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Mill Creek NetZero Home, December 15, 2009, 14:00.
As we approach the winter solstice and the three-month anniversary of our moving in, we continue to learn about our new house. These observations are mostly qualitative, because we don’t have the rest of our solar modules up, and we haven’t set up monitoring equipment yet. We are tentatively planning to remove the door of our wood stove on July 1st, 2010 and then monitor the house’s energy use for a year. Read the rest of this entry »
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Straw Bale Home Building Primer
December 10th, 2009 by greenspree in Blogs - Shire Strawbale Home, Green Building + Design, Green Building Blogs, Green Homes, Straw Bale
So you want to build your own straw bale home. You’ve seen them in green home building books and on TV shows, you saw green home builders wax poetic about their homes low impact on the environment and connection to the local ecology. You’ve researched all the possible alternative home building techniques and the thought of conventional framing makes you shudder. You are going to build a straw bale home no matter what obstacles the MAN and doubters have to say! Well far be it for me to try and dissuade you!
There are some things you should know and experience first though. This, in all likely-hood, is going to be one of the most challenging things you will ever take on. Read the rest of this entry »
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Concrete Floor Finish
November 17th, 2009 by Conrad in Blogs - Mill Creek Net Zero Home, Energy, Green Building Blogs, Green Homes, Solar
The best way that I can think of to add a large amount (20+ tonnes) of thermal mass to a solar home is by adding concrete floors. By doing this, one can get two uses, thermal storage and a finished floor, out of the same investment. Furthermore, since the mass of a concrete floor is so spread out around the home, thereby giving it a large surface area with which to absorb and release heat, it really is the ideal thermal storage medium for a house with large solar gains. Read the rest of this entry »
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The last few months on the house!
October 22nd, 2009 by greenspree in Blogs - Shire Strawbale Home, Green Building + Design, Green Building Blogs, Green Homes, Straw BaleFinally I have gotten round to getting some photos uploaded! We are officially moved in, the mortgage has been completed, and we are “done”, although I don’t think the work will ever stop! There’s some niggly trim work to complete, a few touch-ups, there will be on-going stucco maintenance and inspections, fire wood to cut and split, a wood shed to build, the storage/garden shed to finish and organize, an addition in the next couple of years probably, landscaping, a garden or two, walkways, decks, etc… But for the next little while we are going to take it easy and enjoy a little break!
Enjoy the photos!
Forms for the concrete countertops. Keith wanted to try his hand at concrete countertops and we volunteered as the test case! Read the rest of this entry »
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Back to School
October 17th, 2009 by greenspree in Blogs - Shire Strawbale Home, Green Building + Design, Green Building Blogs, Green HomesTomorrow I will be applying to go back to school, enrolling in the BSc physics program with a parallel diploma in engineering. I will be attending part time, doing two courses per semester hopefully with the support of my workplace. It’s pretty exciting for me and the courses I will be taking will be both exciting and useful in my career.
I am a little worried that I will be able to handle the workload, however I think things on the house and at home should be calming down somewhat soon. We have moved into our house, are finished of three outside walls and 99.5% of the interior. Two weeks of rain have given us a good test for the wall system and it seems to be performing admirably.
*SIGH*
Relief.
I will hopefully be putting up some new photos of the house moved in and dressed up, as well as some photos of the completed outside walls. I wish Aliant would hurry up with the high speed expansion so we could get internet at home, but alas it is not available yet to us.
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MCNZ - Progress (part 7)
October 12th, 2009 by Conrad in Blogs - Mill Creek Net Zero Home, Green Building + Design, Green Building Blogs, Green Homes, Products + Materials, Reclaimed + Recycled Materials, Renewable Energy, Solar
The Mill Creek NetZero Home is substantially completed.
The stucco is finished on the outside. We went with a cement-based stucco because of its looks and durability.
Peter Amerongen built a brick wall behind the wood burner. We used the bricks from the foundation of the house that used to be standing on the property. This wall adds more thermal mass (to capture both solar and wood heat) to the house, as well as a bit of history. Read the rest of this entry »
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Eco Sense Summer update - on the verge of something
October 2nd, 2009 by ecosense in Blogs - Ann + Gord Eco-Sense, Community, Green Building + Design, Green Building Blogs, Green Homes, Water, Yard + Garden, compostingWe continue to be inspired and disturbed, optimistic and pessimistic, excited and depressed. Seems that we are also not alone in these oscillating waves of emotion. But what is clear is that it’s emotion in the form of love, passion, and fulfillment that is driving us towards a sustainable future and giving meaning to our lives. We feel driven to do what it is we do. Check out the end of this post to see our latest ideas…
So here’s a quick snapshot for the goings on here at Eco-Sense.
A busy summer building the cob bathroom (with composting toilet) at the local lake. So far we have about 150 hours of volunteer time invested.
Donations are being accepted to the “Highland Park and Recreation Association”. Tax receipts issued for amounts over $50.
There has been a great deal of publicity on this project (and composting toilets) including the Goldstream Gazette, CBC radio, Monday Magazine, and Chek TV. It’s been busy around here! Read the rest of this entry »
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Airtight
September 22nd, 2009 by Conrad in Air Quality, Blogs - Mill Creek Net Zero Home, Energy, Energy Conservation, Green Building + Design, Green Building Blogs, Green Homes, Insulation
The importance of air tightness in building construction cannot be overstated. Very few factors affect energy performance in a cold climate more than air moving in and out of a building.
The Mill Creek Net Zero Home (MCNZ) has achieved an air tightness test result of 0.36 air changes per hour (ACH) at a pressure of 50 Pascal. In other words, when it’s really cold out, which creates a big pressure difference between the inside and the outside of a house, the 0.36 of the air in the MCNZH would leak out and be replaced with cold air over the course of an hour. It has the equivalent of a 13.8 square inch hole in it leaking air all of the time. Read the rest of this entry »
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Healthy Home
August 28th, 2009 by Conrad in Blogs - Mill Creek Net Zero Home, Green Building Blogs, Green Homes, Products + Materials, Toxicity
You can’t put a price on your family’s health. When we set out to build the Mill Creek NetZero Home, we were determined to make it a healthy living environment for us, our children and those who visits us.
The factors that are most responsible for making a home’s air toxic are paint, formaldehyde and carpet. Read the rest of this entry »
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Eco Reno Inspiration - Part 1
July 29th, 2009 by Deborah in Energy, Energy Conservation, Green Building + Design, Green Homes, Insulation, Renewable Energyby Deborah Merriam. Deborah Merriam is an eco-consultant, interior decorator, allergy mom, and indie crafter living in Edmonton, Alberta. Her decor & consulting business can be found at www.ecoDomestica.com.
Reams have been written about green building from scratch, and renovations that are essentially from scratch (like gut-jobs and pop-tops). Checklists and wish-lists of eco-friendly building features and renovation practices abound, including the USGBC’s ReGreen guidelines and my own Sustainable Staging article, but what does a sustainable renovation actually look like?
This isn’t a trivial question. Reimagining existing suburban neighborhoods (as in the current ReBurbia contest from Dwell and Inhabitat, deadline for entry is Friday July 31st) is a crucial step toward building more sustainable cities. Furthermore, decreasing the environmental footprint of our existing housing stock is critical if we’re going to tackle the anthropogenic climate change crisis. (Our buildings are currently estimated to be responsible for 35% of North American greenhouse gas emissions, with about 20% of emissions coming from home energy use.) Read the rest of this entry »
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