Building for Tomorrow

It seems today’s home owners and home builders would rather bury their heads in the sand than work at envisioning the future. Conventional, contemporary home building technology has been developed in a situation when energy for home heating was cheap. It still is cheap – but for how long?

As we make decisions about the houses we build today, we ought to be making our best guess as to what energy will cost twenty or thirty years from now, and build accordingly. But we don’t. We go to default mode, and expect implicitly that energy prices in the future will not change significantly. We all know that’s absurd, but we do it anyway. In reality, humans are remarkably uncomfortable with forward thinking.

These were the thoughts going through my mind at the information event Solar in the Southeast last Thursday evening. The South Eastman Transition Initiative had organized the event. Three southeast homeowners shared their experience with building and living in energy efficient homes. Listening to these homeowners, there was little doubt that they, at least, are convinced that most of us are headlong into a herd mentality.

An annual heating bill of $800 or $1,000 is acceptable today for most homeowners. But energy prices will go up! Then what?

Today it is practical and cost effective to build a house that can be heated for $100 annually. In Europe, where energy prices are much higher, passive house design is becoming normal. In North America, innovative builders, here and there, are building energy efficient houses. CMHC has a program promoting energy efficiency in housing. But interest in these housing technologies remains far from the main stream.

Donald and Randy Proven are strong advocates of energy efficient home construction. They have concentrated on infill housing. They have done both, built new houses as well as retrofitted old, drafty houses. Where standard construction today expects walls with R20 insulation, they strive for R60. Where many houses today have 6 air changes per hour, they strive for 0.6. Most of the heating their houses need comes from solar, but when the sun don’t shine, they do use electric heat.

Kyle Friesen, who lives near Mitchell, has put a large solar array on the roof of his house. The array is hooked into Manitoba Hydro. When Kyle’s array generates more electricity than his household uses, Hydro buys his surplus. When the sun don’t shine, Hydro makes up the difference. Manitoba Hydro does not pay much, so this is not a great money maker, nevertheless Kyle expects to recover his investment over the long haul. Kyle admits, “If I had invested this money in the Alberta Oil Sands, I would be getting a better return on investment, but” he adds, “an investment in the oil sands is not an investment in the future.”

Herman Unrau of St. Malo has had vacuum evacuated tubes on his roof for three years. He continues to be very happy with them.

If energy efficient housing interests you, there is more information on our web site southeasttransiton.com.

By Eric Rempel

Solar Heating Reduces our Vulnerability

Last week I considered solar heating as a way of heating our homes applying the usual economic grid. Solar heating makes sense economically, but its economic viability is affected by projected energy prices, the ability to add extra heat on the coldest, shortest days of the year, and perhaps a willingness to modify lifestyle, that is, to demand our hot water when the sun shines. Economics may be one reason to choose solar.

But a more powerful reason to choose solar is that a well planned solar installation decreases vulnerability. There is a vulnerability inherent in a dependence on energy generated or extracted thousands of miles away, whether that is hydro from northern Manitoba or natural gas from Alberta. One hardly needs a vivid imagination to envision an electrical power disruption. We experience some every year. The ones we have experienced always are short, but what assurance is there that they always will be?

Similar things could be said about our supply of natural gas. How many vulnerable spots are there along that pipeline from the gas field in Alberta to my house? I may not know what they are, but we all know they exist. That is simply the nature of any constructed system.

Solar thermal panels on a south facing roof may not keep us toasty warm on the coldest days of the year, but when used on a well insulated house, solar panels will maintain an adequate temperature even on the coldest days. Although a solar heating system is dependant on pumps to circulate the fluids, but the system can be designed with a special photoelectric panel on the roof to power the necessary pumps.

Perhaps the strongest argument for solar heating is that it simply is the right thing to do. It is gentle, it does not require a huge infrastructure, it affirms our link with the environment around us and it is sustainable on the long run. Heating with natural gas is not sustainable because natural gas is a fossil fuel. The amount of natural gas available is limited. Although fracking technology has made it possible to access natural gas today that was not available just twenty years ago, and although it may be that after we have exhausted the shale gas deposits, other gas may be found, we have no assurance of that. To live a lifestyle that conserves scarce resources for future generations is living responsibly.

Getting the heat we need from electricity, whether it be through direct heat or through a heat pump system does offer some sustainability here in Manitoba, where our electricity is hydro generated. However our supply of electricity is dependent on the flow of water through the Lake Winnipeg system, and who knows what impact climate change will have on that. Furthermore, we now know that building dams in northern Manitoba has an impact on the environment and the people there that has not been considered by Manitoba Hydro.

Join us this Thursday, February 23, 7:00PM at the Eastman Education Centre for a discussion of solar possibilities.

Eric Rempel

Does Solar Thermal Make Sense Economically?

Anybody who has used a black garden hose in summer knows that solar energy will heat water. But that same garden hose in winter will be useless. This has been the problem with harnessing solar energy to heat our water or our homes. In winter, when we need the heat most, the heat loss to ambient air is such that collected energy becomes useless for the heating of water. Passive solar, that is south facing windows, certainly collects solar heat during the day, but unfortunately, much of that heat is then lost at night.

But new technology has significantly changed what is possible. This new technology is vacuum evacuated tubes. Vacuum evacuated tubes make it possible to heat a liquid in a roof panel in the middle of winter, and deliver hot water into the house. In other words, technology that allows us to heat water in a useful way in the middle of a Manitoba winter now exists.

The question is how much does an installation cost and will it save me money? Well, that depends on what you want.

If you are solar dependent and want your hot shower in the morning, the necessary water will have been heated the previous day and will have been kept hot all night. Hot water when the sun is shining is relatively easy to deliver, whereas hot water first thing in the morning brings its challenges. The challenges can be overcome, but it costs money.

Furthermore, a system that can fully utilize the sun’s energy every day of the year will pay back  more quickly than a system that utilizes the sun’s energy in winter, but finds the sun’s heat in summer a liability.

In other words, a system designed to only heat water for domestic use will pay back quite quickly, especially if the homeowner is willing to accept the discipline of doing the tasks that need hot water when the sun shines. Some solar proponents say the system will pay for itself in less than four years.

On the other hand, it is also possible to design and build a solar hot water system that will keep the house warm in winter. Unfortunately such a system will not be doing anything useful in summer. In fact such a system needs to be protected from overheating in summer. It will take longer to pay back the investment in this case.

The other factor affecting the economic viability of a solar hot water system is the future price of hydro and fossil energy. We know the price will go up. We don’t know how fast.

A practical solution will probably be something in between: a system designed to deliver enough energy to only look after domestic hot water needs in December and January. This system will deliver surplus heat which can be used to heat the house as the days get longer.

Join us Thursday, February 23, at the Eastman Education Centre. A panel of solar users that will discuss their experience with solar energy.

Eric Rempel

Lights Out…

Although it was only 8:30 p.m. on February 9^th, the temperature outside had slipped to minus 25 Celsius. John and Mary were enjoying a quiet evening in their home on First Street in Steinbach when the lights went out.

“They’ll be back on in a few minutes,” declared John confidently.

Meanwhile Mary felt her way to a drawer where she found a candle. 

“Where are the matches, honey?” she called from the kitchen.

“Check the junk drawer in the utility room,” responded John.

Once a candle was lit, John and Mary huddled around it, even feeling somewhat romantic. By 10:00 p.m. the power was still off, and the temperature in the house had dropped by one degree.

“Let’s go to bed to wait this out,” said John. “We like it cool at nights anyway, and surely by morning everything will be back to normal.”

The next morning John stuck his foot out from under the covers. The cold shock quickly shot up to his groggy mind and suddenly he was wide awake. 

“Mary, wake up! The power’s still off!”

Once up and dressed in multiple layers they noticed the temperature in the house had dipped to 14 degrees.

“Let’s check the radio to see what’s happening,” muttered John under his breath.

“The only working radio we have is in the car,” replied Mary.

A few minutes later, huddled together in a cold car, they heard a Manitoba Hydro representative saying that the outage was widespread and that no one knew when the power would come back on. And, as though to comfort himself, he added, “But we know that everyone has a plan for such an emergency.”

“So what is our plan?” inquired Mary. Only silence from John.

“I know we’re out of milk,” said John, “so I’ll pop over to Extra Foods so we can at least have a normal breakfast.”

As John approached the supermarket he noticed the lights were out and no one was around.

Then he noticed a commotion around Main Bread and Butter. As he got closer he noticed a sign in the window, CASH ONLY.  “Lucky me,” he thought, “I have ten dollars in my wallet!” He managed to leave with a litre of milk in hand.

“So how do we cook our lunch?” Mary wondered after finishing their granola with milk.

“Hey, our barbeque has a cooking element on it! I’ll haul it out,” John answered cheerfully as though congratulating himself.

By evening the house had cooled to eight degrees. “Let’s go to bed early and just hope and pray for the best,” suggested Mary. “I’ll throw on an extra comforter.”

Once under the covers, John and Mary cuddled a little closer than usual to keep each other warm.

“So what do we do tomorrow, my dear,” queried Mary.

“Don’t worry, honey,” replied John, “All we need is for the power to be restored by morning.”

“But what if it isn’t?” probed Mary.

“Don’t worry, my love. I’m sure the city has a plan.”

Join us for a discussion of solar possibilities Thursday, Feb 23. 

Jack Heppner