An Eco Friendly Home

Eco-friendly homes are most definitely on the rise across the world and Calgary is no exception. People often decide to live in eco-friendly homes because it allows them to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle as well as allow them to save money on energy. These homes create equally as much energy as they take in and can sometimes even create more. In the city of Vauban, Germany the total power consumption of the city is less than the amount the eco-friendly homes and buildings create, allowing them to actually sell their energy surplus to surrounding municipalities.

While Calgary obviously isn’t on par with Vauban, there are still eco-friendly homes being built here. Avalon homes is currently building a “net-zero” home which takes in as much energy as it produces. The project, called Discovery 4 House, involves building a home that is extremely eco-friendly. This home uses renewable energy sources, mainly solar panels, that produce all the necessary heating and electricity the home needs to operate. In fact, this home has the most solar panels out of any home in Calgary. It also incorporates energy efficient appliances and LED light bulbs as well as solar thermal window shutters.

Eco-friendly isn’t limited to just reaching the “net-zero” point, but also by using certain materials in the home’s construction. The Discovery 4 home used recycled maple that was taken from a high school in Canmore and MDF was used for all the doors and baseboards in the home.
Now you might be wondering about the cost of building such environmentally conscious homes. It is true that these homes cost more than average, Avalon says these homes cost $100,000 more than their standard, not so eco-friendly counterparts. However, the company sees these eco-homes coming in on par with standard homes by 2015.

While the energy savings with these types of houses is fantastic, there remains a large gap in government compensation between “green homes” here in Alberta and and those found in Ontario. Ontario’s programs see much higher rates of government compensation for the use of “green” technologies and it’s allowing Ontario home builders to sway more people into doing their part for the environment. Hopefully these levels of government reward aren’t too far along for western Canada.

This isn’t a completely new phenomenon either: Two years ago a Calgary couple ventured into creating one of Calgary’s most energy efficient homes in the Marda Loop community. While saving money was indeed a great benefit, the green lifestyle was their main concern. “If we have the capacity to spend a little extra on technologies that will benefit the environment and our children, then we have a responsibility to take that lead in change,” says the couple.

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Referenced Articles:

Couple embraces eco-friendly home, careers – Calgary Herald (http://www.househunting.ca/eco/story.html?id=43c3573a-985c-4e9b-914d-9c16117c1efa&p=2)
Eco-Friendly home gives as much as it takes – CREB (http://www.cren.ca/content_browse/content_view?CONTENT_ID=4178&MODE=VOL_ISSUE&VOL_ISSUE_ID=2810&PUB_DATE_DISPLAY=March+4,+2010)