Along the GREEN PATH
Green home misconceptions, paybacks and tradeoffs NATHAN JONES JULIE BARNES When Andrey Kharitonov tells people that his new house is energy efficient, he gets the same response, again and again. “The first thing they say is, ‘Oh, you have solar panels on your roof?’” And although the house he and his wife, Katherina Lebedeva, have lived in for over a year is photovoltaic ready, it doesn’t have solar panels—yet—but it’s still energy efficient. Andrey once held the same misconception, until he and Katherina had Vereco Homes design a “Smart Green” home for their growing family. Ian Loughran, co-owner of fall 2018 Saskatoon HOME
Vereco, says such misunderstandings are common in his industry. A frequent fallacy he hears is that green homes can’t also be beautiful. “You can have the home that you dream of, and you can have energy efficiency together. It’s not mutually exclusive,” says Ian. That’s because most of the features that make Andrey and Katherina’s home energy efficient are things you don’t even see—such as extra insulation and passive solar design. A Win-Win For Going Green Built by Lexis Homes, Andrey and Katherina’s house has
thick, triple-insulated walls. As a result, the windowsills are deep enough to create the perfect perch for the family’s houseplants and framed photos. “It’s really convenient,” says Andrey. “Aesthetically and practically, it just works better.” Most people install just a couple inches of insulation and think they’re covered, says Ian. He adds that Vereco has done an analysis that outlines the optimal insulation levels for homes heated with both natural gas and electricity. Those optimal levels depend on house design, lot orientation and how much passive solar the house obtains,
but in general, Ian says electric radiant heated homes would be R56-R64, electric heat with an air-source heat pump would be R36-R44 and natural gas would be R36-R44 also. Andrey says that some of the features Vereco offered met with what they had already envisioned for their new home. He cites radiant heat as an example. “We wanted to have warm floors, and just coincidentally, that’s the energy efficient option.” Ian explains that radiant heating systems provide more thermal mass. “That means the house will stay cooler longer or warmer longer, depending on if
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