Beechwood Deep Energy Retrofit
Flexible House Design
A well constructed home will stand long enough to see many families come and go in its lifetime, and they won’t all have the same needs. When drawing floor plans, flexible design can make future
changes easier.
By Emmanuel Cosgrove
How to install cladding so your walls can dry
The walls of your home are an environmental separator. Their job is to keep the inside in and the outside out. Exterior cladding is your first line of defense against weather elements, and its job is to allow the control layers – like your vapour barrier, air barriers and insulation to do their jobs without being assaulted by wind, precipitation and UV rays.
By Mike Reynolds
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Farnham Avenue House
Old ideas and new technologies merge in eco-friendly Toronto infill
Farnham Avenue House is a single-family detached residential infill project. Some of the eco-friendly design aspects are time honoured such as, vertical ventilation and natural daylight shafts, dynamic cross ventilation, passive solar shading, and super insulation. Other features have been around for a long time, but are not that common on a confined city lot, such as geothermal heating and cooling. There are major elements that are reclaimed such as the exterior brick and structural timbers. Numerous locally sourced materials are incorporated. And some components are cutting edge technology, such as the bifacial solar panels tied into the Ontario government’s FIT [Feed-in Tariff] program. This house is a merging of old and new eco friendly architectural technologies.
By Kyle England
The Elliott Residence
Reno and addition make farmhouse a local destination
The Elliott Residence is a retrofit / addition to a 1930 farmhouse near Ottawa. Designed for durability, energy independence and carbon neutrality, it meets R-2000, ENERGY STAR and GreenHouse, is participating in the 1000 Home Challenge and is Certified LEED Gold. Situated on five acres, the flex design stresses home-based income and food security, accessibility, community and rural aging-in-place. The house is designed to be divided so half may serve as a caregiver suite, a rental unit, or a home-based business.
BY ROSS ELLIOTT
Global Solutions House
Simple design a model for Aging-in-Place affordability
Designed and built as an Aging-in-Place affordable housing model with the possibility for a secondary suite, the Passive E House will serve in part as a demonstration home by having its energy performance monitored over the coming years.
BY CODY SMITH
The Ecohome Demo House
Stage One: Slab-on-grade construction
The Ecohome Demonstration House is well underway, the following page chronicles the first stage of constuction, building the slab-on-grade. The house is oriented facing south to maximize passive solar heat gain in winter, but will be shaded in the summer by deciduous trees, wall mounted sun shades and a large overhang to prevent overheating.
By Mike Reynolds
Choosing the right windows for your house
A brief guide
Windows are essential to our houses. They give us natural light, a way to ventilate the home without depending on mechanical systems, a means of emergency exit, and offer an alternative way to heat the house free of charge through passive heating.
By Denis Boyer
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Heat pumps
What they are, how they work
When it comes to residential heating and cooling systems, few types of systems are as energy efficient as heat pumps. But what exactly are they and how do they work? In short, a heat pump is simply an electrical device that is capable of transferring heat from one place to another. Though it may seem counterintuitive at first, heat can actually be extracted from cold air and added to warmer air.
By Jason Ng Cheng Hin
Maurer House and Studio
Case Study inachieving Net Zero energy
Built in 2003, the 1,850 sq. ft. Maurer House overlooks Lake Okanagan in BC on a sloping site with bedrock outcrops that we built around by dividing the house into three pieces around a central garden and mature trees: a studio/garage on the east, the master bedroom pavilion on the south, and the main living pavilion on the west.
By Florian Maurer