(NC)—Will you renovate your home this year? Up to 74 % of Canadian home owners claimed they would renovate if it meant that it would increase energy efficiency and save them money in the long run (RBC survey). However, rising energy costs during the cold winter months can leave many homeowners worrying about paying the heating bills instead of renovating. Well, the government grants available mean you can renovate and it won’t cost you a fortune!

The ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes program is offering a grant of up to $5000 from the Government of Canada for energy efficiency renovations which have not yet started. Some energy utilities and provincial governments offer additional funding. For more information on ecoEnergy grants and incentives, visit www.ecoaction.gc.ca/homes. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Oh, curse the green product tradeoff! Case in point: Polystyrene insulation is oh so effective at keeping the heat in…or out. Pity about the toxic benzene required to manufacture it and the nasty toxic and bioaccumulating HBCD (hexabromocyclododecane) it contains.

Saving Energy = Good, but Toxic Chems = Bad. And what’s the solution? Perhaps it’s time to make friends with thicker walls insulated with less toxic but slightly less effective materials. Check out the original article at BuildingGreen.com

Think insulation is just for walls and attics? Behold the trusty old tea cozy! Only this one’s not old. Ok, so it sort of is.

Crafted by my brilliantly thoughtful Mother out of a charming pre-loved winter sweater, this coordinating coffee and tea cozy set keeps my warm bevies warmer longer.

Following the random explosion of our insulated glass Krupps carafe last fall, I selected this high-end stainless steel insulated coffee press for my wish list. But, in our family, $100 for a designer coffee pot verges on frivolous.

Possessed by the thriftiness and creativity of the Jones clan, my Mom whipped up these gorgeous cozies. Read the rest of this entry »

The construction of today’s modern house expends a lot of energy and creates a lot of waste. We’ve worked hard to reduce waste while building the Mill Creek NetZero Home.

Wood

Green Door Builders framed the home, and along with building us a very airtight double-walled system, they were extremely conscientious about keeping their waste to a minimum. Here is a picture of 100% of the OSB waste that they created:

(a tiny pile of OSB waste, considering that a 2000+ sq. ft. home was framed with OSB sheathing)

Our LEED inspector was very impressed with this tiny pile. Read the rest of this entry »

The lessons that I learned from the computer model of our solar hot water system are as follows:

• insulate the pipes leading from the basement to the collectors to at least R6, preferably R10
• insulate the storage tank to R50
• install a 1000 liter storage tank
• install 3 collectors
• there is extra heat - install a system to harvest it

Read the rest of this entry »

(MCNZH concrete floor being bathed by sun through a 9’x6’ window)

The most important design considerations for cold climate building are insulation, building envelope, and passive solar design. Given our lofty goals for the Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH), we pushed hard to maximize our return on every one of these fronts.

The MCNZH collects 54% of its annual space heat through passive solar design – that’s 8747 kWh or 31.5 Gigajoules. It does so by:

1. having huge south windows that are specially manufactured to maximize solar heat gain
2. containing a large amount of thermal mass to absorb the solar heat when the sun shines
3. having movable solar awnings that allow 100% of the sunlight to hit the windows during the heating season (the awnings are strictly speaking not a passive part of the solution). Read the rest of this entry »
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BC may well be the best province to live in when it comes to available federal and provincial support for greening your home.

Sales tax exemptions on Energy Star windows, insulation and more, plus Livesmart BC - a rebate program that matches federal Ecoenergy rebates for BC residents, all make living greener more affordable out West.

On the East coast, even PEI boasts an impressive list of supports from low-interest financing on home energy upgrade costs, to sales tax rebates on upgrade expenses and renewable energy equipment.

In fact, up until this week, every province in the country other than Alberta generously offered financial assistance programs to help home owners reduce the carbon footprints of their homes.

In many ways Alberta was a black hole - a wasteland where little help was to be found for those wanting to save energy. Outdone by every province including the Maritimes, Alberta has now waged a come-back, and an impressive one at that. Read the rest of this entry »

I spent the afternoon putting pipe insulation on the hot water pipes in the Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH). I can’t believe how cheap the insulation was – around $100 for the whole house. Its price and the ease with which it is installed make it a must, in my opinion, for those interested in energy efficiency. Anyone can install this stuff, and the insulation is so useful because it just sits and works, saving you energy every single day and never breaking. Read the rest of this entry »

Photovoltaic modules about to be installed on the MCNZH roof

Things are progressing nicely on the Mill Creek NetZero Home. The exterior is almost complete, not including the stucco that will be applied in the spring. Read the rest of this entry »