There’s nothing like pain in the pocketbook to encourage your clients to take energy efficiency seriously. Here are ten real-world tactics for reducing the energy consumption of the projects you build, while looking like a genius in the process. 1. Upgrade Loose-Fill Attic Insulation Sounds lame, but more loose-fill often yields the best bang for the energy buck in renovations. How many inches of attic insulation are in a building now? How many should there be? Measure what you’ve got in several places, average them, then plan to add enough new fibre to bring the total depth up to at least 16” or R-49. Fiberglass loose fill costs a bit more than cellulose, but resists settling better. The cost of upgrading a typical Canadian attic with blown-in insulation is less than $1000, and this delivers hundreds of dollars of savings each year. If you paid for loose-fill insulation upgrades out…
Wall construction isn’t what it used to be, and that’s a good thing. Building codes across Canada are demanding more than the old R20 minimum insulation levels for…
My wife and I and our newborn son moved into a 400 sq.ft. lakeside cottage in September 1990 and I had no idea the experience would teach me…
If you’ve ever picked up a piece of rigid foam sheet with your bare hands in winter, you know what a great insulation material it is. In fact,…
Change doesn’t come quickly to the world of home building, but when change finally does happen it’s usually here to stay. That’s good news because slow, time-proven, evolutionary…