Ways to efficiently heat a home

One of the questions I've been getting asked a lot is "How are you heating your home?  Is it Geothermal?"
Being highly uneducated about this in the beginning, I didn't even know what geothermal heating was.  But after much research, I can safely say that no, our house is not going to use geothermal energy, but instead will use radiant heat.  We didn't go with geothermal heat for a few reasons.  One is that the initial cost is incredibly expensive at about $40,000- $50,000.  The main cost comes from needing to drill about 125ft deep into the ground and run piping from there to the home.  Once installed, you basically have free heating/cooling.  The other reason is that we did not feel we needed it.  Our home will have a super high efficiency boiler system with radiant in-floor heat and the electrical wiring rough-in for solar panels.  Our roof is angled such that it will suit 2 rows of solar panels which have the potential to have our home heated entirely by solar power.  This option allows us to buy the solar panels a few years down the road when they are more cost-effective and efficient (and when we have the money!).

It was a tough decision on whether to go with a radiant heat or electric radiators.  Essentially, any efficient furnace or boiler could have been used to heat our home via electric radiators, forced air or radiant heat.  This is because our home's efficiency is based on the building envelope being extremely well insulated, and as such will require little energy to heat.  Our builder, Evermore homes, says everything comes back to having a super insulated building envelope and I firmly believe that this change alone would make Saskatchewan homes incredibly more efficient even if every other thing was kept the same with the home build.

Forced air was out of the question from the start.  It provides an uneven heat (ie hottest where the vents are), heats air (which rises to the ceiling, causing the hottest place in your home to be near the roof, not where you are) and requires your furnace to cut in several times throughout the day to keep the house temperature stable (ie the temperature can fluctuate quite a bit).  It is a very inefficient heating system when compared to forms of radiant heat.
Electric radiators are a very efficient and very inexpensive option, with prices similar to forced air.  If you are ok with flat panel radiators on the wall they can provide a more even heat source.  In our Vereco home, the included base heating type was with electric radiators as this is a step up in efficiency from the forced air option.

The ultimate option, and our major upgrade on this home, is radiant in-floor heat.  In this option, tubing is run underneath the flooring (or concrete if in the basement) and is hooked up to a boiler system which heats the water to run through the home.  There are several major advantages.  First, it heats the home where you are (ie the floor) and is warm underfoot.  This allows the home to be set at a slightly lower temperature (say 20 deg instead of 21) without you noticing because the heat is right where you are instead of at the ceiling where forced hot air rises to.  It also heats everything attached to the floor such that standing by windows is not draughty in the winter and walls are not cold.  Because there is no air being blown around, it also creates a healthier home with less dust.  Radiant in-floor heat also provides a very consistent heat if you have flooring that absorbs heat well.  For example, a tile floor has a high thermal mass, meaning it absorbs lots of heat and will give that heat off slowly and evenly over time.  Carpet has a very low thermal mass, meaning it will not absorb heat well and thus can't give it off over time.  Therefore, placing tile throughout our home will mean that when the boiler kicks in and achieves a 21 degree temperature, the house will stay like this for a long time as the tile will give this heat off for longer.  Essentially, carpet is not an option for the thermal mass aspect and hardwood is out because it is not a floating floor and would have to be stapled in through the tubing which carries the hot water to the floor!  Laminates, cork and tile will be our choices and we will pick something out which matches our budget and is environmentally-friendly.

The disadvantages are that in-floor heat is expensive- about $30,000 to do right with a very high efficiency boiler.  The other thing is that Braden and I could find very little information on people doing this in Saskatchewan and as such it will be trial and error to see how much difference our flooring choice really makes in terms of providing a consistent heat.  Our project is especially unique because our home will be more well-insulated than 99.9% of homes in Saskatoon and we aren't sure if this would make up for whatever flooring choice we made.  This WILL for sure affect how responsive our home is to temperature changes.  Because the home is so well-insulated and the floors will hold heat for long periods of time, there is no such thing as changing the homes temperature quickly in response to say a cold weather snap or warm up in the spring and fall.  The home will take a while to adjust given its insulating properties.

There is much to be decided upon still, including the exact boiler we will use and we will keep you posted on this as we start to make decisions on our home.  The company that produces the tubing for the heat is Uponor (http://www.uponor.ca) and has set the benchmark for quality tubing from my research.

Want to know more about heating systems in a fun, interactive way?  This is the BEST website I found for it and is a great way to learn about the different options and why radiant is so energy efficient:
https://www.e-education.psu.edu/egee102/node/2111

Also, we have now begun the process of picking out things for inside the home and will talk about our experience with finding efficient and eco-friendly products!

Ali

Our House is Underway!

Just a quick update to say that our house is well underway! Things have been very busy on this front.
We've upgraded to Zone D windows, drain water heat recovery system, radiant in-floor heat and more!!  But what do these things all mean?  That's coming up in my next post on methods of heating your home!
For now, I'll leave you with a picture of the home.  The foundation is done and framing starts next week.

Phantom Power!

Ali asked me to write up another post, but this time she was quite clever about it. She said she was trying to write something but said she was having trouble coming up with an idea. I gave her one I had been holding on to, and she suggested I just write it instead.

Anyways, let's jump right in.

Sounds Sinister!

Absolutely! But what the heck is it? Well, phantom power is when an electronic device draws power when it's "off". Different devices draw more power than others, and it varies based on manufacturer and model, but the worst offenders are home entertainment and office equipment. Up to 10% of your annual electricity bill may be phantom power.

I also expand the definition a bit to include things that draw power when they probably could be off, but are left on due to forgetfulness or inconvenience.

Wasted power.

For example, we have a home server network drive that stays on 24/7. It absolutely doesn't need to be on when we're not here or when we're sleeping, but that hard drive spins all the time.

Why don't we just turn it off? Because you have to hold the button for like 10 whole seconds to shut it down, and then it takes probably a full minute to start up again later. To top it all off, I have to walk all the way across the room to do all of this stuff.

...

Weak. I know.

What can we do?!

It's not all doom and gloom; there are a number of different ways to reduce the phantom power being consumed in your home.

Phantom Power Switches

The Vereco home designs include phantom power switches as a standard feature to be included. The phantom power switches are just on your wall like a light switch, but their placement, and their reach, are up to you.

If you have a small house, you might just have a single phantom power switch at the front door that you can hit before you leave. This switch might cut the power to some specific outlets around the house, or it might turn off the top half of every outlet. If you are building a larger house, you might have a switch on each level, or maybe an additional dedicated one just for your home entertainment equipment.

We saw phantom power switches used to the extreme on our honeymoon to Europe. In Brussels, Belgium, our hotel had a slot to insert your room key in the wall. If your card wasn't there, no electricity flowed in the room whatsoever. You couldn't leave the lights on if you wanted to. In London, United Kingdom, every outlet had a switch beside it to turn it on or off. It was a very convenient way to manage the power we were using.

In order to get the maximum effectiveness out of your phantom power switches, you'll have to spend a bit of time thinking about your electronic devices, how they're going to be placed in your house, how they work, and when you use them (and when you don't).

Smart Power Bars

Now, you don't have to build a whole house to reduce your phantom power. A smart power bar will have three types of outlets; one sensor outlet, a few dependent outlets, and a few always-on outlets.

Here's what you do, you plug your TV into the sensor outlet, and plug your cable box, your game console, and your media player into the dependent outlets. Once the smart power bar senses the power draw to the TV has dropped sufficiently, it will cut the power to the dependent outlets, and eliminate the phantom power drawn.

Need to PVR something? Just plug it into one of the always-on outlets.

Timers

Timers can be be really useful for managing regular power usage. You can use them inside your house to shutdown the power to your home entertainment system while you're at work during the day.

You can also use them outside to only allow power to your block heater for a certain amount of time. SaskPower has determined that your vehicle's block heater only needs to be on for about four hours. Any more time above four hours is just wasted power. So, setup a timer to only allow power for four hours before you leave in the morning. Done! In Saskatchewan, SaskPower and CAA will give you a free block heater timer.

Home Automation

Home automation is growing rapidly, and there are a lot of interesting devices out there. Home automation makes use of wifi-connected devices to give you the ability to turn on, turn off, and modify devices in your home from your smartphone, tablet, or computer.

Belkin for example makes the WeMo Switch, which allows you to toggle an outlet from your smartphone. This will allow you to conveniently turn off your home entertainment system from your couch, and also easily turn it off from work if you forgot to before you left home.

This isn't limited to power consumption either. Nest makes a wifi-connected thermostat. It's a programmable thermostat, which reduces your energy usage by letting your house cool down (or heat up in the summer) when you're not there, or at night. But, if you're going to be getting home late from work, you can pop open the app on your smartphone, and just delay the start of the heating. This will reduce your overall energy usage.

These devices are evolving rapidly, and it's only a matter of time before we see more advanced products.

Lifestyle Changes

No amount of switches, smart power bars, timers, or home automation can save us from ourselves. Our own choices, more than anything, determine the power that our house consumes. Remember that phantom power includes not only power consumed by devices that are "off", but just general wasted power.

Now, no one likes this. Everyone flashes back to their parents lecturing them about leaving the lights on upstairs...

*Shudder*

But, I'm not talking about wholesale lifestyle changes; just little, common sense things.

Don't want to buy a smart power bar or a bunch of timers? Plug everything into a standard power bar, and then just make sure to switch off the power bar before bed, or before you leave. It takes one second to do, but it just has to be done.

(Just one sec. I'm just going to shut off our network drive out of guilt.)

Do you really need a second fridge running 24/7 to keep 10 cases of beer cold in case you decide you want one? Could you instead find some space in the door of your main fridge for a few beers? Or, how about Sunday morning before the big game toss a case or two in your main fridge? They'll be cool by game time! SaskPower will pickup your old, second fridge free of charge.

Do you really need those jeans tonight? Could you wear another pair now, and then wash a full load of clothes later, rather than running your washer and dryer twice?

No one loves lifestyle changes, but with just a bit of forethought and some more selflessness, we can really reduce the power that we use, and reduce our collective impact on the environment.

Well, now what?

As with anything, you'll get the best results if you make use of a number of different strategies. You have to make reducing your electrical footprint a priority, understand the devices in your home, and take the time to plan how you're going to power (and not power) them. Cutting phantom power doesn't have to be hard, inconvenient, or time-consuming to do, but it is going to save you money on your power bill, and help reduce your impact on the environment. If enough people take these steps, the effect can be really significant.

One of my colleagues at work saw this video and recommended it to me.  Its an amazing video on how less is more and how to "edit" down your life.

Aaaand if you'd like to see his 420 sq ft apartment, check it out below!

House Plans

For Braden and I, this whole project started because we wanted a house.  It was convenient that we knew of Vereco prior to the build and since these homes can cost about the same as a standard home, it was hard to say no!  As we all know, the key to sustainability is to reduce what we use and thus reduce our impact on the environment.  In housing, we talked a lot with Vereco Homes about reducing the overall home size.  Having watched several hundred episodes of HGTVs home shows based in the United States, I had a very nicely warped perspective on how big a home should be to live comfortably.  It should be at least 1800- 2000 sq ft, right? Representing the "average Joette" here, I know that people do believe homes of this size are very desirable; Saskatoon wouldn't have suburbs if they weren't.  Being very skeptical that anything smaller would work just as well, I set out to compare different housing plans of different sizes and styles with the 1500 sq ft Vereco Urban House Plan as a reference point.

Vereco Urban Main Floor Layout

Things I really liked about the Vereco in comparison to other homes were:

Sample home layout with attached garage

1. Circulation space:  This is the space that is taken up solely by hallways, walkways, etc.  There is VERY little unused space in this home design.  This home is approximately 1500 sq ft with almost no hallway space on the second level and one hallway on the main level which has closets and bathrooms on either side.  I found this was key to the usable square footage in the home.  Take a look at the attached garage example below with similar outside dimensions.  A huge chunk of the main floor is taken up by hallway which is useless space.  If you want more info on this, I found a great article on circulation space here.

2.  Big spaces where the majority of living happens:  Braden and I spend 95% of our time in the home in the living room hanging out or in the Kitchen cooking.  This is where the space is.  The Urban design creates a highly usable living area with space to put a desk (so no need for a big office!).  It forgoes on a massive separate dining room which will get used a couple times a year.  We don't need a massive dining room table all the time.  We don't need huge bedrooms where all we do is sleep.  We don't need a massive laundry room that we use for a couple hours a week.  We don't need a bathroom with anything more than a bit of counter space and a nice shower.  Heck, we don't even want that stuff!  Also, homes with garages on the main have little family space and big bedrooms above the garage.  This makes big spaces where you sleep, and small spaces where you live.

Sample floor plan with hallways and inflexible space. From Houseplans.com

3.  Open concept:  The beauty of open concept is that you can adjust the spaces depending on what you need.  We found several designs with main floors that had fixed spaces for offices, dining rooms, kitchens, family rooms and living rooms.  These severely limit how you can use the spaces.  With an open living/dining space we will easily be able to have a dining space that fits 12 people when needed, and then shrink the dining table down and set it aside when we want to host people in the living space.  We have an island that will seat 3-4 people comfortably as well for dining or entertaining.  These simple adjustments are easy for us to do and make for a space to suit our everyday needs as well as when we want to host.

4. Luxury spaces well thought out: For us, our luxury extra spaces are having a walk-in closet and 2 bathrooms on the second floor.  These are extra spaces we believe will get tons of use and were preferred over having bigger bedrooms or a second floor laundry.  It was good to really think out what you want to do with your space and realize what space you will actually use and what space you can do without.

5.  Rectangular shape:  I found many 'modern' house plans with things like angled walls, small pop-out rooms, oddly-shaped counter tops and unique layouts.  While many of these were very different and visually appealing, they added up to lots of under-utilized space.  The designs that added up to the most space were rectangular or square, no/minimal ceiling vaults, minimal hallways, and no attached garage.

My conclusions were this:  Size doesn't matter.  It's how you use it.  If you plan out a smaller space well, it can feel like a much bigger space.
And as Steve Jobs said, "Design isn't just what it looks like. Its how it works"

Looking for inspiration and cool homes? Read these!  We used these to help figure out unique ways to save space and learn where our most valuable space is.  We don't have to go to the extremes these people did, but it offers a great perspective (and subsequently makes our home layout seem HUGE)!

1.  How to make 540 sq ft look awesome!
http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/4276209/list/Houzz-Tour--A-Family-of-4-Unwinds-in-540-Square-Feet
2.  Living with less:  how to get rid of the non-essential things in life- the story of a very wealthy man who's life stopped being about the material things.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/opinion/sunday/living-with-less-a-lot-less.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=1&adxnnlx=1381978689-S9P/M53C1rTFRJalu1FfUw
3.  Micro apartments: A solution originally intended to deal with high-density living spaces and high rent, this is a look at living with just the necessities.
PBS http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec13/microapartment_09-22.html


Ali and Braden

Demo Day!

When we bought the house and lot, we knew there would be some waste involved before getting to building a sustainable home.  After doing some reading, I discovered that in Canada it is estimated that 1/3 of our solid waste in landfills is from construction, demolition and renovation activities (Government construction tips).  The concept of home "deconstruction" is becoming more popular, and in places like BC, there are companies you can hire to do this for you start to finish.  Deconstruction is basically going through your house with a fine tooth comb and taking out every single item that can be re-used or recycled.  I read through this 93 page guide by the “Deconstruction Institute” in Florida and found it helpful for what is and isn’t possible to re-use.  I also found a great example of a person who did this here.  Essentially, you will find that there are all sorts of ways to decrease the amount of waste going to the dump- some of these are quite time-consuming projects (such as hardwood removal), and others are easy (appliance removal).  Braden and I were able to do most of the easy projects, but few of the more difficult ones due to the home's age and cost.

Reduce and Reuse

Braden and I were thrilled when we saw this old home on a huge lot.  The good part was the house was only 600 sq ft. This meant reduced material going to the dump in general compared to larger homes.  The bad part was that the home was built in 1920 and so much of the material had been extensively used and so were not salvageable.  If you buy a house that isn’t that old or is in good condition overall, it is feasible to sell the home and have it moved.  The huge advantage with that option is that nothing goes to waste, you save money by not having a demo fee and you may even make a little bit off the sale of the home.  The problem is that our home was in no structural condition to be moved.  I called places to see if they did deconstruction prior to demolition but this was not something any companies had heard of in Saskatoon.  Luckily, we have the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store.  They essentially have a deconstruction team!  The Re-Store came through our house and highlighted all the items they can take for re-use.  Things I thought wouldn’t be possible to take took, such as our 100 year old windows which sell at their store for people doing art projects.  Old air vents with fancy designs are hot ticket items for character homes too.  All appliances, light fixtures, coat racks, bathtubs, fences, counter tops, sinks, etc are potential items the Re-Store can take.  When their crew came, we ended up filling their truck full with items that will go straight to the Re-Store for sale and we get a tax receipt!  This was a perfect, no hassle solution which not only re-uses materials but helps out creating more affordable housing.

Recycle

Once the contents of the home have been removed for re-use, you’re left essentially with walls, baseboards, flooring, foundation and the mechanical/electrical parts of the home.  The bare bones of our home were really on their last legs and we found there was not much from here we could recycle.  So we asked a two questions: 1.  Could the item be salvaged without destroying it?  2.  Is there a demand for our salvaged item? Our hardwood floors were thin, short strips that were less than ½” thick and not candidates for salvage.  If you have hardwood flooring that is at least ½” thick and boards longer than 6’, this can be considered for re-use and there is demand for these.  After talking with the demolition crew we had coming in, we decided that given the poor structural integrity of the home, it would require essentially removing the roof and working top down to recover any good lumber from the home (which it turned out there was VERY little of).  We decided this was just not a feasible option for us but may be an option for others.  We opted not to attempt recycling shingles as we were not going to use shingles in our new home and the cost to remove them was prohibitive especially considering we didn’t know their age.  So you're probably wondering what is easily recycled?  Baseboards, copper pipes and all of the concrete in the home can be sent for recycling.  The Re-Store does not take care of these types of items, as they are quite time consuming to remove- so you have to do it yourself!

So what were the final numbers?

1 x cube van was filled with materials for re-use (fencing, appliances, fixtures, doors, windows, etc)

⅔ of the house that was demolished by weight was recycled (largely concrete)

⅓ of the house by weight was sent to the dump (plaster, knob/tube electrical, wooden structure, roof)

2 x 14’ trucks filled with old trees were sent for composting

The Lot Selection

Well, now it's my turn to write a post for all of you. Ali asked me to talk about our lot, and all of the factors that went into choosing it. We can't really talk about the lot without first going through the technology used in the Vereco home. 

The Vereco design uses passive solar heating to absorb sun during the day, and radiate it at night. The home contains a huge amount of solar mass, primarily the concrete in the home, which heats up during the day while sun is out. The solar mass radiates the solar energy that was absorbed at night when it is cooler. This reduces the heating required by the mechanical system, especially during the winter. In order to absorb the sun, the house itself needs to be in the sun.

In Saskatchewan, the sun is predominantly in the southern portion of the sky, and its height in the sky depends on the time of the year. This sun is higher in the sky in the summer, and lower in the sky in the winter; so some conveniently-placed awnings will reduce the sun intake in the summer, and keep the house cooler.

Now, the best way to maximize the sun intake is to have plenty of windows on the south side of the house. That works great on paper, but in a city, there are trees, bushes, and other houses that block the sun (interestingly hills aren’t a problem in Saskatchewan).

Clearly, a west or east-facing lot is out then? Well, it’s not out, but it’s just less desirable, and might require more creativity or planning to be really great for a Vereco house. If your lot faces east or west, you’re going to have a neighbouring house and trees on your south side which is going to block the sun. They’re not all bad though. If your lot is on a corner, there might only be an empty street on your south side, so you may get enough sun. Or, your lot might be wide, and so there’ll be enough room to get some sun.

Our West-Facing Lot

So then a south-facing lot! Maybe. The trouble with a south-facing lot comes in an older neighbourhood (where we were looking for a lot). In many of the older neighbourhoods in Saskatoon, there are City-owned trees lining the streets. While these trees are beautiful, they pretty substantially block the sun, and you can’t get rid of them.

A north-facing lot, provided it is deep enough, should give you the most amount of sun. With a north-facing lot, you can control the trees in your backyard, and ensure the proper amount of sun gets to the south side of your house.

Every lot is unique. Our lot for example faces west. This works well for us though because the lot is 50 feet wide, and we’re going to build on the most northern half. We have plenty of space for our house to bask in the sun that’s outside of our neighbour’s shade. Depending on the size of the lot, the surrounding trees, the neighbouring houses, or something else I haven’t thought of, it might make a lot better or worse for building a Vereco home on.