update on energy use

I did a gas meter reading on Jan 23, 2016 and using our current rate of natural gas use, current heating degree days and normalizing the energy use to the average number of heating degree days for Ottawa, our total annual primary energy use should come at close to 110 kwhs per usable sqm per year. The current estimated breakdown is 33 kwh/sqm/yr hot water, 35 kwh/sqm/yr heating and 31 kwhs/sqm/yr electrical consumption.

First Snow Storm

Why, oh, Why can't  the City get it. Everywhere there are sidewalks unplowed more then 36hrs after the last snowflake fell. You can see the location from the pictures, these are busy places. Get with your program City. I shouldn't have to walk on the street in competition with cars and if I was in a wheelchair or otherwise less physically mobile I shouldn't have to wait 2 days after the last flake falls to be able to get around. After all, the roads are all "very" passable.

 

 

 

 

 

energy use 331 Osgoode Street

We now have 5 months of energy use data from the triplex. All the figures are for the whole building. Average monthly electrical consumption is 712 kwh. Natural gas consumption readings from Enbridge vary widely between 25 and 200 cubic meters as each other month is estimated and I guess the algorithms are having trouble figuring out what to estimate. Average monthly use is 92.2 cu m. Converting the natural gas use to kwh and adding on the electrical consumption results in an average monthly energy use of 1678 kwh. The buildings net sqm is 270 (gross is 310 nic basement). The result is approximately 6.5 kwh per sqm per month. This does not include a winter yet, however using the current monthly average we are 77 kwh per sq m per year, well below the 120 target for a passive house building. The winter will tell if we get to below that level over the complete year, but so far it looks promising. The current average per person annualized ghg emissions are approx 400 kilograms for both electrical and natural gas use (6 people live in the building). This will go up somewhat as we go through the winter.

a thought today

Stop building more with less.....

White Pine Bungalow Passive House is the perfect energy-efficient retreat for retirees
http://inhabitat.com/white-pine-bungalow-passive-house-is-the-perfect-energy-efficient-retreat-for-retirees/

 

Pumpkin Ridge Passive House consumes 90% less heating energy than a conventional house

 

http://inhabitat.com/pumpkin-ridge-passive-house-consumes-90-less-heating-energy-than-a-conventional-house/ 

Start building less better.... 

Small Prefab House built in just 10 days

http://www.gizmag.com/castlemaine-passivhaus/35687/

front 100% finished

It's been a fun summer and the final form of the building is complete.

Landscaping is mostly complete and there is a bit of fencing to do. I have been doing most of the work myself and getting some sailing in at the same time. The utility bills are low as expected. So far our natural gas bills (hot water) average about 40$ per month for the building with all three apartments occupied. We have not yet installed the heat recovery unit for hot water in the stairwell. We will be able to use the hot air to heat the apartments on the second and third floor by just opening our stairwell door during the day. The electrical is about 80$ per month, average electrical use is 400  to 500 kwh per month or between 13 and 16 kwh per day for the 3 apartments and common space. About 1/2 the costs are delivery charges. Our tenants are wonderful and as you can see we use our terrace a lot.

settling in

We are now fully moved in and the storage pup is gone. Here are some pictures as winter moves to summer and the trees start to green up.

in the morning light

looking down the staircase

light in the staircase

spring has sprung

moving in this week

Time to start to take stock of all the good, a bit of the oops and where processes could be improved
Let's start with the processes that can be improved:
1) The minor variance / building permit issuing system is dysfunctional and can easily be improved. The staff at the two groups have quite different views of the function of minor variance. At the committee of adjustment there is an expectation that building plans are at close to 100% building permit stage when the consents and minor variances are applied for.  The building permits branch are struggling with what a minor change to an approved plan is. The current process delays projects unnecessarily. As a consequence novel and appropriate land use ideas are not being pursued by owners and developers due to the cost and time necessary to achieve the goal.
2) The fire departments, the province and city want to encourage the use of fire sprinklers in low rise residential buildings. Both the regulations and information flow at the city caused us delays and costs. It made it necessary to apply for a site plan approval with a 4" water service and then reducing it to 2" once all the engineering was completed.
3) Currently 60% of older people (empty nesters) live in a home designed for a family. The rest live in condos, nursing homes, adult residences and apartments. There are many reasons why older people don't move out, to downsize. They like:

• their neighbourhood,
• to garden,
• knowing their neighbours

Our building was designed to fit into existing neighbourhood and allow people to age in place. We have large private terraces for gardening. But to make this work we need to layer the units so that there are no stairs within the units and a private elevator to get to the unit. The current interpretation of the regulations controlling elevators makes it twice as expensive to install an elevator for small privately owned multiple units and adds an annual cost. The act was never intended to regulate elevators that are for "private use". This is a case of the bureaucracy being overly protective.

Next post will list the things that can be improved in the design to reduce costs and complexity of construction.

it has let up

We are hoping to more in before the end of the month. The stairs are in and the sun has come out with temperatures above zero. The elevator arrived and is being installed.  Finish plumbing, electrical, trim floors and paint are all at 80%.

winter's icy grip

It just does not let up. Friday morning was -26 degrees C with almost -40 windchill. The daytime high was -19, Today it is -21 in the morning and although there isn't a blizzard, it sure looks like what I remember Yellowknife looked like on many winter days.

nicer picture

siding finished now drywalling

Latest pic. Just a note, when you put the vapour barrier on the outside of the structure with the 3" of rigid insulation on the outside, it is important "not" to over insulate on the inside, particularly in the corners and floor junctions. We have had relative humidity at 60 to 65% on the inside with temperatures between 18 and 25 degrees celsius inside and -27 to -6 degrees celsius outside. I was able to inspect the surface next to the vapour barrier and enure the insulation was reduced in areas or foam was installed where we had moisture. Kind of interesting that you had to ensure you did not over insulate on the interior.

been a long time

I'll start off by saying I really underestimated the complexity of this construction. I really should have given 8 months as a target. It looks like we will be approximately 7 months. We have had quite cold weather for the last month (minus 27 degrees C  on several mornings.) We had a 1 week delay on the concrete floor pour due to the cold weather. Even then the equipment broke down twice on the day we poured. They had to come back the next day in -25 degrees C to finish it. It took 1 week to get the boiler running. As the concrete cured we had 100% humidity inside with -24 outside at night. Had to open many of the windows during the day. On the plus side, it has been sunny and the building warms up dramatically from all the solar.

On the good side we passed our final inspection with only the occupancy inspection remaining. We reorganized the work a bit. Initially I thought we would do the drywall before the concrete floors. We have done it the other way around. In addition, I might rethink which heating to energize first, the fan/coil units first and then the radiant floors, maybe. We also have installed all the doors prior to drywall so that the drywall can go right up against the door frame with no trim required. The siding will be complete this week. We tested the sprinkler and water systems all they are all leak free. The water will stay on to ensure the drywallers don't puncture the systems.

Christmas - New Years

Well, so much for the plans of moving in before the new year, but we are almost ready for drywall. The in floor hydronic heating will be installed on Jan 6th, drywall to start shortly after that. About 1/2 of the siding is complete and the City has installed a water meter and turned on the water. The interior stairs are under construction off site. They will be aluminum with a rubber tread.

moving along

The siding is being installed and we are getting ready for drywall, late Dec. Here is a pic with some of the siding

colder than normal but we are ready

The building is fully enclosed and we are starting the exterior rigid insulation with vapour barrier. The siding has arrived from Vancouver and will be delivered on site on Thursday. The large carport is fantastic for keeping materials out of the weather. Some drywall and mechanical has started and we have a 4.5 kw heater in the building to take the chill off.

Just to recap how the envelope works. We have to main zones in the building. The entry and stairwell will be kept at 5 degrees C in the winter. The stairwell has a very large southeast facing glazed area 1.8m x 9m. When the temperature gets over 5 degrees C we will start to cool it and store the heat in a domestic hot water preheat tank. Currently we are planning to use that heat only for domestic hot water as we expect the heating requirement for the building to be less than the hot water demand. The entry and stairwell are insulated in a conventional manner ( 6" batt for the most part). The wall between the stairwell and entry is also being treated as a conventional exterior wall. The other exterior walls are insulated with 2 1/2" batt inside the sheathing. The vapour barrier is on the outside of the sheathing, then 3" of rigid insulation, then tyvek, then strapping and siding. This way the building gets a full blanket of insulation and vapour barrier with no thermal breaks.

Here are some pictures with the leaves down.

Into November

The siding installer has been hired, the rigid insulation for the exterior should be here in 2 weeks, the rough in plumbing drainage is almost complete and the foam insulation is being done today and tomorrow. Rear stairs are in with railings. Just waiting to nail down the drywall installer and finalizing kitchen plans. Sylvia and I have picked the tile and the mechanical systems install will start next Monday.

One week later

The roof is complete, the underground hydro trenches, meter base and 4 electrical panels are in and approved. We started installing the rear exit stair and installed the landings. The plumbing and electrical rough in will start this week.

Almost have a roof

The roofers were able to finish the 3 small roofs before the monsoon set in for this week. The natural gas has been connected to the building, thank you Aecom, it was a bit struggle to get you there but you came through. The trenches for the hydro have been dug by me in the rain yesterday with the help of a machine (see below). The tree has been trimmed. The weather looks good to finish the main roof next week. We ordered the siding and have contracted the main insulation installer. A couple of exterior windows and doors need to be installed and the interior framing will be done by next Tuesday. The rough ins while start soon. We are now about 2 to 3 weeks behind the schedule I had hoped for, but we are still on budget.

almost there

topping off the building

Here is how she looks today

 Framer placing the last steel beam

 A house one block away, inspired by Frank Loyd Wright early 1900's