Green building is the future
Ottawa-area builders are taking Net Zero homes to the next level
An eight-year-old boy made a big difference to his father’s construction business even before he was born.
Casey Grey, the founder of
The Conscious Builder, has been in business for close to a dozen years. But, he says, it was when he and his wife were expecting their first child that their priorities were clarified.
“I realized I had to be an example to the little person we were bringing into the world,” he says. “I had to lead by example, because kids do what you do, not what you say.”
With this in mind, he adds, “I thought about what I believed in, and that’s when the importance of being environmentally friendly and energy efficient in building really came into focus.”
His own home was the first passive house that he built. Since then, the custom builder has underlined his commitment “to educating the world on how to build and live more consciously.” He now specializes in raising awareness of the long-term advantages of energy-efficient building and Net Zero readiness, in terms of people’s health and comfort, as well as their carbon-footprint reduction.
A passive house is one in which optimum comfort level is achieved primarily through insulation, heat recovery and such measures as the use of solar energy. Net Zero readiness refers to a building that can accommodate on-site energy — such as solar panels — by having an extra-strong roof structure or improved insulation through extra layering on the walls and tripleglazed windows. A Net Zero home returns as much energy as it uses.
“Building Net Zero is a little more expensive, but much less costly to operate,” points out Trent Doherty, the construction development manager of Oakwood. “It’s different for every home and homeowner because of differing individual requirements. We have some Oakwood benchmark specifications for Energy Star, but the goal of each modelling is to reduce the amount of energy that is being used in the home.” (Energy Star is a voluntary labelling program to identify energy-efficient products.)
As well as being up to 80 per cent more energy efficient than most homes built to code, Net Zero buildings using such renewable resources as solar panels or wind energy provide a consistent comfort level and a healthy environment.
Explaining that because Oakwood, a certified Net Zero builder, builds custom homes, Doherty notes that every situation and home is planned differently. Working with a team that includes a government certified energy adviser, Oakwood develops a custom design that includes many variables, such as the shape and orientation of the building to the sun, or the number and design of the windows.
RND Construction has taken Net Zero home building to the next level. The award-winning company’s Farmside Green project in Carlington is Ottawa’s first grouping of Net Zero homes — a stepping stone between custom-built houses and mass-produced tract homes. Each of the nine singles and semi-detached homes in Farmside Green meets the Net Zero energy-efficiency standard.
“Every one of our projects is green,” says company president and project manager Roy Nandram. “The minimum building standard right now is R2000 — which is a Canadian building standard that is 50 per cent better or more efficient than the building code — but we are trying to convince every client to upgrade to Net Zero.
“And that’s a moving target,” he adds. “As the building code increases, so does R2000.”
In general, he says, Net Zero homes are from 60 to 70 per cent more efficient than the current building code requires. Whether they draw energy from solar panels (on the roof or on a grid in the grounds, space permitting) or from some other renewable energy source, such as wind turbines, these homes feel more comfortable inside.
“Exterior walls are better insulated with an extra layer of insulation outside the frame,” he points out. “The windows are triple-glazed and tighter, so there is less leakage around the edges.”
Effective in 2030, the federal government, in association with the provinces, is putting in place building code changes that will require new homes to be Net Zero ready.
That has already been the preferred standard for RND throughout the 30-plus years the company has been in business, says Nandram. “We are one of the pioneers and still one of the leaders in green building in Ottawa.
“The key now is to design a Net Zero home that could be mass produced for the average person,” he says, referring to Farmside Green. “We are not a big builder, but this year, we built 11 Net Zero new homes.”
At this point, the federal government has a reimbursement program in place for home renovation green projects. Retrofits that make applicants’ homes more energy efficient may qualify for up to $5,000. See www.nrcan. gc.ca/energy-efficiency/ homes/canada-greener-homesgrant/23441 for more details.