HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2018-07-26, Page 10PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2018.
Lees' Walton passive house marks efficiency milestone
In with the new
Chris and Judy Lee are about halfway through the construction of their new home on the east
end of their Walton property, which, if all goes according to plan, will be the county's first
certified passive house. The frame is now up, insulated and sealed and just passed its first
tightness test, scoring below passive house standards, which is a great foundation upon which
to build. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
It's just over six weeks into the
build of what will be Huron
County's first passive house and
Walton's Chris Lee is pleased with
what he's seen so far.
Working with Devon Henry of
Brussels, Lee has been relatively
hands-on with the build, Henry said.
He added that he always has to
remind himself to bring one fewer
employee than he needs, because
Lee has always been there to lend a
hand.
Henry has been the perfect man
for the job, Lee said. The local has a
passion for doing great work and
building structures as efficiently as
possible.
For Henry, as a professional, his
passion for efficiency was borne out
of his quest to build the best house
he could. Through that process he
eventually found passive house
standards and strived to reach them
when he built houses.
Henry has built his own house as a
passive house hybrid. Many of the
elements of his Brussels -area house
are passive house -standard, but he
built it before he was completely
sold on the passive house concept,
and installed a heating system,
although he hasn't had to use it.
The initial concept of a passive
house dates back to the late 1980s in
Germany, where the first
"passivhaus" was built in the early
1990s. The term pertains to a
voluntary standard of building
applied to a house that makes it
incredibly energy efficient and
requires very little heating or
cooling.
Due to the orientation of the
building, strategic placement of
elements such as windows and
awnings and extremely efficient
insulation in the walls, roof and
windows, there is no need for a
furnace or air-conditioning unit. It
does, however, use a heat recovery
unit (HRV), which provides the
inside with fresh air without letting
the house's heat escape.
A properly -constructed passive
house is said to use 90 per cent less
energy than a standard house built to
today's building code. The
remaining 10 per cent of heat can be
provided by body heat, the sun,
appliances, light bulbs and
electronics.
Currently, the number of passive
Out with the old
Walton's Chris Lee, seen here in front of his family's generations -old farm house, is making
great strides with his new passive house construction on the east end of his property. Along
with Devon Henry of Brussels, the pair is hoping to build the area's first certified passive
house. With that level of energy efficiency, Henry says the Lees will notice a massive upgrade
immediately upon moving in later this year. (Fite photo)
house structures (the term "passive
house is not restricted to houses, but
can be used for commercial
buildings, office buildings and
apartment buildings, etc.) number in
the tens of thousands around the
world, the vast majority of which are
in Europe.
The standards for a passive house
are laid out, chapter and verse, in the
Passivhaus Planning Package,
meaning that while many
environmentally -efficient structures
may use elements from the passive
house concept, a structure must meet
certain goals in order to be certified
as a passive house.
First, the building must be
designed to have an annual heating
and cooling demand of not more
than 15 kilowatt-hours per square
metre per year, or be designed with a
peak heat load of 10 watts per square
metre.
Second, total primary energy
consumption must not be more than
60 kilowatt-hours per square metre
per year. And third, the building
must not leak more air than 0.6 times
the house volume per hour at 0.0073
pounds per square inch as tested by a
blower door.
Just last week, Lee and Henry
conducted the test on the Walton
structure and it achieved a 0.5 rating,
which is below the standard for a
passive house rating.
How Lee came to want to build a
passive house is very similar to how
Henry arrived at the concept.
Lee was on a quest to build an
efficient home for him and his wife
Judy to live in once they retire and
the deeper he got into his research
the more it seemed like he was
looking to build a passive house, he
just didn't know it yet.
It was in 2016, as succession
planning at the Walton property
began to pick up speed with the
Lees' son Brett taking over the
raceway's day-to-day operations, the
Lees started looking to build a new
house at the east end of the property,
near the newly -installed Edge of
Walton Challenge Course. Chris's
curiosity about building an efficient
home took him down a rabbit hole
where he would eventually end up
considering a passive house as an
option.
Lee began working with a passive
house engineer in Guelph and then
was able to bring Henry in on the
project from neighbouring Brussels.
One of the critical factors of a
passive house, Lee said, is to only
build the house as big as it needs to
be. The more space in the house, the
harder it is to heat and to retain heat
throughout its entire square -footage.
For a retirement home, Lee said
that he and Judy only need the
basics, but soon wanted to expand
the home slightly. They got to the
point where they were going to be
able to, by design, add a smaller
second floor to the house and not
lose any efficiency.
The house is essentially flipped,
he said, where they're adding a
basement on the top of the house, but
with windows and a view.
While the exterior design of the
house has changed drastically during
the process, the interior has
remained relatively consistent. This
is the part of the process Lee says
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