Passive Solar Design

When we first started looking for property, we knew we wanted a lot with southern exposure. This Lillooet Lake lot faces due south, overlooking the lake. Even though the mountains across the lake are around 8,000 feet and this property is at 650 feet elevation, we still get winter solar gain (low sun angles) on the south windows due to the fact that we have a couple of kilometers of water in front of the house.

We have spectacular views so we have designed in lots of windows in the east, south and west. This creates some design challenge, which is why we used sun path charts to determine what the heat gains would be in both summer and winter months. The charts are available on computer programs and they basically track the path of the sun and how it will hit your windows. From these charts we know that in the summer the sun’s angle is very high, so based on this latitude, we can make our decisions. This property’s location is known for extremely hot summers, so with the design and considering the sun path charts, we chose a 10 foot overhang on the south side, a six foot overhang for the west side main floor windows, and a five foot walkway above the west basement windows. The idea is that an overhang will shade the window in the summertime and reject the sun’s impact, while in the winter the low sun will hit the glass and come through to add to the energy gain in the house.

On the west side only, in addition to the overhangs we are also planning to use windows which incorporate high performance sun block glass, because the late afternoon sun will still make contact with the glass and add to the cooling load. In the winter, this location has a lot of sun hours, so based on the sun path charts and the design of our overhangs and the type of glass used, we know that we will be getting maximum passive solar gain on our south windows.

Laying Down the Foundation

We’ve chosen to use ecoStyrofoam insulation blocks for a number of reasons. One of those reasons is that it gives very good resistance to heat conducting out through the material and is extremely air tight.

I have a complicated basement. The foundation wall is 22 feet high because I’m on a steep bank of a hill. Most foundations are maybe four feet or eight feet high, so there’s some significant geo-technical challenges there. To do the forming out of regular insulation material would require quite a bit of stripping, building and tearing down which would be very time consuming. These ecoStyrofoam blocks go up pretty fast so it’s quicker to install and you don’t have to tear anything down because it’s integrated into the whole foundation.

Breaking Ground

My name is Doug Rempel and energy-efficiency has been a career as well as a passion of mine for almost 30 years. I know that the rate the world is consuming non-renewable resources is not sustainable and I have a great opportunity to do my part in moving towards a solution.

I have recently purchased some property on Lillooet Lake, BC, and have completed the plan to build a vacation/retirement home. This area is “off the grid” (no hydro power or natural gas) and so it creates some unique challenges for me in terms of energy efficiency. My goal is to build this house so that it will use the least amount of energy possible. What drives me? It is my belief that everyone needs to do their best to reduce the use of fossil fuels. It is also my desire to help others who are interested in a sustainable way of living and are looking for ways to make their homes more energy efficient. Lastly, this project is a logical extension of what I have been doing for the past 30 years, which is consulting with people building energy efficient homes.

To backtrack a bit… in 1979, as a principal of Solace Energy (now Homeworks) I worked on an airtight house in Coquitlam where the first heat recovery ventilation system in B.C. was installed. In this home, my company supplied the first airtight woodstove that took combustion air directly from outside. These concepts were incorporated into the federal R2000 program. In 1982, I completed the Super Energy Efficient Homes Technical Education Course and became an R-2000 builder and went on to build my own certified R-2000 home. This home was featured on the front page of the Vancouver Sun, which attracted hundreds of people to our ‘open house’. My house was monitored by B.C. Hydro and the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources and in the following 25 years I have never spent more than $100 per year for heating, as opposed to $1,000 per year spent on the average 3,000 sq ft home. I am still living in this amazingly draft-free, comfortable, healthy and energy efficient home and can tell you from first hand experience that the benefits of living in this type of environment go beyond just saving energy and money. I feel very blessed to live and raise my kids here – it’s been a gratifying experience. A decade later, I was involved in the sale and installation of the very first geothermal heat pump sale in Vancouver and six years later, was installing one into my own home, making it the first geothermal installation in Burnaby.  OK, so I’m an ‘energy nut.’

Anyway, this brings you up to date on me and will help you understand why I am so excited about my new project. The past six months have been spent working on plans and obtaining permits for our new house. We finally started excavating for the foundation this February and will be building over the next six to 12 months. I am planning to cover a number of energy efficiency topics in this blog and would invite anyone to respond with comments or questions. Also, if you have any ideas you think I could incorporate, I would welcome these as well.