INSIDE THE HOUSING EVOLUTION by Matthew Sachs
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Passive 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 moreGreen Mortgages
The Ottawa Citizen recently printed an article on the growing popularity of Green Mortgages – where banks offer lower interest rates or other incentives for homes that have achieved a specific level of energy efficiency. I was pleased to see the article because this is something that I have been promoting to my contacts within [...]
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 moreSolar Water Heaters – The Lonely Spinster Aunt of Energy Technologies
The conventional wisdom around marketing energy technologies has been that the only thing that purchasers care about is payback. Certainly, that’s the first question that anyone asks. The assumption is that the decision to purchase energy efficiency or renewable technologies is strictly financial, and if the technology can pass some internal hurdle rate in the [...]
Read moreIs Renewable Energy Suitable for Low-Income Housing?
There have been a number of examples of net-zero energy homes built across the country that showcase that it is possible to successfully integrate renewable energy into new home construction. The main drawback to date has been the cost, with these high-performance homes typically costing $100,000 – $150,000 more than traditional homes. Now there’s a [...]
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 [...]
Five 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.
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