INSIDE THE HOUSING EVOLUTION by Matthew Sachs
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Self Cooling Buildings
I found this interesting article in the New York Times archive on Self Cooling Buildings. The concept is to use passive ventilation techniques, some of which have been used for centuries, to avoid the need for air conditioning.
Read morePreparing Your Home for Winter
We had our first snowfall in Ottawa last week, and while it’s still a little early to get excited about the coming ski season, it’s a good reminder that it’s time to do some annual home maintenance. Here’s some practical advice to make sure that your home is ready for the next four months of [...]
Read moreThe Future of the R-2000 Program
The R-2000 program is a Canadian labeling program for “Best In Class” energy efficient new homes. Although the program has been around since 1982, it represents only a small fraction of new homes built in Canada since the high level of construction detail is difficult to achieve for many production builders. Urbandale has been building [...]
Read moreUrbandale Takes Home Some Sammy’s
Last Wednesday Urbandale took home 3 awards at the Greater Ottawa Homebuilders Association Sales and Marketing Awards (the Sammy’s). We got the Sammy for Best Builder Website, Best Environmental Model Home, and Most Innovative Marketing Display.
The Best Environmental Model award felt good because the model was built to the same standards as all of our [...]
Why Are R-2000 Homes Healthier to Live In?
Health Canada has been studying the health of people before and after moving into new R-2000 homes and non-R2000 homes. Their results clearly indicate “that people who moved into R-2000 houses found that their health improved more than those who moved into conventional houses.”
Urbandale R-2000 homes are healthier than conventional houses because they have improved [...]
Solar Shingles – Part II
In my last post I described Nanosolar’s thin film solar cells. DOW has taken this concept one step further with their PowerHouse Solar Shingles. There isn’t that much information available about this product yet, but DOW claims that they install just like a standard asphalt shingle so they significantly reduce installation costs.
Although I couldn’t find [...]
The Future of Solar Panels
It looks like Nanosolar is the first company out of the gates with a process that “makes it possible to produce 100x thinner solar cells 100x faster”. The technology is in fact so impressive that it won the Popular Science Innovation of the Year and Green Tech Grand Award.
Read moreFive Sins of Greenwashing in Housing
Green is in, and savvy businesses in all fields have been making some pretty bold environmental claims in their advertisements in the hopes of cashing in. It can be difficult for purchasers to tell when these claims are genuine, and when they are simply greenwashing.
Read moreGreen Building Ottawa Conference “Retrofit – Sustainability for the Future”
The June issue of Ottawa Construction News had an article on a presentation I gave at Carleton University’s Green Building Ottawa Conference. (Actually, the article attributes the quotes to Michael Sachs, not Matthew, but trust me it’s me!).
Read moreThe Kitchen as a System
Whirlpool is using systems thinking to re-invent the typical kitchen to make the most of waste heat and water. This design is said to use 70% less energy and be 24% cheaper to run… and hell… it looks pretty sexy to boot!
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