INNOVATION November-December 2016

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This winter, the city hosts workshops for developers and trades professionals on building passive, and for citizens on how existing homes can be retrofitted. The project has won the 2016 Canadian Green Building Award, BC Region, as well as the Northern BC Commercial Building Green Award and the Northern BC Local Government Association Sustainability Award. Because of the project’s positive results, the West Moberly First Nations council has decided to build their new health unit to certified passive house standard. Two other First Nations are also considering constructing passive house standard municipal buildings and seniors housing. The City of Fort St. John encourages communities and builders to look to the passive house standard as an innovative way to reduce energy demand and create sustainable communities. In northern regions with cold winters and frequent power outages, passive design makes sense. v For more information about the Fort St. John passive house project, visit fortstjohn.ca/passive-house-project.

Construction Costs Experts say that a passive house can be built for no more than five percent more than building an average house. With the city acting as general contractor, some bids came in higher than expected, so the house did not quite make that goal. To compensate, economical interior finishing options were chosen. Not needing to buy a furnace led to additional savings. At $276 per square foot, construction of the Fort St. John house and garage compares favourably with that of other Fort St. John houses, which cost from $250 and $350 per square foot to build in 2014, depending on finishing details. Education Throughout construction, trades professionals were invited onsite to learn about the technologies being used. As a demonstration project, the house is now home to two caretakers who are building their own passive house in the community. They are the city’s passive-house ambassadors, and welcome the community into the house to show how easy and inexpensive going passive can be. In addition, the city manager and mayor spoke at the 2015 North American Passive House Network conference about the role cities can play in going passive. The mayor also attended the 2016 Liveable Cities conference in Halifax.

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Among the home’s energy-efficient features are a heat-recovery ventilator with 90 percent efficiency, triple-paned high-efficiency windows, and energy-monitoring equipment.

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