Comments on: Green new home building incentives and rebates – Canada http://imberaksehouse.ca/2009/08/25/green-new-home-building-incentives-and-rebates-canada/ Imber Akse House is the realization of our dream home. A burlington LEED home that looks at living, sustainability and urbanism in a holistic perspective. We've designed this site to engage as many people in the process of designing and building our sustainable home as possible — so that we might encourage others to take the same steps toward positive change and get there with a little more ease. Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:29:47 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Barry Imber http://imberaksehouse.ca/2009/08/25/green-new-home-building-incentives-and-rebates-canada/comment-page-1/#comment-3978 Barry Imber Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:45:38 +0000 http://imberaksehouse.ca/?p=386#comment-3978 You're right - we're not going to build ourselves out of the problem, we're going to have to make a broad societal change toward rationale material conservatism. This will mean adjusting our base expectations for comfort and material wealth, the esoteric things that we emotionally build into the perceived standard of living but which truly don't effect the quality. This is a big step - a generational movement. In the interim, we will have to support manufactured products and techniques that are built to new efficient standards of which many are leading edge. To do this, it makes no difference whether the home is preexisting over 6 months or new. Perhaps the analogy is that of cars. We need to release our dependency on them, no question. But in the interim, we live within a structure that forces us to rely; whether through ownership, renting or sharing. Just using one means we can't absolve ourselves of their impact - as we control the structure as individuals. Though there have been many advancements in retrofit energy saving technologies for cars, the real gain in many ways has been in new cars. New cars are the hybrids, or have advanced pollution controls, use less fuel or have better life-cycles. Most importantly, the manufacturers that push the new cars to recover their investments in this technology are doing the lion share of educating the eco-cynical average consumer and making green cars "normal". They have been making change (along with the David Suzuki's of the world thank goodness) Perhaps the few green cars on the road, initially put there primarily by one manufacturer, has carved the way for change. So, as well, perhaps the few green homes that hit the neighborhood are also doing the same thing and deserve a little green back in return for paying for the learning curve and the promotion. In the end, supporting the handful of new construction homes built to new standards — whether singles or in multi-units doesn't add up to a major drain on the big picture of tax spending - but it would make a big difference to the industry struggling to move green building forward. Barry contact@imberaksehouse.ca You’re right – we’re not going to build ourselves out of the problem, we’re going to have to make a broad societal change toward rationale material conservatism. This will mean adjusting our base expectations for comfort and material wealth, the esoteric things that we emotionally build into the perceived standard of living but which truly don’t effect the quality. This is a big step – a generational movement. In the interim, we will have to support manufactured products and techniques that are built to new efficient standards of which many are leading edge. To do this, it makes no difference whether the home is preexisting over 6 months or new.

Perhaps the analogy is that of cars. We need to release our dependency on them, no question. But in the interim, we live within a structure that forces us to rely; whether through ownership, renting or sharing. Just using one means we can’t absolve ourselves of their impact – as we control the structure as individuals. Though there have been many advancements in retrofit energy saving technologies for cars, the real gain in many ways has been in new cars. New cars are the hybrids, or have advanced pollution controls, use less fuel or have better life-cycles. Most importantly, the manufacturers that push the new cars to recover their investments in this technology are doing the lion share of educating the eco-cynical average consumer and making green cars “normal”. They have been making change (along with the David Suzuki’s of the world thank goodness)

Perhaps the few green cars on the road, initially put there primarily by one manufacturer, has carved the way for change. So, as well, perhaps the few green homes that hit the neighborhood are also doing the same thing and deserve a little green back in return for paying for the learning curve and the promotion.

In the end, supporting the handful of new construction homes built to new standards — whether singles or in multi-units doesn’t add up to a major drain on the big picture of tax spending – but it would make a big difference to the industry struggling to move green building forward.

Barry
contact@imberaksehouse.ca

]]> By: David http://imberaksehouse.ca/2009/08/25/green-new-home-building-incentives-and-rebates-canada/comment-page-1/#comment-3972 David Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:44:47 +0000 http://imberaksehouse.ca/?p=386#comment-3972 That's right. Other than the Ontario retail sales tax savings on renewable energy & geothermal, there isn't anything for new build. I tend to agree, because we can't build our way out of the problem. By the same token, not all geothermal systems qualify for the retrofit grants, notably DX systems, which are actually more efficient than water based systems and can be installed in a smaller footprint, making it very attractive in an urban setting. But because the CSA 448 standard doesn't cover DX geothermal, NRCan doesn't want to provide incentives. That’s right. Other than the Ontario retail sales tax savings on renewable energy & geothermal, there isn’t anything for new build. I tend to agree, because we can’t build our way out of the problem. By the same token, not all geothermal systems qualify for the retrofit grants, notably DX systems, which are actually more efficient than water based systems and can be installed in a smaller footprint, making it very attractive in an urban setting. But because the CSA 448 standard doesn’t cover DX geothermal, NRCan doesn’t want to provide incentives.

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