Belle River man's net-zero home ahead of climate change plan
As Ontario rolls out a new action plan on climate change, Brent Klundert from Belle River is more than fourteen years ahead of the game with his "net zero" home.
Ontario's climate change plan, which will provide billions of dollars in subsidies and incentives to homeowners, includes switching to more energy efficient homes by installing green technology such as solar water heating, better windows and geothermal heating.
The province wants all new-home construction to be "net zero" by 2030.
"In a net zero build, what you want to do is have the house use less energy than what it produces," says Klundert, who revealed his net zero home last August.
What is net zero?
His house in Belle River, built by BK Cornerstone builders, has solar panels on the roof to produce electricity for the grid, and a high efficiency heat pump to produce heating and cooling.
For temperatures colder than minus five, a natural gas furnace takes over. But this non renewable resource will eventually need to be replaced.
"There's funding that was outlined prior to the release of the plan for renewable natural gas," said Derek Coronado from the Citizens Environment Alliance.
Klundert's home in Belle River uses an estimated 30 per cent of the energy used in a regular house of the same age.
The cost for older homes
Retrofitting existing homes will be more of a challenge, explained Klundart, who is now vice president of BK Cornerstone builders.
"It would be very hard to do in existing houses because you don't have the advantage of building the envelope the way current homes are built," he said, "To go in and retrofit those changes to make sure the house is as efficient as possible if very difficult."
But people buying older homes are not exempt from the new climate change plan. Starting in 2019, an energy audit must be completed before a house is sold, letting the buyer know its energy efficiency.
The province will fund the audit.
With files from Dale Molnar