Imber Akse House – Burlington’s LEED home

We’ve been working through our LEED checklist with Branthaven Homes to ensure the points we project to receive are actually attainable, while also adjusting the design and planning to include some mandatory sustainable ideas to suit LEED.

LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is a quickly growing design and build standard that takes a holistic approach at creating a standard for the built environment, namely houses and commercial buildings. See our post or this link for more on LEED.

A few months ago we reviewed our plan with the LEED consultants and estimated our achievable points or score based on the LEED score card. Sustainable design is awarded points which can add up to various levels, LEED Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum. We did very well but there was some work still to do to reach Platinum, and why not reach for the top. Many of the forth coming posts will subject our work and attention that’s being dedicated to pursuing LEED titled “LEED, the way”.

We have a major decision to make, and fast. From the beginning of the design process we had determined we would use radiant in-floor heating with a ground source heat pump if it were something we could afford. However we had preconceived notions about GSHP costs so we concluded a High Efficiency Natural Gas Boiler would have to do though it was a second best choice, a compromise due to price.

As we got into the process and learning curve we learned that the cost of the two technologies were closer together than we first understood. And when we considered that the GSHP could also provide heating for the pool on the same system, we realized that we were very close to making it a reality. So chopping we went, through the plan, to find room in the budget to go the rest of the way to afford the GSHP.

Recently, through investigating insulation and high performance building standards, we have come across research and recommendations from leading researchers that perhaps the NG Boiler may still be the better choice.

Here’s the debate. Let’s start by talking about money. It is our belief that for every dollar we have to earn, despite our efforts to reduce the industrial impact of our business, we inevitably mow down some trees, create some C02, and fuel our computers on Panda tears. So the most cost effective route needs to be involved in the sustainable equation. Simply, you can’t throw money at the sustainable problem without considering that the high footprint money spent outweighed the positive results unless, the positive results were infectious on others – another story.

So understanding that factor here’s the score card with other factors as we understand it:

GSHP Cons vs. NG Boiler

+ $ cost of money is higher for GSHP

+ the $ spent on GSHP could go to another sustainable feature with more immediate benefits

+ $ cost of electricity is currently higher than natural gas

+ environmental cost of electricity is greater than natural gas in Ontario (we burn coal!)

+ disturbance impact on your building site is greater for GSHP (drilling or excavating your yard)

+ GSHP requires a higher performance envelop to operate efficiently with lower output temperatures — requiring high insulation values, tighter sealing

+ not ideal for all situations, particularly extreme hot or cold average climate zones

GSHP Pros vs. NG Boiler

+ GSHP can easily be powered by solar, lessoning the environmental impact

+ GSHP uses only 1 fuel, NG Boiler 2 (NG and Electricity) – less dependency on utilities

+ GSHP has a lifetime supply of fuel from the get go, the ground, while the NGB is forever dependent on utilities

+ GSHP doesn’t introduce exhaust or venting issues into the home

+ GSHP uses less energy to operate within ideal ranges*

What’s the conclusion? If it weren’t possible to heat the pool with the GSHP and also install solar to run the GSHP we’d be immediately back to NG. Over the next few weeks we’ll conclude what’s involved in heating the pool and weigh in again. If the pool drops out of the equation, then NG it will be.

*For a comprehensive debate, see the attached document from John Straube, PHD, of Waterloo University and Building Science. bsd-gshp.pdf

Sustainability in general asks the consumer to consider a change in thinking. It sounds easy but in reality, the shift in thinking is a major shift for most people.

Sustainability asks – “pay now”, while the current culture says “pay later”. Think about it. Over the decades our culture and economy has slowly shifted to a platform of pay later. The concept of credit, mortgages, conspicuous consumerism, waste disposal or even our health system suggests you can do what you want today for free and pay later – no money down, no interest.

The problem with paying later is it’s always with interest — at tomorrow’s dollar too! It’s entirely unpredictable as well as exemplified by climate change.

So sustainability says “pay now” — at today’s dollar, predictably.

How does this apply? Well in particular if you apply the thinking to costs of sustainable products and services such as geothermal heating in the home, it makes it seem a lot more attractive.

Matt Irvine of NextEnergy says “we ask our clients to consider that when they purchase our Geothermal solutions they are buying a lifetime of heat and fuel”. Though the cost to do this compared to conventional heating seems high – 2 to 3 times higher — once purchased the cost to operate in todays dollar is practically free when compared to tomorrows dollar and diminished environmental impact.

Buying a conventional heating system asks you to pay for heating and fuel at tomorrows dollar plus increasing environmental impact. When added up, the conventional system costs much much more in the long term. When you think about it as a pure business decision, scenario 1 is responsible. Scenario 2 is irresponsible.