The Construction Source

OCTOBER 2020 Features of the home include high-performance concrete flooring and exposed timber framing. All of the timber was sourced from Austria, but was manufactured in the Okanagan. In fact, the vast majority of the suppliers and tradesmen were locally-sourced. All Elements generally prefers to partner with local companies, both because they like to support the communities in which they work, and because it limits the carbon footprints of their projects. The project lives up to the company’s environmental commitment in other ways, as well – the wall construction was energy efficient, for example, and the overhangs on the south and west-facing sides were quite extreme in order to limit solar penetration. Also, the windows were of high U-Values, the building products were formaldehyde-free exterior insulation, and the HRV system cools the house with fresh air. Kim says those features are all great, but that moving forward she wants to push the envelope even further in the direction of efficiency. She cites a more recent project as an example – a 10,000 square foot net-zero home that performs so well that on a day where it’s 35 degrees outside, it’s only 19 degrees inside, without the aid of any functioning mechanical system. “We’re using radiant floor heating to heat the floor in winter time, the windows are all passive-certified, the building is completely airtight and insulated with wood fibre insulation, and it produces as much energy as it takes from the grid.”