Science and Technology for Canadians

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Summary

If you're like most people, when you hear about global warming or the ozone depletion problem, you think its such a huge problem, there's nothing you can do about it. But due to the efforts of people across the country these problems are being attacked head on. Like an engineer who won out by taking his work home with him.

Transcript of Video

Jill Deacon
If you are like a lot of people and you hear about global warming or depletion of the ozone layer, you think it's a huge problem and that there is very little you can do about it. So this week on Earth Tones we'll be looking at the efforts of some people across of the country who are going out of their way to protect their corner of the globe and we begin with an engineer who won out by taking his work home with him.

Jay Ingram
Kevin Lee and Tammy Letcher are pretty proud of their first house...

Kevin designed the charming...Victorian-style, three-bedroom home.

It sits on a quiet riverbank just south of Ottawa.

It's strictly traditional... until you walk inside.

Kevin
(+ Tammy) It certainly is different inside that what you'd expect from the outside... and that's what everybody says too.

Jay Ingram
There's nothing traditional about the technology that runs the house.

In fact... it's setting new standards for energy efficiency.

Kevin and Tammy's home uses 50 percent less energy than a conventional Canadian house....

30 percent less even than a residence built to stringent R-2000 standards...

The heating bills here are about 500 dollars... a year!

Kevin and Tammy believe saving money...

and saving the environment begin at home...

And they're keen to share their experience with anyone who wants to try it themselves.

Kevin Lee
Well this is a slightly different system than ones you see a lot of the time...

Jay Ingram
It's different from the outside... in.

This is a sample of the wall structure. Two by six's are replaced with two by fours...to save wood. That leaves room for outside insulation...instead of plywood sheets.

The wall cavity is packed with rockwool insulation... It's rated higher than standard fiberglass...and it's recycled.

The drywall is recycled too...

And the plastic vapor barrier has been replaced with special primer paint.

Kevin Lee
So it starts to become very cost effective wall as well, cheaper wood.

No plastic anymore... so you can see what as you start to do these trade-offs... there are some cost benefits also...

Jay Ingram
And windows make a big difference. Canadian window technology is some of the best in the world... Kevin didn't scrimp...

Kevin Lee
This window technology here has triple glazing, which is what we have in the house... spaces between the glazings are filled with argon gas which prevents heat loss again, low-E nascivity coatings, are places on the glazings and that... reflects the heat... and keeps it on the inside...

Each coating, each low-E coat is basically the equivalent of adding another pane of glass... so if you have three panes and two low-E you almost have a quintuple glazed window. These are obviously a lot warmer to the touch... here we can see these are insulating spacers... what this does is... it prevents condensation from occurring around the edges of the windows. Condensation's not just unsightly, it can be really unhealthy as well... you can get mold and fungus growing.

Jay Ingram
With a tight building envelope in place Kevin could be creative with the heating system. He heats the floor, and the air, with hot water...

And he doesn't own a furnace.

Kevin Lee
So in through the powder room we go into the mechanical room... where I have the condensing hot water heater that operates at about 95 percent efficiency. That hot water heats both the water for the house... and the hot water that runs through the floor to heat the floor slab... and goes up to the attic to the air handler... and provides supplemental forced air heating in the house as well.

Jay Ingram
The open concept is designed to help circulate warm air... and to take best advantage of the sun.

Kevin even did away with stair risers... to gain maximum benefit.

Kevin Lee
So this staircase and stair passage also act as our light and heat passage... where we get in the winter time, the passive solar heating and light running right through the staircase and hitting our living room downstairs keeping it nice and bright and keeping it warm. When the sun isn't doing its job, and maybe its nighttime... then we have the air handler to do its job up here.

Jay Ingram
The attic also houses an energy recovery ventilator...

It provides fresh air to the house... but it also strips the stale air of its residual heat and moisture... and that's pumped back into the system... saving as much energy as possible.

A high efficiency air filter cleans the air.

Kevin plans to test indoor air quality... but says he knows already it's good.

Kevin Lee
I am fortunate or unfortunate enough to be able to test it myself... I have some allergies... and have friends and family with worse allergies than I have and certainly since we've been in the house it's been really great for me.

Jay Ingram
There are many sources of unhealthy gases in a standard home.

Kevin chose carefully to avoid them.

The paint carries an environmental logo... and contains no solvents.

The floors are wood laminates; there is no wall-to-wall broadloom...

There is no vinyl used anywhere in the house.

All the appliances are energy-wise choices... the lights are halogen... or special fluorescent bulbs that draw less power... and last longer.

The one concession to looks... was the gas fireplace...

But shortly after they moved in... it was put to the test.

Kevin Lee
... but within a month of moving in to the house we had the great ice storm of '98...

And the fireplace that was purchased primarily for aesthetics turned out... because of the good windows and the good insulation and air tightness that we have in the house, to be more than enough to heat the house for a solid week... and keep us at 20 degrees when we had no electricity.

Jay Ingram
Kevin had an advantage...

He's a housing engineer by profession...

And he has worked extensively with Natural Resources Canada, on a variety of advanced housing technologies.

Many of the products he chose had been field-tested in government research.

That research is continuing in a brand new facility in Ottawa... the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology.

It's jointly operated by Natural Resources Canada, the National Research Council, and Canada Mortgage and Housing...

It's the first facility of its kind... in the world.

Two identical houses have been built side-by-side.

One will be used to test new systems and products... the other is a control house... for comparison.

Tim Mayo
We need to test in a whole house... because you're often looking at the whole system effect.

You change one component and you change the way the whole house works.

And manufacturers of products only have labs for testing their individual products.

So for example you can test a furnace in one lab and a window in another lab, but you can't tell the interaction between the two.

Jay Ingram
And the products tested here will eventually find their way to consumers who want to follow Kevin's example.

Tim Mayo
... the consumer is gonna benefit from these indirectly because the manufacturers are testing their products here... and the products that are successful in the assessments go to the leading edge builders... the R 2000 builders are always looking for new products and more environmental products... the more energy efficient products.

Jay Ingram
It costs a little more to build an energy efficient home...

Mayo estimates five to six-thousand dollars more... And Kevin agrees... but he says it doesn't take long to recoup those costs.

Kevin Lee
It doesn't really cost me any more. We figure we save probably about 1200 dollars a year on energy bills... that's 100 dollars a month... 100 dollars a month on my mortgage payment is the equivalent, at low interest rates these days, of about 16-thousand dollars... so on a monthly basis in terms of affordability, it's not costing me any more ...in fact, it's costing me less... so I think we've got a better house that is actually costing us the same or a little bit less on a monthly basis.

Jay Ingram
And Kevin and Tammy are right at home with that idea.

Jill Deacon
Tonight's edition of Earth Tones was produced with the cooperation of Natural Resources Canada.