EnerQuality, which certifies energy-efficient homes, is hosting its annual forum and awards gala on Feb. 25, 2016 in Richmond Hill, Ontario. The EQ Housing Innovation Forum will focus on the future under the theme ‘Next Gen Next 10.’ Participants will discuss the future of home building, including new requirements in the Ontario Building Code (OBC) and Energy Star for New Homes program taking effect in 2017.
Buildings are energy hogs. Nearly half the total energy consumption of commercial and industrial buildings in Canada is used for heating and cooling spaces, which contributes to 42.9 per cent of the sectors’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The Passive House concept reached a new milestone in China with the country’s first office building designed using the energy-efficient standard. The building, which is located in the city of Zhuozhou, is owned and occupied by the company Hebei Xinhua Curtain Wall, which produces Passive House windows under license for the local construction industry.
In many large, urban areas of Canada, most of the population lives in apartment buildings. In the downtown core of cities like Toronto, the proportion is up to 70 per cent. With the current trend to intensify urban areas to limit sprawl into surrounding valuable farmland, the proportion of high-rise multi-family dwellers is expected to increase.
When it comes to the energy efficiency of its buildings, Canada is something of a paradox. On one hand, the country has received its fair share of accolades for green initiatives. For example, this author was in France in September for an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) TC205/TC163 joint workshop, and received laurels for coming from the world’s only nation with a holistic building commissioning standard—Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Z320-11, Building Commissioning. On the other hand, the country recently ranked 11 out of 12 on the 2012 American Council for an Energy-efficient Economy (ACEEE) International Energy Efficiency Scorecard.
With the ever-increasing demand for efficiency in new buildings, as well as the retrofitting of existing facilities, exterior sheathing plays an integral role in reducing energy consumption and the associated carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. (This article deals with insulating, not structural, sheathing). Exterior insulation, continuous across all structural members without thermal bridges (other than fasteners and service openings), is the most thermally effective way to insulate a building. The sheathing’s thickness depends on the climate zone.
Insulating concrete forms (ICFs) offered an energy-efficient mode of construction long before sustainability was widely pursued, or even understood, in the overall building industry. In the intervening years, competing building methods have seen improvements in thermal energy efficiency, but the properties of ICF have remained virtually constant, until recently.
Ontario has signalled its intent to remain among the energy efficiency leaders in North America for new building construction in adopting American National Standards Institute/American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning Engineers/Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA) 90.1-2010, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-rise Residential Buildings.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement
1 year
Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category .
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
1 year
Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Analytics" category .
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
1 year
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
1 year
Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Necessary" category .
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
1 year
Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to store the user consent for cookies in the category "Others".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
1 year
Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to store the user consent for cookies in the category "Performance".
JSESSIONID
session
The JSESSIONID cookie is used by New Relic to store a session identifier so that New Relic can monitor session counts for an application.
viewed_cookie_policy
1 year
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin to store whether or not the user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Cookie
Duration
Description
PHPSESSID
session
This cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed.
wordpress_test_cookie
session
This cookie is used to check if the cookies are enabled on the users' browser.
__cf_bm
30 minutes
This cookie, set by Cloudflare, is used to support Cloudflare Bot Management.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Cookie
Duration
Description
CONSENT
2 years
YouTube sets this cookie via embedded youtube-videos and registers anonymous statistical data.
_ga
2 years
The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
_gat
1 minute
This cookie is installed by Google Universal Analytics to restrain request rate and thus limit the collection of data on high traffic sites.
_gat_UA-
1 minute
A variation of the _gat cookie set by Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager to allow website owners to track visitor behaviour and measure site performance. The pattern element in the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to.
_gid
1 day
Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Cookie
Duration
Description
ADV_u_id
3 months 8 days
Unique customer identifier used to track unique ad views and interactions with some ads.
IDE
1 year 24 days
Google DoubleClick IDE cookies are used to store information about how the user uses the website to present them with relevant ads and according to the user profile.
loc
never
AddThis sets this geolocation cookie to help understand the location of users who share the information.
OAGEO
session
OpenX sets this cookie to avoid the repeated display of the same ad.
OAID
1 year
Cookie set to record whether the user has opted out of the collection of information by the AdsWizz Service Cookies.
test_cookie
15 minutes
The test_cookie is set by doubleclick.net and is used to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
5 months 27 days
A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface.
vuid
2 years
Vimeo installs this cookie to collect tracking information by setting a unique ID to embed videos to the website.
YSC
session
YSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages.
yt-remote-connected-devices
never
YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
yt-remote-device-id
never
YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
yt.innertube::nextId
never
This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.
yt.innertube::requests
never
This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.
