Your connection to the green home improvement movement in Canada. Free Articles, Green Building Forum, Tools & Resources, News & Events, Green Building Blogs, Do it yourself projects, Definitions, and more.
The MCNZH foundation. The rectangle that’s jutting out is the cold room, located under the front steps/landing.
A frequently asked question regarding the Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH) is: “Why didn’t you use Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs) for the foundation walls?”. The short answer is: “using traditional concrete forms and innovative insulating techniques, we can achieve a much higher R-value for less money”.
ICFs are concrete forms made of styrofoam that you set up, pour concrete into, and leave in place to act as insulation. Here’s a picture of someone setting them up:
The advantages of ICFs include decent insulation value, ease of learning for the do-it-yourselfer, and ease of setup (foam is a lot lighter than plywood).
There is a myth that ICFs provide walls with an “equivalent energy loss performance” to an R 50 wall. The argument goes that the mass inside of the concrete walls acts as heat storage, thereby buffering heat as it goes in and out of the building. The counter-argument is quite complex, but suffice to say that I’ve heard very knowledgeable people say that ICFs performing like an R 50 wall is complete bunk. The argument makes sense, too. When it’s minus 20 outside, the relatively small amount of thermal energy stored in a concrete wall will have little effect. R value is R value. ICFs provide about an R 22 wall, with no thermal bridging. That’s pretty decent, but it’s not R50.
The foundation walls for the MCNZH will be insulated to about R 49 - actually R 49, no caveats or stars beside that term. We had the walls poured conventionally - with plywood forms - in August (see picture at the top), and before we poured the basement slab Peter Amerongen’s crew glued 5 inches of ozone-friendly foam against the inside of the foundation walls. That will provide R 22. Then, we had interior walls (called frost walls) framed along the foundation walls, 7 inches away from the foam. When the cavity between the foam and the frost wall is filled with cellulose fiber insulation, at R 3.74 per inch, it will add 26.88, for a total R value of 48.88 for the foundation walls, with no thermal bridging. Not too shabby, considering that conventional builders will insulate to R 12, with a full thermal break at each stud. Here are some pictures:
The door opening in the MCNZH’s basement. The foam is glued directly to the concrete (only 2.5 inches here, we ran out of foam, but we’ll add more later), and the frost wall is framed out 7 inches away from the foam.
The window opening in the MCNZH’s basement bedroom (opening still filled with plywood). Here you can see the full 5 inches of foam, with the frost wall framed 7 inches away.
Another view of the frost wall.
This foundation will provide very high energy-saving performance, and it was fairly economical. It should be a very comfortable place for someone to live.
This is the current color scheme/look of the Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH). The supports for the porch roof will be made of recycled gluelam beams. And of course, we’ll have bicycle parking out front. Eco-travellers are welcome here. Read the rest of this entry »
So what happened? Where have we been? Having a baby and working on finishing our house! on August 28th, 2008, 8:35am, Isobel Rayne Collier was born weighing 6lb14oz and was 21″ long. The birth took over 30 hours and I have never been more impressed with my wife’s strength and courage.
Izzy has been home with us now for a month and her and mom are doing very well, she is gaining weight and getting stronger everyday, I don’t doubt she’ll be walking soon! For those who know us and are looking for photos, go see Laine’s facebook page, she does a photo of the day, usually involving Izzy in some way.
On the house front, yesterday I finished the window trims on the outside of the house and the last bit of stucco touch-ups. We decided to go with lime/sand stucco for a finish coat after the clay stucco finish coat failed twice in rainstorms in August. Live and learn I guess. It is a lot more durable but a lot more hazardous as Laine’s mom found out when she got some in her eye and burned her cornea. She recovered with no apparent lasting damage thankfully, but we now treat it with a lot more respect and caution. Read the rest of this entry »
We have trusses, and we’ll have a roof by tomorrow. Nick and Adam of Green Door Builders are doing a great job of framing the house. Peter is always amazed at how little waste they create. They’re only throwing out little toothpicks of plywood. On top of that they are dipping into a pile of reusable lumber that I set aside for them:
A 2×6 left behind by the cribbing crew (up top, covered with a light coating of concrete) was conscientiously reused during framing
The site that we’ve chosen for this house is a beauty for solar:
The sun bathes the window frames and solar module locations
And let me tell you, we’ll have the windows to collect the sunshine. Here is the view from the future kitchen.
Windows. Big ass windows.
We’re managing what little waste there has been so far by sorting it into piles of scrap metal, burnable wood, reusable wood, and waste wood (pressure-treated and formaldehyde-laced). Next up: the windows and the plumbing.
I remember viewing a home on the ecosolar home tour a few years back that had just been expanded to 3000 ft.² plus a full basement. I walked away from that home shaking my head - can we really call 1000 ft.² of living space per person green?
The Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH) is now fully framed, and it’s looking pretty big on the streetscape. We built a pretty big house, and I wanted to document some of the considerations that went into the decisions we made.
The official square footage of the MCNZH is 2280 ft.² With a full basement, that’s 3267 ft.² of living space. For four people, that’s definitely more space than we need. I am not a believer in the “techno-fix”. Technology will not save us from having to make changes to our lifestyle. We will have to considerably scale it down to start fixing the problems that we’ve caused.
So, while I acknowledge that our new home will be luxurious by world standards, here are some of the mitigating factors for its size:
It’s actually only 2064 ft.² of living space by conventional measurements. Because the walls are 16″ thick, we lose 10″ of space per wall versus a regular 2×6 wall.
Once it becomes legal to have suites in our neighbourhood, which should be in December 2008, two thirds of our basement will become a suite. This will increase the population density of the house by effectively making it two houses in one.
The home is being built to “flex” to our needs. Once the children leave, we will be able to quite easily turn the upstairs into a separate suite. This way, there will always be four or more people living on the main and second floors.
This house is a hedge against future uncertainty. I believe that we are going to have to move back to the multi-generational household at some point. Having more room will be better when the tough times hit.
After much deliberation, we decided to add a loft - essentially a half-story - to the home. What put me over the edge in favour of the space was the heat-loss computer modelling that I did. It showed that the extra 306 ft.² from the loft would only cost us 400 kWh per year in heating energy. The flexibility that the extra space gives us was worth it.
I’m sure that we could have cut back on more space somewhere, but when you’re spending your life savings on something it’s tough. The incremental cost to add more square feet is so low once you’re building already…I guess that’s how everyone thinks, and that’s how our houses got so big.
We are very excited to move into the MCNZH. It’s going to be more space than we need, but we’ll try to use it fully and wisely.
We’ve cheered on the creative and efficient dome home design in recent months, and have now discovered a truly unique variation that’s sure to turn heads. Innovative company Solaleya was spotted at recent West Coast Green Festival by Inhabitat writer Chris Worrall. Solaleya is the creator of the dome house that, wait for it - rotates to follow the sun.
Yes folks, you’ve heard of rotating restaurants and dance floors. Now, you can actually order and live in a house that slowly spins to take advantage of passive solar heating and natural lighting opportunities. The domes come with a remote control allowing you to orient your picture window to the view of your choice.
Framed with FSC-certified wood and insulated with cork, Solaleya’s design presents a number of eco-friendly benefits. Unfortunately, each unit is pre-fabricated in France, requiring that it be shipped overseas to the construction site. But here is a design for living that can respond to the seasonal angle of the sun. That’s an impressive concept by any standard.
As the house is coming very near completion we continue to discover more things to inspire us, and our passions are expanding if you can believe it. Wow looking back over the past three years it is interesting to see where passion has led. From our first date three years ago, to marriage 6 months later, buying our land with mom and dad joining in the fun, completion of our cob wood working shop, building our sustainable earthen home, education programs, tours, publicity, policy, politics, and gardens. All while weaving much learning into each of these phases. Passions outside of our manufactured culture has provided us more personal reward in such a short period than either of us had known throughout all our previous years. We hear the stories about following your passions, or the importance to choose a job that fulfills your passion, but at every step of our lives we are veered away from them, towards… earning an income.
Even as the rains fell the day of the tour for the Board of Directors of the BCSEA, there was a passion for collecting rain water. In one day, our 2500 ft2 roof collected 1250 gallons of rain water. So despite digging into the damped humanure compost to show off our composted manure, with us soaking wet, we were happy as pigs in “good stuff” knowing that our recently emptied rain cisterns were being filled. One inch (2.5 cm) of rain basically gives us 1300 gallons of water. (For the nerds 2500 ft2 at 1 inch depth translates into 360,000 cubic inches; 1 imperial gallon equals 277.4 in3 thus 1 inch of rain equates to 1297 gallons).
When Do We Move In?
Seeing as we are speaking numbers, here’s another. Forty-Four! No not Ann’s age. This is the number of working days until we can move in, +/- 100 of course. Hopefully by the end of November we will be reuniting with old clothes that seem new, and be leaving our comfy little mildew ridden filth soaked (opposite of heaven) hole of a trailer. Yes a mud home never looked so good. All the used lighting is virtually up, all the ceilings done, most of the interior brown coat complete. Just have to finish the final plasters, build range hoods, finish the earthen floors, build exterior deck, bathroom cabinets, some window sills, install trim, sand and seal all the kitchen cabinets, some milk paints, and that is it. Wow does finishing ever take a long time!
Insulation
This past while we have observed how insulation of buildings has become the icon of green, from products sold from green businesses, to discussions on the radio, and with the redefining and greening of the building code. Interestingly many professionals seem to agree that in our climate, insulation is only one small part of building a sustainable home. Considering insulation as the end-all be-all while ignoring thermal mass, embodied energy of products used, and lifespan of the building is quite irresponsible. Even more irresponsible are the manufacturers of all these “products” who are driving green building in unsustainable directions. As someone pointed out to us, living in an insulated sealed plastic bag drives him crazy so he opens his windows… ahh building science defeated by good common sense, and fresh air.
Redefining Green
Talk, talk, talk and more talk about climate change, economic failures, and environmental degradation. And even more talk about what to do about it. From the debates on carbon taxes, cap and trade, political bickering, and the endless talk of where to get our energy. It is all sounding so complicated to get ourselves out of the expanding mess we created.
But wait a minute…we are trying to solve these complicated problems with the same complex thinking that got us into this crisis in the first place.
What if we took a step back and looked at the problem from a different perspective, a simpler perspective.
Instead of looking for solutions to maintain the current status quo of increasing energy use and increasing consumption of natural resources, why don’t we consider changing the entire way we think and live? Maybe we don’t have an energy crisis at all but instead a social opportunity; an opportunity to create a more fulfilling life.
We all complain about how busy we are working to pay for all of our stuff, from our mortgages and fuel, to our food.
Stop focusing on the problem…Focus on the solution.
How many people out there crave to have more time to work around the home, garden, attend community events, have friends over for family meals, or just some down time? Instead of having this big problem that makes all of our heads spin to the point where many of us actually prefer to remain ignorant, why don’t we just get rid of the problem and the guilt by creating a better way to live? A life built upon a close knit community where food and shelter become the focus of our lives enabling greater individual fulfillment.
Take housing for one. (Property developers and builders looking for big profit need not read further). What if we were to redefine what green building was? If all new dwellings were truly green or sustainable they would meet the following criteria.
1. Less than 400ft2 per occupant. This smaller size means less embodied energy to create the home, less energy to heat/cool the home, and less space to store stuff. More time spent outdoors means fitter healthier bodies and less health concerns. More time bumping into our neighbors and the natural environment translates into feelings of belonging and individual value.
2. Simple homes that have a life expectancy of more than 500 years. If simpler more affordable homes were created suddenly we have less homeless and struggling families, less social ills, and more land to grow food. Sustainable energies power these homes either from the grid, community power, self generating, and our own healthy well fed bodies.
3. Less stuff to plug in. These homes dramatically reduce their energy requirements because of their size, passive solar design, natural and LED lighting, and the occupants choosing to buy less stuff to plug in.
All we need to do now is to figure out how to get off of the current rollercoaster and onto fulfilling sustainability.
The grand finale of the month
What do termites and a cob house have in common? Absolutely nothing! Termites won’t eat our home! After dinner we talked about how scared our culture was to eat what some other cultures eat, like termites. But what about termites… actually Isopterans. (Ann used to work as an entomologist). Well Ann discussed how nervous she was to try one…and could only think about how unappealing they look under a high powered microscope during dissection, so Parker and Emily to the rescue. Emily was the first to eat a termite, tearing the wings off and eating the butt then the head. Then, not to outdone, Ann ate one, as I looked on disgustedly. Then Grandma Merrily and Parker, while Ann cheered. Boo of course had always eaten the flying protein morsels and his acrobatic leaps provided much entertainment. I couldn’t be shamed as they continued to go down the hatches. So… as Emily collected a whole pile of heads… which she is saving as dessert, I couldn’t be outdone. So I did it, tore the wings off and down it went, followed by a sip of rum of course. Papa Howie declined watching us all in disbelief.
I only hope after this update that the kids aren’t taken away…as the kids mom called while they were eating termites. Parker was explaining to his mother very matter of factly about eating termites, while he yelled at his sister, “Emily, those are my heads”! Hearing this comment, Ann collapsed laughing and rolling on the trailer floor trying not to be heard by the kids’ Mom on the other end of the phone.
We learned that organic locally processed (wings removed) protein is at our fingertips… goodbye Maple Leaf Foods. We spent the rest of the evening making sure the chickens got their share too as we all ran around in circles being chased by five happy hens.
I had finished the update… until we decided on tomorrow nights dinner. Ann suggested rabbit as we had one in the freezer shot and dressed (actually undressed) by our local goat farmer. Parker was the first to ok it. I can’t explain my reaction… to Parker’s response “If we can eat termites then we can eat rabbit!”
Welcome to reprogramming. As Papa Howie said, “Bugs Bunny it is then”.
Termites are also the world’s most efficient bioreactors turning cellulose into hydrogen. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termite#Termites_as_a_source_of_power
Want to be inspired? Check out what Steve and JD accomplished two years ago as they deconstructed and rebuilt their US home in the greenest way possible. Here’s just a sampling of their home’s ecofeatures. The couple:
spared materials from the dump by reusing them in the final product
reused much of the core and shell of the original building
purchased Forest Stewardship Council certified wood
insulated using soy-based spray foam insulation
installed recycled content products
incorporated solar electric and solar water heating technology
…I’ll leave a few surprises so you can enjoy the videos
The videos themselves are really well done, so enjoy!
Are you a humble person? So many of us answer ‘yes’, and yet our homes and possessions tell another story. One of the central pillars of personal sustainability and green living is fulfilling needs over wants, and doing so in non-material ways when possible.
Why? Because producing ‘things’ requires energy and resources, not to mention the toll it takes on the environment throughout the ‘thing’s’ production, use, maintenance, storage and disposal. But weeding out those ‘wants disguised as needs’ and finding non-material paths to fulfillment demands a certain amount of honesty, creativity and courage.
Shay Salomon, author of ‘Little House on a Small Planet’ sheds light on the growing small house movement, and how humble dwellings can offer financial relief, greater social contact, clutter-free spaces, more leisure time, and an abundant sense of home and personal fulfillment.
Sound intriguing? Try on Shay’s view via this Peak Moment interview or borrow her book from the library.
Peter Amerongen is fond of saying “concrete is one of the most energy intensive things we do”. Or something to that effect. By “we”, he means humanity, and he’s right:
Cement is the principal ingredient in concrete[, and] cement manufacturing accounts for approximately 7% to 8% of CO2 globally, and approximately 1.8% of CO2 emissions in Canada” (source).
The concrete used in the Millcreek NetZero Home (MCNZH) will be composed of about 50% fly ash (a waste material from coal-fired power plants) to minimize the use of cement. We’re still using too much concrete, but since my family is spending its life savings on this house, we weren’t willing to experiment when deciding how to add mass to the home to store solar heat.
Still, reducing our use of concrete is a priority, and were doing it in a couple of ways:
We’re not building a garage. Since we’re car free, and since our building site already has a (very old) garage on it, we decided to not build a new one in order to save materials, energy, and money.
We’re seeking non-concrete options for sidewalks, pathways, and other landscaping.
We’re reusing concrete blocks and the broken up sidewalks that will result from the demolition of the existing home to build paths and sidewalks.
Old sidewalk blocks have been removed and stored so they don’t get broken during demolition and excavation
The old garage on the site - we like it and we’re keeping it!
The greening of concrete is an area that needs desperate attention - it’s a brilliant building material that is used in almost every building we put up. However, it’s an environmental nightmare. That’s why concrete houses are not at all green (contrary to claims made by the likes of Con Boland), and we should strive to reduce its use as much as possible.
In our next house (ha ha), maybe we’ll figure out a better way to store solar heat than in concrete floors. There’s a guy who’s building in the Garneau neighbourhood who’s storing it in pop bottles filled with water. Now that’s a benign source of solar mass.
In the meantime, we’ll do our best to minimize our use, even if it just means reusing old concrete blocks and not tearing down the second building on our building site.
Loading ...
Choose green for your next reno project.
So what happened? Where have we been? Having a baby and working on finishing our house! on August 28th, 2008, 8:35am, Isobel Rayne Collier was born weighing 6lb14oz and was 21″ long. The birth took over 30 hours and I have never been more impressed with my wife’s strength and courage.
