Spring Garden.
North York Passive Solar Eco-Home
This replacement home in North York is designed to bridge the gap between its traditional neighbours, and the contemporary preferences of the clients.
Its roof line is broken to create a contemporary re-thinking of a traditional house shape, and to facilitate passive ventilation and natural daylighting into the middle of the home - the form follows the function. A ventilated solarium on the south facade is the sustainable engine of the home. In the winter, it captures solar radiation to warm the house. In the summer, it both shades the home and produces negative air-pressure using stack-effect principles to passively ventilate the home.
On a -20°C winter day the homeowner has measured a temperature of 14°C inside the solarium – with no heating system!
This 34°C temperature differential, fuelled only by the sun, along the south wall of the house, really cuts down on the work that the heating system needs to do inside the house.
Details
Location: North York, ON
Completion: 2014
Area: 353 m², 3,800ft²
Project Lead: Craig Race
Energy Use Intensity: Actual:134 kWh/m²
Total Energy Demand Reduction from Typical: 62%
microFIT Capacity: 10 kW
Energy Generation: 10,144 kWh/yr
Alternative Energy: Generation Solar
Lighting: DarkTools
Contractor: Berkim Construction
From the client
“Paul Dowsett, Steve Socha, Craig Race and his team are phenomenal! We were looking to tear down our 1950’s bungalow and rebuild a green energy efficient home for our family.”
“We interviewed several people but found Paul on the internet. If he could design a straw bale house that was energy efficient, then he was the man to design our green house (although we did not build a straw bale house). Paul knew his green architecture and technology well and could field any of my questions with ease, insight, and confidence. . If you want to build a green home of your dreams that is one-of-a-kind then Sustainable is the team for you. I found it thoroughly enjoyable to work with the whole team. I had many ideas of my own, and they willingly incorporated them, improved on them, or suggested something better. If we ran into a problem, they could come up with creative solutions. Even the other trades and professionals that they recommended to work on our house were fantastic and I would recommend as well! They can walk you through the entire process.
We've finished and moved in and lived through a summer and winter in our new house. It was designed to use less than half the energy of a typical N.Am. house built to the same size, depending on our lifestyle energy usage. The top floor of our house is cool in the summer, only 1 degree difference from the bottom floor. He told us we wouldn't need air conditioning, but it really depends on your comfort level of heat and humidity. We got one anyways for comfort. In the winter, our walls are not cold to touch. We have a solarium that can heat up to 14C with just the natural sunlight while the outside temperature is freezing at -20C. This is just some of the many green home features.
However, be prepared to pay for the high level of service you will receive from Sustainable. We found them rather expensive, although well worth it. We've never done this before, so we wanted someone who was experienced, responsive, and easy to work with. To keep costs down, we found our own contractor to build our house (who were also excellent and have a long history of satisfied customers, although your probably won't find the company on Homestars). Although Paul's recommended builders are probably great as well, Paul was just as amicable to work with whoever we chose.
Building your own home is not something I would recommend for everyone, lots of blood, sweat, tears and risking your marriage. But if you want to make the experience enjoyable and fun, I would highly recommend hiring Paul Dowsett and his team at Sustainable”