decisions that you make at building time lock in energy usage patterns for the life of the home (50-100 years).
You rightly mentioned affordability, and that's something that I plan to address in a future post. We happened to have gotten lucky with real estate (we bought our tear-down house before the price surge), but we really need to be making this kind of thing available to everyone.
A bit too late for me but I would like all the info for the benefit of my children
Hi Conrad,
Love what you are doing and I would like to do the same. Is there a blue print of this home available to purchase?
Thanks.
In my dream I also want to build a home like what you are talking about here. I am wondering how much does it cost to build this kind of home. Thanks.
Thanks Lauren,
Please see the FAQ right here.
Conrad
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