EKOBUILT with an electric boiler,” he says. “The one downside of a log home is that it does require a little bit more energy to heat and de-winter compared to other homes. In 2006 we were spending on average about $50 a month on heating, but in 2012 we were up to about $500 a month just for the heating alone in the winter time.” “That basically caused us to reevaluate,” he continues. “We had to question what the most sustainable home would be. It couldn’t just be built using renewable, healthy materials; it also had to be inexpensive to operate. It had to be a type of home that required a little energy to keep it heated as opposed to a lot of energy, which we were experiencing with our log homes. So that caused us to transform into EkoBuilt.” EkoBuilt was conceived to create homes to the Passive House Standard – the world’s leading standard for quality, comfort, and energy efficiency. Passive Houses can be very cheaply heated with electricity – residents often spend as little as a hundred dollars per year on heating, with their refrigerators using as much or more energy as the heating system. “It’s the type of home that’s not only the most sustainable; it’s the type of home that’s going to solve climate change,” Paul says. Today, Paul and Adam continue to operate Kealey Tackaberry Log Homes, but their projects are mainly seasonal cottages. Their main business is now building passive homes with EkoBuilt. According to Paul, clients these days are drawn to that brand by the costeffectiveness. “People are mainly going with us now for the affordability,” he says. “It’s not just people that are green-minded anymore. Since the cost of energy has increased so much, and since we have an affordable way of building passive homes – and the cost is not that much different than the cost of building a conventional home – people are coming to us because they want to save
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