NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT A new home on Sunwood Cres. SW is billing billed as the first new "net zero" home in the city.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
A Medicine Hat couple is preparing to unveil the first “net zero” home built in Medicine Hat as new figures show new-home builders are taking increasing advantage of energy efficiency grants.
Joel Bosch, the owner of Bosch built homes, and his wife Angela only need to put the finishing work into the 1,650-square foot home in Saamis, which they say will produce as much energy as it uses.
It will be showcased in this fall’s 2019 Parade of Homes, but the plan has been to live in it themselves. The building it also meant to showcase the company as a leader in high-efficiency construction.
“Ever since I heard the concept, I’ve been very interested,” said Joel, who took over the family business in 2016, but has worked in the sector for 16 years.
“It falls in line with where we want to take our company – it’s definitely the future of the industry – and we’re getting to be part of that.”
Recent figures from the City of Medicine Hat’s Hat Smart energy efficiency program appear to support that sentiment. Last year, few builders took advantage of grants tailored to new home builds, the uptake in 2019 is notably higher.
That’s part of a growing trend, according to Kent Pearson, who operates Advanced Energy Advisors, which is working with the Bosches, and a past president of the Medicine Hat branch of the Canadian Homebuilders Association.
“A lot of builders, more and more, are looking at energy efficiency or solar panel arrays as value added (features),” he said. “A few builders are showcasing this and asking buyers to ask questions. It’s about affordability (for homeowners) and operating costs.”
Bosch said that people have been curious about greater efficiency, reducing utility costs, but have been turned of by upfront costs or the idea of living “off the grid.”
“There was a long time when you’d have to prove to people it’s not going to be a weird looking house,” said Joel Bosch. “Now, this house will hopefully help people realize that you can have all the features you want in an attractive home.”
The 1,650-square-foot two-storey house has clean white siding that reflects heat and helps cool the house in the summer, and solar panels cover the half the roof and back patio.
Inside, the only notable difference is deep window ledges, which are 12-inches deep to accommodate double exterior insulation.
That’s rated at R36, while the attic’s rating is R60, and, uniquely, there is a R20 pad under the foundation slab.
The process, says Bosch, is to reduce energy consumption as much as possible before offsetting measures are planned.
“There’s a lot of attention that goes into the building envelop,” he said.
Most heating and cooling is accomplished via a heat pump, which works well to minus-20C, said Bosch, below which point an electric furnace kicks in.
That, combined with an electric water heater, means there is no need for natural gas service hook-up, immediately negating gas commodity, delivery and administration charges on the utility bill.
A power service connection to provide continuous power supply, but also takes off solar production that at times exceeds use, then is banked as a credit with the city utility department.
A monitoring system gives you “complete control of the house,” said Bosch.
He estimates the additional building costs to meet the net zero goal added about $50,000 to total costs, but through city, provincial and federal incentives, about one-third of that will be refunded.
That leaves about $35,000 premium to meet the standard, but also yearly savings of about $2,400 on utility bills. Even without subsidy, the extra cost would be covered in fewer than 20 years once inflation is factored in.
Angela Bosch said the motivation is not entirely financial, adding that the family is environmentally conscious.
“It’s good, but it’s not the main motivator,” she said.
The city programs offers $100 for each gigjoule of energy saved through design compared to a typical home, up to a maximum of $10,000. The average house uses about 110 gigajoules of gas each year for heating, for example, but better sealing, triple-paned windows and other measures can reduce that.
Two years ago HatSmart added a grant to supplement federal Energuide new home program, but builders already with well advanced house plans were essentially left out last year, said Pearson.
To this point in 2019 however, about half of the money has been reserved. Considering the slow pace of homebuilding in general, said Pearson, it means a higher percentage of new homebuyers are considering energy efficiency as a priority.
In other Hat Smart programs, about 95 per cent of money set aside for solar panels has also been reserved. Rebates on newly purchased high efficiency air conditioners and clothes driers are each at about 30 per cent uptake.
The program is open to all qualifying Medicine Hat utility customers who apply and submit documentation of the work.
