Thought I would post some of the older  photos.

Lovely attic space will be a sea of cellulose soon.

Solar panel installation.

A view between the double wall frames.

Stainless Steel Exterior Post Anchors

Look around and you will see many exterior columns on residential buildings suffering from corrosion at their bases.  At least I do.  A major reason for this is because pressure treated lumber is frequently used for exterior columns, and the preservative is not compatible with the steel column bases and screws you can get from the lumber store.

One of my beefs with exterior columns is how there is no easy and accessible solution to mount them properly at their bases.  Most of the column bases seem inadequate to me, and in addition they are cheap looking.  Often they are set with their bottom plates in contact with the concrete - an invitation for crevice corrosion.  I looked and looked for solutions, but found them hard to come by.  Finally, I decided to go with steel columns set off the concrete with stainless threaded rod anchors (5/8").  Here are some pics:

Columns offset from concrete SOG about 45mm

5/8" (15mm) stainless steel threaded rod anchors.

That is a temporary door in pic.  Just showing the steel columns and how they're not in contact with the concrete.  Stainless anchors and nuts.

Steel Balcony Frame:  Designed beyond code minimum so as to be strong enough to support a crowd overlooking whatever is happening below.  The frame is completely isolated from the interior of the building which avoids what would be very significant thermal bridging.  this is easy to do when the building is made with a double wall system.  Note the offset joist/outrigger at the far left:  the little 4" x 4" void is to accommodate a concealed downspout.

The floor will be made from 1/8" thick stainless plate welded to the steel.  Probably have wood slats on top of the smooth stainless.

Snow Melt for a Passive House and Recent Photos

Well, we finally poured our slabs on grade and front steps - in Nov. and Dec.  We decided to place snow melt heating loops in the slabs, and it does seem a bit extravagant, but if we actually use it, it means no application of salt to melt ice, and clean, safe entries to the building, especially for the front steps.  As we plan to eliminate the gas service, there will not be any strong heat source to service these snow melt areas -unless we use a wood boiler!

So the idea is to simply run the wood boiler at times when we are expecting significant snow and we need to clear ice from the front steps.  In working out the heat inputs and hydronic flow rates for glycol, etc, I realized a big lesson for exterior snow melt applications.  Normally, radiant slabs are assumed to benefit from high thermal mass - that is when they are indoors, one wants a constant temperature, and heavy massive slabs help to regulate and temper any significant fluctuations such as high solar loads, etc.  Thus, the hydronic heating pipes are frequently installed submerged in slabs of concrete or gypcrete, etc.  However, snow melt works in reverse, in a sense.  In a snow melt application, one wants LOW thermal mass to avoid heating up a big, massive concrete slab just to melt off a thin layer of snow or ice.  Doing the calculations, one finds that it is actually easy to spend more energy bringing the slab to temperature than melting the snow or ice, even when the slab is insulated underneath.  Wish I knew this before I did mine, but for all you guys and gals out there thinking of snow melt, consider this.  Unfortunately, I don't know of any practical solutions to this whole issue at this time, though I have some ideas - we must keep the slab as thin as possible, insulate well underneath, and insulate the edges as well, if practical.  The idea I have been toying with is using a stainless steel or steel plate as the top surface of the slab - or even building the top of the 'slab with a series of rectangular stainless steel tubes and run the heating fluid through these.  This would place the fluid in nearly direct contact with the snow/ice, and diminish heat transfer to the concrete.  The plate would need to have a traction surface, which is an issue because I don't like diamond plate (there is a company 'Algrip' making beautifully dimpled surfaces via laser deposition of metal - no idea of price).  And stainless steel is very cheap right now - just about twice the price of steel.  But it does seem extravagant....

On another note, snow melt components are priced into the thin air of the mountains.  Companies such as Uponor and Viega make the snow sensors, and they are absolutely ridiculous - I cannot understand why.  An ABS plastic housing that holds the sensor (needed during rough-in/casting of the slab) which should cost maybe $20 (perhaps for lack of volume in production), instead commands some $150 in the plumbing/mechanical supply store.  See pic;

This little kit of parts is $150 (contractor price).  The black plastic disc/cover is discarded when the snow melt sensor is installed.  The tube-like thing is made of steel and the temperature sensor is to go into that tube, which sits inside the slab.  The sensor itself is about $1000 contractor price (retail is $1700).

The sensor is just a couple of plates of brass separated by a space.  The resistance between these plates is reduced in the presence of snow and this change triggers a signal which becomes the snow melt system's demand for heat.  Very simple, but the darn sensor is about $1000.  I say it's worth $50 at most.  Since we are no longer at the beginning of the project and money is getting more expensive, we opted to make our own plastic housing and later, when the house is finished and there is more time, we will make our own snow sensor, if needed.  After all, a manual system is not much of an issue - in any case, it is often desirable to heat the slab well before snow appears.

Look closely and you'll see we placed some pipe insulation around the pex tubing where it enters the building.  This is to cushion the tubing in case the slab moves relative to the building.  We also agonized over where to enter the building.  In the end we opted to drill through the wall inside the slab volume, but we drilled the hole with a significant slope so any water from rain or snow will find it harder to flow into the building through those holes.

Add caption

Here is our rough-in:

DIY Rough-in for snow melt sensor made from common plumbing parts - 4" clean-out - we would have to make an adaptor plate to adapt the actual sensor to this bolt pattern, or make our own sensor, which is more likely.

Below are some photos of our snow-melt piping installation.  BTW, I mentioned this to a contractor and he told me they never install 1/2" pex for snow melt - they use 5/8" minimum.  I double-checked my calculations and feel very comfortable with the 1/2" pex - but we'll see if it performs when the time comes.  He is probably thinking of larger areas like driveways.  In our case, it is only on three little concrete slabs.

Solid Lumber Sheathing

Recent Photos:
We opted for solid lumber sheathing, right from design.  It is a fairly vapour-open sheathing, due in large part to the gaps, which is what we wanted.  It is also strong - allowing us to apply a wide variety of finishes, and place strapping anywhere we want.  The lumber used was good one side 1x10 (22 x 235mm) pine/spruce, gotten for a really good price.  It was actually 7/8" (22mm) thick.

Basement window install.  The peel and stick flashing on the bottom covers shaped rigid foam.  It will be covered with a metal flashing as well.  There is a good 1" space between the window and the concrete, which was formed to overlap the window on 3 sides.  The window sits in a 3/4" (19mm) plywood box cantilevered out from the inner wood frame, but is supported by the rigid foam at the concrete.

Note the concrete drip edge cast into the window opening.

Article in The Varsity

Thanks to Simon Bromberg for writing an informative article about our house.  Here is the link to the article: http://thevarsity.ca/2012/08/25/from-bungalow-to-solar-house/

Rainwater Harvesting With Solar PV Panels

A Marriage Made in Heaven!

As the project progresses, we've been blessed with making connections with some excellent contributors:

I've mentioned some of them before, but most recently we've been connected to DTE Solar as well as Boss Solar, and Trevor at EcoInsulation, Reiner (the Reno Coach) all excellent people.

One connection was with John Paul from DTE Solar, who has put me onto rainwater collection as an energy-related component of our project.  He's written an excellent article on the topic, discussing rainwater collection's potential impact on the City of Toronto's energy, waste, environmental and financial costs.  It certainly opened my eyes to the amazing, yet highly under-appreciated costs of water treatment, distribution to and from, etc.  These are costs easily offset by rainwater collection if implemented ubiquitously.  Not to mention water costs in Toronto have increased about 8% per year for some time now.

After some discussion we've together arrived at tantalizing possibilities for our own project.  The fact that PV panels are glass-clad means they present a premium surface for rainwater collection.  The trouble is that they are not designed for this task - which I certainly feel they should be.  In fact, I would like to see PV panels made as large interlinking panels that shed water - This way they can be installed on the roof without plywood (so using PV panels, one eliminates not only the shingles but also the plywood layer, although the roof shape must be planned with this in mind), perhaps directly to the rafters or purlins.  The benefit is they can be wired or accessed from the backside (from inside the attic), they can serve as the roof, and shedding water all the way down the roof, rainwater collection becomes a breeze - not to mention the quality of the collected water is also improved.  In any case, given the current, less-perfect situation of panels on rails on shingle roof, JP's thought was to add troughs underneath the panel gaps to collect the water - in our case 3 long troughs, and direct it to the collection reservoir.  However, what if we also introduced pipes onto the roof to pump that rainwater from the holding tank onto the solar panels?  I believe by dousing the panels with rainwater we can cool them dramatically, increasing electricity yields significantly - perhaps as much as 10%, even after pumping losses.  Some of the water will evaporate, but much of it will just flow back into the collection system, where the heat may again be made use of - a heat pump can take the heat from the rainwater collection tank and port it to the DHW (domestic hot water) system.  Even if not, an un-insulated rainwater tank in the ground is constantly being cooled by the soil, so that over the hot summer season, there will be a significant cooling capacity available for the solar panels.  This cooling action will also lengthen the lifespan of the solar panels.
This is in a way similar to the new techniques appearing whereby the heat from the solar panels is being captured by flowing air over/under the panel backsides.  The heated air is then used in the building.  I've read this can increase by some 90% the energy harvested via electricity alone.  But air is generally a lesser medium than water - which is compact and easily filtered and transported in pipes.  Air carries dust, and requires larger ducts to move it.  And the fact that it is a (compressible) gas means there are a lot more losses related to its handling (pumping).
Mike at Boss Solar has devised a water coil to attach to the backs of solar PV panels to both cool them and capture their heat - but this seems a lot more difficult and costly than the 'rainwater collection' idea, - which appears to be - a marriage made in heaven!
Notice how there are no photos or sketches here.  The ideas are very simple.  This seems to be the reality of rainwater collection as it is with other aspects of super energy efficient houses - not glamorous - just important.

Roof and Solar Install

The active period continues and just last week we completed our solar installation immediately after the roof install.  The photo shows the Schuco racking in place and the first day of panel installation is nearly over.  The racking took one day to install, with the 45 250W poly panels an additional two days.  Roof pitch is 8/12 - walkable, but not that comfortable.

Notes:
Schuco rails are heavy duty.  We received our rails from our supplier DTE Solar's old stock.  This was fortunate since the rails were a full 20' long.  The new products out there are apparently available in standard 10' lengths only.  Longer lengths are special order.  I was glad we were able to get these longer lengths.  The L brackets, which are attached to the roof throuth the shingles and into the rafters with 1/4" x 3.5" stainless lag screws are mounted along each rail, 4' OC.  Pre-drilled mounting, with a special flashing that tucks under the shingles and sealant is applied under the brackets as well.  This is a long and messy job - the mounting of all these brackets.  It is also very permanent.  Once in place, it becomes an issue to repair the roof under these feet.  And all the traffic on the roof in warm weather has really worn down the shingles.  Especially near the scaffold.  However, we are expecting the shingles will last a long time due to their being protected a great deal by the panels.

Note:  We originally intended to go with a standing seam metal roof.  Price for our Vicwest Tradition 100 22ga painted steel roof was $7.50/SF (this is a very thick sheet metal gauge for steel roofs), compared with $2.30/SF for the shingles (including full Ice and water on the south side and ridge vent).  Major difference in cost, but we were totally willing.  It would have been an excellent looking roof, but also extremely long lasting, recyclable, good for rainwater collection (no much concern of the tar from shingles), and waterproof.  In addition, the solar panels would have been mounted directly to the steel seams with S-5! clamp mounts, giving a very sleek and low-profile integrated panel install.  Unfortunately, the timing didn't work out and we had to meet our microFIT deadline, so we went with a shingle roof (not to mention we are elated at the cost savings).

HOWEVER:  One thing to keep in mind:  The metal roof with the S-5! mounting would have been a very versatile roof/solar system, because the S-5! clamps can mount anywhere along the seams, and there are no penetrations through the roof.  The rail system is quite a downgrade (although significantly more expensive than the S-5!) in my view because once those rails are in place, they are not moving.  Whatever the future brings, it must go on those rails.  And one thing I'd like to see in the future is that we increase the number of panels on the roof - no chance with those rails - with the S-5!, it would have been simpler, I think.  I do foresee that people will want solar PV even beyond the microFIT limits.  I certainly do - the cost is so reasonable right now, and I feel it can be made even cheaper by not using the inverters - for example solar PV water heating can do fine with DC - no need for AC.

The panels are on a portrait layout, 3 rows of 15 panels for a total of 45.  6 Rails, 2 for each row of panels.  The rails have a splicing hardware which is basically a bar that slides into the rail grooves and screws in place.  Note, with the metal roof and S-5! clamps, it would have been a landscape layout. We have two 5kW 'Power One' inverters for a total output of 10kW.  The array is rated at 250x45 panels for total of 11,250W.  One is allowed to install up to 12kW for a 10kW system capacity.  We could add 3 panels to the system - perhaps on the garage in back?  Each inverter takes 2 channels of DC input.  We have therefore divided the array into 4 blocks - 3 with 11 panels and one with 12 panels.  This uneven-ness is no problem for the inverters to handle (without any loss of energy to speak of).

What is annoying to me is the system architecture mandated by the MicroFIT program.  It centres around this Anti-Islanding feature.  Simply, the system is not configured (and cannot be configured, I'm told) to provide the homeowner directly with power, bypassing the grid.  In other words, the array serves the grid only, and the inverters shut off automatically if they detect no grid.  This means they cannot be used to provide the household with power.  Personally I hate this - it means there is no redundancy benefit for the owner.  When the grid is down (during a blackout), so is our own generation system.  This serves to protect hydro workers from being exposed to electricity while they repair the grid.  Investigation is needed to see if there is a safe and legitimate way around this.

Ext Frames, Roof, and Solar Installation

We've had a very active recent month.  There was a tour from the recent Passive House training held in Toronto.
We've received gifts-in-kind from Terrell Wong at Stone's Throw, 3C Carpentry (Carlo Terzi), Jimenez Carpentry, and friendly support from neighbours.  Of course, Fourth Pig Workers Co-Op have provided excellent carpentry services throughout.  We've also had strong support from our metal roofer Heritage Tinsmiths, who waived a significant cancellation fee when we ran into some timing and other issues.
And we've had another volunteer added to our list of observers and helpers.
PV Master and DTE Solar have been excellent as well. - Plugs for you all!


Our solar PV installation is shaping up.  One of the issues was the load side electrical service which must be in place first.  We really wanted to avoid an ugly overhead service to the building (where birds sit and poop on cars), and the balcony on the south-w corner made it even worse (electrical lines must stay well clear of openable windows and balconies).  It also results in these plastic conduits running all over your side facade.  We'd been working with Toronto Hydro since quite a long time ago to get an underground service to the building - but costs and timing were major issues.  They request $1000 to make a drawing, plus $6000 to $12,000 for the actual work, and 3 months lead time.  Like everyone else, we ended up having no time or money for this, so we placed our own hydro pole at the corner of our property and made our own underground service to our own pole.  From there it is a short 15' overhead run to the city's pole.  One of the design considerations with utility rooms is the following:  On a corner house in the city, you often will have additional choice as to which side of the property the service comes from, as in our case.  With the new smart meters, the electric company is less concerned with mounting the meters close to the front of the house - although it is still preferred.  Mid-span connections are also possible - so there was ample choice for us.  I found out it is even possible to have the main service attached to our detached garage - and have the house fed from the garage rather than vice versa.  However, getting the service to the electrical panel was tricky because we wanted the electrical/utility room on the north side (back of the house), since it is a room without windows - this location was the furthest from the possible meter locations.  During the concrete wall stage, we placed a 2" conduit in the ground around the building  from the electrical room to the anticipated meter location - a run of about 50'.  Later, we dug up the ends of this conduit and routed it into/onto the building exactly where the meter and panels would be.  Connection costs to the city for electricity are minimal (currently the standard price for a permanent connection is $850).  We paid $1500 for the pole installed, and another $1300 to run the service to the pole, including trenching, conduit, wire, weatherhead, etc.)  While I'm not thrilled to see another pole in the neighbourhood, I do hope that one day, I can work with hydro to extend our underground service right up to their pole and do away with ours.

Hydro Pole Installation:  You need to hire a company with this special truck designed for installing hydro poles.  In our case, York Power and Lighting.  Note the pole length.  This was a standard pole of 30'.  We needed only about 17.5' out of the ground, so we chopped off 7.5'.  burial depth is 5' for this small pole.  4' is ok as well, but I elected for 5'.  This was a good thing because the trench up to it stayed open overnight in quite windy weather - I was glad the pole didn't fall down.  Minimum height is 16', per Toronto Hydro specs.  

Lifting up the tall exterior frames.  This is 2x8, 16" OC with two rows of blocking and diagonal strapping on the backside.  Not quite meeting the tall wall specs in the code, but OK, since it will be thoroughly braced to the 2nd floor assembly when we get the scaffolding up.  Lifting it was a piece of cake with a chain fall/lever hoist anchored to a large beam in the cathedral ceiling assy.  With the other walls, there was a lack of large beams to anchor to, so we connected to the 1/2" anchor bolts in the concrete wall on the far side of the building.

Note the tilted blocking.  This is 2x10 blocking material in a 2x8 stud frame.  Tiled to ease the installation of the cellulose later on. I would have liked it if we thought of this earlier - the tall walls around the stair could have benefitted from this idea.  You can see the temporary frame we set up on the ground to build the next wall.  That was the longest wall we built and lifted in one piece - approx. 2000lbs, and 38' x 20'tall.  Two hoists were employed.  Worked fine.

Tall walls and rafter beams in place.

South side rafters going in.  These double 2x6 rafters turned out to be a fair bit of labour.  The building is overbuilt in some areas, but I'm happy about not skimping on the frame and concrete.  We do plan to economize in other areas - but not in these.  With our overbuilt frame, I feel confident our structure will do better in this time of climate change - who knows how much snow will fall next winter, or how heavy future solar equipment may become?  The historical design snow load in North York is about 1.2kPa, but only 30km to the north, it increases dramatically.  The rafters are placed at 16 1/16" on centre, and carefully laid out so the pattern is centered on the building.  This was to accept the standing seam metal roof (another story), and so that the standing seams would line up exactly with the 3" thick rafters.  Thus, the seam pattern on the roof would also be centred on the building.  Don from Heritage Tinsmith told us the standing seam panels end up being a little over 16" on centre.  All this will allow the solar panel installation to be very strong and secure.  It will be easy to keep the 5/8" T&G roof plywood in line with the rafters - we'll just provide a 3/8" gap between panels to compensate.  The fact we are using 3" thick rafters means it will be easy to install the plywood regardless.

Lots of rain in recent days, making the whole place a mud-bath - mainly because of all the grading and trenching going on.  Tip:  trenching in winter can be cleaner due to less rain.  The problem is the mud is carried right through the building at this stage since we are working on the roof.  Note the black sealant we've applied to the attic floor seams.  It is Bakor Aquabloc.  Very effective, but messy for the first day since it is water soluble until cured - and it rained just an hour after we trowelled it on.  The black stuff flowed and got deposited as a residue in other parts of the building.

Sewer and water service also connected and you can see the new bit of fence we had to put up once the hedges were mowed down during the installation.  This was OK, however, because we planned it that way.....there will be a short walk through the hedge in this area, to the east entrance.  The sewer service is a single 6" PVC pipe with 6" clean-out.  The pipe is reduced to 4" before it goes into our building through the 4" pipe we installed during the footing pour.  We should have installed a sleeve for the water service as well, because they had to dig under the footing to place that in any case.  You would think they could have used something like a 2" earth auger to drill through the earth - but they dug it - messier.  The city's contractor did this work - they charge about $7500 to do a sewer connection, and about $3000 for a water service.  We elected to re-use our existing 3/4" water service, but still had to pay some $400 so they could inspect it.  The sewer pipe is simply left open for all the sewer gases to enter the building - we've since plugged it.  Wondering if we can get rid of our portable toilet soon, which costs about $175/mo in winter, and a bit less in summer.

Exterior Renderings

Here are some recent renderings from work we've been doing on the exterior design.

Framing Photos

Tall Walls

2x12 Platform supported on the elevator shaft and one slanted upright from the concrete.

North Facade, Temporary Stair.

South Facade.

Fir beams were a last minute addition.  It caused some level of delay, especially when I realized I needed them slightly stronger.  I decided to place them doubled at 24" OC, and I had to order an additional 7 after the first ones arrived (Montreal supplier).  They are solid fir, dressed 4 sides, 2.5" x 9.25", $4.90/ft.  Our gluing job was not very successful and thus the C-clamps holding many of them.  More clamps are needed.  This is a great way to 'improve' headroom without having a change in floor heights upstairs, and without incurring additional exterior wall areas to be made (which is the usual result of taller ceilings in houses).  Our ceilings on the main floor are 9' to bottom of joists.  One-side-good special fir plywood was placed atop the beams.  The beams are placed carefully so as to be directly underneath the closet walls upstairs.  So no blocking is required under those walls, and nails will go directly into the joists.  We were careful to use galvanized nails on the joists to avoid rust stains.  When the last 7 beams arrived, this was forgotten and some rust stains have now appeared on the affected members - so far very minor.  We will see how much sound attenuation is needed over this area.  If a lot, we may need to add a sound absorbing medium to the floor upstairs.  This possibility was addressed by building all the door openings 3" taller upstairs, anticipating possibly a gypcrete pour on the floor, and sono-base panels under the finish flooring.