ANNA Weier will bend your ear about how sustainable housing will save money for homeowners while contributing to environmental health -- but she's also put her money where her mouth is.
She's bought a house in the Spence neighbourhood and renovated it not only to make it as environmentally friendly as possible, but to determine barriers to others following her example.
Anna Weier; resident, renovator and master's degree candidate.
"The energy used in buildings has a huge impact on the environment," says Weier, an Environment, Earth and Resources program student at the University of Manitoba who is renovating the house on Langside Street as her thesis for a Master's degree.
And while it's easier to incorporate environmentally sensitive systems in new construction, "we can't ignore the stock of older housing in the city."
So last year she plunked down $25,900 to buy a 1,160-square-foot, 1 3/4-storey, three-bedroom, one bath house on Langside Street, north of Portage Avenue between Maryland and Balmoral streets.
Barriers
"I wanted to renovate the house so it's as self-sustainable as possible, energy efficient and healthy," says Weier. And she wanted to see what the barriers there are to sustainable renovation so eventually more homeowners can be encouraged to follow her lead.
The kitchen shows despite being green the house hasn't lost a sense of style.
Winnipeg Housing Rehabilitation Corporation (WHRC) is using information from Weier's project to determine which sustainable elements are economical for renovations for low income housing. WHRC renovates dilapidated housing that has fallen off the real estate market and sells the property to low income families which otherwise could never afford to own their own homes.
"It's a good opportunity for us to see how sustainable measures can reduce heating costs, lower water bills and help the environment," says Stephanie Noga, WHRC project manager.
Until the recent increase in housing prices in the city, "you couldn't renovate in the area and expect to make your money back" in a subsequent sale, says Weier.
Built in 1905, the house had been vacant for more than six years, vandalized and used by squatters. Weier was able to move in this summer, after spending about $130,000 in renovations.
She began by gutting the house and installing dense pack cellulose insulation in the walls and covering the basement walls with Icynene insulation, a low volatile organic compound polyurethane spray foam that creates an air-tight barrier. (Up to 40 per cent of a building's energy costs are due to air loss due to leakage around doors and windows, through cracks in the foundation, and areas where the moisture barrier is imperfect, according to the federal EnerGuide for Houses service).
'Green' systems
Weier looks for the crown on an old plank.
Initially, she wanted as many "green" systems as possible, including geothermal heating, a composting toilet, solar thermal heating, a greenhouse and a greywater recycling system.
Geothermal heating was not practical because of the size of the lot, so the house has radiant floor heating, in which glycol food-grade antifreeze is heated by a boiler, then circulated through piping under the floors throughout the house.
Yet to be added are solar thermal panels (which will eventually be tied into the radiant heating system) and greywater recycling, which will allow water from sinks and the bath to be used for washing laundry and watering the green house.
Not as much material was reusable as initially hoped. The flooring had been refinished with lead paint in the past, and sanding it would result in a health risk. Mouldings were so dry they splintered when removed, and were unusable. But the bricks from the chimney were recycled into flooring in the basement.
No source for recycled hardwood could be found before the floors needed to be installed, so new hardwood was laid as well as new recycled cork tiles and carpet tiles.
Construction recycling centres were the source of the energy efficient windows, construction material and kitchen countertops. Kitchen cabinets are made from locally-produced compostable strawboard, which can be used in place of medium density fibreboard (MDF).
New energy-efficient appliances were bought, along with new light fixtures compatible with compact fluorescent lights.
Although her Spence neighbours do find the house attractive, Weier doubts any will follow her example and try a sustainable renovation, primarily because it takes more time, money and effort.
"There just isn't the infrastructure," she says.
Even though Weier received $45,000 in grants, tons of free advice and volunteer labour, she herself could not afford all the features she would like. She received support from Winnipeg Housing Rehabilitation Corporation, Manitoba Hydro, Winnipeg Housing and Homelessness Initiative, The U of M faculties of architecture and environment, the Spence Neighbourhood Association, as well as friends and family, particularly her stepfather, Gerhard Wiebe.
Total impact
And it's hard to figure out the total environmental and economic impact, Weier says, because higher materials and installation costs are offset by long-term energy savings, not to mention a continued lower environmental impact.
Plumbing and heating were slightly more expensive, coming in at about $30,000. When the old gas furnace was removed, a new ventilation system had to be installed. The waterless composting toilet cost $2,000 and was more expensive than traditional toilets to install.
Weier plans to add a greywater recycling system so water from showers and baths can be used for laundry and landscaping. A B.C. study puts the price range for retrofitting greywater systems at less than $1,000 to simply divert the flow up to $25,000, depending on required storage and treatment capacity.
However Weier's house will have lower water bills forever. The toilet uses no water at all -- and the city reports flushing toilets accounts for about a third of the average residential consumption at 225 litres daily per person, and showers account for 20 per cent and 18 per cent is used for washing clothes.
Having a toilet that uses no water and using bath water for laundry will mean Weier's house will use less than half the amount of a similar traditional house.
Water savings
But there's another environmental saving, says Weier: "that much less water needs to be treated" and that much less chlorine and fluoride need to be mined for water treatment.
The Alberta Research Council says the combination of insulation and thermal solar panels can cut energy for heating by as much as one-half. About 65 per cent of Canadian home energy consumption goes for space heating.
The steel roof cost nearly $9,000, compared to about $6,000 for traditional asphalt -- but it has a 50-year warranty that can be transferred to subsequent owners.
Still, the upfront price is too steep for many budgets, despite long-term savings on utilities. It's out of range for many people.
"Based on Anna's project, we realized sustainability is not an affordable option at the entry-level," says Noga.
However, lessons learned from Weier's sustainable renovation will be used in a NetZero, Healthy Housing project by WHRC. NetZero houses produce energy themselves, contributing excess energy to the grid and taking from the grid when consuming more than produced. The idea is the net electrical bill will be zero.
"We're trying to take Anna's project further to come up with sustainable solutions" that can be used when renovating for lower income families, who would best benefit from lower heating and water costs says Noga.
Meanwhile, Weier enjoys her home -- and her nearly self-sustainable lifestyle.
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