r-value / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

Insulation slows the rate of heat transfer, helping keep homes warmer in winter and cooler in summer. How well-insulated your home is will determine how comfortable it is and how much you will spend on energy for heating and cooling, and in some respects, how durable it will be. The transfer of heat (or heat loss) occu...

...R-value required by the ASHRAE 90.1-2010 energy standard for each climate zone. In addition to the rated R-value, this modelling then also took into account the temperature dependent R-values of stone wool and aged polyiso insulation, their different thermal masses, and the colour of the roof surface. As shown in Figur...

Naikoon Contracting Ltd. is embarking on a new residential project that's expected to achieve some of the highest green residential construction standards in the country. "Our goal is to take current green residential building standards to the next level by employing some of the most advanced sustainable systems and ec...

Preventing flood damage in basements is a hot topic as we are regularly seeing the effects of climate change in the form of extreme weather events and unpredictable weather patterns. Snow melt combined with torrential spring rains can lead to very high water tables and consequently, sewage backflow is an increasing dan...

The following are some things to think about while evaluating a home before making an offer. If you're a driver: Check the route from the house to your place of work on Google traffic maps to estimate how much time you will spend in a car every day. If you're a cyclist: Check maps for bike lanes, bike paths and general...

...R-value building envelope without many of the problems associated with double-stud wall construction. Not only is it a great wall system for new green home building incorporating a double-stud wall design but it is also ideal for deep energy refit high-efficiency renovations of existing home walls.  It is a popular wal...

There are no LEED certified builders, only LEED certified buildings. To build a home to LEED certification is something that is accessible to anyone, no accreditation is required to undertake the process. It is simply a matter of registering your project and successfully completing the requirements of the program. Why ...

...R-value, so the kind folks in the window industry have come up with equivalent R-values to simplify things for us. So don't tax yourself by trying to figure out both. The higher the R-value number, the better insulated the product is. Keep in mind, neither the U-value nor the R-value account for passive solar heat gain...

Why fix a leaky toilet flapper? Another of the jobs that sat on my Honey-Do-List for quite a while longer than I care to admit has been to fix the leaking toilet flapper in the bathroom at the cabin - made worse by us being off grid and only having a relatively small amount of water available in our outside rainwater c...

Why pay for a green home certification? As more people pursue high efficiency green home rating certifications, they become increasingly well known and trusted. Consequently, more people seek them out. Developers build smarter homes when consumers demand them, and the existence of certification programs raises the bar ...