Imber Akse House – Burlington’s LEED home

Let’s get complicated for a minute. Insulation. What’s complicated about insulation – throw some in the walls and ceilings to meet code, seal it up and you’re good to go right. Wait. Firstly, insulation may be one of the most important components or systems in the home but unfortunately it is behind the walls so you don’t get to stare at it when the house is done, nor do you get to see how it was done…

There are lots of useful website resources to explain insulation types and applications but there are some important concepts that are sadly missed or difficult to locate. Starting with the current and legacy system of insulation in the market – typical pink fiberglass batt and the R-Value.

Idea 1 – R value
Current code in our area requires at least R20 walls and R40 ceilings that will be exposed to the exterior. Traditionally insulation was measured with an R value – the result of a test where a sealed box without studs is lined with insulation and tested to see how long it takes for the temperature inside to change to a warmer or colder exterior temperature. Simple.

The problems with this system as it relates to the use of insulation are many but here are a few main that make the test useless when gauging insulation performance in a practical context; the box doesn’t account for air movement caused by wind or air pressure differences between in and out, introduction of lesser R-value materials like wall studs, leaks or openings in the box envelope to the exterior such as around windows and doors or the biggy, insulation settling over time. It just looks at insulation in a perfect and isolated context.

Idea 2 – Application
Like many materials, the issues with performance can come down to the details of installation and use. That doesn’t apologize for the material in this case however because in reality – this material is designed to fail because it’s a terribly outdated system. During install, the format standards associated with the product have it fit into the gap between studs as we all know – and this fit is relatively snug, enough to support the material most times but the flexibility of the material and lightness means it doesn’t really hand on and is to some degree supporting itself like a post using whatever tensile strength it has. The ends are cut by the installer and are sometime short or long – they are working fast. In the end the batts go in nearly even and almost the right length but there are gaps, lots and lots of gaps. Remember your R Value was 20 in a perfect sealed box – what do you think you have now.

Next remember that the insulation is trapped between studs that are approximately 2” thick and depending on construction method, 6” deep and extend all the way to touch the uninsulated external wall’s interior surface. This means that these studs will be making a conductive connection to the outside world. Studs when measured for R value are said to be approximately R 4 though I’ve seen estimates as high as R 7. None the less, when you add up the amount of studs per square foot, as well as account for all the gaps – between studs and around windows and doors – you end up on average with R 10. What? R 10? Yep.

Idea 3 – Settling and performance
So the vapour barrier goes on and next the drywall and you move in. Over the next few years, the insulation settles. You may have done a reno or two in your life and have seen this big gap at the ceiling when you ripped the drywall off the walls. Yes, a big 12” gap where the insulation sagged from it’s own weight and shrank to reduce the coverage in the wall by as much as 1/8th on an 8’ wall. But does this mean this reduces the performance of the insulation by 1/8th? No, a 1/2” hole in a 10” balloon doesn’t reduce it’s effectiveness proportionately – it fails badly and lets all the air out. And this is what happens to your house – the balloon lets out all the heat from where heat rises – to the ceiling where the walls intersect the ceiling.

Idea 4 – Health
Why is this always last – why does health not have an ROI? Well for us it does and this is why. Once fiberglass insulation starts sagging and air starts passing through the envelope in both directions due to warm air trying to get out or external air being sucked in to replace air whipping out your ceiling or out your hood fan – dirt, dust and organics move through the insulation in both directions – trapping these organic particles not to mention pulling free glass particles into your breathing air. Eventually tears and gaps in your semi permeable vapour barrier (clear poly) allow moisture to enter and get trapped, condensing in cooler areas and when mixed with your dust and organics, creates mold and lots of it. Next, you breath the mold spores which leads to one of the largest interior air quality issues of homes today.

So, not so simple after all. And worth considering. There is a great solution and that’s blown foam. Now nothing is without disadvantages but that’s for another post. Concentrating on only the advantages – blown closed cell foam solves all those issues. In brief the R Value is measured the same but in reality it can be measured using a performance value as a percentage of R. to illustrate, pink insulation has a performance of 40% – it sagged, installed poorly, was porous, had gaps and arrived at less than half of the rated R value. Blown foam is rigid and stays inert for the life of the home while also sticking to and filling all gaps, expanding into any place a vapour of the insulation can get to before expanding. The subsequent finished performance is 95+%, for good. What this means is that if you believe R 20 is an acceptable value to achieve an R 10 in practicality – than in foam the equivalent R 20 depth of insulation will have and R 40 practical relative performance rating. It’s twice as good.

Following that, the foam is a vapour barrier once hardened if not scraped so once a 6mil poly is applied on top, there is very little moisture passing in either direction. Also, since the foam makes a mostly air tight seal, little to no air moves reducing the chance of organics contacting your drywall and creating mold situations – foam cannot support mold growth.

Other benefits are the high acoustical insulative properties that make a home simply the quietest on the block improving your enjoyment and sleep – oh, and did I mention you’ll save a lot of energy. The no VOC after curing, inertness of the material and high energy rating also make it qualify for LEED points.

For our home we chose to go with closed cell blown expanding foam – R 28 in the walls and R 40 in the ceilings. The application is now almost complete and we’re ready for careful vapour barrier application and drywall next week.

Supplier – Jarvis Insulation
The Jarvis team has operated in our area for a couple of generations and has a solid reputation for all types of applications in commercial and residential. Though they would be primarily using traditional insulation, Dave Jarvis has studied insulation methods and materials extensively and tries hard to convince customers that blown foam is where it’s at for all the reasons above. He admits that the price is a barrier of entry for a lot of people but that more and more are making the informed switch. While evaluating contracts from various suppliers, we heard more than a few times that Jarvis was the most knowledgeable and qualified to blow foam in our high performance house and would provide the best guidance and value. This has indeed been our experience.

Recently part of our water collection and grey water re-use scheme was installed. Bushman Canada supplied our 2 x 1980 gallon cisterns that will collect our rain water from the home as well as shower greywater, post filtering and treatment from the greywater recycling unit, from the house. The water collected in the cisterns will be used around the home; irrigation of young plantings and trees, washing cars, topping up the pool and various maintenance needs.

Not only is collecting rain water for reuse a cost saver as you pay for both municipal water in and out, it is also an environment saver. Rain water that runs off a property to the street via hard surfaces and drain pipes simply fills storm sewers and heads to the lake, taking with it a broth of chemicals and particulate that chokes the aquatic ecosystem. Collecting the water and using it for irrigation slowly and responsibly means it gets used by vegetation – converted into natural air cleaning and air conditioning. Furthermore it is slowly released into the water table after being filtered by the soil and plants.

The installation, though seemingly invasive for the massive holes you require for such large tanks, was quick and painless with minimal disturbance of the site. The only downside following the install are the protruding vents and man covers that are necessary for maintenance of the units. With a little planning – which was not entirely afforded to us by surprise – you can do a lot to hide what can’t be avoided. We’ll simply extend the rear patio to cover what we can while building a box/bench to cover the remainder.

Next, the greywater recovery unit will be installed in the house. This unit will filter, treat and temporarily store shower water making it available for our low flush volume toilets and laundry machine. Overflow from the system will head to the cisterns. Eventually, once municipalities come to grips with ecological technologies, we will be allowed to cycle the cistern water back into the house for non potable household needs like laundry.

The drilling for the geothermal or ground source heat pumps is nearing completion. We thought our back yard looked big until Underground Sonic Drilling showed up with some seriously dude-ified equipment. The plan; to drill 8 holes at 300 feet deep and run the ground source loop of tubes up and down throughout. Of course all the while avoiding the trees, buildings, grey water cisterns and my 3 year old’s toy diggers that he’d leave on site every evening.

After 1 week of work, rain and shine, the work is mostly complete – and without a single complaint from the neighbours – that we could hear anyway. In fact, the drilling was remarkably quiet considering what’s involved. The drilling unit itself creates some vibration and the site generator and pump creates most of the sound typical of such equipment which is negligible.

This rig isn’t your typical oil driller – though we did find some natural gas. This driller uses a spinning bit in combination with water and vibration at sonic levels equating to faster and quieter drilling.

What we liked was the minimal imposition and disturbance on the property. The rig was able to mozy into tight areas among our trees and structures so we didn’t have to cut tree branches or move barriers for root protection. The pivoting drill head rotates to cut down on repositioning of the rig and tracks – minimizing the movement minimizes the destruction and compaction on the ground; roots systems and underground services.

Next up, 4 Seasons Geothermal, the Ground Source Heat/Cooling contractor will be in the mud to hook up the loop to the equipment in the house and pool building.

There are a number of passive cooling and heating methods our house will utilize to reduce the need to mechanically condition the living space. One main passive system is the breeze maker or lungs of the home.

The center main floor of the house is flanked front and back with sliding patio doors that can be opened on nice days when interior temperatures are higher than exterior. In most homes, exhausting this warm air quickly can be a problem. With the design of high ceilings throughout the breeze zone combined with clerestory windows at the 14′ ceiling height on three walls, the rising hot air is allowed to escape which in turn does two things. Firstly the rising air creates a low pressure zone on the cool mass floor, pulling air along the floor from other areas of the house as well as any open doors. Secondly the rising and escaping air creates an interior low pressure that should pull in large volumes or exterior air from the patio doors. Depending on the primary wind direction and which doors are opened relative to time of day and shade, we can create a breeze of cooler incoming air.

Since air movement changes the relative feeling of temperature, we should stay comfortable longer with just cool mass floors and exterior air temperature.

Our builders, Branthaven Homes and Mike Leyer, have been working with suppliers to source as much FSC Lumber materials as possible. Much of the framing and sheathing comes from FSC mixed sources while other materials are made primarily of recycled chip. Rona, Canada’s largest Canadian distributer, has been a large source for this material and the local store has been paying special attention to the build.

See more on FSC materials at the Canadian site or our post on FSC.

This might have been our most difficult decision – windows. Not just a means to look out, the windows are the je ne sais quoi of the building, the invisible home element that can elevate a simple room into a spectacular room, or frame a purposely austere interior into context.

But more importantly, the windows are holes in your house if not selected properly and positioned in logical places. Windows account for a serious loss in energy because of many factors but simply their materials – glass and wood – are not insulating to the levels your walls are. They are a means of thermal transfer where the warm energy in the home during winter conducts to the colder exterior air – like an electrical connection it zips out through the glass. Conversely in summer, exterior temperatures are sucked toward the cooler interior temperatures while also the summer sun penetrates the interior through the glass heating up interior surfaces.

Consequently you need a good technology to lesson this natural problem with glass. Most windows sandwich a gas between two or three pieces of glass which provides a thermal break, lessoning the thermal transfer – (Low E). In addition many companies also add any number of coatings or films to the glass to keep energy from transferring in both directions (Low U). The result are high energy efficient windows that are Energy Star rated – the minimal expectation for a performance LEED home. That means sourcing a quality manufactured window with excellent thermal properties measured in E’s and U’s. Low E and low U windows are offered by most window companies and certainly by all worth buying from.

Selecting a window by quality and energy rating are certainly the top of the list of factors but in our case, especially when there are apples to apples comparisons between companies, we had other considerations. Other factors we considered when choosing our windows were:

+ Responsibility: did the company participate in material conservation or stewardship initiatives like FSC or their own version of corporate responsibility

+ Materials: has the window company tried to minimize negative materials in their production — VOC producing or harmful to employees

+ Locality: where are they made and how far do they have to travel – supporting a local economy is a benefit where possible

+ Cost: every extra dollar we spend on one technology means less for another technology

+ Knowledge: Understanding or compatibility with the LEED process

In the end, there were 3 manufacturers that made the short list: Pollard from Burlington Ontario, Pella out of Iowa, and Loewen from Manitoba. Each company had it’s advantages; locality, perceived quality, style, energy efficiency and natural resource stewardship. In the end we chose Pella for the balance of the majority of our criteria.

Irony. Tear down an old house, weigh all the stuff that you toss, recycle what you can and then commend yourself for what you diverted from landfill. So let’s. Apparently we diverted over 80% of the demo from Landfill – and this is good. Really though, destruction aside, waste diversion, or avoidance, is a key to efficient construction and should be achieved in a number of different ways starting with building simply.

Complexity leads to waste, in odd cuts of materials, re-dos, or excess layers of finishes, veneers and hidden materials. Mike Leyer, our build foreman might have a alternate view on our “simple” house design however.

Next, use everything for something. Since we are all amazed at how much material could be recycled from the demolition, imagine how much easier it is to use the waste from new materials. The secret is to plan ahead — choosing materials that are recyclable (cut studs used as framing blocks or cabinet filler) or at least down-cyclable (off cut studs sent though the chipper as mulch). Next a waste plan is needed to ensure material waste is sorted when created, not later. Later means labour waste and labour waste is money burned and that means… (see Sustainable Costs)

Don’t invite waste. While working with a client on green initiatives, we looked at their waste problem and suggested something simple to us but apparently revolutionary to them. “Hey, don’t invite waste by allowing suppliers to bring more than they need and certainly no packaging”. What this means is every time an outsider from your site or company brings a coffee cup, lunch, packaging for their material or good, or excess beyond what’s ordered, you have to deal with it and it costs you and the environment. It’s easy. If they can’t bring it, they won’t. And if they can’t bring it they’ll change their policies to deal with their wasteful ways – perhaps by initiating methods for delivering goods sans package, or in re-suable containers. The dam of resistance forces pressure upstream.

Certainly if they are forced to take back packaging and incur the cost of waste, one of a few things will happen. They will reduce packaging to reduce costs. They will become efficient at recycling waste from packaging as an economies of scale will be achieved. They will begin to develop products that don’t require packaging or overages. And, they might even start carrying a travel mug.

Build with prefabricated materials. This is a way to combine two ideas – a supplier that plans, brings only what they require as per your design and doesn’t need packaging. Pre-fabricated house components are a growing trend in building with everything from radiant floor sections, walls (SIPs), foundation components (ICFs) and even entire house sections. The idea is that from plan, sections of the home are made off-site with precision in ideal conditions using labour achieving an economies of scale. The finished components are shipped to the site and installed in less time compared to building from scratch in less than ideal situations.

Our goal, and the goal of LEEDs, is to have very little, if any, material waste enter or leave the site. Except for those appliance boxes we’ll convert into condos for the kids.

People share an intangible relationship with trees. Not only do they function as our house keepers, cleaning the air and managing our climate and water table, they are simply beautiful. Consequently we were sad to cut a few down that were in the center of the property where designing around them wasn’t an option for us. These trees were carefully downed to be made into lumber for use in the house for either millwork or other projects.

Chris Weatherman of Weatherhead Tree Service skillfully dropped the trees around our structures and chipped all branches. This mulch was then used as tree protection and nutrients for the remaining trees. In preparation for the construction we are setting up tree protection zones, combining mulch cover and fencing so that we don’t chance losing any more trees to carelessness or stress from heavy machinery on the roots.

This is not only common sense, it’s a fundamental component to LEEDs site management.

At our house we (I) like to say, “why do today what you can do tomorrow”. No, not complacency but a practical sensibility toward hiding that list of to do’s for a rainier day. Essentially this is why we (Canadians) are simply putting off some dirty housekeeping (green and sustainable change) for a rainier day too.If you are looking for some solid logic for getting around to the job, read David Elfstrom’s article on preparing for the rainy day of $500/barrel for oil. David Elfstrom is an Engineer specializing in the field of Sustainability and among many other things, a volunteer (non-voting attendee) for the CaGBC LEED-H administrative committee. Canadian Green Building Council.

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How to prepare for oil reaching $500/barrel

It’s coming. Or rather, it’s not going to continue coming any more. I’m
referring to the declining availability of natural gas and oil while facing
increasing demand. Add the possibility of an international political event
and we’re primed for an energy price shock.

How well prepared you are for these events can make the difference between
financial success and failure in the next several years.

Resource production peak is a fact of geology and physics. If we just had
the slow decline in global resources to deal with, we could manage.
Unfortunately it’s never so simple. Taxes on nonrenewable carbon-based fuels
are also on the horizon, further adding to cost as the supply dips below
global demand. And political events in countries far away can have a
dramatic impact on everyone in the blink of an eye – maybe this week, this
year, next year. Like a rumbling volcano, we don’t know for certain when it
will blow, but it’s highly likely it will soon erupt. The risk is real and
quantifiable.

History repeats itself

In the early 1970’s U.S. domestic oil production peaked, and America’s
imports of oil started to rise. Soon after, political events occurred that
tightened international supply, causing an oil shock. The gasoline pumps
went dry and the price skyrocketed. The U.S. could not produce enough to
meet its own demand.

Once the 70’s oil shocks were over and energy prices dropped, it became
business as usual to create a North American infrastructure that ignores the
finite limits of fossil fuels and the vulnerability of our supply lines.
Today we are reaching global peak oil production and the threat of political
interruptions to the oil supply are at the highest since the 1970’s. North
America imports more oil from overseas than ever before.

Even in Canada, where there is a net surplus of oil nationally, many people
are surprised to learn that Ontario imports over half its oil from the world
market, and Quebec imports 90%. There is no pipeline from Alberta large
enough to supply the thirsty marketplace. Here in Ontario we are in a
vulnerable position relative to the Western provinces.

It’s not just about oil however. Domestic natural gas production is also
peaking. Because we can’t import any substantial amount of natural gas,
supply will decrease and price increase. Homeowners will be paying multiples
more for heating bills, and industry will compete with households over use
of the remaining supply. In 2007 the Canadian plastic industry began a
campaign promoting the economic benefits of using of natural gas to produce
plastics rather than burning gas for heat.

Individuals and businesses that are not prepared will be highly vulnerable
to the coming energy crisis. Here’s a sample of some possibilities to
protect yourself.

Buy a highly energy efficient home now

Don’t repeat the mistake of American auto manufacturers. Asian manufacturers
foresaw the market shift from gas guzzlers toward hybrid vehicles and highly
efficient cars. It takes a long time to turn a large business around, and
American automobile manufacturers are still ill prepared. It’s time to buy a
“hybrid home” now so that when the next energy shock occurs you won’t be
left holding the bag with an unsellable house.

A hybrid home, like a hybrid car, uses 50% or less energy than a home
built to the current building code. Hybrid homes also make use of simpler
solar thermal systems to provide free domestic hot water to the home, or at
the very least are “solar ready”, featuring a conduit running from the
basement to the roof to accommodate future solar thermal and solar electric
installations.

New homes built with an ENERGY STAR label should be your minimum choice.
A home with a LEED certification is better, and is just beginning to
come to Canada. A LEED Gold certified home is usually a hybrid home
with added environmental features such as healthy indoor air quality and
water conservation.

For buyers of existing homes, make sure you look for homes that have had
an ecoENERGY audit with an EnerGuide rating. An EnerGuide rating of 78
should be your minimum, or be prepared to spend money to increase it
through renovations. ENERGY STAR and R-2000 homes come in around 80,
and a hybrid home is typically an 84 on the EnerGuide scale. One or two
points on the EnerGuide scale can represent a big difference in the home’s
relative energy consumption.

Seek out townhomes, row homes, and triplexes in urban areas

Picture this: The price of oil triples again and gasoline reaches $5/L, with
spikes up to $7/L. Lineups at the pumps abound. This could happen within the
time span of several months. Overnight that subdivision with an hour or
longer commute into the city by highway becomes a liability as the cost of
commuting becomes very high, if there aren’t outright shortages of gasoline.

Many home buyers may not want to live in a green condo high-rise, but would still
consider affordable compact low-rise developments closer to the city. These
denser forms of housing cost less to heat, becoming more attractive to
purchasers in the face of doubling or tripling heating bills.

Anyone not already living in a green building will be left with an
unsellable home. The question now isn’t “can I afford to buy green?” it is
“can I afford not to?”

David Elfstrom is an engineer in Toronto, specializing in energy
efficient home design and HVAC system design with integrated solar technologies.
Email: david@elfstrom.com

If anything was largely affected by LEED it was our preconceptions of our landscaping. It was our original intention to approach the landscape design in a logical and practical way with regard to conservative design, native planting, local availability, and elimination of thirsty water use. Our criteria didn’t impact the look of the design though as we still had idyllic pictures in our mind of wild meandering gardens using native species; as if the original Burlington ecosystem hadn’t been scrapped clean to make room for farms followed by subdivisions and our house simply shot up out of the wild kingdom without harming a thing.

Well of course this isn’t the case, the damage is done and we can’t restore our ecosystem in Burlington starting at our small portion of an acre. What we can do though is lesson the negative impact our manufactured landscape has on the ecology. Replacing a dynamic diverse landscape with a designed and manufactured one lacks diversity and creates the need for artificial sustenance – support at the cost of dollars, energy and ecology resulting from investment in non-native species that need assistance to survive outside their natural range; excessive watering, fertilizing and feeding and pesticides to support an artificial arrangement that wouldn’t survive together naturally. Therefore rethinking how we design the built environment has to be the number one objective.

So in giving the LEED points more thought, we arrived at a new outlook: modern restraint and a natural conservatism coupled with the idea that perhaps if we aren’t to replicate nature with a faux version, we can at least look at the landscape as a system in the same way we did with the house.

This is the shift in thinking from the landscape as being an aesthetic to being a mechanism for reducing impact of our built environment while also facilitating various functions for the home. LEED requirements are not restrictive or leading toward our solution, rather we are taking an approach that suits us while also providing LEED points.

So the objective is to create a landscape plan with the following goals:

Reduce
- eliminate municipal water consumption for landscape; plants and maintenance of hardscapes
- reduce negative impact of watershed from property; water run-off into municipal sewers and erosion
- eliminate introduction of non-native species of plants
- discourage undesirable plants from growing using sustainable techniques; eliminating the need for chemical treatments or excess labour to maintain
- reduce the need for unnecessary plantings of greenery for sake of aesthetic
- reduce the heating of landscape and hardscapes from the sun; lessoning the need for air conditioning or irrigation

Promote
+ encourage self sustaining landscape; plantings allowed to grow with little to no maintenance and landscape materials chosen to age gracefully without maintenance or replacement
+ welcome more trees to the lot; design the aesthetic in such a way that trees are an asset or necessity not a liability or problem
+ utilize the positive attributes of trees and greenery for the system where they are most useful – provide shade and natural cooling in summer and sunlight accessibility in the winter
+ encourage wildlife to do what they wish with the landscape; without creating scenarios where wildlife is positioned as a problem such as birds over cars, nests in undesirable places, bees becoming aggressive around nesting areas, squirrels digging up flower bulbs

With these goals and criteria in mind we’ve been working on a landscape plan. We enlisted the assistance of the good people at Terra Greenhouses with regard to material selections and helping locate information on native species. Since part of our logic was to ensure all plants were easily found locally as well as being native, we we’re pleased to find out that Terra, like other garden centres, tend to have a resource for such plants.

We were also pleasantly surprised that Terra not only new what we were looking for with regard to our goals but most importantly, they respected our interests and shared a common desire for responsible landscaping practices.

So now with a plan in hand and a good handle on plants, trees and landscape materials we can finalize the drawings to submit to Branthaven as well as to the LEED people. A final note about LEED points and landscape design. LEED awards points for engaging a certified landscape architect or the like. For obvious reasons this is a recommended option for people who are thinking of undertaking a LEED project or simply wanting to landscape in a sensible and sustainable manner. Like other professional services, Certified Landscape Architects provide a great deal of value and experience especially when considering changes in common thinking which they stay abreast of. More often than not, these professionals will save you money in one way or another and make their services worth while as well as add that extra intangible higher level of execution that turn a good project into an amazing project.

Plan to be posted soon.