Going green … stylishly
Retrofit makes home one of Canada’s most-energy efficient, but resourceful owner confesses to an ‘eco-sin’ in kitchen
Bill Eggertson has sinned. Head of the Canadian Association for Renewable Energies, Eggertson has scored a jaw-dropping 90 on the EnerGuide Rating System, the federal government’s yardstick for measuring energy efficiency, by retrofitting his handsome quarter-centuryold house in the countryside, just south of Ottawa, that he and his wife bought in 2006.
That score trounces the 80 mandated for new homes under Ontario’s building code. It outstrips the 86 for an R-2000 home, which outperforms the building code. And it makes it one of the 39 most-energy efficient retrofits officially recorded in the country.
Eggertson’s home is sealed tighter than Superman’s pants thanks to krypton-filled, triple-pane windows and extra insulation. It boasts ultralow-flow toilets, a geothermal heating and cooling system that Eggertson designed to replace a propane furnace and other energy and resource misers.
Better yet, its roof sprouts 50-odd solar panels, generating electricity for the grid under Ontario’s microFIT program. It’s got a small wind turbine with more coming in the spring and extra solar panels for backyard water fountains.
But — and here’s where Eggertson’s skating on thin eco-ice — his kitchen sports gorgeous granite countertops. So what, you ask? Well, the granite is Brazilian, requiring fossil fuels to get it here.
“It’s our eco-sin,” says the gregarious Eggertson, with a slightly selfconscious laugh.
“I should probably be rapped over the knuckles for it.” But, he adds quickly, it’s the “highest density granite” and will last for years.
Says his wife, Marian Johns, who insisted on the granite: “We all live with our inconsistencies.”
We also like to live in attractive, comfortable surroundings. And that green granite, which echoes the colour of the weedy Jock River tributary flowing past the couple’s home, is one of many elements that make this house, not just an energy skinflint, but esthetically appealing — one of Eggertson’s goals in upgrading.
Basically well-built by the carpenter who previously owned it, the house still needed work when Eggertson and his wife, seeking the peace and quiet of the countryside, moved there from bustling Westboro.
They shifted the kitchen from a gloomy north-facing location to the east so morning sun could spill into the room, which is done in gleaming white cabinetry.
Rich teak flooring replaced carpeting everywhere but the sprawling television/fitness room. The wood is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as having been sustainably produced; Eggertson, never one to turn down a bargain, found it priced right at Home Depot.
Interior walls were opened for better air flow and more light and glazing was increased.
“When you live in the country, you want to look outside,” says Eggertson. A glance outside shows dozens of fruit, evergreen and other trees planted by Johns and, pecking around the bird feeders, plump chickadees and blue jays.
The house faces directly south so that the living room, with its large, deep-set windows, is awash in sunlight. “It’s lined up so perfectly it’s like a sundial,” says Eggertson, referring to a shadow cast on the floor by a window divider.
“I’d say right now it’s, mmm, 10:30. It’s 10:45. Not bad,” he says.
Thanks to those high-efficiency windows, there’s little solar gain on sunny summer days. Although that means not much gain in the winter when you’d welcome it, there’s also little heat loss at night.
The home is loaded with other pleasing touches, some original, some added. The foyer features a cathedral ceiling, the powder room a new glass sink and countertop. Upstairs, increased glazing in the television/fitness room gives a great view of the Jock River.
Clearly, energy efficiency and pleasing design needn’t be at odds.
It’s the efficiency, however, that turns Eggertson’s crank.
His retrofits took the home from an EnerGuide rating of 71 in 2007 to its current 90 at a cost of about $125,000 (about $75,000 of that was for the solar system, which isn’t needed to reduce energy consumption). The beautification ran another $50,000 or so.
At 3,500 square feet, it’s a big house. “It’s larger than we need, no argument,” he says, “but hey, we like it and we’ve tried to make it better with energy efficiency.”
He calculates that retrofitting has reduced the home’s total energy consumption (space heating, lighting and so on) to 4.8 kWh per square foot per year. That’s 75 per cent less than the average Ontario home.
Building a new home to such standards is easy, he says; retrofitting a home is another kettle of fish.
Eager not to sound like a proselytizer, Eggertson says it’s time to stop just blaming large industrial emitters for greenhouse gases and to take individual action.
And while he’s realistic about how far the average homeowner might be willing to go — “It’s personal choice; you do whatever you can” — he also notes that “there’s no time for baby steps. We’re crapping out the planet. It’s important that people understand it can be done.” And done with style. For more information on Eggertson’s home, visit my-greenhome.