Project
How to renovate an older house as to make it a net-zero home and determine which would be best applied to a home in Kamloops, British Columbia.
Method
To determine renovations that can be made to achieve net-zero energy the following steps will need to be taken:
1. House
· Find an older home in Kamloops
· Determine current energy efficiency
· What the house is currently made from and types of utilities used
2. Renovations
· Research different methods currently used to improve energy efficiency
· Any homes in Kamloops currently achieving net-zero energy and methods used
· Which methods would be effective in Kamloops
3. Costs
· Overall costs of renovations, materials/labour
· Savings achieved from renovations
4. Application
· Which renovations would best suit house
· Energy savings achieved
Special Problems
· Climate- Kamloops unique climate might open up/ limit the types of renovations that can be made
· Access to any special materials required and will they require specially trained personal to install
· Accuracy of current energy consumption- material types currently used might be hard to identify and older material RSI ratings might be hard to find
Also
· Is it worth the cost of the renovations to achieve net-zero energy
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13 comments:
cool blog meghan. I want marks for blogging. I'll find some good info for you later. Check out Morgan Wilson's blog from last year. She did it on making older homes more energy efficient.
Hey Meghan,
Did you know that over the next year the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is building the first ever net-zero energy houses in British Columbia: one in Burnaby and one in Kamloops. Until six months after the construction completion date, these two houses will be open to the public for educational tours. They are hoping to open homebuyers' eyes to the possibilities for healthier, more sustainable housing. You might be able to follow the progress and technology used in these two houses.
Here is a web link that will give you more information on it:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/story_print.html?id=1365256&sponsor=
Here is another web link from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation that talks about approaching net-zero energy in existing housing:
http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/odpub/pdf/66060.pdf
Hope this helps!
Irene
Hey Meghan,
I found a book that looked at renovating older homes which could be helpful to you. It's called Renovating distinctive homes: the century home. It's by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. I also have a bunch of green building construction books that I am using for my own research that could be helpful to you as well. Just let me know what you think. Hope the book helps!
Hi Meghan~
Came across this Technical Proposal that might help give some ideas about the types of materials, efficiency etc.
http://www.riverdalenetzero.ca/Technical_Proposal.html
Hey
I have a "The Nature of things" dvd and did an episode on building green and there were a couple net zero houses that they showed. You should check it out. Hope this helps
Yo, Meghan I signed out "Future Energy" from the TRU Library. It covers alot of bases of Energy production. I'm finished with it now so It might be there. I think you should check it out, and you will get an idea of what to look in to further. It's by Trevor M. Letcher.
Thanks for the information everyone!
Irene-those sites were very useful thank you!
Amanda and Dan- I will contact you about those resources some time in the next 2 weeks, thank you!
Vu- that site was extrememly helpful and will be even more helpful in the next couple months thank you!
Reece- I went and checked out that book from the library, thank you it was in a section that I hadn't thought to look.
Bryan- thats a great idea, I will contact her soon. Thank you!
The project that Irene was telling you about in Kamloops is the one that the first year students are working on. I visited the Riverdale net-zero energy house last summer as part of my research. I have a powerpoint presentation about it if you would like to see it.
I would also like to see Daniel's Nature of Things video. It sounds great!
Hey I thought I would see what I could find on your topic because there are a lot of related topics for the research project. I found this site that might be helpful. It has a journal on many different applications and might be helpful:
I found an article on case study on a Break-even analysis of a pv/wind hybrid energy conversion system with battery storage:
www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy
Thank you Dale! I will contact you sometime this week regarding your powerpoint presentation.
Thank you Curt for the article you recommended it was very informative and I will definitely be using it later in my research!
Thank You
I just wanted to thank everyone for helping me out on my research topic. I thought I knew exactly what report I wanted to write about, but blogging with the class has made me realize that there is more options out there. My thesis will be the same but how I get there may change.
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