Tag Archives: Passive House

Food

Resilience on Cortes Island

Originally published on Cortes Radio.ca

Folk U Friday for April 3, 2020: Resilience on Cortes Island 101: Food resilience and storage, energy systems, and much more! with Mark Lombard and Eli McKenty 

Mark Lombard and Eli McKenty are two members of a group of Cortesians interested in the infrastructure for resilience brought together by Karen Mahon and the Cortes Climate Hope organization. They spoke about some of the elements necessary to help create a Cortes that would be more self-sufficient and survive short term natural disasters such as fire, earthquake, and extended power outages. Of course, they had no idea when they started meeting that it would be just in time for a pandemic to hit, nevertheless their group had numerous practical suggestions that many are beginning to think about with new enthusiasm.

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Forests, Health, Housing

Avoid Wood Smoke

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By Roy L Hales

According to the Daily Mail, “Wood-burning stoves emit six times as much pollution as a diesel truck.” The Environmental Protection Agency states wood smoke contains several toxic air pollutants including: benzene; formaldehyde; acrolein, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Health Canada claims, “In communities where wood heating is common, wood smoke can be responsible for as much as 25% of the airborne particulate matter.” They advise people to avoid wood smoke.

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energy efficiency

Victoria’s Passive Houses

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By Roy L Hales

When I first interviewed Rob Bernhardt in 2014, you could count the number of British Columbia’s passive houses on your fingers. The Berhardts built the first certified passive house in the Victoria region. Rob went on to become the CEO of Passive House Canada. I recently interviewed him again, during a quick peek at Victoria’s passive houses.

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energy efficiency

Possibly the First Passive House on Vancouver Island

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By Roy L Hales

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Winters can be deceptively cold on the West Coast of British Columbia (BC). People from Fort McMurray Alberta – where temperatures often drop to minus 40 – tell me they did not feel the chill back home. It’s the damp cold that soaks into your bones. Hearing this, some of you may be surprised to find that the house pictured above was heated by two little 500 watt heaters through the coldest part of winter. Rob Bernhardt says, “It is the first building Vancouver Island home targeting certification under the international Passive House standard.” (That’s quite a mouthful!) I would phrase that a little differently, it is possibly the first passive house on Vancouver Island.

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