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Yesterday German, Coolearth’s Building Science Specialist, went with some friends to check the winter stations design contest at the Beaches. This competition explores a winter design for the life guard stations that are not used in the winter with the goal of providing protection from the weather and in some cases providing a warm up space, certainly needed in a cold windy day at Lake Ontario’s shore.

 
At the Coolearth lately we have been talking about how sustainable homes not only decrease energy bills, but also immediately contribute to comfort and wellbeing.

 
German has this report from this walk:

 
“After exploring the stations, we headed back to the main street to get dinner and refuel our bodies. We entered a nice place and we were asked to wait 10 minutes until a table is available even though there was an empty one at front window. One of my friends asked about the table by the window. The waitress told us that we will get very cold there so we waited and got a table far away from the window. It was a weekend and I didn’t want to bemoan the poor building details.. but one of my friends asked me what do I do at Coolearth.

 
I explained: “we do High Performance houses”. While the conversation turned to energy savings and the cost of these poorly performing windows through heat loss (i.e increase energy bills), I pointed out that there is actually an immediate benefit to high performance houses: comfort. The example of the table near the window that we decided not to take was a perfect example. But this table is not the exception, we hear it when winter hits: people moving their sofas 4 feet away from the windows in their new condos, heating systems that cannot keep up with the desire temperature or power outages that make impossible to stay in the house because the furnace fan is not working.

 
At Coolearth we not only provide a design service but work with clients to study the long term implications of early decisions. Providing a High Performance house means approaching a project in an integrated way, because it is not only about adding insulation but being sure that the building enclosure (slab, walls and roof) is properly connected to minimize air leakage.

 
We just started the design of a new house that is aiming to be comfortable and resilient. Our client wants a house where he can be barefoot in every corner while it is -15 degrees outside. He said that this realization (that homes, which we spend so much on, should be comfortable) happened when he went to a friend’s house this winter and saw his 3 year old kid wearing only a T shirt and shorts, running around without shoes. There was a snow storm outside with 2 feet of snow and this kid was having fun inside dressed for summer. From that moment on he decided that he wants to do a high performance house.

 
… Before leaving the restaurant at the Beaches I gave my card to the manager, in case they want to make that table usable and comfortable!