efficient-heating-systems / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

LEED for homes rating system.
LEED Homes

What is LEED?

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an internationally recognized rating system for commercial buildings and homes administered by the CaGBC (Canada Green Building Council)  to encourage sustainable building practices. While the commercial program has been in effect for much longer, LEED for Homes C...

The LEED rating system
LEED Homes

The LEED rating system

  There are 8 LEED categories with a total of 136 available points, and a minimum amount is required to achieve certification. This point threshold is determined by the size of the house compared to the amount of bedrooms. To encourage increased housing density, homes with more bedrooms per total square foot have lower...

High efficiency wood stoves
Wood stove and biomass heat

Heating with wood and biomass fuel

There has been an increase in the use of wood and other biomass fuel for heating homes across the colder parts of North America & Canada for the last decade. In Eastern Canada and the USA in particular this trend was largely triggered by one storm in 1998. There was a noticeable spike in woodstove sales in 1999 thr...

Ductless mini-split air source heat pump installed in a LEED certified PH Home
Heat pumps, geothermal and AC

How mini split heat pumps work in a LEED or Passive House high efficiency zero net energy home - video

How well does a mini split heat pump work in a LEED or Passive House certified home?  Really well as it happens, see a great example of a split system heat pump installation in the Edelweiss LEED Platinum V4 Home below: The Edelweiss House has a radiant floor to keep our feet comfortable but we rely on a Mitsubishi Mr....

LEED Silver mid-rise in Gatineau, QC.
Lifestyle, location and commuting

Sustainable building practices create prosperous communities

This post is courtesy of Hutchinson Builders Sustainable building practices are doing more than just helping the environment - they are also helping to create stronger and more prosperous communities. This is according to the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), with its chief executive Romilly Madew explaining ...

Compare Heat Pump Ratings SEER v HSPF v SCOP v COP
Heat pumps, geothermal and AC

Heat Pump Efficiency explained - The definitive guide to SEER vs HSPF vs (S) COP Heat Pump Ratings

SEER v HSPF v COP (& SCOP): Understanding Heat Pump Ratings Many people are considering making the switch to a heat pump, for a variety of different reasons, including the heat pump grants available in Canada and the USA to offset the cost and the potential cost savings of buying and installing a single unit that c...

Hydronic heating system
Delivery: radiant, forced-air and decentralized

Hydronic heating

Similar to electric baseboards, hydronic heating systems facilitate zone heating as you can keep different rooms at different temperatures. Though different from electric resistance heating, hydronic systems are ultimately still using electricity to generate heat, so all the same environmental realities apply. Heating ...

Blower Door Tests - What's the Cost & Who Does Them?
Air and vapour barriers

What is a blower door test? What's the cost? How do you find a company to do one?

What is a blower door test? Blower door tests are becoming part of many State and Provincial mandatory building codes - the new BC Energy Step Code in British Columbia, Canada is one example.  A blower door test is often an essential part of a home audit, we don’t know for sure just yet if it will be part of the free h...

Wood frame Triple-glazed, argon-filled windows in the Ecohome Demo House
Windows and doors

Choosing windows - which window frame? wood v aluminum v vinyl

Material choices for window frames: Window frames can be made from a variety of materials offering different levels of performance and insulation values. Air in the cavities between panes expands as it heats up and contracts as it cools, which puts pressure on the seals and frames. When we speak of durable and sturdy w...

heat pumps in tandem with heat pump hot water tanks
Heat pumps, geothermal and AC

Increased efficiency with heat pumps working in tandem

Our previous update covered aspects of the building envelope, which allowed us to reduce the annual heating requirement to about the Passive House standard of 15 kWh per square meter. Windows are a part of that but they are also part of our energy performance strategy. The house is laid out south facing to maximize pas...

Off-grid LEED Gold house in Low, Quebec
LEED Homes

Canada Ranks as the top country for LEED green building for second year in a row

Washington, D.C. and Ottawa, ON — (July 22, 2015) — Today, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced that Canada ranks first on USGBC's second annual ranking of the Top 10 Countries for LEED, the world's most widely used and recognized green building rating system. The Top 10 list highlights countries outside o...