Ontario Construction News staff writer
The Canadian Home Builders Association (CHBA) will receive $4 million from the federal government for energy-efficiency measures in the residential sector across the country.
“The Canadian Home Builders’ Association and our members are continually pursuing innovation to meet the evolving needs of the industry and consumers in both new construction and renovation,” CHBA CEO Kevin Lee said in a statement.
“Our Net Zero Home Energy labelling program, for both new and existing homes, is leading the way, as we provide Net Zero houses for Canadians, all while finding better ways to reach these high levels of energy performance. Cost remains a barrier to make Net Zero a reality for every home, so projects like this are helping us find the best solutions, improve technologies and build capacity across the industry to help to reach Canada’s 2050 goals.”
Funding will be used for deep energy retrofits in houses and low-rise multi-unit residential buildings to demonstrate the various approaches that can be used to achieve net-zero-energy–ready performance in residential units.
Net-zero-energy–ready buildings are designed and constructed to high performance levels that could produce at least as much energy as they consume on an annual basis, with the addition of renewable power generation.
CHBA will focus on finding the most cost–effective solutions for up to 150 residential units to help find optimum approaches to net-zero home retrofits and inform the development of energy codes for existing homes, targeting multiple building archetypes in various climate zones and
“Climate change is measured globally but felt locally. The CHBA’s project is looking to demonstrate the best ways to retrofit homes to net-zero-energy–ready performance levels, to reduce both costs and renovation time. In turn, this will inspire energy-efficient changes throughout Canada’s construction industry while supporting jobs and lowering emissions on our road to net zero by 2050,” said parliamentary secretary Julie Darusin.
Buildings and homes contribute approximately 18 percent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“Upgrading our homes to be more energy-efficient will get us a long way to our climate targets, help Canadians save money on energy costs and create good jobs in our communities. Our government is pleased to help homeowners across Canada cut pollution from their households,” said natural resources minister Jonathan Wilkinson.