Going off-grid in the city

Elon Musk announcing the Tesla Home Battery. Image courtesy of GeekyGadgets.

There are three utilities that conventional urban homes take advantage of: electricity, gas and water/sewage. Going completely off-grid would imply ditching all three. But primarily, when the term “off-grid” is thrown around, it addresses the electrical grid.

Electricity

It’s incredibly frustrating to open up a hydro (electricity) bill. Half the cost is for delivery and fees alone. We already pay some seriously high rates for electricity in Ontario, which are only set to skyrocket in the near-future by as much as 40%. So much of our energy is nuclear, supplied by ageing power stations and is delivered via grids and infrastructure established half a century ago. There’s no shortage of uncertainty. Sure would be nice to go completely off-grid — to smugly sigh and sit back as the politicians and utility companies mess about. 

Alas. We will be plugging in to the grid. For the following reasons:

1. Capital costs. The grid is right at our door step and so the costs to connect are fairly minimal compared what they would be if we were to set ourselves up off-grid. If we were in the country, going off-grid would be a no-brainer, since the cost to connect would be significantly higher.
2. Space. Even though our energy requirements will be 80-90% less than an average home, we would still require a decent-sized array of solar panels to power it. This can be tricky on a small, urban site.
3. Storage. Solar panels only produce energy when there’s sun. But we often demand energy when there is no sun. The supply does not always keep up with the demand, and visa versa. So there has to be a storage solution. From what I understand, the storage process is inefficient— lots of energy gets lost in the process. 

Planning for the future.

There is hope that we will be able to go off-grid (or at least become partially self-sustainable) in the near future. Tesla is set to announce their home battery technology at the end of the month. We are anxiously awaiting the details. According to theverge.com, 

“The technology promises to store things like solar energy or potentially a mix of that and cheap electricity during off-peak hours, helping keeping state power grids balanced and trim bills by 20 to 30 percent for some customers.”

That would solve our storage issues. The space for our solar panels has been ear-marked for the roof of the garage that Mark has designed in to the master plan. The capital costs would definitely be the largest obstacle to overcome. Government incentive programs would go a long way here. 

Mark has been coveting a Tesla car since its debut. And now the Tesla house.

What about those other utilities?

Gas. We will be fossil-fuel independent. Hooray! We won’t be bringing a gas line in to our house. We won’t need gas for heat or hot water. For water, we are going with an efficient electric heat-pump hot water tank. 

Water and sewage. It just makes sense to connect to water and sewage in the city — to guarantee clean drinking water and treatment of waste water. I don’t think that the building code, nor the city, would even permit otherwise. What doesn’t make sense is that we flush our toilets and water our lawns with clean drinking water. Our house will be grey-water-ready. We don’t have the capital to get it going yet, but we don’t want to preclude it. What this means is that one day, we will be able to flush our toilets with used bath water instead of clean drinking water.

In short, we won't be going off-grid. We'll be 1/3, with a lofty potential for 2 out of 3. We’ll take it. And do everything we can to future-proof our home against rising energy prices.

Working with an architect

Hey meow. I'm an architect.

When considering your options for building a new home, make sure working with an architect is one of them. In Ontario, a building under 3 stories does not require an architect’s stamp. That means you can download your own house plans off the internet or hire a draftsperson to draw them up for you. Both of these seem so incredibly inadequate to me after working with them on our house.

There is a bit of a stigma surrounding architects: they either cost too much or the build ends up costing too much because there's a disconnect between the design (architects) and the build (contractors). Do your due diligence and neither will be the case. Whether its a basement reno or a new build, consider talking to an architect. Doesn't cost anything to ask and, if they're any good, they'll help you define a beautiful space you never knew you wanted and couldn't imagine living without.

Choose the right architect and the money spent on their services will more than balance out the value and enjoyment you will get out of your house. Don’t be put off by the copious amounts of black in their wardrobes. These fine professionals are incredibly smart and generally under appreciated. They will get to know you and how you live intimately. They’ll practically become family, or in my case, will be family.

Grant over at PNP wrote a post on this very topic (architects, not fashion). Have a read.

Soft costs hit hard

As we’re getting costs and quotes in, I’m putting together a spreadsheet. There are some numbers I really dislike: the soft costs. The fees. And the HST. Oh the evil that is HST.

We initially thought we ‘did good’ by buying empty land. By doing so, we wouldn’t have the headache or the costs associated with a demolition or renovation, which could easily amount to 50K or more. HST, however, negates any potential savings. We had to pay HST on our land. If you buy a used house (even if you’re just going to demo it), you’re off the hook.

Building is expensive. The soft costs are a major culprit. Half the build cost is for services. Services which we now pay 13% on. Argh. The City of Ottawa has an $18,000 development fee they’re going to zing us with if the permit goes through. That’s on top of our $1,800 permit application. We are building a house on an urban lot. Why? What for? The $18k doesn’t even include road closures or bringing services (hydro and water) to the lot. 

The numbers are frustrating. What to do? We’re working hard on bringing our build costs down, but no matter how well we do on that end, the land purchase doesn’t change, the fees don’t change, and HST will be added. Death and taxes: what're you gonna do?

So here’s a little tip: buy land for as little money as you possibly can. Duh, right? If we wanted to build outside the downtown core, we would likely not be feeling the financial squeeze we are by buying an expensive city lot. If we took our exact house and built it in Saskatchewan, we’d immediately cut costs in half. Maybe a move is in the cards? Just jokes.

In for permit

Whoot!

Gaulhofer windows

Windows are especially important in order for us to obtain Passivhaus certification in this climate. They've got to be the bees knees. And they are. We decided to go with Gaulhofer simply because they have been tried and tested. Mark has heard nothing but positive reviews on the windows themselves as well as the service and install. These babies are Austrian-made marvels that will be be a joy to use and last a life time. They are rock solid. 

We have been working with Adrian from Hermann Timber Frame Homes. He emigrated from Austria, started a family business of building homes, and became frustrated by the lack of quality windows and hardware options available in Canada. So they started importing European building products. He's one of a handful of reps now in North America bringing these windows over.

The windows represent a rather large chunk of our budget. Doors and windows will be coming in at around $50k, without install. Yikes. Sure hope our building permit comes through, along with the preliminary modelling because those windows are now set in stone. We jumped ahead and ordered them because Gaulhofer was offering a bit of a promotion — their UPVC window line, with upgraded aluminum cladding at no additional charge. It's good that we jumped ahead too so that we're not waiting for them to arrive from across the Atlantic, which can take a good 2-3 months...

We're invested now. No turning back.

Passive House in The New York Times

Pablo Enriquez for The New York Times

There was an article published last week called The Passive House in New York. It really goes to show that the ball is rolling here in North America. I'm impressed by the mayor's initiative over there. It looks like they are poised to be at the forefront of the movement in the US.

It can be argued that Ottawa is leading the way here in Canada. Mark is currently working as the Passive House/Passivhaus (US/German) designer on a multi-unit community housing project here in Ottawa. He's working with Salus and CSV. If it achieves certification, it will be Canada's first multi-unit Passivhaus building. And how wonderful that it's 'supportive housing' and doesn't have developers thinking about how much more they can be charging for rent (as in the NYT article). He's working on another Passive House set for build this summer over in Chelsea. And there are a number of other projects in the works, by other fine folks, as well. Our project will be the first in Ottawa to actually gain certification (if we get it).

Now if only we could work on really bringing prices down. With all this momentum, a factory in China has opened up to manufacture Passivhaus-certified windows. Surely that will help. China is actually setting itself up to be the world-leader when it comes to Passivhaus builds. The factory to make these windows will be built to Passivhaus standards, becoming the world's first factory. They also have a giant hotel in the works. China doing China's thing. There's an economic drive now behind Passivhaus, which will hopefully benefit more of us in the near future.