Deep Energy Retrofits , Energy Efficient Stuff , Low Energy Housing
Being Visionary in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia
Town of Bridgewater’s Energy Plan is working.
Here’s a success story that is dear to my heart: Bridgewater, NS. Ten years ago, my biz partner and I approached Leon de Vreede, Sustainability Planner for Bridgewater, about an idea for a deep energy retrofit program for houses to be piloted in Bridgewater. We knew his title would make our idea interesting. He liked it, and we worked up a presentation for council, but, well, it was a little too early in their process for anyone to buy in. Truth be told, it was also too early in our process.
Fast forward to 2017, and now, we’re involved with Clean Net Zero, a Deep Energy/Net Zero Retrofit project headed by Clean Foundation, funded by Natural Resources Canada, and ‘hosted’ by the Town of Bridgewater.
Looking to the Future
Clean Net Zero is happening in Bridgewater because there’s vision there. Lots of vision. Plus passion, intelligence, and political will. The town has a 35-year energy plan in place. Here’s some current results from that plan, published on cbc.ca, 1 Dec 2017:
Targets set in 2013, to be met by 2019:
- Energy consumption for Municipal buildings reduced by 25%
- Greenhouse gas emissions from Municipal buildings reduced by 25%
Results in 2017:
- Only 4% more reductions in energy consumption to meet 2019 target
- Greenhouse gas emissions cut by 31% already.
The Town has saved CAD$200,000 in energy costs.
Looking Past Bridgewater
It looks like Leon de Vreede, his team and town council have developed a blueprint for a successful long range energy plan for municipalities. Here’s proof:
Bridgewater Mayor, David Mitchell, attended the Michelin Cities conference in France (Nov 25 – Dec 1 2017). The conference hosts all the communities in the world that have a Michelin plant. He gave a presentation there on the Energize Bridgewater program and sent this news back to his team:
“This afternoon I attended an international press conference of the Mayors for the network of Michelin cities. Media was there from all over the world. This is a direct quote from the delegate from India.
Never did I think I would come to this conference representing the eight million people of my city and have one of our major problems solved by the town of Bridgewater with only 8500 people but their energy plan did just that…
The Energize Bridgewater session was the most well attended of the sessions and from India to Oklahoma, they have questions and see solutions in our plan. We should all be proud of this. It proves the plan is solid. That our community is on the right path and that we will be a resource for the globe going forward. I cannot tell you how proud I am to represent Bridgewater.”
Way to represent, Mayor Dave!
About the Author
Shawna Henderson is CEO of two companies: Blue House Energy, providing online training for the homebuilding industry, and Bfreehomes Design, providing research, design, and consulting services for Net Zero Energy new construction and retrofit projects in Atlantic Canada and beyond.
There are several approaches to designing or specifying a sustainable house.
The first thing to do is clarify some terms.
Sustainable House: a house that uses energy and material effectively and efficiently during construction AND in operation, creating as little damage and pollution to natural systems as possible throughout it’s lifecycle.
Energy Efficient House: a house consumes (and wastes) the minimum amount of energy possible (based on budgetary constraints, material/equipment availability, builder capability, owner passion) while maintaining comfort levels for the occupants.
Net Zero Energy House: a NZE house produces as much renewable energy in a year as the purchased energy it consumes. Some states, provinces and cities have already put NZE target dates into legislation — for example, by 2020, all new houses in California must be NZE.
Zero Carbon House: A house that has zero net energy emissions. Carbon emissions generated by onsite or off site fossil fuel use are balanced by the amount of onsite renewable energy production. This is a more established concept in the UK than in North America.
These definitions are general. Here’s how people put them to work in the real world. You can use them to judge how they match your definition of sustainability. All of these program have a good load of free information available to builders and homeowners.
Performance-Based New House Programs
R-2000: This program is available only in Canada. Recently updated, the standard requires builders to have 3rd party verification of the thermal enclosure, the heating and cooling systems, whole-house ventilation and water conservation measures. An R-2000 house uses about 50% less energy for space and water heating than a code-compliant house.
Energy Star for New Houses: To qualify under this program (in Canada and US) builders are required to have 3rd party verification of the thermal enclosure, the heating and cooling systems, water management and lighting and appliance loads. ENERGY STAR certified houses use 15 to 30 percent less energy than code-compliant new houses.
Passive House: Is a performance-based program for energy efficient houses from Germany that has been modified for the range of North American climates. A Passive House can use up to 85% less energy for space heating and 45% less energy for cooling than a code-compliant house. The standard is based on comfort and performance criteria for space heating and cooling only.
LEED for Homes: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building rating system that is available in both Canada and the US. Houses built under this standard must meet or exceed benchmarks for in eight areas: site selection, water efficiency, energy efficiency, materials selection, indoor environmental quality (also called indoor air quality), location and linkages, awareness and education, and innovation. Each category has a number of mandatory measures, and a minimum point amount is required for a house to be certified. The more points, the higher the certification: certified, silver, gold or platinum.
Living Building Challenge: This program is focussed mainly on projects at the institutional/commercial scale, not single homes, although there are some certified homes in the program. It is likely the most rigorous formal program out there for quantifying and qualifying sustainability in the built environment.
“The Challenge is comprised of seven performance categories called Petals: Place, Water, Energy, Health & Happiness, Materials, Equity and Beauty. Petals are subdivided into a total of twenty Imperatives, each of which focuses on a specific sphere of influence.” Projects are rated on the number of points they get in each performance category.
Energy Efficiency:
Always the Fundamental Basis of A Sustainable Home
The most important goal, regardless of your favoured or required high-performance house program is very straightforward:
Reduce the overall energy load of the building. This includes space conditioning (heating and cooling, mechanical ventilation, and dehumidification in some climates) domestic hot water and electric ‘baseloads’. Minimizing the energy inputs for the house has a ripple effect that keeps spreading as the years go on: reduced ongoing site environmental damage and pollution from fossil fuel consumption, reduced resource extraction, reduced peak capacity requirements and improved load balancing for utilities, more cost-effective infrastructure for cities and towns.
Fundamentally, you cannot have a sustainable house if it does not address energy efficiency first and foremost. But that shouldn’t be where it ends. Sustainability is more than just energy efficiency –issues like water efficiency needs to be addressed, too. The cool thing is that you can mix and match the standards to make your dream sustainable house. How about a LEED-certified NZE House? Or a Living Challenge-certified Passive House? Best of all sustainable options!
Deep Energy Retrofits , Design Stuff , Low Energy Housing , Net Zero Energy Homes , Sustainable Home Design
11 Flavours of Sustainable Housing
Keeping track of what’s going on in the world of low-impact, sustainable housing is, and was, a challenge. We did a study for CMHC back in the early 00’s looking for great examples for a series of case studies that required collecting a ton of info on many projects. CMHC published only 3 of 24 case studies, but we had hundreds of submissions to a survey that we sent out to over 7,000 design professionals in 2004 and 2005.
We chose the term ‘low impact housing’ to describe the database because we were looking at the gamut of housing projects affiliated with so many different programs and standards:
- Sustainable
- Ecological
- Factor Four
- Factor Nine
- Green
- Healthy
- Low Emission
- Passivhaus
- Zero Emission
- Zero Energy
- Zero Carbon
The common theme is that the programs, and the projects themselves, went far beyond being energy efficient. They all address a broad range of concerns about environmental impacts throughout the lifecycle of a house – from site selection through design and materials choices, construction, operation, maintenance and demolition.
The Low Impact Housing database is still online, kept up by Sealevel Special Projects because it’s a cool resource.
Go check it out!
Add your project!
Link it to other organizations compiling case studies!
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