INSIDE THE HOUSING EVOLUTION by Matthew Sachs
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Urbandale builds the first home in Canada to the new 2012 R-2000 Standard
Natural Resources Canada recently announced the launch of the revised 2012 R-2000 Standard. Urbandale played a major role in this launch by hosting the event in our demo home – the first home in Canada built to the new standard.
This event was symbolic for me personally because it represented the results of several years of [...]
Live Chat Today on Ottawa Citizen Online
Today I’ll be doing a live chat for the Ottawa Citizen website on energy efficient construction. My guest panelist will be David Foster, the Director of Environmental Affairs for the Canadian Home Builders’ Association. Log in here today between noon and 1:00.
Read morePassive House VS Active House: Two Competing Visions for the Future of Homes
Passive House is a building standard originally developed in Germany that can reduce heating needs by an astonishing 90%. They reach this target by making the house extremely well insulated, virtually air-tight, and by orienting and designing the house to maximize passive solar gain. Although this concept has been slow to take off [...]
Read moreUrbandale Donating Home for Research Facility at Carleton University
I’ve been keeping this quiet for a couple of years because it was not official, but now that it’s been reported in the Ottawa Business Journal, and the Ottawa Citizen, I suppose the cat’s already out of the bag. Urbandale will be building a house on the Carleton University campus to be used as a [...]
Read moreInvesting in Efficiency as Insurance Against Rising Energy Prices
CBC news recently reported on a study that electricity prices across the country are set to rise sharply, and that we should expect to see a rise of more than 50 percent by 2020. While I personally feel that their estimate is optimistic, there is no doubt that energy prices have nowhere to go but [...]
Read moreCarleton University High Performance Housing Group
The Carleton University Engineering program has a 4th year design project that focuses on High Performance Housing. The students in the course have spent the year investigating construction techniques and technologies that dramatically reduce the energy use in homes. I’ve been very closely involved with this group of students because one of their course deliverables [...]
Read moreThe Only Company that Will Pay You to Use Less of their Product
Last week I joined a group of leading builders in Toronto to discuss what measures Enbridge can take to help homeowners reduce their gas usage. Enbridge has been actively involved in promoting energy efficiency improvements for years through their Demand Side Management (DSM) programs. (Coincidentally, I actually worked with Enbridge in developing their DSM program [...]
Read moreThe Challenges of Urban Intensification
I read a thought provoking article in last weeks Ottawa Citizen about a local infill project that has been nominated for an Ottawa Architectural Conservation Award. The article says that the development of the School House Lofts at 19 Melrose Ave. is “…infill done right: Not too tall, not too dense, and not ugly.” A [...]
Read moreSelf 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 moreWhy 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 [...]
