This report evaluates the energy, comfort, and durability performance of the proposed design over 5 distinct variants. The findings suggest significant potential for enhancing the building’s energy efficiency beyond the code-minimum standards set by the local building requirements.

The proposed enhancements outlined in this report would enable the building to far exceed the code-minimum requirements for building performance, comfort, and durability. Although we understand that Passive House certification is not one of the project goals, we have included a Improved Envelope variant to illustrate the requirements for attaining this highest level of energy performance. Although certification of the building to the Improved Envelope standard is not the goal for this building, we’ve still used the targets, methods, and thresholds as benchmarks throughout the report to provide context for the performance metrics. Even without achieving the full Improved Envelope, this standard serves as a valuable framework for assessing the building’s performance.

We have outlined the details of this assessment modeling, the key results, and our recommendations within the following pages.

Primary recommendations include:

1. Remove all fossil-fuel combustion appliances from the building and electrify all home mechanical systems including the heating, cooling, cooking, and domestic hot-water.
2. Implement air-tightness solutions on all walls, ceilings and floors. For more information, see the airtightness section.
3. Use high-performance dedicated fresh-air ventilation systems with heat and moisture recovery. For more information, see the ventilation section. Keep all ERV ducting inside the conditioned envelope and make sure that the fresh-air intake is located away from any potential sources of contamination.
4. Use a high-performance window system with triple-pane glazing and thermally broken frames. For more information, see the windows section for details on suitable products.

Read the full report ⮕