Understand Your Home as a System

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		The pieces of your home are interconnected, from the heating and cooling to the building envelope, the windows to the lighting. Everything works and responds in relation to other aspects of the home, including the behaviour of the occupants. Recognizing and working with these interconnections is key to making the right changes in the best order to truly maximize your home's energy efficiency. Affordability When you understand your home as a system, it becomes easier to see the value of passive energy saving practices, like closing curtains to keep heat in (or out), draftproofing, having the correct sized home for your needs, and upgrading insulation. Most of these are inexpensive, (or free), ways to reduce your energy needs and use. If you are planning an energy efficient renovation, it’s best to start with a home energy audit. Audits are relatively inexpensive and will identify key weaknesses and strengths specific to your home. Auditors can also help point out incentives and rebates to make your changes more affordable. Cost savings Determining which changes are most needed, and the order in which to address them, you can save yourself a great deal of money and time. Health & comfort Design that works the way you work is part of designing for efficiency. This includes choices like where to locate light switches and the type of fuel you use for heat. An efficient house is a healthier and more comfortable house. Environmental considerations Saving energy is beneficial to the environment, and saving energy with the least amount of resource input is doubly beneficial. Working out a plan for your home that recognizes how it functions as a system could save you from making unnecessary changes, making less efficient choices, and wasting materials.

What you need to know

• Passive changes are the most energy efficient place to start. Start to use your window coverings effectively, draftproof your home, take advantage of solar heat and light gains, reduce heat build up indoors during the summer, and turn out unnecessary lights.
• A home's energy systems are interactive, so before you do any renovations or make big changes, it's best to have a trained energy advisor to come in and assess the whole home as a unit.
• Before you have an audit, make note of uncomfortable areas in your home and any issues like drafts or condensation. This will help you and the auditor find problem areas in your home.
• ENERGY STAR's home improvement website can help you identify problems and some solutions.
• When you are ready to renovate, it's important to hire a contractor with experience in energy efficiency and sustainable building.
• Before you hire anyone, get word of mouth recommendations and interview a few before settling on a contractor who appreciates whole home efficiency, has experience with sustainable building, and understands your needs.
• For more ideas, read ENERGY STAR's Ten Tips for Hiring a Heating and Cooling Contractor.
• The Light House Sustainable Building Centre website provides an abundance of information, resources, and links for all things green building related in B.C. In addition, you can search their database to fine green building contractors.
• Thermal Imaging Assessment is a useful tool that is now available in parts of B.C. These assessments use an infrared camera to identify where your house in leaking heat or has moisture issues.

Taking it further

For new homes, you can design the whole system to work together effectively from the start, or look for a home built to recognized sustainable standards.

• Built Green is an industry driven voluntary program that promotes green building practices for new construction that reduce the impact that building has on the environment. Built Green certified contractors are specifically trained in green building. Search their directory for a Built Green certified contractor in your area.
• LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Homes is a third-party certification program and an internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of new high performance homes. LEED has a certification process for contractors of many kinds to become Accredited Professionals (AP). Search their directory for a LEED AP in your area.
• R-2000 is a voluntary standard for new construction developed by the Natural Resources Canada Office of Energy Efficiency. R-2000 represents a way of building homes, not a specific home design. R-2000 homes are built to a series of strict technical requirements for energy efficiency, indoor air quality and environmental responsibility. R-2000 builders take extra training in advanced design and construction techniques. Only licensed R-2000 builders can offer you an R-2000 home.

FAQ

Our furnace needs to be replaced with either a newer furnace or a heat pump. How can I decide on what is the best choice for my situation?
Upgrading your heating system might be necessary for your home, but that is not the place to begin thinking about making your home more energy efficient – or more comfortable. Start by investigating your insulation and draftproofing. If you are lacking insulation in some areas, or need to draftproof, making those changes first could make a significant difference to the size and type of heating system you require. Approaching retrofit logical order will give you the most efficiency with the least waste of time, money, or energy.

We aren't in a position to do any large renovations or upgrades, but we still want to make our house as efficient as we can. What are the least expensive or most cost effective measures to take?
Fortunately, passive heating and cooling measures (meaning changes that don't involve mechanized heating or cooling), are the best place to start working on whole home efficiency. You can start by shifting behaviours, like using blinds and drapes to keep heat in or out, depending on the season, turning off lights and electronics, taking shorter showers, and using appliances most efficiently. These changes are free and can make a big difference in energy use.

There are also small, relatively inexpensive changes you can make that could pack a wallop in terms of saving energy, depending on your situation. Draftproofing tends to be the most cost effective retrofit you can do, and it works to keep you more comfortable all year round. Other cost effective changes include: switching to energy efficient lighting, putting lights on timers or sensors, putting your electronics on power bars, and, keeping your heating system well maintained.