from the ground up - The Tyee

Excerpts from the ensuing discussion in The Tyee’s comment section:Property disclosuresposted by “alive” on September 20, 2011Energy consumption is only one concern for peoplebuying a home these days.By law the previous owner must supply a list of deficincieson a disclosure form, but if it is a strata lot thatform only pertains to the interior, while the strata corportionreluctantly may provide minutes from AGM’sand monthly meetings.Sifting through those documents a prospective buyerhas to spot possible concerns that was brought up anddealt with (or not).Asking a simple question like : “How old is the roof”does not get answered that way!Minutes are by their nature short and reveal little,leaving a buyer wondering if perhaps major repairsare about to come due, and extra levies imposed.Compared to a possible levy in the thousands, anenergy bill is a small concern!Slight error.posted by “stevesatow” on September 20, 2011I am a certified Energy Advisor licenced under theNRCan EnerGuide system and I’d like to point outone small error in your article where you state that:“At one end of the stick is a hypothetical house of thesame size and location that meets the very minimumstandards for energy efficiency...”This is not completely true, because the lower end ofthe scale has nothing to do with ‘minimum’ standards.A new house, being built to today’s minimum coderequirements will achieve somewhere in the region of65 - 75 under the EnerGuide rating system dependingon the design, materials, quality of construction, heatingand ventilation equipment.Older houses, tested under the ERS system can, potentially,score zero or very low ratings, because theywere built without any insulation or attention to airtightnessbefore the advent of modern building codes.But apart from this minor error, I enjoyed your articleand agree that this is the direction we need to be going!Thankyou, Steve.Re: Slight Errorposted by “Colleen K” on September 20, 2011stevesatow, thanks for the clarification! Glad youenjoyed the article.Brown building in a green location the way to go.posted by “lowvkt” on September 20, 2011The energy efficiency of buildings is important,but the amount of energy used to travel to and fromyour home can dwarf the energy used for heating,lighting, cooling,etc. A “brown” home in a “green”location(that is accessible by transit, walking, cyclingand requiring little or no vehicle) is a much betterenvironmental investment that the greenest house in alocation that is not accessible by active transportationor public transit.So before you worry too much about building codes,consider the transportation options if you really wantto save on energy and reduce carbon.On older homes it has been common practice toaskposted by “Fish-counter” on September 20, 2011“Can I see your energy bills?”On new homes, I hate to think how many games couldbe played to sell a home with its energy footprint. Theonly eway to tell how much it will cost to heat is totry it out. It depends on the thermostat settings.85