A panel of local experts say that net-zero homes are here, and you can get them for the price of a fancy kitchen.
About 100 Edmonton-area residents came to MacEwan University Thursday night for a free panel discussion on the state of net-zero homes in Alberta, organized by the Solar Energy Society of Alberta and Green Energy Futures.
Net-zero homes are the future in our carbon-constrained world, and they're a lot further along than people think, said host David Dodge, a former Gazette reporter and host of the Green Energy Futures show.
"You can build a net-zero home today and can do it economically today. That's very exciting."
Landmark Homes is now building 14 net-zero townhouses in Edmonton at about $465,000 each, Dodge said. The price difference between these homes and their equivalent regular ones was just $37,000.
That's less than what people spend tricking out their kitchens in some homes, said panellist Shafraaz Kaba, an architect with the design firm Manasc Isaac.
"The misconception out there is that it's very expensive when it's not," he said.
"You can really now choose a net-zero home as an idea between a granite countertop and really nice bathroom fixtures."
Still kind of fringe
Net-zero homes are homes that produce as much energy as they consume during a year, resulting in zero net greenhouse gas emissions, Dodge said. As buildings account for approximately 40 per cent of our emissions, net-zero homes could make a big difference in terms of climate change if they catch on.
Net-zero homes immunize you against the risk of future fuel price shocks and take care of your utility bills for the next 36 years, Dodge said. They can also be beautiful.
But they're still a fringe concept, said panellist Dave Turnbull, product development manager with Landmark – although his company plans to produce nothing but net-zero-ready homes by the end of next year (homes that will be net-zero if you add solar energy to them), just 25 of the 1,000 it did this year qualified as net-zero.
"That does not make it mainstream."
Part of the problem is consumer attitudes toward energy, Turnbull said: it's cheap, so why bother saving it?
"Why shouldn't we?" is his response. We know we're running out of oil and gas, and climate change is barrelling towards us like an oncoming, accelerating train.
"Isn't it time we do something about that?"
Another problem is attitudes among trades-people, the panel said. Many are trained to work fast to get more jobs done, and more supervision is required to do the precision work needed for net-zero homes.
Landmark has started making its homes in pieces in a factory to ensure it gets this level of control, Turnbull said.
Developers are another issue.
"Almost 80 per cent of the lots that we've built on are east-west," Turnbull said. North-south facing lots are best for solar power, but developers hate them as they're tough to sell. Careful solar system design can get around this problem, however.
Solar is still the big-ticket item when it comes to getting a home to net-zero, Turnbull said. The province could help by letting owners sell solar power back to the grid at a premium.
Alberta could get more net-zero renovations off the ground by following Ontario's lead and requiring all home sales to list the energy efficiency rating of the house, Turnbull said. That would change the way people look at a home's price and could encourage more renovations.
We have the technology for net-zero homes, Dodge said – now, all we need is the public awareness.
"Who wouldn't want a home that uses half the energy that it uses now?"
Visit greenenergyfutures.ca for more on net-zero homes.
