EkoBuilt will be taking part in Green Energy Doors Open ’18 this year (Sept 21-23), and we’ll be opening the doors of the EkoModel home as we do every year! It’s always a great weekend, we hope you’ll join us! This year they have secured Catherine McKenna to speak, and they are showcasing more EVs and Exhibitors than ever.
Did you know the event is free to attend? This year your ticket will also entitle you to a free ride on OC Transpo to and from Lansdowne Park on September 22nd (the Saturday), as well as 20% off a meal at The Table Vegetarian Restaurant and 10% off purchases at NuGrocery Zero Waste (both of the discounts apply all three days of the event).
This year the event will again include a one-day EV Exhibition, showcasing electric vehicles, in Aberdeen Square in Ottawa (Sept 22).
Green Energy Doors Open, is a province-wide, year-round communications campaign and showcase of individual, community, and commercial sustainable energy projects. It is organized and spearheaded by the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association. The initiative aims to showcase advancements in the sector, demonstrating that Ontario is already on the path to building a 100% clean, sustainable energy system.
Save the Date
EkoBuilt Demonstration Home
21 – 23 September 2018
9am to 5pm Full details >
We were delighted to take part in the Toronto Green Living Show this year. It was a great event that really felt like a 21st-century show!
There were electric cars from a number of different companies, lithium ion power walls, vertical gardens for your living room, vertical farming out of a container, and geodesic domes where you can grow produce year round even in our climate.
We loved being part of the showcase of green living options and really enjoyed talking about about our electrically operated homes, which are designed to cost just pennies a day to operate.
Congratulations to the winner of our Eco-Feu raffle at the show, Stephanie Hahn of New Hamburg, Ontario.
Stephanie won a Cartier tabletop unit from Eco-Feu. These ethanol units make perfect centerpieces and/or accent lighting. Burning for 2 to 3 hours, they feature a soothing, vibrant, real flame.
The future is now and we need to embrace it! Photos below from the event.
Check out this video about the Green Living Show from The Tesla Model 3 owners club.
One of the projects currently underway with EkoBuilt is an infill home in central Ottawa. This house is being built to Code Plus standard and is currently being insulated; drywall to start this week.
EkoBuilt’s Code Plus framework designs to the projected building code standard of 2030 when it’s estimated that minimum exterior wall insulation will be R32 (currently R22), and roof insulation will be a minimum of R50 (currently R32).
The house also has a 10 kW solar array attached to the Ontario Micro fit program. Watch for more updates this winter.
The CBC recently carried a story, P.E.I. man wants to know why he pays HST on electricity he generates himself, which left us scratching our heads. Honestly, this poor guy lives in a province where oil consumption for heating houses is exempt from HST, yet electricity is not, and legislation requires that he be taxed for generating it. Worse still? This man, whose solar panels are producing more electricity than he needs for his home, allowing him to sell the remainder through net metering to the grid, notes that the province’s customers then pay HST on what they use.
An article like this one illustrates approaches to carbon pricing in Alberta and Ontario, where oil is very much subject to taxing: http://www.macleans.ca/economy/economicanalysis/what-carbon-prices-in-alberta-and-ontario-will-cost-… Although taxed federally, as of late 2016 electricity consumption in Ontario no longer has the provincial portion (8%) of HST applied to consumers’ bills, whereas electricity pricing in Alberta remains steady following recent carbon pricing shifts.
Part of the problem with rationalizing energy pricing and taxation, of course, is the huge variation in energy generation infrastructure across the provinces and territories. Unlike Ontario, whose electricity is “90% emissions-free, thanks in part to Ontario’s early action to close coal-fired power generation” (source: https://www.ontario.ca/page/cap-and-trade-ontario), P.E.I. is in a much less fortunate position, with no active hydro-electric station, and a reliance on both out-of-province sources of electricity, as well as two in-province sources that are fired by diesel and oil.
None of the above really helps to explain how P.E.I. can tax someone who is generating clean electricity to contribute to a grid that is sorely lacking in local, clean sources of electricity, nor how it can fail to tax oil usage. The CBC story further explains that P.E.I.’s government and Maritime Electric claim that “federal tax law requires HST be charged to homeowners involved in net metering…[and that] homeowners could claim back the HST by registering as a business.” Are there any more hoops that homeowners should jump through in the name of nonsense?
While it may be understandably challenging for Canada to develop a unified and logical strategy on carbon taxing, there is an undeniable need for green solutions like solar electricity generation to be supported, not hindered! The future needs to be carbon-free, and solar panels are helping us to get there, along with individuals like the P.E.I. man who decided to build the most energy efficient home he could afford, unaware that the government would penalize him for doing so.
While solar energy is often associated with passive homes, it isn’t for the reasons that you might think. You can read more about this in our How to Solar Power Your House post from June 2016.
In real terms, a passive house will use under 15 kWh per square metre, per year. The EkoBuilt Model Home will make use of a 6kW solar array to meet its total energy needs for roughly six months/year.
EkoBuilt’s demonstration passive house just west of Ottawa in McNab-Braeside will have a small companion solar installation to cover its total energy needs (this includes energy to power a water heater, the heating/cooling system, and of course general lights/electricity use):
the 2,509 sq ft home is designed to be powered by Aquion batteries**
for the 3 to 4 months per year where extra power generation is needed (in our eastern Ontario winter), a vegetable oil generator will be used to assist in charging batteries. For details, read this article on Treehugger, Generating inexpensive power from waste vegetable oil.
For all of the details, you can download these one-page info sheets that we’ve prepared:
If you have questions or would simply like to learn more about how a very modest solar installation could help with your home building project, please feel free to get in touch.
Sept 2017 Note: The Aquion salt water batteries used by the EkoModel Home are still an option, but the company recently changed ownership, and we’ve been advised that new units won’t be available until spring 2018.
We are frequently asked about solar panels and the passive house model.
Although solar panels are included in many passive house projects, the fact is that they are not part of the core design elements or criteria for a passive house.
Solar panels are certainly a good companion to a passive house, but not perhaps for the reason you might think.
Passive House vs Off-Grid
Unlike home building that is focused on being ‘off the grid’, passive house design has a different agenda. Passivehouse is concerned with creating extremely low energy buildings which are inexpensive to operate. The central concern of a passive house is really just to dramatically reduce the need for external energy inputs, thereby making it cheap to run. (In real terms, a passive house will use under 15 kWh per square metre, per year.)
Most off-grid homes tend to rely on fuel (oil, gas or propane) to operate a water heater, as well as the heating and cooling system(s). Geothermal is also common, but can be expensive to implement.
The superbly low energy requirements of a passive house design make it a great candidate for an off-grid project, as the need for additional energy input – from solar panels, for example – is so low. This makes the inclusion of a solar photo-voltaic system or array (an installation of solar panels) very cost effective, as it can be considerably smaller to meet the much reduced energy demands of the passive house.
The EkoBuilt Model Home will make use of a 6kW solar array to meet its total energy needs for roughly six months/year. Watch for future posts on our own installation.
Passive House & Solar Energy
Any home designed using the passive house standard begins with the ‘site’; the home will be optimized to face south if at all possible in order to maximize solar exposure.
Preferred siting of a passive house will be due south or within 15 to 20 degrees of south. Having said that, even in a wooded area the most efficient home to build is a passive house.
Building on the principle of southern exposure, in optimal circumstances between 25 to 35% of the home’s southern wall will comprise windows. With modern window technology, passive house is the only proven style of home where windows are actually used as part of the heating system. Solar gain in winter from well positioned windows is essential, and strategic shading helps with cooling in the warm months.
This focus on making the most efficient use of the sun results in a home that is not only extremely inexpensive to run, but also superbly comfortable.
Intrigued to find out more about our own solar project? Follow the blog or give us a call, we’d be glad to tell you more.
Green Energy Doors Open, is a province-wide, year-round communications campaign and showcase of individual, community, and commercial sustainable energy projects. It is organized and spearheaded by the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association. The initiative aims to showcase advancements in the sector, demonstrating that Ontario is already on the path to building a 100% clean, sustainable energy system.
Congratulations to the winner of our Eco-Feu raffle at the show, Stephanie Hahn of New Hamburg, Ontario.
We are frequently asked about solar panels and the passive house model.