[Greenbuilding] solar payback

[Stephen Collette]

Up here in Canada, I've heard the numbers bounced around that your  
home must hit an Energuide 80 (blower door test)(Americans I believe  
refer to it as the HERS test)(Americans actually do something very  
smart and count down now, instead of up)(So in the US, HERS rating of  
20)(that's a lot of brackets))) before the value of solar makes  
economical sense.

I'd have to agree with that having done some energy modelling on the  
HOT 2000 program, that we use up here. So it's envelope efficiency,  
energy efficiency, lifestyle efficiency, then solar panels. It's not  
glamourous, and that sucks, but as we all know, this is what we have  
to try to sell to our clients.

If only spray foam came in a sexier can!

Stephen

Stephen Collette BBEC, LEED AP
Principal
Your Healthy House - Indoor Environmental Testing & Building Consulting
www.yourhealthyhouse.ca
stephen at yourhealthyhouse.ca
705.652.5159

>
> I fully agree that we need to be able to alter existing homes to be  
> significantly more energy efficient. We cannot realistically expect  
> to tear down millions of existing poor performing but reasonably  
> sound constructed structures. Any suggestions on what to do with all  
> the marginal and sub-objective housing is beyond me.