Skip to main content

Do you need a Passive House consultant?

A home is more than a floor plan.  Based on the Passive House Principles presented earlier, there are a lot of details to get right beyond a simple floor plan.    If you want a performance home, that has predictable energy usage, it comes at a price.  That premium is a small price to pay.  The final outcome is a predictable home.  Working with an architect and/or a passive house consultant is probably the most important part of the project.  Without their expertise, you'll still end up with a super-insulated house which will decrease your energy bill, but other details may be missed.  Will overheating be a factor?  Do you need extra overhangs to minimize solar gain during the summer?  Do your north facing windows loose more energy in the winter than the solar gains on the south face?  These questions can be answered up front, before the home gets built!  Thats the job of the Passive House consultant.

We wanted to keep our business as local as possible.  As there are no Passive House consultants in Newfoundland & Labrador, naturally we looked to Nova Scotia.  Nova Scotia has made leaps and strides in implementing Passive House.  There are already many buildings constructed and Nova Scotia government has even funded Passive House projects for multi-family housing and have provided up to $10000 incentives for homeowners wishing to build a Passive House! (https://www.efficiencyns.ca/service/new-home-construction/)  Forget about the minor insulation upgrades that we receive from the Take Charge program in NL! These guys are going all the way! And I can understand why; Nova Scotia gets most of its power from burning coal.  They have a time-of-use system for charging customers based on the time of the day.  Their energy costs vary from $.08/kWh to $0.19/kWh.  Cutting energy usage is a huge mandate on their list of "to-dos".  I doubt that we will see anything like this here anytime soon given the state of Muskrat falls.  Giving people rebates so their power bills are less just means that we'll be paying less to pay for the cost of the project.

I decided to contact Natalie Leonard, P. Eng CPHC.  Natalie has been involved in over 40 projects to date and has been very successful in the field.  One of her designers, Mike Anderson, is the lead project designer.  Both Natalie and Mike are very knowledgeable.    Mike has a degree in physics so which seems like an natural match for performance homes that involve a lot of physics!   Her company (Passive Design Solutions: http://passivedesign.ca) was an obvious choice after I had been involved in several lengthly phone conversations.  It seemed like a natural match.  Here is a link showing some completed homes based on their designs: http://passivedesign.ca/projects.html

I decided early in the game that I would have to complete the PHIUS builders course myself since there are no Passive House builders in NL.  Natalie was teaching the course at Ryerson University in Toronto in December, so I had the opportunity to complete the course and meet Natalie in person.  I can say that it was an amazing course!  Natalie did a great job teaching it and her knowledge of the content was obvious.

I am glad that we have Passive E-Design working on this project with us.  There is a contract (in writing), it's all spelled out and I know upfront about what is expected from me and what I can expect from them.  All aspects of the building will be planned; from lighting to plumbing to ventilation; all optimized to minimize energy use.  That being said, the first round of schematics, including lot placements, are completed! I'll discuss lot placement and the house schematics tomorrow!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Building the Air Tight Barrier: Door Flashing Details.

It took us a while to wrap our heads around the door details on my plans.  The main exterior wall is composed of 2x8s.  The rough stud opening was substantially larger than the door.  Because the walls are much deeper than a standard door frame for a 2x6 wall, the interior of the 2x8 opening was studded with double 2x4s.   Outside of these 2x4s, there is 1.5" of foam and another 2x4 on face which brings the door frame opening flush to the exterior 3" of EPS foam.  The brick mould of the door will sit against the exterior of the wall.  The ganged 2x4s which define the opening will allow the door to open a little further than that of a 2x8 wall.    With the door details finalized, I had to flash the opening as per the plan.  I specified the size/shape for aluminum sill pans and CBS Eavestroughing made them for me.  The sill pans have a kind of end dam to prevent water from entering under the under the stud opening should the door ever leak. (Photo 1-1).   After verifying t

Introducing: The Flatrock Passive House

So...after 8 1/2 years in our home, we have decided to move on.  Well, not right away! We have quite a bit of planning ahead of us.  With the likely onset of a 233% hike in the cost of electricity from Muskrat Falls (when compared to todays rate of $0.0972/kWh) we decided it was time to take energy consumption seriously before its too late to do anything about it.  The land has been acquired, the planning has started!  I am planning on nipping my energy bill in the bud before it becomes a major sinkhole in my pocket book. Upon investigating current building standards, I realized that the Canadian Building Code is below the standards necessary to really make a difference in energy consumption.  There are some standards like R2000 which can make a difference to total energy usage.  A R-2000 home can use up to 50% less heating energy compared to a code built home; if built properly!  A blower door test will reveal the truth about that. Now....Imagine living in a home where you have em

Choosing an HRV...My Thoughts....

So, which HRV do you want for your home?  This is a question not often asked by the homeowner.  When the house is built, somebody installed an HRV and that was it.  The home owner is rarely involved in anything other than turning a knob on the HRV wall control if they dare fool with it at all.  An HRV is probably one of the most important appliances in your house;  it expels moisture, eliminates odours, evacuates stale air from bathrooms, provides clean air to keep you healthy and it recovers a lot of heat that would have otherwise been blown out through the vent on the house.  It serves three main functions: 1.  Supplies the home with fresh dry air. 2.  Removes stale air and removes excess moisture. 3.  Recovers heat or heat/moisture For a low energy home we need an HRV that is as efficient as possible.  With the ventilation unit taking care of exchanging most of the air in the building, having an efficient one will pay for itself in the energy saved over it's lifetime.  Zeh