Slocan House – High Efficiency SIP Home

Excavation has now started on the new house construction in Slocan, BC. The plans and the budget have been finalized. Several options were studied in order to get the most energy efficient house as possible, with the budget that has been set.

After building three houses using Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) we decided to use this system again. The previous house built with SIPs had an energuide rating of 86, which is just about as high as you can get without going that extra step of producing energy.

The main reason that SIPs are so effective in terms of providing an energy effiicient building envelope is that when properly installed, they are very air tight and they have a higher insulation value than a conventionally framed wall. The key to energy efficiency is building an envelope that resists air leakage, which is the major cause of heat loss in a home.

Please stay tuned as we will have an update on the mechanical heating and ventilation systems as details get worked out. We are also building the house net zero ready, which means that at any time, an array of solar panels can be installed which would produce as much energy as the home uses on a yearly basis.