Comments on: A Unique Solar Powered Community in Canada

By: babysteps

babysteps — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 20:09:13 +0000

I can really tell when people comment on this project who are not from Canada, let alone from the Prairies. I’m doing my MSc in Sustainable Energy and one of my Profs was instrumental in designing this community. Some people are commenting on why they didn’t use Radiant heat rather than a heat exchanger. I don’t know the “mathematical” answer, but the prof who helped develop it, is VERY aware of radiant heating, and has built other projects in town and all over Canada using radiant heat technology. The garages are detached due to trying to maximize solar gain due to our lower solar angle in the winter months. The reason for the wide “white” coloured alley is to take advantage of the reflected solar gains it will achieve on the garage north of the alley and again the solar angle issue (mostly due to latter). Although the angle of the solar panels are designed to capture primarily direct sunlight (vertical panels would capture the reflected solar much better…).
Another interesting note is that this article states the community is 90% efficient in providing building and water heat, however that figure is closer to 95% today. Every year the efficiency has gone up and they believe that in a few more years, the community could be 100% efficient.

Of course people will always say it’s token, but hey that’s freedom of speech.

NB: And just an FYI, in Alberta, there is probably only 2.5 months of the year that we don’t use natural gas to heat our homes (and 12 months of the year to heat our water), so to have 100% heat efficiency is a huge achievement for our climate. Heck even 75% would be monumental in my opinion.

By: Solar

Solar — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:58:54 +0000

This is quite interesting story. This is a fact that now Solar energy is the one of the best source of green energy. The Homes like this is the drastic chenges in the United states.

By: Nelly

Nelly — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 02:24:00 +0000

Im not wtohry to be in the same forum. ROTFL

By: Desmond

Desmond — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 08:16:49 +0000

Very encouraging to see how many projects are actually getting built now using sustainability principles. As students of Architecture in the 1970′s we just dreamed about it one day becoming main stream.

By: James Klich

James Klich — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:44:41 +0000

I bet this would work great in Hawaii. I wish we had more new homes like this in the United states.

By: andar909

andar909 — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:48:13 +0000

hi, andar here, i just read your post. i like very much. agree to you, sir.

By: Ommid Saberi

Ommid Saberi — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:38:13 +0000

It is a great development, fantastic job. Better if the houses are not repeated with the same shape. Some changes in height or form could make a sense of identity for each house. The renewbles technologies could be a beauty not only our energy servants. (Ommid Saberi 28 July 2008)

By: jneville

jneville — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:57:40 +0000

It is a start. When I saw the link to the story, I thought it was about a community running on solar energy. I was disappointed to see it was just a group of housing with solar heating. It would have been impressive to read about a community that was off grid with PV and thermal solar – along with non-fossil fuel vehicles, local shops, local foods, etc. It\\\’s coming…we hope. Visit http://www.SustainableArizona.org for more ideas.

By: DRJG

DRJG — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:44:01 +0000

That was wonderful to see some beginning.

By: chrisp68

chrisp68 — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:31:35 +0000

it’s called waste having the houses that close and not attaching them! You could easliy get the last 10% of the heating plus some left over for electric for the homes. How normal is to have an detached house right next to your neighbor? they should have put all the garages in one location and only foot paths to the homes. that would force you into the outdoors, which everyone could use more of… cold or not.

By: ecoaussie

ecoaussie — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:39:13 +0000

Great story.

By: pixelpusher

pixelpusher — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:25:41 +0000

This is a fantastic experiment in sustainable community living. Compromises had to be made to make the project work in Alberta\’s very harsh climate (paved lanes, forced air heat) Not every component can be 100% green because it hasn\’t been developed or practical yet. Having lived in Okotoks, it is indeed a wonderful progressive, walkable community. It also has excellent commuter bus service to Calgary, no cars necessary! The houses are single detached because what’s being demonstrated is how “normal” your life can be while being environmentally progressive, owning a detached single family home is the gold standard for most Canadians. Drake Landing shows the county you don\’t have to live in a hippie commune to be environmentally responsible.
cristysixty makes an excellent example of why people want to move away from the arrogant, unfriendly urban centres and into the countryside.

By: chrisp68

chrisp68 — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:16:42 +0000

I’m glad they left some trees standing… the community is not green it is gray. Why detach the garage and have a paved backyard? It’s just another developer trying to make a buck by throwing on some panels, claiming forward thinking and packing the homes together. Why did they even bother to leave space between the homes? It’s just that much more construction labor, materials, waste etc. etc. that goes along with this ridiculous style of building!!!! If Canada is so big, why is your neighbor 3 feet (sorry 1 meter) away?

By: Probatus

Probatus — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:03:13 +0000

Brian Lang Says:
Add karma Subtract karma +0
July 24th, 2008 at 4:30 pm

Also, why use forced air heating? Why not in-floor radiant heating?
——————————————————————————————————–
Brian, I live an hour away from this place. Have you ever used infloor radiant heating in -40c ? In floor heating doesn’t keep you warm like air does and cannot keep the ice buildup on windows.

By: ethiconsu

ethiconsu — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:47:28 +0000

I agree, this is a step in the right direction. Any step toward using less fossil fuels is going to help. You have to remember developments like these are the testbeds for the future. Once all the kinks are worked out we may see new developments that are better and more efficient. Mahesh, thanks for this contribution!

By: goober

goober — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:49:22 +0000

christysixty stfu…you are a beating. at least they are trying to make a change. quit beating everybody down by being so negative and support at least the effort. life is too short to be as bitter as you are.

By: jard

jard — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:48:31 +0000

Okotoks is a great town… very green thinking. They have a population cap of 30,000 (at ~20,000 now), though many people live in the surrounding rural areas. Many commute to Calgary and take public transit there (I am the opposite…I live on the edge of Calgary, and travel to Okotoks by carpool), which though unfortunately does mean driving, it is only a 20 min drive to the nearest Calgary train station. In this part of the province, driving is needed as places are so far apart, but good roads and low density mean the commute is not that long. The town has a wonderful recycling plant (better than Calgary’s, though it does not need to handle the same volume), and they have many water awareness campaigns. Mike Holms (of “Holms on Homes” fame) has decided to make a new green, sustainable district along with the town.

By: hambargarz

hambargarz — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:45:57 +0000

I support the energy savings, but the housing looks a bit space inefficient. I think the amount of fuel per resident used would greatly outweigh the benefits of the amount of electricity produced. I hate to bash the project, but don’t like how they have chosen a high fuel guzzling location to build it.

By: discoblue

discoblue — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:57:20 +0000

I know there are a lot of things that we could pick apart about it not being right in a lot of ways, about how something could be done better, and I agree they haven’t gone all the way, but at least it is a step in the right direction. These people are likely paying a significant cost to be eco-friendly, so at least they are putting their money in a good direction. There are a lot of people who want to be able to do something, but their ability to go all out is not readily available, so good on them for choosing something positive.

By: Morridin19

Morridin19 — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:29:45 +0000

I just stumbled on this site and amazingly enough I work for a company that provided building materials for this project. They built some of the houses out of Structurally Insulated Panels, which instead of 2×4 frame construction consists of 2 wood skins between an high density structural polyurathane foam. The resulting increase in insulation and lack of thermal bridges brings an approximate 55% reduction in heating requirements for the houses.