Electrify LO has lauded the benefits of clean, renewable energy in the home through electric heat pumps and solar energy. It’s also worth considering other home energy upgrades that reduce energy waste such as sealing air leaks, adding insulation, or upgrading windows. More extensive retrofits on existing homes or new builds can use passive home design to dramatically reduce the need for heating and cooling. The net zero home uses many of the principles of passive home design and produces more energy in a year than it uses.
REDUCING HOME ENERGY LOSS
According to ENERGY STAR, homeowners in Lake Oswego on average save 20% on their heating and cooling bills after adding insulation and sealing air leaks. These upgrades also reduce other costs by reducing the size of your heat pumps or the number of solar panels you install.
Homeowners may also be able to reduce the cost through financial incentives. Current incentives can be found at the Energy Trust of Oregon (ETO) website.
PASSIVE HOME DESIGN
For more extensive retrofits and especially for new homes, energy use can be reduced using passive house design, a type of energy efficient building construction which dramatically decreases the need for heating and cooling.
Passive home principles, developed in the 1990s, reliably deliver a 90% reduction in heating and cooling demand. The specific elements include:
- An airtight building envelope
- High-quality continuous insulation without gaps to minimize air leaks
- High-performance triple pane windows
- Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery that filters incoming air by exchanging heat with the outgoing air
- Passive solar orientation of the house itself that takes advantage of the sun’s energy
- Energy efficient mini-split heat pumps for heating and cooling
Passive homes maintain heat for many hours after a power outage as the figure below shows. A passive home with a small generator, in fact, might keep a home comfortable for days in an extended power outage.
For More Information on Passive homes.
View a great webinar Passive House Basics presented recently by Solar Oregon that includes information and updated standards specific to the Pacific Northwest.
Passive House in 90 seconds – a short video explaining Passive House design principles.
Passive House Northwest is a group of Certified Passive House Consultants and other individuals and organizations whose goal is to promote highly energy efficient construction through implementation of the passive house concept.
PHIUS is committed to decarbonizing the built environment by making high-performance passive building the mainstream market standard.
NET ZERO ENERGY HOMES
Net zero homes use many of the elements of passive homes. They are air-tight and well-insulated with high-performance windows that prevent energy loss. They reduce energy use by incorporating natural light, LED light fixtures, ENERGY STAR appliances, and extremely energy-efficient hot water heaters. They add renewable energy, usually solar panels with battery storage as well as a connection to the power grid that enables them to draw energy from the grid when their panels are not producing enough or their batteries have been expended. They contribute clean energy to the grid when they are producing an excess of power. Over the course of a year, they produce as much or more energy than they use, becoming “net zero energy.”
The Lake Oswego Electric Home and Vehicle Fair welcomed three sustainable residential building design/construction firms this year—Birdsmouth, Green Hammer, and TaylorSmith Sustainable Construction. All three renovate and expand homes as well as build new homes and accessory dwelling units. They build both passive and net-zero energy homes.
Passive and net zero energy homes are also remarkable for their exceptional air quality, durability, noise reduction and low maintenance. They are often built with nontoxic, sustainable, and recycled materials and these contractors also minimize waste during construction.
Read about a net zero ready remodel on Southshore Blvd and an all electric home on Lake Oswego.