Green Edmonton

James Howard Kunstler says that we need to start building spaces that are worth caring about and living in. When we put up cheap, ugly buildings, as we so often do in Edmonton, we make our communities and homes less worth respecting and cherishing. Reinforcing this idea is Susan Susanka, author of the much acclaimed book The Not So Big House, who says that "a house that favors quality of design over quantity of space satisfies people far more than...those characteristics in  reverse."  read more... »

During a break in today’s workshop on multi-party collaboration, Acting in Concert, a colleague spotted the following graph on my laptop screen. 

“Is that a graph of our progress in environmental protection?” he asked me. I explained that it’s a graph of the 40-year downward trend in frequency of dental cavities.  read more... »

Indian Tomato Rice Soup

I'm always on the lookout for vegetarian recipes that can be made with local organic ingredients. When I get to eat straight from my garden, especially in November, I get even more excited. The rice aspect of this soup isn't so local, but I always use leftover rice, so I'm reducing food waste. Plus, it's shipped dry (from California), so the calories per gallon of diesel fuel ratio is pretty high (I can say things like that because it's already well established that I'm the world's biggest eco-nerd).  read more... »

The MCNZH foundation. The rectangle that's jutting out is the cold room, located under the front steps/landing.

A frequently asked question regarding the Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH) is: "Why didn't you use Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs) for the foundation walls?".  The short answer is: "using traditional concrete forms and innovative insulating techniques, we can achieve a much higher R-value for less money".  read more... »

My previous post regarding the problems with Taylor Munro Energy Systems was very negative.  While the problems with TMES are still not resolved, I'd like to focus this posting on a part of my renovation that worked really well:  The high efficency boiler and the heating system.  

There are three main components to the system: 1) a source of heat: the boiler, 2) something to replace my furnace: a fan coil and 3) a domestic hot water (DHW) tank that runs off the boiler.  In addition, I've done a retrofit of radiant floor heating.  This step is optional and was done to allow zone heating of different areas of the house.

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B. Heath recently sent me a link to a great local-ish company from Saskatchewan. WSE Technologies cutting-edge energy efficiency and renewable energy products. Particularly interesting is their selectio nof LED lights.

Check it out:

WSE Technologies

MCNZH - from the street (the house faces north)

This is the current color scheme/look of the Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH). The supports for the porch roof will be made of recycled gluelam beams. And of course, we'll have bicycle parking out front. Eco-travellers are welcome here.

MCNZH - Side View (from the East)  read more... »

The best two things a home builder/renovator can do in the name of energy efficiency is to insulate and seal a house. It's almost too bad, what with our culture's obsession with everything high tech. When people ask me about the Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH), they're often expecting to hear about technology's magic answers. When I start talking about insulation levels, eyes start to glaze over, but the truth is that 75% of the difference between this house and a conventional one is that it's sealed as tight as a plastic bag and it's super-insulated.  read more... »

I know what you’re thinking. You’re dreading the moment I unleash my judgement on the parent who irresponsibly allows pollution of their child’s bodies with artery-clogging sweets, over-packaged junk food, and artificially dyed and preserved confections.

Relax, that’s not how I roll. All you’ll hear from me are a few friendly pointers on how to have more fun and less guilt on October 31st. Here goes:  read more... »

I remember viewing a home on the ecosolar home tour a few years back that had just been expanded to 3000 ft.² plus a full basement.  I walked away from that home shaking my head - can we really call 1000 ft.² of living space per person green?

The Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH) is now fully framed, and it's looking pretty big on the streetscape.  We built a pretty big house, and I wanted to document some of the considerations that went into the decisions we made.

The official square footage of the MCNZH is 2280 ft.² With a full basement, that's 3267 ft.² of living space.  For four people, that's definitely more space than we need. I am not a believer in the "techno-fix".  Technology will not save us from having to make changes to our lifestyle. We will have considerably scale it down to start fixing the problems that we've caused.

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