INSIDE THE HOUSING EVOLUTION by Matthew Sachs
ARCHIVE
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 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 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 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 moreSolar 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 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!
Read moreSolar Technology- So Fun Even the Crazies are Into It
I just wanted to share this pic that was sent to me by a solar enthusiast. I guess he read one of my articles on the solar industry and wanted my opinion on his “invention”. Where do I start…. well, I should try and be positive right? It shows great ummm initiative, and …enthusiasm. And [...]
Read more