The phenomenon of sustainable construction is becoming more and more widespread in Quebec.
The concept of the “passive house” is part of this trend and embodies the future of the residential real estate sector, according to the president of Landmark Passivhaus, Keven Laporte, who met at the National Home Show, which is taking place until Sunday at the Palais des congrès de Montréal.
“This is the future we’re building right now!” says enthusiastically in an interview the man who took over from Jim Iredale, a Quebec pioneer in this specialty, four years ago, in addition to being at the head of Construction K. Laporte, which has been building other types of eco-responsible homes, with less stringent standards, for the past fifteen years.
The principle of a “passive house” is based on five fundamental pillars that make it possible to significantly reduce energy needs: its optimal orientation, structure, thermal insulation, airtightness, and ventilation.
“Orientation is the number one point, because the sun becomes the main heating of the house. That’s why we’re going to save up to 90 per cent of energy in heating. Then, we increase the insulation with passive walls. The waterproofing of the building is as important, if not more so, than the insulation. We also optimize the doors, windows, and ventilation system. All of this is calculated with modelling,” explains Laporte.
These particularities increase the construction cost by 8 to 10 per cent. At the moment, it takes between 15 and 20 years to compensate for the higher price through energy savings.
However, Laporte believes that it is only a matter of time before this type of house gains even more popularity, since he expects a sharp increase in the price of electricity in a few years.
“What doesn’t help right now is that the cost of electricity is very low. It is therefore not an incentive. In British Columbia or Ontario, where electricity is more expensive than in Quebec, there are more passive houses. But in five to ten years, it’s certain that electricity will practically double here, so we’ll be even more in the market and affordable for the investment made versus energy savings.”
The entrepreneur from Mont-Tremblant, in the Laurentians, has just completed the construction of his sixth “passive house,” described as “a giant thermos carefully designed and manufactured to prevent all forms of heat loss (or heat gain in the summer)” on the Landmark Passivhaus website. Laporte believes that this pace is “really good” in the current context.
Since this type of housing reduces the need for heating in winter, he points out that power outages like those that occurred this week due to freezing rain are no longer a source of concern for owners of “passive houses.”
“The house is practically self-sufficient, so if you lack electricity, like this week with the ice storm, heating is no longer a concern. If you don’t have electricity for two or three days, the house is able to retain heat, so you keep your comfort, and then when the sun comes out, your solar gain will heat the house.”
The “passive house” consumes the majority of its electricity for appliances and lighting.
To obtain official Passivhaus certification from the CanPHI Institute, the building must have annual heating needs of less than or equal to 15 kWh/m2 and total annual energy demands, including appliances, of less than or equal to 120 kWh/m2.
In comparison, a “normal” home considered efficient uses more than 100 kWh/m2 per year just for heating, according to the independent organization Écohabitation.
Local supply is increasing
To respect his company’s ecological mission, Laporte tries “as much as possible to do business with Quebec suppliers.”
“There are more and more Quebec and Canadian suppliers who sell products, such as NZP Fenestration, whose windows are assembled in Quebec. We are happy to encourage them. “It’s a start in Quebec to learn how to build passive houses and to have suppliers available.”
The NZP booth (which stands for Net Zero Performance) is located very close to the Landmark Passivhaus booth at the Home Show, in an area dedicated to sustainable construction, a sign that this sector is growing.
The president of the Longueuil, Montérégie-based company, Alain Dorais, has also noticed a growing interest in high-performance products. “The enthusiasm is really there,” he says.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
