Climate Friendly Homes Tour

Visit energy-efficient, climate resilient homes across BC

3681 St. George

Heat Recovery

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The St. George Net Zero Home in Mount Pleasant is Vancouver’s first single-family residence to achieve Net Zero status using Building-Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV), blending energy generation directly into the building’s roof design. This groundbreaking home sets a new standard for sustainable living in the city. Built with advanced materials and technique such as high-performance windows, airtight envelope construction, and increased insulation—it significantly minimizes energy consumption while maximizing comfort. Residents enjoy consistent indoor temperatures, quieter living spaces, and improved air quality.

Powered primarily by solar energy, the home uses renewable sources to meet its heating, cooling, and electrical needs during the sunny days, selling excess electricity back to hydro for credits to use when solar energy is not available. The goal is to eliminate reliance on fossil fuels for heating and cooling and to achieve carbon neutrality.

Under the City of Vancouver’s Zero Emissions Building Bylaw, homes like St. George’s may qualify for up to 19% more floor space until December 31, 2025—translating into larger, more functional living areas. For example, a duplex on a standard lot could expand from 2,812 to 3,346 square feet. With added space, long-term energy savings, and strong resale potential, the St. George Net Zero Home represents the next evolution of high-performance urban housing. This unique Net Zero home, currently under construction and set for completion in September 2025, offers a rare opportunity to connect with the builder and the solar provider to see the build process firsthand—including the innovative techniques, materials, and systems that make a Net Zero home possible in Vancouver.

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A 1940 Tudor-look home on a corner lot.  It’s high on the banks of the Fraser River, on the high side of the street and facing southeast.  The back garden is high.  The front garden is on two terraces above the street.  The footprint of the home is 40 feet wide and 30 feet deep.  The basement level is 70% finished with a furnace room / shop / winery in the unfinished area.  The main floor has a large living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room, den and bathroom.  There are gas fireplaces in the living room and den.  The top floor has three bedrooms and a bathroom.  The 23 windows are triple-glazed.  The three doors are fiberglass insulated.  The sliding glass door is double glazed.  The basement and attic are freshly insulated.  The high-efficiency gas furnace, tank less, gas water-heater and ventilation system are new.

 

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Built in 2019

Energy Net Zero including power for EV

Walls are triple the insulation of conventional houses

Will withstand long periods of power outage

Even though it is connected to the grid it puts back as much as it takes

Has a zero energuide rating from Natural Resources Canada. This means it does not need any outside energy to operate

NOT connected to gas and does NOT use any fossil fuel

Increased usable floor area as a result of a design that focuses on high performance

The average Canadian home uses 85,000 kWh per year of equivalent energy but this home uses 14,000 kWh per year and it is all from sunshine

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We built our new Net Zero Home (to Step 5+ of the BC Building Code) on an urban infill lot and moved in during August of 2019. We designed the home from the top down to include a full array of energy efficient features:

  • standing seam metal roofing (off white, 8.5/12 pitch south facing)
  • 35 (now 41) solar panels
  • Hardie Board siding, exterior insulation (Roxsul Comfort Board), blown-in dense pack cellulose insulation in all exterior wall cavities (~R38)
  • 24″+ cellulose attic insulation (~R60)
  • triple pane windows and doors
  • air sealed envelope (less than 0.59 ACH)
  • covered wrap-around concrete deck on south and west sides
  • exterior sun shades on exposed east, south and west facing windows
  • in-floor heating/cooling on all levels using an air to water heat pump (HP)
  • HRV for interior fresh air supplied through earth tubes which pre-warm or cool incoming air
  • passive solar hot water preheat
  • our hybrid (HP) electric hot water tank also provides cold air to our cold room, grey water diversion to irrigate our xeriscape garden seasonally.

We have no gas BBQ or natural gas service so have no GHG emissions.

Our EV (Chevy Bolt) is usually charged at our 32 Amp level 2 charging station. We are signed up with the BC Hydro Net Metering Program so we put power into the grid for 8 months per year, building up credits and draw back from the grid for the remaining 4 months. Last calendar year (2024) we ‘owed’ BC Hydro about $0.50 for 4.64 Kwh of electricity.

In the spring, we plant a green screen of scarlet runner beans along the south side of the deck which grows up to shade the deck from the summer sun while attracting butterflies and hummingbirds. It also provides us with beans for winter soups. Our home has both an indoor and ‘outdoor’ workshop, a green house, roof-top terrace and an outdoor shower which is used year round.

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A single family home that has seen significant building envelope upgrades with air sealing as well as internal and external insulation. The homeowners have installed a heat pump for year round comfort with a heat recovery system to improve efficiency and solar PV to provide free electricity to the home and free EV charging.

A well thought out modern retrofit project in Richmond BC.

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Note:  This is one of three homes and a laneway house with Sustainable Home Info Sessions and (free) registration is required. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. View the schedule and registration.

Our home was built in 1929. We did a significant renovation in 2010 to add double-glazed windows, better insulation, lower flow toilets and showers and more energy efficient appliances.

In 2023, we had an energy assessment done with help from Energy Save New West. In 2024, we made some of the recommended improvements including replacing the few remaining single glazed windows with triple glazed and replacing our natural gas furnace with a fully electric heat pump, which utilizes the existing forced air ducting. We anticipate federal, provincial and municipal rebates for these improvements (although the federal program is now closed to new applicants).

We have an electric water heater and an electric oven, so the only fossil fuel burning appliance remaining is our gas cooktop. In our garden we grow lots of food and have many fruit trees. We have plants and a meadow area of lawn that we don’t mow, to benefit pollinating birds and insects. We have taken a break from beekeeping at the moment but continue to have backyard chickens for eggs.

When you come to our house on the tour we will show you the heat pump, answer any questions about our energy saving home improvements and will otherwise focus the tour in the garden and the exterior of the house.