Photo: Contributed
The newly constructed net zero home will be open for the public to explore Sunday, November 20 starting at noon. Built to the highest energy-efficient standards, once occupied this house will produce as much energy as it uses in a year.
The home of the future is on display now in Kelowna.
The University of British Columbia Okanagan, Okanagan College, the Wilden Group, AuthenTech Homes and FortisBC launched the Wilden Living Lab project in 2016.
Two homes were built side by side, one is called the Home of Today, which was built to regular specifications and codes while the other, called the Home of Tomorrow was built using advanced materials and systems that make it an energy-efficient home.
Since being constructed the homes have been monitored by a team led by UBC Okanagan professor, Dr. Shahria Alam. Now that both buildings have been occupied the energy consumption and the associated costs have been compared. After the initial three years, the comparative results show that the Home of Tomorrow used 67 per cent less energy and had 99.6 per cent fewer carbon emissions than its neighbor.
“Sustainable energy usage and homebuilding practices are important issues for our community,” says Dr. alert “UBC Okanagan is pleased to lend its research expertise to a project that will encourage sustainable development here at home and provide tools for others around the world to follow in our footsteps.”
The collaboration is going one step further to try and create an energy-efficient, high-performance home with the construction of a third next-generation home, built to the BC Energy Step Code’s highest level, Step 5. The house—with a high -tech building envelope that is airtight and is complete with an efficient solar photovoltaic system, top-notch energy recovery and storage systems and highly efficient mechanical systems—will achieve net zero energy, meaning it will produce as much, or more energy than it uses in a year.
The BC government has mandated that by 2032, all new buildings will have to be constructed to Step 5 regulations. With less than a decade to go, there is a major push to educate builders and construction companies about the BC Energy Step Code.
The new building code will create high insulation wall systems and airtight envelopes, but most of the improvements will be invisible to the homebuyer says Dr. Andrew Hay, provost and vice president academic for Okanagan College.
“The Wilden Living Lab is a superb initiative that can help move us forward to understanding the best approaches for energy-efficient residential construction projects that considers conservation from a wide perspective,” says Dr. Hay. “By assessing how better buildings can function in the real world, we will continue to learn and adapt new design parameters. In time, with this information in the hands of those designing, constructing and purchasing new homes, we hope to continue to demonstrate the best of BC approaches to residential construction and create momentum in the industry for green construction at its best.”
The newly constructed net zero home is located at 215 Echo Dr. will be open for the public to explore starting Sunday, Nov. 20 at 1 pm The home will remain open to the public to explore weekly, Saturday through Thursday, 1-5 pm until May 18, 2023.
“We’re excited to open this house to the community. We want people to come and walk through the home and experience the difference of a net zero house,” says Karin Eger-Blenk, CEO of the Wilden Group. “For us, the Wilden Living Lab is a place where we can make homeowners familiar with future-proof building practices and have new technologies tested out for them. The goal is to encourage everyone who’s building a home in Wilden or elsewhere to invest in energy efficiency.”
