Calgary landscaping contractors
A family home in calgary northwest became the first outback home to be certified by the passive house institute, considered the gold standard for sustainable concrete-based building in calgary (https://pro-home.ca/company/1165-concrete-services-calgary-inc).Anya kania-richmond says her family's nearly 2,000-square-foot home in rocky ridge is heated with special energy-saving features despite calgary's cold winters.
Their home , built by calgary-based one house green, the first in alberta and one of the few in canada to be certified by a german research institute.
Typically, a certified passive house consumes likely % less heat than traditional construction.
Kania-richmond will confidently say that the four-year process from buying a lot to moving in was not easy at every moment, but worthy of leading a more environmentally friendly image.
"Changing the behavior is somewhat tricky. We are all very comfortable in our big apartments and huge cars,” said kania-richmond, who lives in the same house as a whole echohaven with her husband and two children.
“I wouldn’t criticize someone else's lifestyle choices, but i think we're forced to admit that there is another way to do it. Sometimes there is a good way to realize the idea."
What is the difference
These are a few key differences from traditional houses.
Firstly, the outer walls are twice as thick as a typical building.
"Imagine that the user often makes the frame twice, for this reason you have an outer shell, which is a standard envelope, and then you have an inner envelope, so our window sills are probably about ... More than a foot.”
These window sills frame airtight triple glass imported from germany that welcomes the warmth of the sun.
+>"They are very, wonderfully insulated, so in winter if you sit against my wall or at my window, you won't notice the difference for sure. Absolutely no drafts."
What happens when the weather drops
Together with double walls, concrete floors absorb and store passive solar energy."The sun seeps through our windows either heats up the room. So is all passive solar energy. The thermal mass increases the ability to trap that heat."
What about cold snaps if the weather in calgary drops below -30c?
Cania-richmond says that this is such a threat only in such a situation if the sky is gray for a long period of time and in this case electric radiators are turned on.
"These radiators turned on 10 times in one to two hours per two years, materials that are here.”
She said that it usually costs more to build a house this way, but noted that they don't have monthly heating bills. .
Saskatoon homeowners celebrate the institute's first certification of passive non-residential and prairie livinghow canadians are building the largest sustainable buildings in north americathe like-minded people's quarter"
Kania-richmond house isn't the only energy-efficient home in echohaven. None of the 25 sites in the development have gas service.
all apartments in the development must be kept 30% more effective than the latest building codes and regulations in alberta.
They also need to consume much less heat than traditional houses. No greenhouse gas emissions and no rainwater management.
Seventeen houses have been built so far, even the shannon sherman house, which she calls "almost a passive house," across the way from the kanye-richmond cottage.Sherman admits she was suspicious of downsizing to an area without natural gas.
"I've lived your life in alberta, which is why we were too worried that in fact, here, it is not possible to build a building in alberta without a stove, and the client, as it turned out, but meanwhile you can. %% Of the existing natural landscape.
Affordable housing providers are building the greenest rooms in canada"we were worried we could see what the element of energy efficiency is. It was a leap of faith. We did the research and are very glad we did.”
Kania-richmond confidently says that the chance to live among like-minded people is what drew her family from the world during rush hour to this city. A sustainable community in the northwest region of rocky ridge.
"Can we do this? Can we build a home that is reasonably affordable and energy efficient?And i would say that today i am sitting here in a certified home, which is really comfortable. We're both professionals, i guess we fit the classic description of a middle calgary landscape contractors class family. And no, that's it again.
