Things Are Good » shelter

Building a Green Home in the Land of Oil

Adam Clare — Fri, 25 May 2007 13:47:07 +0000

Calgary is absolutely flush with oil and oil-related wealth, it is also the last place in Canada that you’d think you would find a green huose being built.

Well, the Ramsay House Project is a project that a family of Calgarians are undertaking to live in a sustainable way. It’s great to see that in a province that hates the Kyoto Accord that people are still caring for and about the environment. You can follow the Ramsay House Project at their site and they also include information on how to build green into your house (if you have one) too!

Nailing it Right

Adam Clare — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 19:49:34 +0000

In hurricane and tornado prone areas a very cheap and simple but effective nail can be used to help a house hold tight. The HurriQuake is a nail that is designed to hold better than other nails even in earthquakes. Popular Science as a lot of information on how the nail was designed and how the idea was inspired by a trip to the Caribbean, the article concentrates on the man who invented it – Dr. Nail.

The nail adds about $15 to the cost of an average 2000 sq. ft. house, it’s such a cheap and effective solution to keep a house standing.

Via MeFi

Safer Homes

Agasel — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 17:00:37 +0000

A house in West Point, PEI, is the first Canadian home built under the “Designed for safer living” program. This program is a joint collaboration between the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, the Canadian insurance industry, and home builders.

This slide show details how the house was rebuilt after being badly damaged by fire last spring. The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction says it’s unclear how much the improvements added to the cost of the home, because the program is new.

Five more are expected to be built by December 2007, including one in the Prairies that will withstand wildfires, one in Vancouver that will handle earthquakes, and another in Sudbury to deal with wind and storms.

House of the Future

Agasel — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 16:46:46 +0000

Students at the University of Nottingham are moving into a new, futuristic house. This three-storey home is being built as an example to the world on how people can cut carbon dioxide emissions. Over a period of 20 years, students will live in the house and monitor heat, light, and water consumption. The goal of the experiment is to cut CO2 emissions by 60 percent.

The house features an earth-air heat exchanger for heat; a grey water management system to reuse shower water for the toilet; a rainwater-harvesting system to collect water for the washing machine, shower and gardens; solar heating; and a ventilation / heat recovery system.

Mike Hinman of Stoneguard, the company building the house, states, “This building is, quite simply, 44 years ahead of its time.”