Last Updated on June 5, 2021 by Showrooms Online
Energy-Efficient Homes and Net-Zero
Energy-efficient homes and net-zero go together. To achieve net-zero emissions from your home, you need high energy efficiency designed and built into the enclosure. In other words, your home needs to be net-zero ready which means close enough to make up the energy balance with some solar panels on the roof.
Understanding Your Energy Use
Deciding whether to do an energy efficiency renovation starts with an energy use audit of your home.
Understanding your energy use starts with knowing exactly how much you are using to heat and power your home. Just pull out your bills and add them up. However, it is not quite that easy,
My home has two energy sources, electricity and propane. There are baseboard heaters in every room so the house can be heated without using any propane. However, we use propane for all our heating.
The reason is cost. The propane is 30% cheaper.
Propane is priced in cents per litre and the price varies during the heating season in a range of 55 cents to 75 cents per litre. Electricity is priced according to “time of use” with the price per kWh varying by the time of day. You can’t add litres and kWhrs so I converted the litres of propane to kWhs, using BTUs.
The house uses 26,000 equivalent kWhrs of energy in a year at a cost of $3750. This is a long way from net-zero.
Net-Zero 2050
The proposed Canadian Net–Zero Emissions Accountability Act, introduced in Parliament on November 19, 2020, will formalize Canada’s target to achieve net–zero emissions by the year 2050, and establish a series of interim emissions reduction targets at 5-year milestones toward that goal. …Apr. 29, 2021
Canada will have difficulty meeting our emissions goals without a major change in the energy efficiency of new homes and the retrofitting of existing homes. The huge challenge is that over 85 percent of all existing homes do not meet the current code requirements for energy efficiency. Most of these homes will still be around in 2050.
The majority of these homes use natural gas for heating which is a “clean fuel” but only when compared to burning oil or coal. Propane is promoted as a green fuel because it is not a greenhouse gas but it still releases CO2 when it is burned. The solution appears to be a return to all-electric but the cost is far higher than natural gas. The federal carbon tax puts a price on the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Electricity as a source of greenhouse gases varies across Canada. Ontario with nuclear and hydro is over 80% clean now that the coal plants are closed. Also, BC, Manitoba, and Quebec, for example, all have electricity produced primarily from hydro.
The Deep Energy Retrofit
Existing houses will need an energy retrofit if they are to be part of the solution.
A retrofit requires increasing the insulation in the walls, the foundation,, and the ceilings. My own house is at R12 in the walls and R20 in the ceiling. Plus, it is on a slab that is not insulated.
A retrofit requires airtighness at a level approaching 1 air change per hour. My house is likely around 6 ach.
A retrofit requires triple glazed windows, low e and argon filled. My relatively new windows are double glazed.
A tightly sealed house requires mechanical ventilation with heat recovery.
A heat pump is going to be required.
The potential saving is about $3000 per year and a rough estimate of the cost of a deep retrofit is $150,000.
I can make my own contribution to the environment by simply turning off the propane fireplaces and turning on the electric heat. The total power costs will increase by over $1,000 to $5,000 per year but the Ontario power grid is far cleaner than my propane fireplaces.
Currently, my propane use is dumping about 4 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere and the carbon tax is adding $200 to my annual cost. The price of electricity opposite natural gas will result in most homeowners choosing to do nothing or opposing any change. This is not an option if we are to stop climate change.
Contact us if you would like to write a blog on your own experience with an energy retrofit. We will publish it in the interest of reaching our collective net-zero goals for 2030 and beyond.
