Blog

Meeting with colleges of ours to discuss the process of making this project a passive house.  There are a lot of really interesting approaches to building a super efficient building envelop.   Systems like:

• Double stud walls
• Rigid insulation over standard stud wall
• Double stud walls + vapour barrier + interior plumbing electrical wall

All of these systems result in a wall that is at least 1’ thick.

(Reminds me of the Log Houses my Uncle built in the 1980s with the deep window ledges and reading nooks looking out side.)

The system we are leaning towards is the double stud wall system.  Simple, less expensive but harder to air seal. We will implement an Airtight drywall approach to sealing this building (using drywall and paint to create the vapour barrier).

A huge opportunity has opened its self up.  The city has agreed to postpone a portion of the Development cost that would upgrade the water main supply from 13mm to 19mm.  Typically projects like this are required to upgrade the water service because of additional fixtures. What we will attempt to prove is that the rainwater collection systems we have planned, combined with the single occupant of the house will mean minimal increase in water usage for the new building.  This opportunity does NOT mean that we have avoided paying the development charges.  What it means is that they have allowed us to delay the expense of the water supply upgrade until renovations/additions are carried out on the existing house.  We should also point out that this opportunity is a one off and we expect that this generous exception will not happen again.

So the rain water system is looking promising once more.  We are considering a redesign of the storage tanks right now and may opt for builtin concrete tank, instead of food grade plastic tanks.  But the system as planned will be collecting rain water into a 9m3 tank (2500 gallons).  This will be cleaned and filtered to near potable standards (including but not limited to 5 micron filter + UV + Black Carbon filter) before it is distributed to the Laundry, toilet (should we need it), and outside irrigation system.  There is some debate about using this light grey water is appropriate in the dish washer.

The City will require their water to feed the kitchen sink, bathroom sink. Laundry sink and shower.

Looking forward to seeing how this project will develop.

A productive visit with staff at Cascadia offices in both Portland and Seattle early January.  A long discussion about material supply chains and the Materials petal.  The major push is to ensure that we are using FSC lumber up here.  This is interesting because to date projects in BC, Canada have not used 100% FSC. Exceptions have been made for “Pine Beetle Kill that would have been Clear cut anyway.”  At the SFU childcare Centre  Kourosh Mahvash came up with a fascinating solution that basically involved purchasing a forest and processing the beetle kill wood with the help of a local mill.

Returning to Kelowna we connected with the Manager for Forest and Environment at Tolko, one of the local mills.  Turns out we connected to the person that had procured Pine Beetle Kill Wood for the building in Penticton.  Further discussion around sustainability and certification outlined for us the complexities of wood supply in BC and Canada.   This aspect of the LBC has many facets and angles to be considered.

At this point our strategy is to connect to Local wood, cut by Local people, milled at plants 120 km from Kelowna.  Long discussion and consideration was given to using all FSC lumber.  It is not making sense both ethically and financially to drive across the boarder to the US to purchase lumber and plywood.  Let us hope that the LBC review board sees it the way we do.

Well just got off the phone with a lady from the Living Building Challenge and we are not feeling quite as optimistic as we once were.  Some huge challenges that we need to address are:

• All black water (poo and pee) must be processed on site.  That is problem because in Kelowna it is usually not allowed to process black water onsite in residential neighbourhoods.
• Requirement for FSC certified wood is also going to be an expensive option here in BC.  We may need to do things differently.
• Providing enough electricity.  This is not difficult it just means more solar panels on the roof.  Thankfully global demand has been reducing the costs of this energy source year after year.

Last week we attended a conference in Bellingham and met a lot of interesting people building interesting things.  Of note was a fascinating discussion about the Red List presented by one of the architects from the group that designed the Bullit Center in Seattle.  The processes established to complete the material “vetting” was impressive.  One person was dedicated to the cause full time for a number of months in order to complete the tasks.  On our Carriage house we intend to keep the material selection to a minimum and thus dramatically reduce the time and energy required to complete the “vetting” process.

Of other notes from the conference was a fantastic presentation from the owner of Small Works, a Vancouver based Laneway Housing builder.  His ideas around small, efficient, prefabricated, Dwellings was inspiring.  We look forward to working with them.