Hi, Dale here. Welcome to Mi Net Zero! Thanks for taking a look! In this blog, we’ll explore the why, what, and how of net zero living.
In this post, I want to share the third of four values we will follow as we design our houses, the why behind the what of our designs.
Our third value is innovation. MiNet0 houses will be built with cutting-edge building science and energy systems. We will continue to innovate as new products come onto the market and always look for ways to both become more sustainable and take costs out of construction in order to make our homes affordable to more people. Here’s how that looks:
- Optimized building envelope, for both very low operational and embodied carbon. We will build with a unique combination of systems including:
- Double stud walls with dense-packed cellulose insulation. Our current design is based on the sheathing-less (tier 3) design from 475 High Performance Building Supply.
- Slabless slab-on-grade on foamed glass aggregate.
- Permanent wood foundation combined with frost-protected shallow foundation (using foamed glass aggregate). Our goal is to build without concreate or foam in order to minimize carbon footprint. We anticipate this will also reduce cost and improve durability.
- An integrated energy system including:
- A solar array with capacity to power the house and two EVs. We will insist on ethically sourced panels manufactured with minimal carbon footprint.
- Bi-directional EV charging system that will seamlessly power the house and optimize use of the power for the house and the community. This will be done using peak load management and hopefully soon, V2G capability once our EV manufacturers and utility providers are ready to participate.
- A stationary battery enabling the home to be powered in a grid outage even when the EVs are not home.
- Repeatability: we will continue to learn and innovate the detailing on our construction drawings so that the house can be built more efficiently. Dale has seen from his years in manufacturing that repetition reduces costs and improves quality.
In summary, we are committed to innovation because we need to build differently to solve the climate crisis. Our economy and technologies are rapidly transforming to become electrified and sustainable. As new low carbon technologies become available on the market, we will research them and be among the first to apply them when we see performance benefits at reasonable costs and dependable quality.
To close, thank you again for engaging! I invite you to bookmark this page and check back to learn more about how your home is your key to net zero living.
I will aim to post by noon on Fridays. Next week we’ll review our fourth/final design value: Sustainability.
