132: Smart, Green and Beautiful Homes

Saskatchewan is right in the middle of Canada and is one of the coldest places where a large number of people live. Through his company, Vereco Homes, Ronn Lepage produces smart, green and beautiful homes. If it can be done in this harsh environment, surely it can be done wherever you live.

Vereco Home Values

I like any building company that not only has values, they’re proud of them, live and operate by them and share them…

  1. COMMITMENT TO THE ENVIRONMENT
  2. SERVICE EXCELLENCE
  3. INTEGRITY
  4. RELIABILITY
  5. RESPECT
  6. INNOVATION
  7. PARTNERSHIP
  8. FUN
  9. FEES

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Comments

3 responses to “132: Smart, Green and Beautiful Homes”

  1. mcutlerwelsh Avatar
    mcutlerwelsh

    Thanks Elrond, and I see that Lloyd Alter has picked up on Martin Holladay’s commentary of the origins of the ‘superinsulated house’ here too: http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/everything-i-ever-knew-or-said-about-green-sustainable-design-was-probably-wrong.html.

    They agree with you regarding windows. Keep them small.

    The relevance of orientation-specific glazing seems to still be up for debate. http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/gba-prime-sneak-peek-reassessing-passive-solar-design-principles

  2. With reference to Robert Dumont, this conference paper from 1978 is well worth reading: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/sites/default/files/Passive%20Solar%20Heating%20-%20Rob%20Dumont%20-%201978%20.pdf
    The super insulated house clearly outperforms the “passive solar” house in terms of both energy and comfort.

  3. Great to hear more from Saskatchewan, where MVHR was invented by Harold Orr and the Saskatchewan conservation house – forerunner to passivhaus.

    Using low g-value (solar gain co-efficient) glazing might be recommended in that climate for west facing windows, but I would discourage using glass with less than 0.5 g-value generally as it starts effecting the light transmittance too (looking slightly brown or tinted). Better to reduce window sizes to reduce solar gain if possible.

    Not convinced that achieving passivhaus airtightness of 0.6ach is more expensive than 1ach though. It’s not like you can design for 1 or 0.6 or anything else… You design and build to be airtight!

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