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EcoInhabit Brings You the Healthy Home

May 18th, 2011

If you were in the lucky position of being able to build from the ground up, it would be an great time to sit down and have a chat with Tim and Jan Singbeil, the new owners of EcoInhabit, a green building store located in Meaford, Ontario.

Jan and Tim have lived in Meaford for about 20 years, and during that time have been farmers and owned a cabinetry shop. They’re big believers in restoring the land and using benign materials for building. “Benign” in this case refers as much to the off-gassing potential of the product as it does its environmental impact.

When EcoInhabit’s former owners put the business up for sale, Jan and Tim decided it was a good opportunity to expand their cabinetry shop into a full-service green building shop. The store itself offers a variety of green building products, such as American Clay, zero VOC paints and stains and reclaimed flooring. They still maintain their cabinetry operation so they sell solid wood furniture made in their own shop, including kitchen cabinetry and solid wood bed frames. They also sell biodegradable cleaners, reusable produce bags and a line of eco products for babies. It’s a fun place to browse through.

But what you’re really getting when you go into EcoInhabit, is a lesson on building and maintaining a healthy, durable, low-impact home. The Singbeils’ philosophy is that using local, durable materials and building with people from within the community are two of the keys to building durable, healthy buildings. They are also lucky to be able to work with some like-minded customers in the area who are willing participants as Jan and Tim continuously seek out better building techniques so that once built, these structures consume as little energy as possible and don’t off-gas any harsh chemicals.

Tim said that once they were working with a client and their objective was to build a home that would last, at a minimum, of 100 years. Then they decided, “if we’re building a home to last 100 years, why not 300?” The consequence of that target meant that as few mechanical systems were installed as possible; low-tech and no-tech are better than mechanical systems that are definitely not going to last 300 years, or 100 years for that matter. Homes are super-insulated, oriented to take advantage of passive solar energy in the winter and shaded in summer. Heating systems are as small as possible and mechanical cooling systems are avoided as much as possible.

A healthy home is mould and mildew free, sturdy and severe-weather proof, with no off-gassing of toxic chemicals from construction. The Singbeils construct homes with Durisol blocks, and encourage clients to choose American Clay for some wall applications since it works so well with the thermal mass of the Durisol blocks and regulates relative humidity.

They put a lot of thought into home construction and source as locally as possible working with expert trades who are familiar with their green materials. Any particleboard products are NAUF (no added urea-formaldehyde), and now they’re entering a new green area which is EMR, or, electromagnetic radiation, another form of pollution in the form of electricity. I confess that I’m not that familiar with EMR and, so, need to learn a little bit more about it.

To learn more about EcoInhabit and the Singbeils’ building philosophy, visit their website, or better yet, if you happen to be in the Georgian Triangle, make sure you stop by the store.

Website: http://www.ecoinhabit.com/

Location:

121 Old Highway #26
Meaford, Ontario
N4L 1W7

Tel: 1.519.538.0777
Toll-free: 1.888.538.0777
Fax: 1.519.538.0778

Email: info@ecoinhabit.com

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Blu Homes Prefab Home Manufacturer Comes to Canada

May 6th, 2011

Last Saturday I was invited to a seminar hosted by Blu Homes. I first read about Blu Homes on Treehugger when it was announced that the company had bought Michelle Kaufmann Designs. Michelle Kaufmann is a renowned architect who had her own design/build prefab green modular home site. With the stock market crash of 2008, which decimated the housing market in the US, Kaufmann’s firm was one of its many victims.

Blu Cutaway

Blu Homes designs and builds modern, green, prefab homes. There are a few significant differences between Blu Homes and other prefab manufacturers: The frames are made out of steel and an entire module can be folded into a more compact module for easier transport. This ‘folding ability’ has several advantages over the traditional prefab home.  For instance, fewer transport trucks are needed to ship modules (two can fit on one flat bed) which also significantly cuts down on the cost of shipping. In fact, one of their models can be shipped to a building site on just one truck.  Using fewer trucks means lower costs and less pollution from transportation. Because the shipments are smaller, they can travel up narrow, windy roads and can be installed in more challenging spaces.

Because of the folding technique, homes are all finished within the factory, meaning they can be reassembled on-site in significantly less time. In fact, Blu Homes sends in their trained assemblers to put the home in place and finish it. Maura told us that usually a house can be delivered, assembled and finished on site in about 10 days.

Another advantage to the folding technique is that modules can be up to 21 feet wide and 18 feet high once unfolded. A traditional prefab home tends to have modules that are no wider than 8 or 9 feet with ceiling heights of the same measurement. The steel framed structure also gives the homes durability to withstand severe weather events including high wind areas, flood zones and even earthquake zones.

The Blu Home philosophy is all about providing a green prefabricated home with excellent design features. They have a team of architects (including Michelle Kaufmann) who have designed the current and upcoming model homes in their inventory.

There are many “standard” green features to these houses, in other words, features that are included in the cost of building the home.

 

Element Model

Smart Design: Homes are designed to feel big without being big, with open plans and high ceilings. They are also designed so that they can “grow with you.” In other words, if you only have the budget for a smaller unit, but anticipate the need for more space in the future (ie., a growing family, running your business from home, etc.), homes can be designed so that more pods (units) can be added later. Rooms are often designed with multiple uses in mind. Libraries can also be extra bedrooms, office spaces, play rooms, etc.

Orientation: Like any good green home design, Blu Homes will help you site the house so that passive solar gains are maximized and wind patterns are taken into account. In addition, included in their overall fees are basic deck designs and some landscaping design.

HVAC: Maura told us that they spent significant time perfecting the installation of radiant heat flooring so that it was a standard feature in all models. Standard are 93% efficient Viessman boilers in larger models and Embassey boilers in smaller models. HRVs or ERVs (heat/energy recovery ventilator) are also built in to every model. Note, central air conditioning is not included in homes because they are built for the most part without forced air (ducted) furnaces. However, Blu Homes will design a ducted home for you. In general though, the theory of a green home is that central air conditioning should not be necessary if the building envelope and positioning are done properly, particularly in a northern climate. Homes can come with mini-split (ductless) air conditioning units.

 

Origin Model, Interior

Building Envelope: The tighter the building envelope the smaller the heating and cooling system that’s needed, the less money you will spend heating your home. In this case, the building envelope consists of a combination of rigid foam insulation and eco fiberglass insulation in the walls. Walls are built with an R value of 24.5, Basement with R-19 or r-29 depending on if the basement or crawl space is conditioned. The roof is put together using SIPs for an R value of 38 or 45, depending on the model.

Windows: The windows are Anderson 400 series, which are high quality windows. They are double-glazed, with a low-e coating and filled with insulating argon gas to give a U-value of 0.31 (which is the equivalent of an R value of 3.22).

Material Use: In general, to have as low an impact as possible when building these homes, thought has gone into the selection of all materials. There is extensive recycled content used within the construction of the homes, and because they are built within a factory, there is 50-75% less material waste per home than homes constructed on-site.

Water Use: All toilets, showers and faucets are low flow, and there is the option of including a living roof (or green roof), and rain water catchment systems (additional charges for these systems).

Fresh air: A typical new home can off-gas up to 22 pounds of harmful volatile organic compounds into the air, and the off-gassing can continue for years. All Blu Homes are made with products with no off-gassing potential or mould-generating potential. Indoor paints and stains are zero-VOC, flooring choices consist of wood, tile, and other hard surfaces. Note: Because the foundation is the owner’s responsibility, you should discuss different mould prevention options with your site contractor.

 

Origin Media Room

Energy Efficiency: With energy use in mind, provided lighting is CFL and some LED where appropriate. All included appliances are Energy Star.

Home Models: There are currently 7 different models to choose from. Many of the models are available in a “mix and match” scenario where one kind of design fits with another. The current trend on larger pieces of land is to develop different “pods”, such as a main house with a separate guest house or art studio or retreat all on the same property.

What the client is reponsible for: First, you need to have a plot of land. If you’re not sure whether it’s suitable, Blu Homes will advise you on whether one of their models can be built on it. Secondly, you are responsible for hiring a site contractor to build the foundation, as well as to get all the necessary permits. Blu Homes will send the home plans to the contractor, but the contractor is responsible for the design and construction of the foundation, whether it’s a crawl space or full basement is left up to you. You are also responsible for landscaping and deck construction, but Blu Homes will help guide you. They will do a complete landscape design for you for an additional fee.

For more information, visit the Blu Homes website, or contact them directly using their contact form.

Origin Model after a snowstorm

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An Interview with Sylvia Cook, Rammed Earth Builder

October 28th, 2010

Completed Rammed Earth Walls. Awaiting doors, windows and roof.

On a clear, sunny day in mid-October, I accompanied Terrell Wong, of Stone’s Throw Design, to beautiful Northumberland County to meet Sylvia Cook. Sylvia was building a rammed earth home and Terrell was the architect. I was intrigued by the idea of a rammed earth home and as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, it’s a lot different looking than I thought it would be. I’ve described the building and the technique in that post, but I was also interested in what made Sylvia decide to build such a remarkable dwelling in the first place.  I asked Sylvia a few questions about her motivation and what the future holds, below are her answers:

1. What were the factors or influences that led you to want to build a sustainable house? And, what helped you to determine that rammed earth would be the most sustainable material?

Sylvia: Some years ago I had the pleasure of hearing Gywnne Dyer speak and found myself in agreement with his assessment that the biggest threat to global security had little to do with terrorism or even traditional wars, but everything to do with climate change.  He provided convincing evidence that climate change would kill millions of people, impoverish hundreds of millions more, disrupt cultures, foster terrorism and cause wars.  And all we really need to do to prevent this is eliminate our dependency on fossil fuels, something we will have to do sooner or later in any case as the supply is limited.

I’ve been interested in sustainability long before the phrase had been coined.  I believe it was “caring about the environment” back in my day, but I like the concept of sustainability, defined as what it will take to sustain the planet in such a manner that humans can live on it in comfort.  It had long been my hobby to research and design the most sustainable house possible, and I had looked into straw bale, log homes, earthships, cob, adobe, ICF, glass bottles, geodesic domes, and a number of concepts using recycled materials. When I came upon rammed earth, I realized it met all of the criteria I had come to associate with sustainability:

  • locally available, abundant material – appropriate subsoil is found everywhere, a very small (five acre) pit would provide enough leftover material (after the gravel had been extracted) to build 5000 homes
  • does not deplete any natural resources – we currently clearcut over a million acres every year in North America to build houses.  Even strawbale depletes the topsoil.
  • non-toxic – there is nothing organic in rammed earth hence nothing for moulds to grow on and no need for chemicals to combat moulds or fungi in the building materials.  Nor are there any other chemicals needed: no paints, drywall compounds or plastics.
  • beautiful in its unfinished state – if a building is not beautiful, no on will want to live in it and every added step of finishing requires more energy to process, transport and apply.
  • durable – rammed earth has stood the test of time: the Great Wall of China is only one of many ancient examples from all over the world.  Modern rammed earth, stabilized with rebar and a small percentage of cement, should easily last hundreds of years, eliminating the stream of waste as houses need repair and replacement.  Stabilized rammed earth is impervious to fire and able to withstand hurricanes, floods and earthquakes.
  • energy efficient – the most important aspect in my view.  In the occupancy stage, representing the vast majority of a building’s energy use, rammed earth truly shines.  The enormous thermal mass of the walls allows them to absorb and retain solar energy from south facing windows.  The house will literally heat itself and, if properly insulated, will stay warm.  In the summer a large overhang ensures that the walls stay cool.  Add a few solar panels and the house is net zero energy, for every one of its five hundred plus years.  If every house on the planet were built of rammed earth we could cut our fossil fuel use in half.
  • feeds the human spirit – there’s something about rammed earth that makes it very calming.  Perhaps it is the solidity of the 18” walls, the natural surface, the quiet of the building, or some less definable quality.  If architecture is going to improve the human condition, rammed earth is an excellent starting point.

First and second floor, pre floor installation

2. How important is thermal mass of a building in your decision?

Sylvia: When designing a passive solar house (which is a house heated by the sun shining through the windows) the challenge is always to store the energy.  Any house will warm up when it’s sunny, usually too much, but cools down quickly when the sun is gone.  Older heat storage solutions included concrete floors, Trombe walls (a thick wall just inside the south windows, blocking the view), rocks, water (in pools or bottles in various locations), underground tunnels, etc.  Rammed earth walls give ample thermal mass acting as a huge heat sink.  A typical stick frame house has one or two tonnes of mass; 50 – 100 tonnes is considered the minimum necessary for heat storage.  In our construction the 6” of insulation in the middle of the wall leaves 6” of rammed earth in the interior of the house, plus the two 18” uninsulated interior walls, yielding 530 tonnes of thermal mass.

3. How labour intensive is it to build a rammed earth wall?

Sylvia: It is certainly more labour intensive to build rammed earth than standard building methods.  The majority of the cost of building rammed earth is labour; the material is “dirt cheap.”  But why is this a bad thing?  Is it preferable to spend money on toxic, energy intensive, highly processed materials or to provide a living to a group of generally young people interested in making a difference in the world?

The lines represent different layers of earth

Natural waves in the walls due to the layering of the dirt mixture

4. What will be your primary heating source?

Sylvia: The sun.  (See #2.) The Ontario Building Code insists on some form of heating so we’re installing baseboard heaters as the cheapest alternative but expect that they’ll almost never be turned on.  We investigated geothermal and various in-floor systems but just couldn’t justify the expense for the small amount of heat needed.

5. How do you install the second floor, which from the photos, doesn’t exist yet?

Sylvia: There will be ledger boards anchored to the walls with epoxied-in threaded rod.  The joists will hang from the ledger boards, just like building a deck.  I’ll send pictures of the process if you’re interested.

6. You have a lot of window space in the design. How are you dealing with the contradictory goals of maintaining a constant comfortable temperature within the house, while allowing for natural light? In other words: most windows are the weak points of a home’s thermal envelope — why do you feel they won’t be a significant issue affecting your home’s interior temperature?

Sylvia: If you look at the net heat gains and losses from windows, south facing windows represent an overall heat gain, north-facing windows are a heat loss while east and west are neutral.  Terrell Wong’s brilliant concept has allowed us to create the perfect solar (that is, south-facing) house that completely fits the naturally east facing slope. There are no north-facing windows. Our windows are also exceptionally good: Alphawin windows come from Germany with the Passiv Haus standard.  You should talk to Terrell about the windows.

Composition of 18" thick walls

7. Can you talk a little bit about your business goals? Is your house the first in a series of rammed earth buildings?

Sylvia: Several years ago I retired from teaching to take on the project of building a sustainable house.  I knew I wanted rammed earth but the highly technical nature of the process, from soil selection to forming systems and tamping techniques, seemed somewhat daunting.  I also realized that my original concept of building one house as an example of what could be done was not as important as offering a genuine alternative in an attempt to change the built environment.  To that end I incorporated aerecura sustainable builders and enlisted the help of an experienced rammed earth builder to construct the rammed earth garage as the first part of a steep learning curve leading toward the goal of a rammed earth industry in Ontario.  Long before we put a shovel in the ground, and with no advertising effort on my part, I have received emails and phone calls from people interested in rammed earth.  People are drawn to rammed earth for many reasons.  Some, like myself, are attracted to the sustainability of rammed earth.  Others, including many architects, are entranced by the natural beauty of the material as well as the creativity afforded in designing with rammed earth.  Still others are seeking the health benefits of a building system with no toxic materials and no organic matter, thus nothing for moulds, insects or other pests to eat or burrow into.  One family approached me after losing their house to fire; rammed earth is rated as non-combustible, another benefit of using only inorganic materials.  My husband was entranced at the possibility of a fabulous music studio, using the superior acoustic properties of rammed earth.  I have been contacted by people in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec and Nova Scotia, though aerecura’s initial business plan will keep us in southern Ontario.    aerecura sustainable builders believes that rammed earth has the potential for widespread mainstream acceptance in both the residential and commercial realms.

For more information on rammed earth buildings, please contact Sylvia Cook at sylvia@aerecura.ca

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Ontario’s First Rammed Earth House

October 26th, 2010

Rammed Earth House -- Walls finished

When Sylvia Cook retired from being a high school physics teacher, she had the goal of building the most sustainable house possible. After a  lot of very thorough research, Sylvia determined that the best  material to build a house with was dirt. Think about it: it’s local, there’s plenty of it, it has a low embodied energy, it has a significant thermal mass, and is extremely durable. It was these last two criteria that sealed the deal sustainability for Sylvia.  When all is said and done, Sylvia estimates that her house will last, at a minimum, for about 500 hundred years. That’s not a typo. Five hundred years is a far cry from the minimum standard Ontario’s current building code demands which, if built to minimum specifications, is only about 30 years. So I applaud Sylvia’s vision and far-sightedness to undertake the building of a home that will outlast her great, great, great grandchildren, and hope that the Policy Developers-That-Be will consider upgrading the building code so that homes are built to last even half that long.

But I digress. I confess that when I imagined a rammed earth home, I imagined something out of the wilds of northern England or Scotland, sitting on a desolate wind-blown moor amongst the heather….but as it turns out I was way off. Way, way off. Instead, this rammed earth home has a more “adobe,” southwestern feel to it, but that could also be because Sylvia tinted the mixture with natural terracotta pigment to give it a warmer tone than its natural cool gray concrete appearance.

The basic building block for a rammed earth home: dirt.

Rammed earth walls consist of a mixture of dirt and sand with about 5% concrete mixed in. I asked if the dirt was off the property, but Sylvia said that the stones in the dirt on her property were too big to settle properly and would affect the structure of the hardened material. So, instead, she located a gravel pit about 5 km down the road from her property that has provided the dirt for her house.

Design: Sylvia worked closely with Terrell Wong, environmental architect, on the project. As this was Terrell’s first rammed earth home design, she mentioned that the design really came together when the two of them brainstormed. It was critical that Terrell knew what the material could do in order for her to design the most energy efficient home possible.  The house consists of three “blocks” with rammed earth walls built on the inside of the home as well as for the exterior walls. The walls, which are 18″ thick provide a significant amount of thermal mass. Thermal mass allows for a more consistent temperature throughout the house regardless of the season. The walls have an R value in total of about R50. Because of this design, Sylvia is convinced that she will need only a heat source of a small wood stove and an ERV (energy recovery ventilator) for the entire house. She must have seen the look of skepticism on my face because she said that Terrell had incorporated some baseboard heaters into the design “just in case.” I’m cheering for her.

SE facing windows. Future music room (bottom), Living Room (above)

To help out the thermal mass walls, the design calls for some significant windows on the south east side of the house which allow for light and passive solar heating in the winter. Terrell made sure the home was oriented so that the sun was captured through the south-east facing windows from October through April only, thereby avoiding direct sunlight during the hottest months.  There will be clerestory windows above the second floor, with a mezzanine that looks down to the main entry and living room. These windows will open to allow any rising heat in the summer to escape easily. All the windows were ordered from Germany and meet Passive House standards, meaning that they are the most thermally efficient windows on the market today.

In fact, with respect to the orientation of the house, Terrell had this to say:

The building faces perfectly on the cardinal compass points NSEW.  The views are all to the east and the sun is to the south.  What to do… So it’s 3 volumes (2 shoe boxes)set apart and  splayed 8 degrees from one another and, they are also shifted so that there are south facing windows in every main room.  These windows occur either in the jogs created by the shift of above in the clearstory mezzanine and those south facing windows project light and heat on the main 24’ high interior rammed earth wall.  The windows facing east are for views and will require some external shading (yet to be determined) so that the building does not overheat.  What we suspect though is that the rammed earth will absorb much of the excess and retain it when the reverse is true.

Construction method: Dirt, sand and concrete are mixed together in specific proportions to create a substance that will last when compacted, as mentioned, for at least 500 years. The mixture is shoveled in to a mold which is set up in 4′ x 8′ x 0.5′ sheets. About 8″ in height of dirt is added to the mold and then tamped down with a hydraulic tamper. The process is repeated until the top of the mold is reached. It’s topped off and leveled, then the next panel is constructed. Construction consists of a 6” exterior rammed earth, 6” polyiso insulation and 6” interior rammed earth, giving the entire construction an over all R value of around R-50. The roof consists of Thermapan SIPs panels, with an R-value of 40 plus the metal roofing material.

The home’s walls are now finished, but the first floor still needs to be constructed, then the windows, doors and roof. I can’t wait to see this house when it’s fully put together.

Sylvia’s home is the first of many rammed earth structures to be built by her company, Aerecura. For more information on rammed earth buildings, please contact Sylvia Cook at sylvia@aerecura.ca, or, see her Facebook page.

Natural waves in the walls due to the layering of the dirt mixture

Close up of the layered dirt.

Sandwich of rammed earth, insulation, rammed earth

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A Tour of the First LivingHome or, My Trip to Santa Monica, CA

September 29th, 2010

When you think of Santa Monica, California, you most likely think of the Santa Monica Pier, or may the 3rd Street Promenade, eating at the Ivy (over-rated, ahem), or the possibility of bumping into a celebrity of some sort, but for me it’s the site of the first LivingHome, Steve Glenn’s brainchild — the super duper green prefab home company that he started a few years back. Since I was going out that way for my sister’s wedding, I thought that while I was there, I’d take the opportunity to see if I could get a tour of the place, and lucky me, LivingHomes said yes!

Let me back up a little: in May, 2010, I was invited to the press launch for a community of four homes that are being built at Yonge and Sheppard by Nexterra Homes. You can read about the project more in-depth, here, but basically,  the group of homes is dubbed an “eco-enclave.” They’ll have a spacious feel, yet won’t be over-the-top large — through the use of excellent architectural design. The first rule of a “green” home has to be superior design. After all, if it isn’t nice to look at or functional to live in, then it isn’t green because no one will want to be there. These four homes will have, or be ready for, the most current green design features available including solar panels and gray water recycling. What’s exciting about these homes is that they are prefabricated in a factory and then assembled on site. And guess who is supplying the designs? That’s right, LivingHomes!

So, back to present day. I met Aldo from LivingHomes outside of the Santa Monica house on a gray and chilly Monday. (It was 29C in Toronto and 17C in Santa Monica — there’s something wrong here.) We toured the house and Aldo went over its green features, and introduced me to a few green building products I hadn’t heard of before. We talked about each of our goals of helping to demystify green building to people and also show that it’s not so hard or expensive to do.

The Santa Monica LivingHome has some great green features: first it’s an efficient use of space incorporating about 3500 square feet of living space into a tight land area. Materials are selected as locally as was reasonable and are recycled, recyclable or renewable where possible.

The structure: the home is made from 11 prefabricated boxes that were built in a prefab home factory and assembled on site in 8 hours. You can watch the assembly video here. The boxes consist of a steel frame with wood siding. All wood used in the framing in the house construction is FSC certified American Cedar. The steel is an energy intensive product, but has the qualities ofbeing long lasting, and can be recycled at end of use. The insulation in the house is Greenfiber, a blown cellulose product used in the roof, and Ultratouch cotton insulation in the walls. The design of the home by Ray Kappe, known as “the architect’s architect,” took into account the moderate coastal climate of southern California. There is plenty of natural light that comes in through south facing floor to ceiling windows, skylights in the second floor washrooms, and even on the north side of the home, which is butt up against its neighbour, light is allowed to shine in through plastic sheeting that allows for privacy, but also lighting (more on the product below). Kappe also designed the home to capture and use the coastal breezes. Windows and doors open wide and the stairwell that goes to the roof also acts as a heat tower, trapping the heat until it’s expelled by the ceiling mounted fan, or more simply, opening the door to the roof top garden.

Naturally, these design features, so great in California, will be modified in the homes being built for the harsher Canadian climate.

One of the other neat things about this house was the consideration of flexibility of room use. For instance, there are floor to ceiling sliding panels on two of the bedrooms that can open them up or close them off depending on the room’s use. One could be an open area TV or play space, the other a bedroom. The “floating” office/guestroom above the media room could also be enclosed easily for more privacy. Aldo told me that LivingHomes has some home designs that actually grow with the family, so you can add on with little inconvenience as your family or needs change.

Main floor features: The main floor’s flooring is a poured concrete floor which incorporates 18% fly ash, a waste product from burning coal for electricity. As mentioned, a wall of Polygal — a material made of composite plastic sheeting that can be recycled at end of life runs along the north facing wall allowing light in, but maintaining privacy.  Polygal allows almost the same amount of light as glass, however it has a U value that is twice that of a double glazed, low e argon gas window, while still allowing natural light into the space. (The U value is the inverse of an R value and is used to measure the heat transference efficiency of windows. The lower the U value, the better the insulation.)

HVAC system: The radiant in-floor heating which is the heat method used throughout the house is provided by the evacuated tube solar thermal panels on the roof. The back-up system is a conventional natural gas system that only goes on on the cloudiest day in the winter when the solar thermal panels can’t produce enough heat. The solar thermal panels also provide hot water for the house.

Water conservation: Santa Monica and Los Angeles are inherently a dessert climate, so addressing water use was an important point for the LivingHome. Landscaping is done with indigenous, drought-tolerant plants while a 3500 gallon (US) (approx. 13,200 litres) underground cistern captures rainwater, and gray water from showers, washing machine, dishwasher and sinks is captured and reused in toilets. In addition, all faucets are Kohler and shower heads are Bricor, and are low-flow, decreasing the amount of water consumed. Toilets are from Sterling, are dual flush (3 litres and 6 litres).

Wood: All wood used in construction of the home is FSC-certified American Cedar. In addition, the home is designed for flexibility. The second floor consists of rooms with walls made of panels of wood that can be closed off or opened up to enjoy the views. Wood panels are Europly, a combination of FSC-certified Baltic birch and Alder, glued together with an FSC-certified veneer applied (note: website for Europly says formaldehyde adhesives are used in amounts of 0.3ppm — amount required by the EPA). Millwork throughout the house is also FSC-certified and can be relocated to different rooms if required as it is modular.

Lighting: Lighting throughout the house is a combination of LED spotlights and CFLs, in addition to the abundance of natural light available during the day. Note: In the lighting industry, LED lights are still “not quite ready for prime time.” That is, while they are uber efficient and use 4-7 Watts per light and last 100,000 hours, the amount of lumens they emit is still not quite there for general lighting purposes, and the beam tends to be a straight tube instead of in a cone shape as CFLs and incandescents cast….but they are improving all the time. Currently, however, they’re still best left for decorative lighting.

As mentioned, natural daylight is not just added through windows, but skylights in every bathroom provide plenty of natural daylight for getting dressed in the morning, and walls on the north side have areas of Polygal that provide light, while doubling the insulation value of windows, and providing privacy at the same time.

Speaking of natural lighting, the curtains are made of Mechoshade Ecoveil fabric, a fabric that is endlessly recycleable. This fabric is not only used for bedroom blinds, but also, as blinds for the skylights (operated by remote control). Without the shade, the washrooms would become uncomfortably hot during the heat of the day.

All finishes can be found on the tour of this home (narrated by Steve Glenn) with links to the individual manufacturer. The homes being built in Canada will try to use as locally sourced manufacturers as is reasonable, because, really, isn’t that part of building green?

Monitoring system: In the kitchen there is a computer that’s hooked up to electricity and water monitors so you can always see your consumption rates and patterns. Also, it monitors the effectiveness of your solar PV panels so that you can see how much electricity you are generating for one day, week, month and year. It can even forecast your useage patterns and generation patterns for the future. This house generates about 1/3 of the power it consumes. But it only consumes about 8500KWH per year (the average family of 4 uses about 12000KWH per year).

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Posted in Architecture and Design, Countertops, Energy Efficiency, Flooring, Green Homes, Green People, Heating and Cooling, Insulation, Kitchens, Lighting, Lumber and building materials, Renewable Energy, Water Efficiency

Nexterra and LivingHomes Establish Eco-Enclave in Toronto

June 9th, 2010

LivingHomes (Photo courtesy of LivingHomes and Nexterra)

What happens when you put two conscientious real estate developers (no, it is not an oxymoron) together with a prefab homes builder? You get responsible development in an urban setting …but it feels like the country.

Nexterra Developments is a new project started by two real estate developers, Gary Lands and Barry Campbell. They are developing a ravine property in North York, just off Senlac Drive, close to Yonge and Sheppard. With all the development going on in this city — and with most of it being unenlightened —  it’s refreshing to see some forward thinkers for a change.

The homes being developed by Nexterra range in size between 2200 and 3000 square feet with full height (9′) basements. While these homes wouldn’t be considered gigantic, they are neither cramped nor overly cavernous. It’s all part of the “eco-enclave” philosophy. Smart design allows you to get more functional space while using less material. But that’s only the tip of the green iceberg.

LivingHomes Interior (photo courtesy of LivingHomes and Nexterra)

What’s also unique about this housing development is that the homes are prefabricated. They will be built in a factory in Manitoba by Conquest Manufacturing using the philosophy, designs and systems of LivingHomes, a green prefab manufacturer out of Santa Monica, California. LivingHomes is the brainchild of Steve Glenn, who started the company five years ago. Using himself as the first guinea pig customer, he lives in the first factory built home the company produced (the exterior and interior photos here are of his house — I admit I have house envy, sigh).

The advantage of prefab. Building a home in the factory before setting it up on site has several advantages.

  • Minimal waste of materials. In a typical wood-framed single house build, between 30-40% of construction materials end up as waste. In prefab homes 2-8% becomes construction waste. Leftover materials can be used on the next job.
  • Covered Storage. All building materials are covered and protected from the elements so they are not subjected to weather which again leads to less waste.
  • Precision. For building code reasons, prefab homes must be built to higher standards. They need to withstand transport from factory to building site.
  • Shorter time frame. Homes can be built in 46-54 weeks depending on if it’s standard or custom. They can be built in the factory while the footings are being built on site.

LivingHomes are modular. That is, they are built in modules within the factory, and they are assembled on site. If you have a look at their website you can see the crane putting homes into place. All interior finishes can be installed in the factory — including the kitchen cabinets, flooring, windows, etc., and then the modules can be put together on site (think Lego for grown ups).

LivingHomes: Elevation (courtesy of LivingHomes and Nexterra)

LivingHomes: Floor Plan (courtesy of LivingHomes and Nexterra)

Design Excellence.  The homes are designed by well-known American architect, Ray Kappe who is known for his “warm modern” designs.  The importance of a well-designed home cannot be ovestated. A home can be made of 100% renewable, recycleable materials, but if it’s not functional and not nice to look at then well, it won’t last very long either. Good design is at the core of any environmentally influenced home, and these homes are oozing with style and functionality.

Green Building: LivingHomes has a strict environmental philosophy that they apply to all of their homes. In fact most of their homes receive LEED for Homes Gold or Platinum certification. The Nexterra Homes will be more more “Canadianized” than their California counterparts, with walls having insulation value of R38, the roof at R50. Windows will be triple-glazed, low-e with argon gas. Further, the homes will be heated and cooled using a geothermal system, and outfitted with tankless hotwater system. The homes will also have green roofs (which not only absorb excess rainwater, but also act as an insulator).

The materials chosen for the interior continue LivingHomes’ philosophy of mixing high design with environmental practicality. Kitchen cabinets will contain no added urea formaldehyde, are highly durable, and have superior moisture resistance than standard MDF cabinets. Countertops will be the recycled line of CaesarStone quartz, all wood products are FSC certified, all paints used are from Benjamin Moore’s Natura line (zero VOC), bathroom fixtures are made by  WetStyle, a Montreal company that produces bathroom fixtures from either “eco-friendly natural stone composite” material, or FSC-certified wood.

When and Where? The first home will break ground in August 2010 and is anticipated to be ready by early November, 2010. Visit the Nexterra site for more information or to keep up on progress. Homes are expected to be priced for around $1.5 million.

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A Rosedale House Super Renovation — Targeting 90% Reduction in Energy Costs

May 28th, 2010

Rosedale House

The renovation that’s going on at Terrell Wong’s Rosedale heritage home isn’t the kind you usually see in Toronto: the square footage hasn’t been doubled, there’s no added stucco involved, and many of the original fixtures and cabinetry are being reused. But then, Terrell isn’t your normal homeowner — as an architect, her firm, Stone’s Throw Design Inc.,  designs “green” homes and along with Ann Stevens and Clelia Lori won the design competition for the Archtype House now fully built and operating at The Kortright Centre. So Terrell knows a thing or two about building energy efficient homes.

When the opportunity arose to renovate her in-laws’ home, Terrell set her goal at insulating her house to as close to Passive House standard as she could get. The goal of passive house design is to construct a building envelope that’s so tight a homeowner only needs 15/kwh/m2 of energy to heat the home. To put that number in perspective, right now Ontario building code minimum standard is 150 kwh/m2 (yes, that’s 10 times passive house standard). The Rosedale House won’t achieve such a low energy use, but it will achieve a 50/kwh/m2 energy use. FYI: passive house standard is difficult to achieve in our climate. It was developed 20 years ago in Germany which has a moderate climate than ours. For more information on Passive House see: http://www.passivehouse.us/passiveHouse/PHIUSHome.html

So, how is Terrell going to achieve this low energy use goal?

Building Envelope: The interior walls of the house were completely torn back to the brick. The walls are being insulated with 5.5 inches of Heatlok Soya insulation (R6 per inch) for an R value of 33. The attic will have 2 inches of the spray foam in addition to cellulose insulation for a projected R60. In the basement they dug down three feet to add some living space without going out back, and placed 4″ R10 rigid board insulation in the floor, then covering it with radiant infloor heating tubes and a final layer of concrete (which will also act as the final floor finish.

Heatlok Soy Insulation, sprayed 5.5" thick

Terrell’s blog is a goldmine of green building information. She’s described the reasons behind why she decided to do certain things and who she used to do it. Getting the right trades involved in a project like this is essential to its success. Terrell talks about why she needed to use spray foam insulation versus batt insulation such as Ultratouch or mineral wool, which would have been a lot cheaper, but also you’d lose a lot of space. It all comes down to air leaks and let’s face it, old homes are full of them. Like many old Toronto homes there was minimal insulation in the attic, no insulation in the brick walls and none in the basement. In fact heating used to cost $7000 per year, using two big oil tanks which were filled 4 times per year. Using a minimum of 5.5 inches of spray foam achieves several goals:

  1. It can get into cracks and crevasses that batts can’t and really seal them up.
  2. It can be used as a vapour and air barrier at two inches or more thick.
  3. You do not need to rely on the coordination of many different trades to identify and seal leaks. The foam accomplishes it all in one go. This is particularly important in the renovation of an older home.

Thermal bridging: thermal bridging refers to the areas where heat can travel and escape from enclosed spaces to the exterior. In most older homes thermal bridging occurs where internal wooden beams touch the outside masonry. This is particularly true for floor joists. The Rosedale House’s new construction has the internal 2x4s spaced 2 inches away from the external wall so that 2 inches of insulation can go between the studs and the wall, thereby minimizing heat escape.

Energy Recovery Ventilator Air Intake

Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV). When an energy audit was performed before the house was gutted, thanks to the absence of insulation, 8 air changes per hour were measured — that’s a really leaky house. When the renovation is completed, air changes per hour will be reduced to 0.6. When you have a building envelope that’s that tight, you need to make sure you have fresh air coming into the home at all times. But in the winter, opening windows defeats all the hard work that’s gone into insulating the home, so a practical device is an Energy or  Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV/ERV).  Fresh air from outside is pulled into the ERV and warmed by outgoing old stale room temperature air. The model of ERV that Terrell chose is by Ulimate Air, the RecouperAerator 200DX which is 96% efficient at heat exchange from air and moisture.

12kW ministar electric boiler

A tighter envelope means that a smaller system is needed. A new 12 kw electric Allied boiler Ministar will provide all the heat for the house, and a two tank hot water system that was imported from Germany will provide hot water. The two tank system provides one tank with “preheated” water from future solar hotwater heater on the roof, and a tank for conventional water heating.

Dual Hot water tank

As with the whole process of renovating this house, Terrell has reused as much as possible. The kitchen cabinets are going back in (although with a fresh coat of stain!), and all the radiators are being reused. Further, the small rebuilt addition at the back of the house will be sided with the tongue and groove wood that’s on the ceiling of the covered porch that needs to come down. But the huge, west-facing window will be imported from Germany, made to passive house standards. (Manufacturer: Internorm Varion windows http://www.greenbuilding-windows.com/products/greenbuilding-windows.html)

It will be fantastic to watch the progress of this house. Terrell’s blog gives an excellent explanation of why she’s chosen particular materials and mechanisms, as well as (and most importantly) what trades she’s worked with to achieve her energy efficient dream house.

I will be following her progress as she goes. Thanks for sharing Terrell!

You can reach Terrell at: Stone’s Throw Design Inc: 416-463-9735

Follow progress of The Rosedale House on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Toronto-ON/Rosedale-House/342864660822?ref=ts&ajaxpipe=1&__a=10

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Posted in Energy Efficiency, Green Homes, Green People, Heating and Cooling, Insulation

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Building Green taking into account “Embodied Energy”

April 22nd, 2010

There are many definitions of “green building.” For some it’s all about indoor air quality and making sure your home is not emitting fumes that are potentially hazardous to your family’s health. For others it’s about reusing what you have, renovating and making your new-old home tighter and more energy efficient. Finally there are those of us (myself included) who fall into the “embodied energy” category.

Today I watched a fantastic six minute video by Catherine Mohr who was invited to speak at TED 2010. If you can spare six minutes I encourage you to watch this funny and enlightening video on the trade-offs she and her husband consider while trying to build a green house. They have focused on trying to build using materials with the least amount of “embodied energy.”  This is the link to her talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_mohr_builds_green.html

If you’re not familiar with the term, “embodied energy” refers to the amount of energy it takes to make something and therefore, that energy is considered “stored” in the finished product. For instance, according to Catherine, it takes approximately 300 Megawatt hours of embodied energy to produce the average single family home. She set out to build her own home using significantly less energy, while building a home that will in the future also use significantly less energy than the average single family home.

If we can bring each product or activity we buy or do down to the amount of energy it consumes we can make more informed decisions about which product is best. So, that being said, Catherine’s decisions led her to choose wood-framed windows over aluminum, cotton and strawbale insulations over sprayfoam. Her house will still be as energy efficient as if she’d chosen the alternatives, but she used materials that take less energy to produce and ship to her house.

Catherine has been documenting her journey on the path to building green at 301munroe.com. It’s an excellent blog, full of all of her decisions and the thought process she went through to choose each material. She also lists her trades, services, and materials suppliers (she lives in Silicon Valley).

I have to admit that after watching her TED talk, I wondered how she had done her embodied energy calculations, there are, after all, a lot of variables involved when calculating the embodied energy of a product and much depends on what type of energy is used where the product is produced (coal vs. natural gas vs. hydro vs. nuclear). Fortunately, after reading through her posts I came across the one that explains how she did her EE calculations, as well as attaching her Excel spreadsheet with the calculations. She also did another spreadsheet showing how her much energy her lifestyle consumes.

If you have a chance, look through her blog. It’s an interesting read, as well as a great resource for trades and services in the Silicon Valley area, and green products that are for the large part available across North America.

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The Healthy Home at Downsview Park is Open to the Public

March 22nd, 2010

Healthy Home Kitchen view (photo courtesy of CMHC)

Downsview Park is a pretty cool place. It’s got a lot to do and some nifty things to see. Downsview is also a place that is actively being developed as an environmently friendly place to live and play. The home development that’s going in will be interesting to watch, but already there are reasons to come and poke around here. There’s the farmer’s and merchant’s market (open Saturdays and Sundays), GrandPrix Kartways which uses electric go-karts (so no direct emissions), the Canadian Air and Space Museum (I’ll bet you didn’t even know Toronto had an air and space museum) and The Hangar and Sports Complex. Our family’s been to the Hangar on several occasions — mostly for birthday parties (beach volleyball and soccer parties), but also for winter soccer practices. It’s a really neat space with lots of natural light and several massive (hangar-sized) playing fields. And if you’re wondering, yes, it really is a former hangar, once used by de Havilland Aircraft Company, and later by the Canadian Armed Forces.

Now, however, there’s another reason this area of Toronto is worth a visit. There’s a new “green home” exhibit that will be on display in the Hangar until the end of December, 2011. A Healthy Home is a great project and a definite ‘must-see’ for anyone interested in incorporating green building products and philosohpy into their renovation or new build. The designer, Barbara Nyke of Nikka Design, and builder, Chris Phillips of Greening Homes Contracting, have extensive experience using green building materials and have effectively demonstrated how “less can be more” through this project while creating a practical and beautiful living space.

If you’re a design junkie, or have done the rounds of design shows in Toronto in the last few years, you might well recognize this home. In its first few renditions it’s been known as “The Sustainable Condo” initially designed in 2004 by Busby, Perkins and Will Architects.  The point of this project was to show that small spaces had lots of potential to be multi-functional while incorporating “green” materials and efficiencies, and yet still look normal.

Healthy Home Kitchen and Living Room (photo courtesy of CMHC)

This current rendition goes a step farther  as it has now been fitted with walls and a ceiling so that insulation, drywall, and framing could be added,as well as a new HVAC system, some upgraded water efficiency options and more lighting options.

Why this house is considered “green”: It looks like any other compact condo maximizing space without compromising design. But there are many differences that aren’t visibly noticeable and most have to do with the materials used. Faucets, toilets, washer and dishwasher use less water, and furnishings and building materials don’t off-gas harmful chemicals. Finally lighting is LED and compact fluorescent, using less electricity.

This is a terrific example of how green doesn’t have to be weird or unaffordable. It’s a nice “normal” house with some wonderful and creative features. My favourite feature is the “welcome mat” which is made of 100% recycled tile and marble chips — which otherwise were bound for landfill.

I’ll dedicate several posts to highlight each of the features of this house and most importantly where you can buy the material — because it’s great to see green, but “doing” green is just as important.

Healthy Home Exterior (sponsors) (Photo courtesy of CMHC)

The Hangar: 1-35 Carl Hall Road, Downsview, ON. Open to the public: Monday to Friday 6-9pm, Saturday and Sunday, 12-3pm.

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