Who Started the NetZero Building Revolution? | Murray Guy

One day two Donkeys from Maui, stopped Murray Guy and requested that he stop having so dam much fun wave sailing and do something to fix the extreme effects of climate change. The locals were starting to get a little pissed that the grass wasn't as GREEN as it should and decided to approach warriors that love to play in the beautiful outdoors to join forces and make the difficult changes needed to secure the future.

Murray being knowledgeable and passionate about high performance buildings decided that he had better listen to these very determined and tough characters and went forth and started three companies Integrated Designs to high performance commercial buildings, EcoSmart to build NetZero homes and Shift2Lean to train and coach teams on Lean Project Delivery.  

Our goal is to make all new buildings NetZero Energy by 2020

Why so Passionate about Green?

When you love to play in the outdoors you become very motivated to protect your playground. When you know there is a better way, it is our duty to do the best we can with what we have.  It helps when you have a team of passionate talented hard working people that are committed to fixing an industry that is hugely wasteful and resource intensive. 

Why Lean?

With the Integrated Design process  we we were able to deliver LEED Gold projects that used 55% less energy at no additional cost. This is not good enough!  With Lean we get to integrate the efforts of the whole team and do battle on the up to 40% waste that is inherent with more traditional design-tender-build processes.  

How do Lean to be Green economics work?

With Lean we will save as a minimum the 15% extra it may take to get to NetZero. Masters in Lean are able to save up to 40% of the cost of a project. That is how we can deliver NetZero buildings at less cost with lots left over for profit and our wish list.

What is the NetZero Revolution?

Based upon the success of these successful NetZero projects we expect that we will hit the tipping point soon so that NetZero becomes the new Norm. 

Who Started the NetZero Revolution?

Ned the Donkey on the Left and Fred need to be given credit as they are spreading the word that we need to thinking BIG about getting all new buildings to be NetZero by 2020. We hope this article helps to motivate you to join the NetZero Revolution in a BIG way!

Who Started the NetZero Revolution?

For more information on how to design & build affordable NETZero homes EcoSmart  

How to deliver NetZero commercial at no extra cost. Integrated Designs  
For a workshop or training  Shift2Lean

Join the Revolution!

 Murray Guy aka @Lean_tobe_Green | mguy@i-designs.ca

7 NetZero Projects and Counting

What is the NetZero Revolution?
There is growing excitement about going NetZero! We are experiencing this as we just passed an milestone of participating on our seventh NetZero targeted project. The NetZero REVOLUTION is about making NetZero buildings COOL like the i-phone so everyone wants one. This article highlights seven projects committed to achieving NetZero Energy. There are links to case studies for most of the projects.

How do the NetZero economics work?
By adopting Lean practices in building construction we create efficiencies and eliminate waste to cover the cost of the better envelope, more efficient systems and the PV panels that produce the energy needed to take us to NetZero.

For the NETZero Revolution to Happen, we need to make NetZero #COOL and #Affordable like these 7 projects that are targeting NetZero energy use!

Okanagan College Kelowna

EcoSmart NetZero Ready Positive Cash Flow (Design Stage)

Salay Maizon NetZero Target Green Roof Passive Design

EcoSmart NetZero Targeted Prefab/Passive/6kw

Mosaic Center Edmonton

Blue Herron Haus

Onion Lake Treaty 6 Governance Center

For more information on how to design & build affordable NETZero homes EcoSmart  
How to deliver NetZero commercial at no extra cost. Integrated Designs  
For a workshop or training Lean Lab   
   

 Murray Guy aka @Lean_tobe_Green | mguy@i-designs.ca

EcoSmart | NetZero Energy Homes Workshop

NetZero Living ... Our Past and Our Future 

In this #NetZero workshop we will share lessons learned on how to make NetZero living affordable and explore ways to make it cool and the way of the future.

Net Zero Workshop Agenda:

• A Recipe for High Performance Homes

• Why all I learned about Passive Design could be Wrong | Tree Hugger

• What wall System should I Use

• NetZero Case Studies

• EcoSmart #Prefab #Green

• Blue Herron Haus

• Green Builder Passive House project

• Next Project: Affordable Not-So-Big Positive Cash Flow NetZero 

Please contact Kyle Menz for dates, times and pricing.  kmenz@i-designs.ca

Murray Guy aka @Lean_tobe_Green
Learn: LEAN LAB. … Design: Integrated Designs … Build: EcoSmart

Net-zero energy buildings: Is construction 'at the tipping point' of a new green building era? | Construction Dive

Net-zero energy buildings are today’s ultimate green building statement. From the proposed Bride of the Gulf in Basra, Iraq — which will be the tallest building in the world if completed — to Tesla's gigafactory in Reno, NV, the biggest players in building design and innovation are choosing the net-zero path.

Net-zero energy buildings: Is construction 'at the tipping point' of a new green building era? | Construction Dive: "Net-zero energy buildings: Is construction 'at the tipping point' of a new green building era?
By Kim Slowey | February 4, 2016 print
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In this article we learn that #NetZero buildings are #Cool

• DPR Construction Construction built themselves a Living building challenge Net Zero building in San Francisco
• With no Energy bills are like $20 per month (Infrastructure charges)
• Passive design principles are key for building load management
• Construction costs needed to be $200 psf
• You just feel different in a building like this
• People need to accept wider temperature swings, but they are OK with that!

Our own experience with our own NetZero projects is that with  lean and prefab construction you can have your cake and eat it too.  NetZero performance at close to NetZero additional cost

If you are interested in finding out how to build NetZero check out some of our projects.

• EcoSmart NetZero Duplex Saskatoon (My home)
• Blue Herron Haus
• Mosaic Center 30,000 sq.ft Living Building Challenge/NetZero office facility
• Okanagan College 50,000 sq.ft Living Building Challenge/NetZero Trades Complex

Murray Guy aka @Lean_tobe_Green

NetZero Projects: Learn Online LEAN LAB. Design Integrated Designs or Build EcoSmart  

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EcoSmart | Double Wall Passive Design Affordable NetZero Homes

Blue Heron Haus

Net 0 Targeted Home for Kent & Darcy Earle

For this passive solar design the goal was to deliver an affordable simple Net Zero energy home at approximately the same cost as a traditional build. This was achieved by integrating project management and construction services with a high level of owner involvement.  By utilizing simple energy efficient technology together with a passive solar design, hopefully we have reduced the building loads enough that the 6 kW PV system will produce as much energy as the home consumes. The home is simple in design enabling material use and construction efficiency.

The views of the South Saskatchewan River are amazing

The technical solution includes a double wall high performance-building envelope that is 16 inch thick with passive house quality fibreglass triple glazed windows, Energy Star + appliances, in floor heating, LED lighting, HRV, wood stove and an electric boiler.  There is no cooling other than with natural ventilation provided by opening windows and screen doors.

LEAN  

²  Design to a Target Cost

²  Hand Picked Team with Vertical Integration of Services

²  Pull Planned the Project (6 Month Construction Schedule)

GREEN

²  Leadership: Net 0 Passive Solar Demonstration Project

²  Connection to Nature: The views of the South Saskatchewan River are amazing

²  Simple Design: Exposed concrete floors, basement walls

²  Education: Passive Haus Tour, Awesome Website http://blueheronhaus.com/

²  Economics: Net 0 Energy with a Positive Return on Investment

Murray Guy ... mguy@i-designs.ca     Builder  www.eco-smart.ca

Interview: https://youtu.be/-YIXofePkVI     Lean Training:  www.LeanLab.ca

The Secret to Affordable Net Zero | EcoSmart

"Peter Amerongen is one of the acknowledged grandfathers of the net-zero home—a home that produces as much energy as it consumes. Using his secret formula for insulation you can make a net-zero home in the most northerly city in North America.

The era of net-zero homes is upon us. These super-efficient homes use rooftop solar energy production and smaller, electric powered heating systems such as air source heat pumps to produce as much energy as they consume.

That’s some sexy technology, but it only gets us halfway to net-zero. 

The real secret is insulation.

“We like the double 2x4 wall because it gives us the most economical high R-value,” says Amerongen. “The true energy performance on this is about R40.”
Double studs - creating a true R40 wall  “We like the cellulose because it's essentially a recycled material," says Amerongen. "It's got the lowest energy content in the insulation itself."

Amerongen also blows cellulose insulation into attics to a depth of two feet or more to achieve R80. In the basement, Amerongen shares another secret for energy efficiency.

“The heat loss from a basement wall can be just as high as the heat loss from above ground walls." he says. "We install four inches — two, two-inch layers of expanded polystyrene against the concrete — and then we build a 2x4 frame wall that we put a R22 mineral wool batt in. So we get a total of about R37, R38 in our basement wall."


“We also use it to some degree for giving us additional air tightness,” says Amerongen.

“Air tightness is a critical part of energy conservation, as important as insulation. 

A house that's highly insulated but still leaky will find its biggest [energy loss] is air

The final component in the home insulation puzzle are triple glazed windows, some of which achieve R8, a vast improvement over conventional windows.

The era of net-zero homes is upon us. 

These super-efficient homes use rooftop solar energy production and smaller, electric powered heating systems such as air source heat pumps to produce as much energy as they consume.

For the FULL STORY  on Peter's Recipe 

Insulation 101: One builder's secret blueprint for a net-zero home | Blog Posts | Pembina Institute:

You may also want to check out another former Factor 10 warrior Rob Dumont's recipe

 Directives for High Performance Homes  in a North Climate! 

If you need a builder for your Net 0 home or want a copy of Rob Dumont’s Factor 10 recipe please visit EcoSmart

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EcoSmart Home, Warm and Cozy at - 35 with only Energy from the Sun | Murray Guy

Global New Story: Cold and Virtual No Power Needed 

Global news saw my Tweet:  -35 outside today Warm and Cozy in my #NetZero #Passive Home and decided to do a news story.  The message here is we can build cost effective homes that use zero energy and we encourage you to get as close as possible to this as we need to reduce the 40% GHG emissions that come from buildings.

Some of the details of our home 

Murray Guy aka @Lean_tobe_Green

Design & Build High Performance: Integrated Designs  & EcoSmart  

Affordable starter homes are popping up | Inhabitat

Would #Prefab #Green #NetZero #NotsoBig homes be a good solution for our #FirstNations housing crisis?


Affordable starter homes are popping up on oddly shaped lots in New Orleans | Inhabitat - Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building: "If you’d like to own a home in the city but fear you’ll never be able to afford it, the Office of Jonathan Tate may have some good news for you. The New Orleans-based architecture firm and developer Charles Rutledge have launched a housing experiment to transform oddly shaped urban lots across cities into valuable housing stock with tiny but thoughtfully designed homes. The Starter Home* project will offer affordable, entry-level homes targeted at first-time homebuyers."

Murray Guy aka @Lean_tobe_Green

NetZero Projects: Learn Online LEAN LAB. Design Integrated Designs or Build EcoSmart  

'via Blog this'

A #Tweet that triggered #Media attention for #NetZero in #Saskatoon #Saskatchewan #Canada

Last week was amazing .....  one tweet triggered a Global News spot and a Star Phoenix story about how Net Zero building could be a HUGE part of the climate change solution!

" A Tweet from Murray Guy caught my attention last week: “-35 in Saskatoon today! Our ‪#passive ‪#netzero home is really cozy! No heat required … just the sun!”

It was the coldest day of the year. Everybody’s furnace was working overtime, and Guy’s never cut in once? Is that even possible?

What is the One Tweet that will Trigger a NetZero Revolution?

Global news STORY



Star Phoenix 

Murray Guy aka @Lean_tobe_Green

NetZero Projects: Learn Online LEAN LAB. Design Integrated Designs or Build EcoSmart  

Everything I ever knew about Green Sustainable Design was Probably Wrong | Tree Hugger

The drawing above, or some version of it, has been part of every sustainable design class since about 1970: have lots of south facing windows carefully shaded by properly designed overhangs, with the winter sun heating up that thermal mass of the floor.Frank Lloyd Wright did it; I did it; everybody did it. 

But what if we were all wrong? 

Everything I ever knew or said about green sustainable design was probably wrong : TreeHugger:

3 Lessons Learned from This Article!


1. High thermal mass floors are not particularly comfortable, 

2. South facing windows as an energy source are counterproductive and “should be limited to that necessary to meet the functional and aesthetic needs of the building.”  While large expanses of south-facing glass help heat up a home on a sunny day, the solar heat gain doesn’t come when heat is needed. Most of the time, a passive solar home has either too much or too little solar heat gain, so much of the solar heat gain is wasted. At night and on cloudy days, large expanses of south-facing glass lose significantly more heat than an insulated wall.

3. That careful orientation doesn't really matter any more because nobody needs that extra solar gain.

Just to make us all feel even worse, Bronwyn Barry points to a 1978 study that compared the Saskatchewan Conservation House (superinsulated) to a Passive Solar design (mass and glass) of the period, and the conservation house won hands down, hiding in plain sight.

Lloyd Alter (@lloydalter) Design / Green Architecture October 14, 2015 'via Blog this'

EcoSmart having just built an NetZero home with passive solar design concurs with these lessons learned. Less windows and mass would have prevented our home from overheating which has been an issue. We have planted trees for summer shading as our only cooling is a big ass fan!

Murray Guy aka @Lean_tobe_Green

EcoSmart  

Okanagan College Doubles Down with Second NetZero

Trades Center Project

“A Second Living Building Challenge Project”

“As leaders in the community it is our duty to protect the planet and demonstrate that triple bottom-line economics work. For our second Living Building Challenge project our team adopted Lean Project Delivery to raise the bar even higher as we wanted to demonstrate that we can deliver high perform building deliver at less cost in less time.” Kathleen Lausman  

On our last project it took nearly a year of working to achieve Net 0 energy performance, for this project we adopted a lean commissioning approach (LeanCx) and are planning to be fully commissioned at substantial completion. We also are working hard to develop discipline with full implementation of the Last Planner System, make the best decisions with Choosing by Advantages (CBA) and have a Study Action Team (SAT) to help build a lean culture for Okanagan College and the Project Team.

LEAN  

²  Leadership in adopting Lean Project Delivery (LPD)

²  Discipline with full Implementation of Last Planner System

²  Building a lean culture utilizing LPD, CBA and SAT processes

²  Weekly and daily Collaboration in the BIG ROOM

²  Innovation in piloting Lean Commissioning to get done 6 months early

GREEN

²  Leadership: Second Living Building Challenge Project

²  Education: Sustainable Construction Management Program

²  Innovation: Early verification of Net 0 energy through lean commissioning

²  Economics: Net 0 Energy at Net 0 Additional Cost

²  Community: Utilizing waste heat from district sewage system

www.i-designs.ca

www.leanlab.ca

ZERO-NET-ENERGY BUILDINGS ARE ON THE RISE.

Zero-net-energy buildings are become increasingly commonplace. A 2014 survey by the New Buildings Institute (NBI) identified more than 160 ZNEBs in the U.S., with an additional 53 low-energy buildings that were “net zero energy capable.”

If a project wants to be newsworthy, it needs to incorporate something NEW. Developers of speculative commercial buildings (and, in some places, new home developments) have begun to showcase ZNE designs to differentiate their projects. This trend has been developing slowly since about 2011 and now seems ready for takeoff.

10 megatrends shaping the future of green building | Building Design + Construction:

Murray Guy aka @Lean_tobe_Green

NetZero Projects: Learn Online LEAN LAB. Design Integrated Designs or Build EcoSmart  

'via Blog this'

 EcoSmart Prefab GREEN Net 0 Targeted Duplex

1602 Edward Avenue, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Our goal for this project was to demonstrate that we could build beautiful unique Net 0 homes that are economically viable. By vertically integrating construction services and utilizing a prefab wall system we reduced the cost of construction. By utilizing passive solar and an integrated design we hopefully have reduced building loads enough that our 6 kW PV system will produce as much energy as we consume.

The technical solution includes a high performance-building envelope that is approximately 12 inch thick with triple glazed windows, Energy Star + appliances, Nest thermostat, LED lighting, ERV, heat pump hot water heater and a 95% efficient condensing furnace.  There is no cooling other than with natural ventilation provided by opening windows, screen doors and our BIG ASS fan.  For Side B we utilized the same technology other than there is no PV system, an HRV instead of an ERV and a gas hot water heater.

LEAN  

²  Prefab Wall System

²  Hand Picked Team 
² Integration of services including PM, CM, Design and trade services to reduce cost

GREEN

²  Leadership: Net 0 Demonstration Project

²  Density: Infill Project close to City Core

²  Transportation: Close to work, bike paths, river and bus routes

²  Passive: Passive solar design principles

²  Economics: Net 0 Energy with a Positive Return on Investment
²  Furniture: Recycled, Cradle to Cradle, Local, rapidly renewable materials

Murray Guy

Lean Lab |  Integrated Designs | EcoSmart