A Personal Story

My husband and I recently built a home in Sorrento BC. We took a chance on pursuing our dream of owning a piece of property that was large enough to support our lifestyle without breaking the bank. We sold our house in Kelowna at the beginning of the pandemic and started the build process.

We developed the land, designed, and built our home in approx. 1.5 years with a lot of help & support from our family and friends. Our goal was to build a version of our dream home that would be affordable to operate & build, have a healthy & safe indoor environment, comfortable year-round and durable for many generations to come.

Energy Efficiency Upgrade we incorporated are:

• ICF Foundation

• 2” XPS Rigid under-slab insulation

• Balloon frame construction -2nd Storey

• Service Cavity at Exterior walls for electric wiring -  all floors

• Smart Vapour Barrier – Intello

• Simple Form

• 2x6 Studs @ 24” o/c c/w R24 Batt Insulation

• Roof - R40 Batt Insulation (2x12 Rafters built down for insulation and ventilation space required and 2x4 strapping)

Our BC Energy Step Code goal was to reach Step 4 with an airtightness < 1.5 ACH50.

We decided to install a natural gas furnace and power vent gas HWT based on operating costs but plan to upgrade to electric when we can afford renewable energy to support it.

Achievements:

We managed to achieve Step 4 with an airtightness of 0.8 ACH50. That is right 0.8 ACH50! (Passive House requires 0.6 ACH so we were very happy with out results.) On average for our 2800 Sq. Ft. home our electrical bills are $60 per month and our gas bill is $40 per month. We are extremely happy with our home, and it is very comfortable, indoor air quality is very good, the house maintains its temperature for longer when the power goes out and our operating costs are a 1/3 of what our old house was.

I wanted to share our story because this is an example of a homeowner/builder project with homeowners that don’t have a ton of hands-on building experience. But our willingness to learn, attention to detail and planning was able to help us meet and exceed out goals. We also managed to receive $6000 in rebates from Fortis. This is a nice chunk of money to get at the end of a build.