The Smart Sustainable Resilient Infrastructure Association (SSRIA) is here to present its Green Building Technologies Network (GBTN) Spotlight Series. This series will be featuring a project team once every other month until March 2023. The aim is to get to know the projects and teams working in the GBTN and support further collaboration, communication, and knowledge sharing among our members.
Our guest this month is Ecosynergy, welcome!
Project Type: Residential | Retrofit
Project Aim: Aerobarrier
Project Summary: Click here for the complete project summary
The proposed project looks to reach carbon neutrality by providing needed energy efficiency upgrades as well as installing renewable energy onsite. When complete the residence can entirely disconnect from the gas utility.
Ecosynergy’s mission is to prove that being green can be greedy. Can you tell us about the project innovation, regarding Aerobarrier?
If “greedy” is referring to “always wanting more and doing less” then yes. We believe that a sustainable house should adapt to the users rather than the reverse. Aerobarrier allows for very uncontrolled air leakage rates in homes. A low air leakage rate increases the durability of the shell of the house, helps in better control of indoor environment and make the home more energy efficient. In this project, as we wanted to keep the demolition to a minimum, Aerobarrier was installed in the finished house, rather than at drywall hung in new construction. Targeting air leakage reduced the energy requirements of the house which allowed us to size a geo exchange ground loop that fit in our back yard.
How long has the technology been around and why isn’t it more utilized in industry yet?
Aeroseal is the original product that is used to seal mechanical duct work from the inside. Aeroseal has been around for about 15 years. Aeroseal is installed in duct work the same way we install Aerobarrier, by pressurizing the ductwork and spraying some sealant within it. Aerobarrier is the same application but for whole buildings. Aerobarrier has been around since about 2017.
How was the project assessed to determine if the operations and energy savings of an Aerobarrier application was worth the initial cost of installation?
Energy modelling was done prior to the purchase of the home to understand the loads we were working with. In the energy model, the air leakage rate is included. Once we sealed the house, we saw a reduction in energy of about 30%.
What transferable skills of current trades can be directed towards aerobarrier installation? or does it require specific training?
Aerobarrier does not require any specific training as it is a full automated installation. The human scope in Aerobarrier is simply to prep the site, watch for any challenges with generator and air compressor and, once the seals is complete, take down and site clean up.
This project has a few other very interesting energy reduction components, including a ground source heat-pump system and a rooftop solar system. The combination has permitted you to “cut the gas line” to the home. Was that exciting and are there any concerns or fears there?
The house did not “reduce” its energy consumption other than by air leakage reduction. We simply took the entire load of the house and designed a ground source heat pump system that could provide it. Once the ground source heat pump is sized, we then we’re able to size a solar array that would in turn be large enough to provide electricity for the entire house: heat, cooling, hot water and all appliances.
“Cutting the gas” was exciting for sure. It is a milestone in the achievement of electrifying a house in an area that usually requires fossil fuel for heating and hot water. In this case, it wasn’t so much the gas line that was exciting, it is more the idea of making an existing home NetZero energy without demo. This was the confirmation that it worked.
Could you share a bit regarding how collaboration with the mortgage broker and realtor made this project possible?
The realtor and mortgage broker are key people to have upfront. As consultant in the industry, we obviously had to train them in understanding what this project was targeting and what it meant. An education around the future of house and how the industry is transitioning was also a large piece to get the lenders and the insurers to approve our mortgage. The broker was able to get the mortgage and a renovation loan to cover a large portion of the geo exchange system. The realtor helped us a great deal in showing us house that had everything we needed to make this project work. Roof pitch, orientation and size of back yard we’re some of the main pieces of the puzzle, but there was a lot more to consider. They both worked very hard to understand all the requirements and find a house that would work for our project and within our budget.
Will the data collected from this project provide the needed scientific support to attract future projects in embracing these innovations?
I don’t know about “scientific support”, but we will be tracking and monitoring many aspects of the house to confirm if this is a viable option for existing homes in Alberta. Some of the monitored metrics are: ground loop heat exchange from the ground to the living space in winter conditions, indoor air quality, operations cost by tracking and cross referencing the utilities, solar generation and electrical consumption of the heat pump and the rest of the house.
In your view, what will be the greatest reward or take-away from this project?
Much of the existing housing stock is due for full gut renovation which makes sense when it comes to higher levels of insulation along with upgrading all mechanical systems. But there are also many houses that are not ready for gut renovation projects and are not ready for landfill. This was our target market. The conversation around the NetZero targets across Canada is around carbon. If we were to prematurely destroy the housing stock and send it landfill to rebuild it, that would be a lot of carbon that would be discarded. This is why no demo was so important. We wanted to see if it was possible to take an existing, typical build of 2010 and make it NetZero energy with the least amount of materials to dispose of. In all, we gave away a natural gas furnace and we will have a natural gas sealed fireplace to give away soon. We also had about 50 sq ft of drywall to get rid of along with a lot of dirt in our yard, that was delivered to an acreage. The rest of the house stayed intact.
The greatest reward? That this could actually be a viable option in transforming existing houses to NetZero energy rather than destroying them.
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