JUL 29

Hope to start seeing alot more of this.

Next time, why don't they just make them town houses? Given that the houses look to be 6 feet apart, I don't see the point in making them individual units.

It's interesting to see that all the garages are behind the houses, on an alley. Something I rarely see anymore.

The community is made even more awesome by the fact that the homes were built from locally manufactured and recycled materials, and the residents all practice water conservation.

Thanks for your piece on ecohomes. A quick look through google couldn't find it, but isn't it possible to heat homes without the use of electricity or gas?

Overall, it seems useful to have solar energy if that's what Alberta has. And using local materials is another essential component of being ecologically friendly!

www.bidforgreen.com
52 houses in Canada being ran on a solar powered ground source heat pump is great. This looks like it would even fit the bill for a medium density neighborhood, which has many other great ecological benefits. They have put together a community with a smaller footprint while incorporating the idea of having a single family home rather than town houses or condos.

This is a good system, not great, but a heck of a lot better than what many community planers are putting together.

During summer months, the hot water heads underground to transfer its heat to the surrounding ground.

I wonder if any research was done to find out the ecological impact was of heating the ground temperature surrounding the buildings....
Possibilities are endless when it comes to a negative impact of heating the temperature of the earth just below the surface where there usually are terrestrial animals and plant roots...

No, no, I'm not bashing Canada. ;) But it's not exactly known for its scorching sunshine, so if solar can work there, it makes me think it can work nearly everywhere. ;)

These people were asleep at the wheel!
Why monster 1,500 sq-ft homes? 1,200 sq-ft is more than big enough for a family of 4. The YouTube video gives one a feeling that they're techno-worshipers who were asleep at the wheel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeRfaGQWwgg
With a PAIR of collectors on every home to provide 60% of their hot water - What the F@#$! Get real - ONE of those provides enough hot water for my family (yea I live in Kanukastan too).

They've not so much as thought about passive solar by the looks of it - minimal windows to the south. What's with all of the @#$#@$ pavement? Why didn't they shove the cars wayyyyy away from the homes and get rid of the ribbons of tar?
What I hear and read doesn't add up - massive water tanks (that will likely start leaking when subject to the high temperatures). This place looks like it's just been built and not so much as tested.
For reference you might want to look up Earthships (that use ground under the home to store heat or "high mass sand bed" which uses an insulated sand bed to store heat or the Kachadorian "solar slab" (again >50 tons of concrete and sand for heat storage). The Kachadorian system is limited to heating the bed to air temperature, the "high mass sand bed" apparently heats it to about 100F and this scheme will be able to extract more heat - thru the application of tons of electricity and heat pumps.

This thing is pure techno-worship. Speaking as an engineer - the way forward is not paved with technology. Technology has not brought us sustainable farming, happiness or wealthy - but it has allowed us to live virtual, unhappy, lives where our children and their children have been shackled to debts created by the current generation - and we've left them bereft of a one-time endowment of oil products and also polluted the land, air and water.

The way forward is powering down, recycling the toys, living locally, thinking small and living within the means of what this destroyed planet will let us do - likely with less than 1/2 of the existing worlds population. We seriously need a 1 child policy here in the west.

Notice in the picture there that nobody has actually parked in their garage. The street is lined with parked cars.

Looks as if, like most Canadians, the garage is filled with misc Junk.

I love Canada.

I think I'd rather coloUr you "glass half empty".

STFD,

Jebus

Hey ColorMeSkeptical, lighten up. You need to, or you will wear yourself out.

I'm not sure where you live, but around here (crowded northeast USA) a "monster home" is 3,000 sq. feet. McMansions are that size and larger. My single floor condo is 1,250sq feet (admittedly a bit larger than norm which is probably ~1000sq ft).

My point is there's NO WAY you're going to get people to build or buy homes less than 1,500 sq. feet. I'm generalizing, but it's true. The cost of this technology also needs to come down... through wider use... which isn't going to happen in what you feel is a "normal sized house" (whatever that is...).

Unfortunately many towns will prohibit this type of building. There are plenty of zoning laws to deal with: all homes must be set back 200ft, all homes must have 300ft street frontage, etc. Admittedly towns do this to KEEP OUT lower and low middle class, and there's no way to change these laws if you're a non-resident.

There's a lot of reasons why the US will be very slow to get out of it's bias against conservation and against public transportation. The gas market is having a slow effect.

I live in Toronto,

It was 31 C today with the humidity. That's like 90 F, and unseasonably cool for the end of July in Toronto.

The temperature in Okotoks is expected to hit 28C next week (83F). So yes, there's plenty of sun up here, enough so that our igloos melt in the summer.

;)

I live just north of Toronto Canada,and have been researching a 'zero running cost retirement home'. This article has renewed my faith! I looked at straw bale super insulation, passive and active solar energy sources, super -efficient appliances, year round greenhouse food supplies, and every cheap-skate trick in the book! This is great. I hope they develop a web site and share their experiences with all eco-minded folk looking for a marriage of new tech with old for less expensive and more comfortable living. Love it!