Tell the Senate to stop silencing environmental groups.

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If we have any chance of repairing our environment we need to take serious steps now to reduce our carbon output.  We need to make the smart and hard choices.  We cannot continue to always choose the economy over protecting our planet or we will find that we run out of time (if we have not already) to make a meaningful difference. 

The oil sands are not a resource that we should be developing.  It is not about the horrible destruction this development is doing to the Alberta habitat.  It is not about how inefficient the process is or how wasteful this industry is to a precious resource - water.  

It is about the fact that this planet cannot handle the carbon that would be released if the oil reserve in these sands is burned in combustion engines.  Just because it is there does not mean it is right that we harvest it. 

We instead need to switch over to renewable energy now on a grand scale.  We need to stop subsidizing the petroleum industry and instead focus this vast volume of funds to developing new technologies and implementing those technologies already available.

Unless we take these steps and take them now, we stand little chance of healing our environment.

A New Education

We are finally getting closer to finding out what it is that I am trying to achieve in my re-build and why.  As you have read, this has been a process that has been building since childhood (excuse the pun) for me and has taken many roads to get to where I am today.  But it has been during the last 4+ years, as a home inspector, that I have finally started to focus on sustainable and durable dwellings in a more serious fashion.  In my work, I am seeing first hand the results of buildings that are poor at shedding water or have high air leakage rates; I am seeing buildings with rot, mould, and high energy bills.

Unlike my attitude out of high school, where I felt all learning was behind me, I was now a sponge looking to expand my knowledge of all things related to making a durable and efficient building.  And the more I learned, the more I realize I do not know.  My training has become particularly focused on the building envelope (or building enclosure as it is properly known). 

As I started pouring over internet articles and various industry seminars, I was learning how this one component, the building enclosure, was so entirely responsible for how a dwelling will perform long term.  It dictates the size of the heating system, the life span of the structure, the indoor air quality, maintenance and utility costs, and the health and happiness of the occupants.

I became a member of the BC Building Envelope Council and started to regularly attend their monthly lunch-and-learn seminars. I also became a member of Thermal Energy Comfort Association and have been attending their monthly dinner seminars which has helped me tie in the design of a heating system back to the building enclosure.

I then made an excellent decision and leapfrogged my learning forward by enrolling in the BCIT Building Envelope Performance course taught by Graham Finch of RDH (whom I consider to be one of the best building envelope gurus out there).  Between Graham’s scientific brilliance and James Bourget’s (also of RDH and Graham’s assistant in class) ‘ya but, this is how we do it in the real world”, I was finally able to connect all the dots (OK, at least most of them) and make sense of the information I had been amassing for the last 25 years.

Make sure the envelope is right and the rest will take care of itself.

This course reinforced that it was the introduction and advancement of insulation and NOT too much air-tightness that has led to many of the problems plaguing our dwellings today.  In class we were reminded that because air leakage is still occurring at a high rate in most structures built even today, and because the sheathing in the wall (or roof) assembly is now so much colder than it was in yesteryear, due to the ever increasing levels of insulation, we have created the perfect storm.  We have built in large cold condensing plates within the wall assembly (the exterior wall sheathing) and regularly introduce warm moist interior air into these assemblies by means of air leakage. And we are surprised that the wall and roof assemblies fail? Have you ever taken an ice-cold can of Coke and put in on the table? What forms on the outside surface of the can? Is the can leaking? Of course not, the surface of the can is below the dew-point temperature of the air inside the room and so the moisture has now condensed into a liquid on the side of the can. 

And then to add insult to injury, we still have the fact that we ignore that it rains in the Lower Mainland and have done very little until recently to keep bulk water out of our wall assemblies.   

_{Soapbox On.}

To all the architects out there, DESIGN YOUR BUILDING WITH OVERHANGS!!!  To all the Municipalities out there, DON’T PENALIZE ARCHITECTS THAT DESIGN THEIR BUILDINGS WITH OVERHANGS!!!

_{Soapbox off.}

I also started attending the Home Protection Office seminars, prepared and presented by Murray Frank (a passionate and very knowledgeable builder and educator who is always entertaining – hint, turn off your cell phone in his seminar or you owe him a beer!).  Murray starting showing us a grand new way to build; a method that was energy-efficient, durable, and straightforward to build.  This new building method focused on increasing thermal resistance to heat loss while at the same time concentrating on reducing dew point potentials within the wall cavities.  This building method is, of course, exterior-insulated wall assemblies. 

By placing the insulation outboard of the structural sheathing (or at least the vast majority), you allow the inboard face of the sheathing to remain at a consistent temperature with the interior of the dwelling, which then reduces the condensation potential.  You are also then able to place it in a way that reduces thermal bridging because you do not have a stick-frame interrupting the insulation every 16”.  This type of wall construction is prevalent in commercial and some multi-family dwellings but has never quite caught on in single-family dwellings.  But as the code was now going to require even higher levels of insulation in our dwelling assemblies, we were reaching a critical mass where if we continued to build by stuffing an ever-widening stick frame with pink batts, we were going to make it almost impossible to build a wall assembly that would not suffer from moisture-related issues.

I then enrolled in the week-long Canadian Passive House course which was another excellent course and my first official introduction to ‘Green Building’.  Passive House, or more appropriately Passivhaus, is a building method that concentrates ALL of its efforts on the Building Enclosure.  No ‘Green Washing', just a bullet-proof and air-tight building envelope.  In order to be certified, the energy requirements must be lowered to a tenth of what is built in North America today.  How would you like heating and electrical bills that are 10% of what you pay today?  I know I would.  The program achieves this by building very thick wall, floor, and roof assemblies with a large volume of insulation installed to prevent thermal bridging (can you say continuous insulation), and then installing very highly performing windows of the proper size and placement based on the elevation of the dwelling, in order to welcome free heat from the sun when we want it and to block it when we don’t (lots of windows on the South, fewer on the East, even fewer on the West and very few on the North).  This strategy is then complemented by a well designed ventilation system to provide the required air exchange for the occupants.  These 3 steps form the majority of the program.

The program has met with much resistance and even at times ridicule in North America.  Everyone laughs at the statement that these homes can be heated with a candle.  But I do know first hand, that of all the programs I have studied (more on a later blog), this is the only program that puts the building envelope in the forefront of the program and achieves significant (90%) reductions in energy use and greenhouse gas production.

Does the program go too far?  Many people that I respect say it does, and part of this journey for me is to determine and decide for myself if it does, and to what extent I may achieve a middle ground.

Name our House

I could use your help.  I would like to name the house/property we hope to build on.  One reason is because it seems all projects that are in some way different from the norm are named in this day and age.  But the main reason is because the property I grew up on was named.  It was called Gananakwa, which at the time I was told meant "Singing Waters" in some form of Native Indian dialect.  Now upon resent research, I have determined that this was probably a made up name, but I would like to name our new project with a similar theme.

So let me tell you a few features of the  property that may help:

• There will most likely be running water features at the front and back of the dwelling.
• The property is surrounded by 8 120ft+ tall cedars (fortunately they are generally to the North West to block the evening summer sun that would otherwise overheat the house)
• The house will be built to a Passivhaus theme (ie. very well insulated and air tight with high performing windows)
• We will have a very low slop roof (almost flat)
• The theme of the design will be 'Modern West Coast' and will involve a lot of natural woods.
• We are located in North Vancouver near the Capilano River but do not have a view (except will have partial view of mountains - Grouse - once we have a second floor.
• The rear (west) and south side of the dwelling will be flower gardens, vegetable and fruit gardens, paths, arbours, waterfall, man made stream, pond, bridge, etc.  No lawns.
• The property is flat.

I would appreciate any suggestions that you may all have and will provide a $50 gift certificate to the person that comes up with a name that we choose. There is no guarantee that we will choose any but if a suggestion helps us choose a name, then I will also pay out.  If you would like more info on the project to help in your selection, please contact me.  The name does not have to be in English as long as it is reasonably pronounceable by someone not speaking the language of the name.

I reserve the name "Singing Waters" and would love to hear your take on this choice.

I look forward to your input.

It is time for a change!

Working at a desk was never what I dreamed of doing and after a lengthy medical leave in 2006 I decided life was too short to spend it doing something I was not passionate about.  After 17+ years in a rut I had decided enough is enough, I needed a change and was going to finally make it happen. 

 

Even though I had been in an office environment for all of my adult life, I still dreamed of building a house one day and regularly dabbled in various construction-related projects I came across.  During my high school years, I had worked as a helper in my neighbour’s brick and stone laying business. In the early 1990’s I had renovated my Condo (full bare stud gut) in the City of Vancouver. Since moving to North Van in 1998, I have been a part of many of the neighbourhood construction projects on the block.   

I felt comfortable working in most of the trades (not some – who really likes drywall filling and sanding anyway?) but knew that I did not want to do any of the trades on a full time basis.  I knew I wanted to work for myself (Corporate Life had reinforced this characteristic first developed in high school) and I knew I liked working directly with the end client.

Being a Property Appraiser, my neighbour one day mentioned an interaction with a home inspector and the light simultaneously went on for both of us.  That was the perfect outlet for my interests and skills.  The next month, I was enrolled in the 5 course program at BCIT (local technical college) and went to my first inspection association meeting not that many weeks later.

By spring of 2007 I had completed the required schooling for my new inspection career.  That summer, I convinced my employer to let me quit and provide overflow services under contract for the next 12 months, but this time with me working from home.  This perfect arrangement provided flexible work schedule, regular income, and provided the time I needed to set up a new home inspection business. By March of 2008, I had also completed my required field training and finally set out my shingle and have never looked back since.

So, I had done it!  I was no longer chained to a desk and was finally working in an industry that complimented my personal interests.  An industry I had passion for.  I had expanded my knowledge of buildings and was now able to help my clients make informed purchasing decisions and then provide ongoing guidance on making their homes more durable, comfortable and in the end – economic!

Insulation R Value compared with IQ

I was reviewing my notes from BC Building Envelope Council's last AGM meeting on September 21, 2011 and wanted to share this quote from John Straube of Building Science Corporation.

While speaking to insulation values in current construction he stated: "R values are like IQ, if speaking in single digits, you are an idiot!"

I am reminded of this quote every time I look at the towers in the downtown core of Vancouver, which collectively represents a thermal resistance of R2 with all the glazing present.  If this represents modern architecture, it might be time to have somebody, other than the architects, start making the important design decisions we need if we are going to start building in a sustainable fashion.

We own a House

During the period I was sequestered to my ‘desk job’, I still regularly dreamed of building a different kind of home for myself and my wife.  I had magazine clippings, dating all the way back to 1987, of products that were ‘energy efficient’, or related to capturing the sun, wind, & biomass energy. I was usually in attendance at each year’s home shows looking for the ‘What’s New’ in modern and efficient products.

However, in the back of my mind I always worried that this was going to be just a dream and I suspected reality would never fulfil my dreams.

In 1998, my wife and I bought our first house and it was at this time that the cost of heating came to the forefront for me.  I was used to paying very little for me heat.  My $117 per month Strata fees included unlimited hot water for domestic and space heating.  Now it was a different story, we had purchased a 1954 bungalow with no insulation (unless you count foil backed cardboard installed at the inboard side of the wall assemblies), aluminium frame single glazed windows, and enough air leakage to compete with a 747 jet engine!  On the coldest winter days the boiler never shut off (something I now understand means it was designed with the right sized boiler).  My average heating bills (gas) for the first year worked out at $60/month but as I bought in the fall; my first bills were approaching $200.  We had stretched to buy our first house and I worried how we were going to afford higher energy costs like this.

The house was very draughty, a problem I generally solved by accident.  Shortly after purchase, I re-painted the exterior of the house.  The house had lapped cedar siding and I decided to take a case of caulking tubes and seal off every seam and penetration with caulking before painting.  I really was not thinking specifically about air leakage at the time, as far as I remember, and just liked the look of the sealed joints, but boy – what a difference to how the home felt inside with significantly less drafts.

The success of air sealing led me to start looking at other ways to actively reduce energy costs and improve comfort.  I switched much of our lighting to CFL’s as soon as they became dependable and affordable (see my blog on a CMHC article discussing energy savings with CFL’s to gauge if this was a wise decision).  When an old fridge started to show its age and threatened to quit, we bought a new energy star model.  We perceived a drop in our electrical bills but did not accurately track the savings at that time.

I also bought a programmable thermostat to allow for day time (while at work) and night time setbacks. There is no sense heating an empty house or the whole house if I am just in my office – right?  I will test this theory in the near future and post actual results.  The balance between the savings of a setback always has to be balanced with the additional energy needed to bring surfaces back to comfort levels.  Large night time setbacks were brought about by noise concerns more than energy saving desires.  Due to a poor design of our hot water heating system, (we have metal pipes rubbing up against the wood as the system heats up after a long cool down period) having the heat on during the night resulted in too many sleep interruptions.  So the system was turned down so that it generally did not come on at night and a small electric oil radiator was located in the bedroom to maintain a comfortable temperature in that room for most of the heating season, at least for me, my wife is cold any time the temperature is below 75°F :-).  This resulted in a sounder sleep and I hoped a more energy efficient system.

I then turned my attention to turning of devices like computers, printers and monitors when not in use (writing this sentence made me realize, I did not need that second computer monitor on while typing this article – so off it went). I also tried to make sure all charges are unplugged when not actively charging.  In upcoming blogs, I will try to document any savings that may have resulted from these efforts. We have received the odd rebate from BC Hydro for meeting our reduction targets set out in Power Smart so we must be doing something right.

During the last three years, I have also expanded my personal carbon foot print reduction efforts by looking at my retail habits.  I started to make life changes that were small but could have a large impact if adopted by many. After watching a documentary in 2007 about the plastic floating around the Pacific Gyre (this YouTube video by the captain featured in the documentary summarizes the findings of the much longer documentary quite well), I made a commitment to never throw out a piece of plastic again.  I started using reusable cloth grocery bags and also found a recycling program that accepts all hard and soft plastic (for plastics that cannot go in the local Municipal Blue Bin program).  Pacific Mobile is one such company that takes in these plastics.  Yes it costs a little money to drop off these plastics, but I now know they will be put to good use instead of landing up in a landfill or worse, into the ocean!  I also started to look for packaging that used fewer materials.  I switched toilet paper brands to one that did not over package the rolls into plastic wrapped sub-packs before assembling into the final pack size.  I looked for cleaning products that had refillable options and reduced packaging (Method is a product that fits this bill and actually works unlike so many of the ‘eco’ cleaners on the market today). My latest effort involves reusing the wonderful plastic containers that Cactus Club serves its take out in for future Cactus Club orders.

Bit by bit, I am starting to make a difference and it feels good.

Temperature Setback Follow up Note: I am now better educated on temperature setbacks and realize they are only reasonable if the heating system is capable of a fast recovery.  These type of systems tends to be inefficient and often over-sized for the dwelling being served.  You would not want to do any form of setback if using a highly efficient ground source or air source heat pump, as doing so will usually result in the activation of the secondary electric element heating system which has a lower efficiency factor and a much higher operational cost which will generally more than offset the savings that were originally desired from the setback.  I will discuss this further on a future blog entry but trust me; they are not the best way to operate on these systems.

Energy Auditor Team Promotion Video

This video is good for a laugh.