As I mentioned last month, we're
looking to buy some wilderness property here in Caledon, build a
showcase energy- and space-efficient home on a small part of it, and
leave the rest of the lot untouched. I'm signed up for a seminar on
solar and wind energy next month, and a tour of a zero-net-energy cost
home just North of here, and I've been doing lots of online research.
When I reported this, several readers asked why I didn't instead (or
also) retrofit our existing home. My wife agreed this would be worth
looking into, so I called the Windfall Ecology Centre in nearby
Newmarket, and today we had our energy audit. Here's how it went:
Early this morning Danny arrived from Windfall with several loads of
testing equipment and a laptop with some powerful software. The audit
consisted of four parts: review of existing insulation, check for
leakage areas, review of furnaces, and recommended improvements.
- Danny estimated that our house, built in 1982, had R20
insulation in the ceiling, and the addition, built in 1994, had R32
insulation, which is still the standard today, though energy-efficient
'R2000' homes have insulation levels as high as R52. Because our house
has no attics, Danny said it would be difficult and expensive to access
and upgrade the insulation. He said that upgrading to R52 levels would reduce our energy
consumption, but not anywhere near proportionately to the increase in R
number.
- He said our 22-year-old windows, triple-glazed and
argon-filled, were excellent for their time, and just as good as the
newer double-glazed low-e windows. He confirmed that replacing windows
is rarely a good investment from an energy-saving perspective. He also
educated me that a few large windows are much more efficient than a
bunch of small ones, because most of the leakage occurs in the frames,
not through the windows themselves.
- Overall he said considering its age, our open-space concept
design, cathedral ceilings and our many windows, the house was well
insulated. It's built into the side of a hill, and both side- and
back-split, so it has a lot of open area. Last summer when we had a bat
in the house, it took me an hour chasing it with the pool skimmer net
to catch it, because it had so much room to fly (and boy, can those
things manoever!).
- After measuring the overall R-value of the house, and
computing the surface area of windows and total volume of the house, he
keyed in the current cost/kwh of power and estimated our annual heating
bill. His guess was within 2%!
- He then attached a high-powered blower into one of our
exterior doors, turned off the furnaces, closed all the other exterior
doors and windows, opened all the interior doors, and sucked a great
deal of the air out of the house. Lowering the interior air pressure
allows you to feel easily where the leakages are, since air rushes in
at a surprisingly fast rate to fill the relative vacuum. It's a
fascinating experience, walking around your house and discovering with
amazement where the 'holes' in your walls, windows and ceilings are.
Problem areas in our house were ceiling pot lights (not air-sealed), a
casement window that had lost its seal, several other 'fixed' windows
(i.e. windows that don't open) and glass doors that had poor seals
around the frames, an exterior door that didn't close snugly, some
downright breezy electrical sockets in three rooms (there are new
insulated sockets you can buy that have a spring mechanism that slides
open only when you actually plug something in), huge gaps around the
drywall in the electrical closet (a place you'd never think to look),
and leaky fireplace vents.
- Our heat is electric (there is no gas line out in the
exurbs where we live), and he said the twin furnaces, old as they are,
were efficient and didn't need replacement. He reminded us to turn off
the heat pumps in winter, and replace or clean the furnace filters
monthly. He also reminded us to use energy-efficient bulbs (we're
replacing the incandescents as they burn out), and to keep an eye on
humidity levels.
- His top recommendation was to lobby the local gas utility
to put lines in our neighbourhood, which he said would cut our energy
costs by 35%. Whether that succeeded or not, he suggested a retrofit to
our furnaces that would draw on geothermal energy, reducing consumption
of electricity from both heating and air-conditioning by 25%. That's what I wanted to hear.
Research underway.
- Since we spend most of our time in one room, he suggested
installing an advanced combustion wood fireplace in the existing
chimney in that room, and lowering the thermostats by five degrees,
saving perhaps another 10% of heating costs. We're going to do that,
too. He stressed the importance of picking an expert installer for
these devices, which can (gulp) explode if put in improperly.
- Fixing the aforementioned leaks could also, he estimated,
save us as much as $400/year -- a no-brainer.
- And finally, he cautioned against 'sealing off' little-used
rooms in the house to save energy. It's a false economy unless the seal
is very good and the rooms are virtually never used, and there is a
danger of mould in rooms kept unusually cold in winter, due to high
humidity.
I was most impressed. He left me a ton of literature on how even a
clumsy non-do-it-yourselfer like me could manage to plug the leaks.
Much of it is from this
excellent Government of Canada website. I'd highly recommend energy
audits if you think there's a chance your house could benefit from an
energy diet. In Canada, the cost of audits is even government
subsidized, and tax credits are available if your second audit shows
significant savings. Anyone else had one of these, and are there good
US resources and tax incentives for energy audits?
I've also been doing some research on space-efficient
home design. If you wade through books of house plans, you soon get the
impression that people are very conservative in room size, function and
layout. Or perhaps they're just thinking of resale value and avoiding
anything controversial or unusual. At any rate these plans are
incredibly boring and unimaginative. There are some interesting ideas that
architects and designers are at least talking about, mostly movable
walls that allow room usage to evolve as the owners mature and their
needs for space change. Since necessity is the mother of invention, the
best ideas, especially those relating to multi-purpose rooms and
multi-purpose furniture, are to be found in small house designs (e.g.
townhouses) and houses built in areas where space is at a premium (e.g.
Netherlands).
I want our next house to be a showcase, exemplary and very creative, to
throw out all the rules and focus first on function. Here are the
radical design principles I'd like to give an open-minded and very
imaginative architect.
- Let nature provide the art and aesthetics. We're going to
have acres of wilderness on three sides of the house. We want huge
(energy-efficient) floor-to-ceiling windows, and to let what's outside
be the centrepiece. Let the house and the adjacent forest be in joyous
and harmonious conversation with each other. Let the barrier between in
and out be as invisible as possible (though we'll use shadow stickers
to prevent birds flying into the windows).
- Let no room be single-purpose except the bathrooms.
Example: Why not combine the kitchen and dining room into one, with a
table that expands and contracts to suit the number of diners? Who
needs both a living room and a 'family' room? And for that matter, why
not combine the kitchen/dining and
living/family rooms? They all have cupboards (even the kitchen
appliances can be 'cupboarded'), chairs and a table, so why not make
one magnificent big room that serves all four functions? Yes, you need
food preparation surfaces, but make them foldaway for the 95% of the
day when you don't need them, or do the food prep in the middle of the
(very big) table like they do in those Japanese restaurants. And make
the height of the table hydraulically adjustable so it works for
different purposes.
- And for that matter, why not cupboard (walk-in) the clothes
at the same time and have the all-purpose room also serve as the master
bedroom, with a hideable, yet elegant, bed. And a fireplace. And a hot
tub in the floor. Except for the bathrooms and cupboard space it's all
one big room. But not square -- interesting angles, soaring roof,
gracious curves.
- Let the house be conservation-smart. Lights that go on when
darkness and motion is detected, off when either ceases. Use the
science that circulates air in a car to circulate air in the house, so
less escapes out the roof. Thermostats with remote control. Hot and
cold water that doesn't flow into your sink or shower or glass until it
reaches target temperature.
- Make the chairs light, ergonomic, comfortable and portable,
so you only need one chair per person -- you just take it with you
wherever you want to go. And make the legs removable. Sitting on the
floor is healthy, fun and natural.
- Second floor smaller than the ground floor, open and
configurable into one big or three small rooms with movable partitions.
For kids' bedrooms. Overnight guests. Home office. Hobbies. Whatever.
As long as it's on wheels.
- Parking underground. Save space and energy, no shoveling,
shivering or broiling on the way to the car.
- Organic garden on the roof. Nice space to sit and
star-watch, play music, write, make love.
What do you think, are these ideas crazy, impractical, impossible? Can
a small, energy-efficient house make you gasp at its beauty,
simplicity, grace, harmony, space, flair and utility?
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