Most are aware that 2030 is the target for Net Zero building codes in Ontario and other jurisdictions. What does that mean?
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Energy Efficient Appliances for Your Passive Home
It’s been six or seven years since we last did a post on household appliances, and it’s more than time for a round up!
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Sound in a Passive House
We regularly get great questions about how our passive homes feel. Here we address a great question about sound.
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Two Families Sharing a House: The Frontenac Plan
A few years back we had reason to create a first ever two-family home with shared main living spaces, featured in this blog post.
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ADU Floor Plans & Kits
Secondary dwellings go by many names in North America. Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) will be most familiar to our US customers — and yes, we have plans and kits!
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Canada begins to phase out oil!
Fantastic news: a new federal grant program will help home owners who heat with oil to switch to a heat pump!
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Yes, a passive home can have high ceilings!
We’ve been asked how the most energy efficient of homes can make use of high ceilings – find out here.
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Has the US Inflation Reduction Act got you thinking about heat pumps?
Earlier this season the US administration introduced rebates and tax incentives for US homeowners purchasing heat pumps.
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Magnetic Tile Flooring
The new Pine Valley coach house at our EkoModel Home in Dunrobin, Ontario includes an extremely cool new tiling solution: magnetic tiles. Find out more!
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Passive Homes good for the wallet and the environment
Ottawa’s plan to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 rests firmly on the shoulders of the construction trade in many ways. Existing buildings are the “single biggest source of green house gas emissions in Ottawa” according to the City of Ottawa’s website. At the same time, new housing stock is still very much needed in a city that has struggled with adequate supply and rising house prices.
Ottawa’s EkoBuilt has been working to help make the housing market greener and more affordable since 2016. Its approach to pre-certified passive house plans and material kits is making it easier, more reliable, and more affordable to build to the most energy efficient building standard that exists.
Homeowners in the Ottawa area and across North America who care about energy efficiency are choosing EkoBuilt homes for secondary dwellings (coach homes), as well as their primary and vacation homes.
EkoBuilt’s new model home in Dunrobin, in the city’s west end, will be available to show the local market what’s possible. The model home, designed for a family of five, is only 1,600 square feet, and uses space incredibly smartly. Its energy use is extremely low, roughly 10% of a home built to code in the last few years. Such low energy use also makes it easy to Net Zero an EkoBuilt home (a net zero home creates as much energy as it uses, sometimes more).
While a home with such low energy bills will already be a huge gain for most homeowners, the option to Net Zero the home using solar panels creates even more protection from rising and unpredictable energy prices.
June 11th Open House in West Ottawa
On Saturday, June 11th, the EkoModel Home will be open to the public for self-guided tours. EkoBuilt president and home builder Paul Kealey will be on hand to answer questions. Get details about the open house.
Adjacent to the main dwelling is a two-storey coach house designed to demonstrate the company’s coach house offering.
Says president and home builder Paul Kealey:
“By 2050 Ottawa homes will be required to be built to NetZero, but we can get Ottawa home owners there today. Why not benefit from a home that is comfortable and healthy, as well as incredibly efficient and cheap to run today, and help Ottawa to meet its goals that much sooner?“
