Whether new or renovated, Net Zero Homes produce as much clean energy as they consume. They are far more energy efficient than typical new homes and significantly reduce your impact on the environment. All of the house works together to provide consistent temperatures throughout, prevent drafts, and filter indoor air to reduce dust and allergens. The result is exceptional energy performance and the ultimate comfort – a home at the forefront of sustainability. It all adds up to a better living experience. 

 Exceptional Value

• A net-zero home produces as much energy as it consumes. It has been designed and constructed for optimal energy efficiency and cost.
• With a Net Zero Home, your utility bills will fall to an all-time low and stay low all year round.
• A net-zero home protects you from future increases in energy prices. Over the years, that could be a huge deal.
• Built to higher standards than conventional new homes, a Net Zero Home is more durable, with high–performance, warm windows and better-insulated walls and roofs.

Greater Comfort, Healthier Living

• A Net Zero Home delivers exceptional comfort all year round. Advanced construction methods and materials, along with superior heating, cooling, and ventilation equipment, ensure more even temperatures throughout the house.
• Exceptional indoor air quality for healthier living. A built-in filtered fresh air system reduces allergens and asthma triggers, such as dust, pollen and outdoor air pollution.
• Tightly built and well-insulated, a Net Zero Home is quieter. Outside noises such as traffic, lawnmowers, and barking dogs are virtually silenced.

Environmentally Responsible

• By purchasing a Net Zero Home, you’re helping to protect against climate change and preserve natural resources for future generations.
• Net Zero Home’s features work together to significantly minimize your household’s environmental footprint.

 Net-zero homes are an excellent option for a comfortable, energy-efficient space. By producing as much clean energy as they consume, net-zero homes are up to 80% more energy efficient than typical new homes.

To reach such impressive levels of energy efficiency, these homes need to have extremely airtight building envelopes. That means that the outer structure of the house (walls, windows, etc.) doesn’t allow the home’s heated (or cooled) air to leak out. It also means that moisture can’t get into the walls and cause problems, ensuring they stay in great shape as the years go by. For the same reasons that air and moisture can’t get in or out, noise can’t either – making for a blissfully quiet home.

So, not only are net-zero homes better built, but they’re also more comfortable for the people who live in them. All that excellent building technology results in a home with more even temperatures in every room. And thanks to the ventilation system (an HRV or ERV)—designed to bring fresh air into bedrooms and living rooms and take stale air out of kitchens and bathrooms—the air quality is top-notch! Pollen and dust are drastically reduced, and the air inside the home is kept circulating and clean.

RND Construction has been building and renovating homes in Ottawa, Ontario, for 29 years and is a Qualified Net Zero Builder. Their primary focus is providing homeowners with sustainability, comfort, and style.

They incorporated these elements into a beautiful new home in one of Ottawa’s most desirable neighbourhoods. Designed by renowned architect Christopher Simmonds, The Crestview reflects the neighbourhood’s architecture with a modern feel. Its roof has a traditional pitch, but the home has cleaner lines, upgraded finishes, and contemporary colours that today’s homeowners seek.

The home, a finalist in the Net Zero category of the 2019 CHBA National Awards for Housing Excellence, is undoubtedly a showstopper. Natural finish white oak flooring brings warmth to the home’s modern palette of greys and whites. The kitchen is designed for function and hosting. It has a large island that comfortably seats four, with a wraparound gas fireplace that extends into the spacious living room. The main floor has 9′ ceilings, the master ensuite features a soaker tub, and even a pet bath area in the basement.

The Crestway challenges the common perception that extremely energy-efficient homes lack style. Qualified Net Zero Builders know how to build comfortable and gorgeous homes and give you the energy efficiency you’re looking for in a new home so that you can feel good about your family’s impact on the environment.

To learn more about Net Zero Homes, visit www.NetZeroHome.com.

 

Every part of a Net Zero Home works harmoniously to create the ultimate energy-efficient living space. Every aspect of the home, including the building envelope, mechanical systems, and renewable energy systems, works together to ensure peak performance. Through advanced “building science” techniques, technologies, and products, builders can significantly reduce a home’s energy consumption.  “family’s you’re home’s today’s neighbourhood’s Ottawa’s they’re can’t can’t can’t home’s doesn’t household’s home’s you’re are the three main components of a net-zero home.

Most Canadian homes use roughly half of their energy consumption on space heating. Net Zero Homes, on the other hand, use only about a quarter of the energy of conventional homes on space heating. Why? Well, Net Zero Homes have a superior building envelope. The building envelope is considered the “shell” of the home because” use i” separates the indoor and outdoor environments. It includes the home’s overall airtightness and the insulation of the exterior walls, floors, ceilings, foundation, and high-performance windows and doors. A net-zero home’s superior build-in slopepe is highly airtight and uses a significant amount of insulation to reduce heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer. This keeps heated or cooled air from leaking through cracks and holes to the outside, so less energy is needed to heat and cool the home. Further, the improved building envelope of a net-zero home makes it more comfortable. It eliminates drafts, helps maintain even temperatures throughout the home, and blocks out exterior noise, such as traffic, barking dogs, and lawnmowers.

Since the “shell” of a Net Zero H” me is “so much better than that of a conventional home, the mechanical systems, including the space heating/cooling, water heating, and ventilation, are typically smaller (adequately sized for the house), and more energy-efficient models are used. A net-zero home’s heating and cooling system is usually done by an electric air source heat pump with a backup natural gas or electric furnace. The home’s hot water is heated by a condensing water tank or an instantaneous tankless water heater. To ensure exceptional indoor air quality, a mechanical ventilation system brings filtered fresh air into the home and removes stale air. As such, the filtered fresh-air system reduces allergens and asthma triggers like dust, pollen, and outdoor air pollution for healthier living. And finally, Net Zero Homes come equipped with an energy monitoring system that allows the occupant to see how much energy is being used (some are capable of helping you find where phantom energy usage is coming from) and if the home has a renewable energy system installed, it will also show how much energy is being generated.

Net Zero Homes produces as much clean energy as they consume using on-site renewable energy systems. The most commonly used is a roof-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) system, also known as solar panels. Solar panels are reliable and require little ongoing maintenance. It’s easy to estimate the amount of electricity they’ll produce annually. If the battery system has not been installed, electricity goes directly to the utility grid, in a power credit process agreement with the utility called “net metering.” Anet-zeroro home cause “e net metering to offset its energy consumption, breaking even annually – hence the term “net zero”. Most net-ze” o homes “n Canada produce a surplus of energy in the summer and need more energy than they can make in the winter, using the solar “credits” made in the s “mmer to “offset the energy required for the winter. Alternatively, some Net Zero Homes use batteries to store the electricity generated on-site to power the home during peak hours, blackouts, and sometimes even to charge an electric vehicle!

CHBA Qualified Net Zero Builders and Renovators understand how to incorporate these building techniques into a well-built, energy-efficient home that is comfortable and efficient.

To learn more about Net Zero Homes or to find a Qualified Net Zero Builder/Renovator in your area, visit netzerohome.com. Plus, follow CHBA Net Zero on Instagram to see a variety of Net Zero/Net Zero Ready Homes and all they offer!