LEED Platinum Home in British Columbia

Our recommendations to everyone building a home is for the same, aim for energy efficiency, durability, safe indoor air quality and responsible material choices etc. I would point you to our guide pages to search by category or keyword -

Green building guide for high performance construction techniques

On top of that, we would suggest you take extra time on resilient home design. Since you won’t be there a lot of the time, try to foresee any issues your home may face and add design features to deal with them passively.

Here is a short list of measures you might want to consider that will help protect your home while you are away for long periods, and we have included as many relevant links as we can think of:

Choose a suitable lot to build a home with consideration put towards soil quality, water tables, emergency service access, and close enough to a community so you could have someone on call that can attend to your home regularly.  

Super-insulated homes such as passive house, and designing a home for passive solar heat collection will keep your energy costs at a minimum and also help it stay warm in the event of power failures.

When you suggest a basement, my first thought would be to avoid that and stay above grade. Building a basement is typically a more expensive way to build, and even if you take measures to protect it against flooding, you will still be at risk. A slab on grade house on high ground will safeguard your home against extreme weather events in a changing climate.  

If you do choose to go with a basement, please see our guide to durable and healthy basement construction, and take extra durability measures such as installing a sump pump, possibly a second one depending on water tables, and even a battery backup.

Choose durable roofing materials to protect against high winds, such as a professionally installed and well-fastened metal roof, or a living green roof. Asphalt shingles are the least durable and are susceptible to damage from wind and hail.

Smart homes and home monitoring with devices– control the systems of your home remotely, and monitor for intruders, temperature swings, and get smart phone notices for leaks from basements and or appliances.

We make no secret of the fact that we prefer slab on grade homes over basements, and particularly in your situation. Aside from what we mention above, it’s great to have a retirement home on a single level so you can avoid the need to negotiate stairs if you have mobility issues in the future. That said, we also have information on downsizing and home design for seniors, that you may want to consider now for when your travelling days end.

And to address the issue of cost – yes, you will put more money into a durable and efficient home, but they pay for themselves in the long run. As you plan to stay in this for the long term, we truly believe that the added investment for a greener home will pay off. The best way to keep costs down is to keep the size down and the design simple, so take time to consider how big a home you really need.

I will run with the assumption that your house is not yet built otherwise you would already have a heating solution, is that correct? If not let me know.

From the beginning, your best bet is to have a very good thermal envelope to reduce the heat load and, if possible, orient the house for passive solar heating. Both of those design priorities will reduce the size of the heating system you require as well as the amount of energy it will consume during operation.

The cheapest way to set yourself up would be a wood stove, but they are not the most efficient system, and home temperatures tend to vary more when wood is the primary heat source. It also requires that you be there to continually feed the fire. They’re fun to sit around and excellent to have in an emergency but they are a bit of a hassle. I speak from experience here, I like my wood stove but it’s a lot of work, so I use my electric heat as much as possible.

If your slab hasn’t been decided on yet, check back with us soon as we will be starting construction on our next demo house in about 3 weeks (September, 2018), which will have solar-heated air panels feeding air tubes in the slab floor. Solar air heating panels are a lot less hassle and risk than solar water heating panels, and a lot more affordable than photovoltaic solar panels. We expect this to be among the more affordable off-grid heating solutions as it will only take a small PV panel to run the fan that will then deliver heat.

We already have the answers you’re looking for no matter what stage of design or construction you’re at, here are the pages that will help; and if they don’t, please don’t hesitate to drop us another question.

• Solar air heaters
• Air-heated slab floors
• Off-grid heating solutions
• Passive solar home design
• Choosing the right wood stove
• Off-grid living blog: heating systems