The house in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighborhood produces more energy than it consumes and shows how a high-efficiency building is also more resilient to the effects of climate change, such as extreme heat and smoke from wildfires that lingered until this fall in southwest Britain Columbia. The zero-rated home was built to standards beyond those of any building code in Canada. While they are changing, Canadian building codes have generally been developed to produce homes for cold climates rather than heat resistance, said Chris Higgins, senior green building planner with the City of Vancouver. “For so long in Canada, we’ve been focused on trying to stay warm,” Higgins said. “Now, the summers are getting hotter and we have to adapt.” The house has solar panels, seen here from above, that help it reduce energy costs. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press) The Kitsilano house and others like it show that some consumers and builders are taking adaptation into their own hands with design and materials suitable for a new climate, with the added benefit of boosting efficiency and reducing energy costs. However, many existing properties, from single-family homes to apartments to towering skyscrapers, will need upgrades to meet the challenge. A prolonged heat wave that caused temperature records to fall across British Columbia in June 2021 underscored the importance of climate-resilient housing. A BC coroner’s office report attributed more than 600 deaths that summer to record-breaking heat, finding that most people died in homes that were unsuitable for temperatures that reached 30 and above for days without relief. Outside his Kitsilano home, builder Paul Lilley explains why his insulated envelope, ensuring it has a very high airtightness rating and installing high-efficiency doors and windows means the building loses heat more slowly in winter and takes much longer to absorb the heat in the summer from a standard. Those features also mean the home’s mechanical requirements for heating, cooling and ventilation are much lower than a minimum-code building, said Lilley, principal and general manager of Kingdom Builders, which completed the home in 2021. “As the seasonal highs and lows become more extreme, this home is set up to handle it.” Several windows are covered by deciduous trees and foliage that lose leaves in winter, allowing more sunlight in while providing shade in summer. “Why build a minimal-code house now and then (it’s) an energy hog in 10 to 20 years?” Lily added. “Whereas, if you build a house like this today, if you’re going to sell it in 10 to 20 years, you’ve already got a future-proof house.” Experts say that both single-family homes and large apartment buildings must be climate-tight. (Justine Boulin/CBC) The net-zero-certified home costs about five percent more than a minimum-code equivalent would, Lilley said, even though it doesn’t have a basement. The supply of Canadian-made windows and other components certified to high energy efficiency standards has improved in recent years, he said, helping to reduce the cost of shipping materials from the more established European market. Vancouver architect Bryn Davidson agreed that the gap between the cost of building an energy-efficient home and a standard home is shrinking, at least in Vancouver. “When you look at places around the world that have adopted passive houses or other kinds of performance standards, after four or five years of doing it, you get to a point where it doesn’t really cost much more than the status quo.” he said. “And you get a payback [with] a more comfortable and durable building that also has low running costs,” said Davidson, co-founder and head of design at Lanefab, which builds energy-efficient street housing as well as larger homes. The Lanefab team has advocated for the City of Vancouver to change some rules that can contribute to overheating, such as allowing larger exterior overhangs over windows without imposing a penalty on homeowners for extra floor space.
BC leads Canada in building performance standards
While the requirements for new buildings in BC lead the country in energy efficiency, most of the housing that will exist in the coming decades has already been built, said Richard Kadulski, a Vancouver-based architect and consultant who specializes in energy efficiency. residential design and building exteriors. Many will need upgrades to keep their residents comfortable as global warming worsens. The glass-walled apartment towers jutting out into Vancouver’s skyline create a glamorous facade, but offer little protection from the sun’s energy during a heatwave. Kadulski calls the trend “glass box syndrome.” “I see how many people are desperately trying to control their overheating, putting tin foil on the windows,” he said. Experts say the glass apartments in which many Vancouverites live offer little protection from the sun’s heat. (Ben Nelms/CBC) Advances in glazing technology have created windows with a higher level of insulation and lower solar heat gain, Kadulski said, noting that their cost is falling as the domestic market becomes better equipped to supply them. Another option is to add some sort of exterior shading that blocks solar energy from entering a home, a method used in warmer climates around the world, he said. Yasmin Abraham, co-founder of social enterprise Kambo Energy Group, emphasizes that no one should be left behind in the transition to homes that are more energy efficient and resilient to the worsening effects of climate change. “We won’t achieve our goals if we don’t include everyone,” said Abraham, whose organization designs and delivers energy education and modernization programs with Indigenous peoples, newcomers and lower-income families in BC and Alberta.
Net zero by 2050
The built environment is the third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, with nearly 80 per cent of these emissions coming from heating. Canada’s Net Zero Emissions Accountability Act signed last summer commits the country to net zero emissions by 2050. That means the entire economy would either have to produce no emissions or offset them. The average Canadian spends about 3% of their income on energy, so anyone who spends twice the average is experiencing energy poverty, Abraham said. These families tend to live in inefficient homes, so failing to help them make improvements ignores significant potential emissions reductions, he said. On a smaller, less expensive scale, Abraham recommends that households looking to improve their home’s energy efficiency start with gravity mitigation. He suggests installing door sweeps and caulking any other areas where air flows in and out. Living in an inefficient home can lead to health problems, with studies linking respiratory and cardiovascular disease to the “thermal distress” that comes from not being able to properly heat and cool your home, Abraham added. Unlike the United States, Canada does not have a national strategy to address energy poverty, he said. Some programs offer rebates and financing options to improve energy efficiency, including an income-qualified program in BC, but it’s a patchwork across the country, so federal support would be key to expanding access, he said. This year’s federal budget committed $150 million to develop a national green building strategy for both new and existing buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase resilience to the effects of climate change.
