A contemporary new show home in North Vancouver is on track to be one of the greenest in Canada; the result of a two-year project for Naikoon Contracting's Joe Geluch. The house, known as Midori Uchi, which means "green home" in Japanese, is certainly living up to its name. The building incorporates the most advanced sustainable building supplies, features and techniques, including rammed earth walls, triple glazed windows and doors, grey water recycling, rainwater recycling, ultra-insulated envelope and a solar photovoltaic (PV) system that was designed and installed by Terratek Energy.
I think it's awesome and a necessity as we move towards the future," he says of the 3 kilowatt (kW) array, which has a 5 kW inverter for future add-ons. "Everyone needs to try to incorporate some sort of renewable technology into projects," says Joe, explaining that it's all the more important, as builders are now required to obtain EnerGuide scores as required by municipalities. "Some builders still don't know what EnerGuide is, and get shell-shocked when they go to pull a permit and see that they also have to provide a rating."
Currently, the City of Vancouver requires an EnerGuide rating for every new home built in the city, and since introduction of their “green” code for homes in 2008, they have seen some of the homes achieve 80 and higher, according to Rachel Moscovich, Green Building Planner with the City of Vancouver.
"Based on the results of thousands of EnerGuide scores we’ve tracked in the past few years we are proposing to introduce a new set of energy related standards in our upcoming 2013 code, with the goal of moving the baseline to greater than 80," she says.
While not requiring a minimum rating score, the city is requiring that the buildings be designed to a higher level of energy efficiency such as better insulation, better window performance and high efficiency heating systems. The Midori Uchi house sets the energy efficiency bar high, with its anticipated EnerGuide rating of 92. According to Joe it was the solar installation that played a significant role in hitting that number. "When you get up to the levels 85 or above it's very hard to increase beyond that, but solar is one way of getting there," says Joe. "Without it, we wouldn't even be able to market this as one of greenest homes in Canada."
With above average green standards on every project, Naikoon Contracting Ltd. has become one of the most experienced and accredited sustainable home builder’s in the province, with numerous Built Green Award (recently branded the department G Award nominations, and are a past Georgie Award winner.
"It's always refreshing talking to someone like Joe and Naikoon Contracting, who is so passionate about green builds," says Vanessa Joehl, department G Program Director, CHBA BC's Environmental Stewardship Division.
Midori Uchi anticipates to meet platinum status for BuiltGreen BC standards, as well as LEED, R2000, Near Net Zero and flirting with Passive House (Passivhaus) standards. But for Joe, isn't all about the ratings or awards. "The main purpose of this project came down to the fact that we are passionate about what we do, and wanted to build the coolest house around," he says. "It's also important to us that we help educate other builders and homeowners about where construction is going."
Continued education for the Midori Uchi project includes tracking data off energy meters in the home, which will be monitoring every circuit. Joe, who will be living in the home for a year, will also be providing tours, with the last Friday of every month open by appointment for clients. A high profile open house is being planned when the home is slated for completion in early October. Visit Naikoon Contracting for up-to-date progress reports.