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Site 1 Bragg Creek Energy Efficient Home
Large home in the foothills made entirely with ICF (insulated concrete forms).
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The homeowner/builder, Frank, explains the features and shows an album of construction pictures.
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Explaining the exposed timber frame arches.
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Lovely view of the foothills from a vaulted living room.
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Its going to be lovely when it is finished.
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Site 2 Bragg Creek Passive House
This home in Bragg Creek was built to Passive House standards and is very efficient.
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There is no basment as this is located very near the river. Here is the main living space.
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The second floor with a small TV area at the top of the stairs.
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The home has some lovely features.
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This home is net-zero ready. The roof is sloped for solar.
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Site 3 Wolf Willow NZE Home
A net-zero energy show home by one of the larger homebuilders.
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Lovely open-concept living/dining/kitchen area.
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This home won an award for the best interior decoration in a show home.
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A suggested use of one of the basement rooms is a massage studio.
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The mechanical room featuring an heat pump water heater, drain water recovery, and air source heat pump for cooling and heating.
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Site 4 City of Calgary Composting Facility
The Calgary composting facility is the largest of its kind in Canada.
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There was a presentation on composting in a classroom on the second floor that overlooked the main tipping floor.
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City employee Michelle, explains how composting works to the visitors.
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Examples of what can and cannot be put into the compost container and samples of compost.
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The curing shed where the compost is aged.
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Site 5 Haysboro NZR Retrofit
This home is getting a major makeover and energy efficiency improvements.
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They used an expanded polystyrene building material with included steel studs to build the new walls.
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The building system is easy to build with and provides very good insulation.
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This closeup shows the raceways that are left for electrical. Note the vertical line of glue between sections.
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There is going to be a lot more open space in the rennovated home.
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Site 6 Westgate Solar and EV Home
The Westgate home focussed on transportation. The home is walking distance to the LRT.
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An electric cargo bike that can carry 400 lbs or two children.
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Their main electric bike with seats for two children.
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Their Tesla charging in the garage. Their solar system on the garage is connected to their EV charger.
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The small shed on the left is their "bicycle garage". Note the grey radon removal pipe on the center right of the house.
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Site 7 Ramsay Garage Suite
This homeowner added a net-positive garage and garage suite behind his older home in the Ramsay neighborhood.
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There are solar thermal and photovoltaics on the roof sufficent to more than offset the energy needs of this garage and suite.
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The solar installer was on hand to show how the system worked.
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Here is a model of the solar thermal system showing the collectors, circulation valves, and the solar powered pump.
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Hot water from the garage is piped through an insulated underground duct to the old house to supplement their heating.
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Site 8 Airdrie NNZ Home These homeowners are working at upgrading their home to net-zero energy and they are almost there. |
Homeowner, Sherry, explains some of the features of the home.
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Homeowner, Adrian, showing how he is reducing heat loss with simple curtains and extra insulation.
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The air source heat pump water heater creates hot water very efficiently.
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They have added an air source heat pump for heating and cooling and have disconnected the gas from the home.
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Site 9 Airdrie NZE Geothermal Home
This home has been rennovated to net-zero energy with a minimum of construction disruption.
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Amelie, the homeowner, welcomes visitors to her home and explains what there is to see.
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In a video, Amelie, the homeower explains how the home was sealed using an aerosol sealant. An example is on the plywood piece.
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They added a ground source heat pump for heating and cooling (it also supplies hot water).
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With the house sealed, and the ground source heat pump, they were able to get to net-zero energy by adding sufficient solar to the roof.
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Site 10 Balzac Solar and EV Home
This estate home featured a discussion on electric vehicles.
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There were two electric vehicles and a plug-in hybrid SUV to see.
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There were materials showing the CO2 efficiency of switching to electric vehicles.
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The home also had solar photovoltaics, a solar thermal collector (black on side of the house), and a wind turbine (not shown).
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They also had a lovely back yard and garden with a large water feature.
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Site 11 Macewan NZE Retrofit Home
This home was the first CHBA certified net-zero retofit.
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The homeowners were on hand to describe the features of the home.
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Homeowner, Peter, describes the cold climate air source heat pump.
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Here is a sample of the additional insulation that was added to the exterior of the home.
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The garage was built with a large south-facing roof for solar. There is additional solar on the roof of the house.
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Site 12 Rocky Ridge Solar Home
This home demonstrated some of the energy-efficiency features of a newer home in Rocky Ridge.
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The homeowners are very happy with their electric vehicle.
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The basement is not finished yet which let people see the substantial wall insulation and the drain water heat recovery pipe.
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The home has a large solar installation on the roof. Here is the solar inverter in the electrical room.
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This home demonstrates that a newer home can be built efficiently.
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Site 13 was not available in 2023
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Site 14 Highwood NZE Retrofit Home
This older home recieved a net-zero retrofit. Sam was on hand to show the features of the home.
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Part of the update to the home was to update the interior finishes.
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The home had a small addition off the kitchen but it was not efficient. This update improved the insulation of the entire home including the addition.
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An air-source heat pump was added for heating and cooling, and the gas line was disconnected.
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Solar was added to the roof of the house and the garage to get to net-zero energy.
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Site 15 Balmoral NZE Home
This net-zero energy home in Balmoral was built as a multi-generational duplex.
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The main floor at the front of the home was built for mom. Note the concrete floor which provides passive solar heating.
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The second floor and the back of the home are for the homeowners. They also have a concrete floor for passive solar.
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The home does not have a heating system. It maintains its heat so well that they only need to use two small electric space heaters in the winter.
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They also have bees in the backyard. Apparently there is a service that will set up and manage a bee hive for you in Calgary.
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Want to see more?Here are the links to the 2023 Edmonton and Lethbridge tour pictures.You can also see our 2021 virtual tour videos on the Videos and Definitions page. |