Towards cost-effective net-zero energy ready residential renovations

Lead Proponent

Canadian Home Builders’ Association

Project Objectives

The objective of this Project is to accelerate the deployment of high‐efficiency homes and buildings in Canada, targeting driving down the cost and creating market confidence in net‐zero energy ready (NZr) deep energy retrofits (DERs).

This innovative project will demonstrate the various approaches that can be used to achieve NZr DERs in houses and low‐rise (Part 9) Multi‐Unit Residential Buildings (MURBs), focused on finding cost‐effective solutions to help inform the development of the energy code for existing homes, targeting multiple building archetypes,  in various climate zones, and varying business models/ownership structures.

The project will increase capacity and competency in the residential renovation industry by training a large number of renovators to safely renovate NZr DERs, ensuring that they carry appropriate insurance and WCB, adhere to a code of ethics, provide written contracts, and obtain permits. They will be trained to use the “house‐as‐a‐system” approach focused on the building envelope and highly efficient technologies/equipment. This is critical to build confidence and trust with homeowners and protect both parties from potentially severe health and safety consequences of nondurable renovations.

Expected Results

It is expected that the project will:

• support the  energy-efficient building strategy to support GHG reductions in the built environment;
• validate the cost‐effectiveness of achieving DERs achieving at least 50% reduction in energy use intensity compared to the pre‐retrofit baseline in existing housing and low‐rise MURBs;
• promote greater market penetration of key technologies resulting in improved affordability through locally replicable approaches to achieving high levels of energy efficiency in retrofits;
• through the knowledge dissemination activities and key project stakeholders, provide all jurisdictions in Canada with the evidence, knowledge and foundational tools needed so that existing homes and low‐rise MURBs can be renovated to net-zero ready cost‐effectively.