REEP House rocks!

I participated in a tour of REEP House for Sustainable Living (http://www.reepwaterlooregion.ca/) on Wednesday night. REEP House is located at 20 Mill Street in Kitchener and should be visited by anyone considering buying a house or renovating one. The tour is very informative to say the least and should direct people towards redoing their home in a more responsible way for the environment and their own health.

It starts outside with native plants in the garden, driveway paving that is 9 times more water-permeable than standard interlocking bricks and rain barrels capable of holding 2000 litres which are used for flushing the toilet and gardening. Besides grey water from the bathroom sink is collected to flush the toilet. The bathroom includes a 3-litre-toilet with air suction for superior performance. A water filtration system in the basement treats the water to eliminate chlorine and other chemicals that harm appliances and human health. Skin absorbs more chlorine through a shower then we take in from drinking tap water! The tankless water heater was not new to me as it’s been around in Europe for a while but it’s new to Canadians.

For heating they have a high efficiency boiler and radiant heater as well as a geothermal heat pump which the guide admitted is more useful in rural areas than in the city where natural gas is still cheap. The energy recovery ventilator became necessary after the house was sealed off with thick insulation to regulate moisture and condensation. The programmable thermostats to regulate the three levels of the house separately are again newish in Canada but leave me in disbelief, growing up with a thermostat in every room which I still miss since I don’t want my bedroom and kitchen as warm as the living room. The ceiling fans were a neat thing so simple and effective, especially since they opened up the ceiling of the upper storey into the attic which required the rising warm air to be spread out throughout the room in the winter.

The house features a variety of windows. Windows are usually the last thing they recommend people to replace while insulation is the most important part to save on energy and make a house more liveable. The reason is that windows are fairly expensive compared to all other eco-friendly, money-saving (in the long run) adjustments possible in a house – unless of course the windows are leaking as in our apartment.

For lighting and appliances REEP house features a lot of options that might seem a bit “too much” (sensor light switches) and aren’t often necessary, as behaviour changes are cheaper e.g. switch off the light when you leave a room, or unplug the computer when you are done with it. Since fluorescent light bulbs contain mercury only LED lights were installed. They last 50,000 hours, 10 times longer than a CFL bulb and are getting better too. The initial investment can be up to $100 per light fixture but it pays off to buy a high quality LED light. The refrigerator was super awesome as the compressor is on top (instead of underneath or behind) and warm air rises without reheating the fridge from the outside. The fridge was way more insulated and can be hooked up to the outdoors to use cold winter air for cooling. It costs $7 per year to run! Besides there was a steam washing machine, induction stove and high efficiency dish washer.                       

For furniture only solid woods were used, flooring, doors, stairs etc. were built from reclaimed materials, the roof is covered with recycled polymer shingles (including from used tires) that come with a 50 year guarantee. They are just as good as a steel roof but much better than asphalt shingles.    

Now I mentioned that insulation is the most important part in a home and we thankfully talked a long time about it. While different options (rockwool, fibreglass, cellulose, polyurethane foam) were shown and savings in energy cost calculated REEP house is almost entirely insulated with that foam. Insulation is measured in R-values and the building code requirement for new buildings just went from R-20 to R-26 while REEP House has an R-38. Thankfully the guide emphasized that polyurethane foam is, though best for insulation, terrible for the environment. It’s a petroleum-based product that causes greenhouse gases worse than carbon dioxide. So instead of putting in 6 inches of that foam he recommended not more than 2 inches of foam combined with 4-5 inches of another option. Rockwool is a by-product of the steel industry, cellulose is recycled newspaper and some other stuff was recycled too. More care needs to be taken to not squish these materials when installing them or the insulating effect gets partly lost but it’s also not as permanent as the foam, if ever repairs on the electric wiring or plumbing need to be done. Besides, the off-gases from spraying in the foam are toxic.

The EnerGuide rating of REEP House went from 49 to 87 after completed renovation. It becomes exponentially harder to get a higher rating and REEP is still aiming for an 89 with more changes. Our guide had never seen a house with over 90 though. Even 49 for a century-old home is more than usual but the previous owner had done some insulation. Most of the energy savings came from the insulation of the whole house and fixing air leakages (for example around the windows!).                     

If we ever consider buying a house I am sure to be back at REEP house for advice. The energy advisors there also do home evaluations with regards to the structure of a house and what could be improved at what cost. Before leaving I exchanged a few words with the guide as we talked about cycling (of course I cycled there) and home improvements. I mentioned I can’t understand why Canadians are so slow to catch on with both of these things and he totally agreed. Good morning, Canada, it’s time for a behaviour change!