The First Demo House from Ecohome was the Kenogami House in Northern Quebec, and at the time of its construction it achieved the highest LEED score ever. And though it is not Passive House Certified, it still exceeds all the PH performance standards.
The Kenogami House holds the highest LEED score achieved in Canada (106), meets Passive House performance of 15 kWh per square meter and won a Home of the Year Award from Green Builder© Media.
The Kenogami House is almost entirely passively heated, it is powered by photovoltaic solar panels, and was called the most resilient house in North America by the Resilient Desig Institute.
Along with its unprecedented achievements, the Kenogami House continues to act as a laboratory for resilient, cold climate building practices. Through software energy modeling it was determined that the Kenogami House would likely require 14.6 kWh of heat per square metre per year, but its actual performance seems to be even better.
What was learned in the first winter, is that aproximately 4 hours worth of heat captured from the sun could provide approximately two days of the home's heating requirements. Regardless of outdoor temperatures hovering around -15°F (-25°Celsius) and no supplementary heat, with a day of full sun the Kenogami House achieved interior temperatures as high as 26.9 °C (80.5 ºF), a temperature where many people will have already turned on their air conditioners.
During average winter conditions of temperature and cloud coverage for the Saguenay region of Quebec, the Kenogami House had its heating system turned off for a 10-day stretch in February, yet maintained indoor temperatures well above 70°F (the mid 20s °Celsius) and dropped only to 68.7 °F after consecutive overcast days.
To balance temperatures through the home, unheated water is pumped through the concrete slab floor to help transfer the warmth of the sun absorbed on the south side to the north end of the house, also making sure rooms exposed to the sun do not overheat.
Many pages detailing the construction, energy systems and performance can be found by entering Kenogami in the keyword search tool.
