Saves Fuel, Space and Money

In the not too distant past, what sold a house was the sizzle – great kitchen and bath, terrific doors, floors and moldings. Today, faced with rising energy costs and availability, home buyers are forced also to be mindful of the steak, or energy efficiency considerations like insulation, and the heating and cooling system.

In building their dream home last year, Richard and Susan Ronchka got plenty of both the steak and the sizzle. Their 5,000 square foot bungalow in Freelton, Ontario, located about 80 kilometers northwest of Toronto, is packed with energy efficiency features, including a solar water heating system supplemented with a high efficiency, eco-friendly boiler.

"The process of building our own home began when we set about finding a lot," says Richard Ronchka. "We then found someone who could get us a building permit. And, finally, we found someone we could work with to build the home for us."

The homeowners were prepared to spend up to 20% more for energy efficiency measures than would be available in the average reasonably well-built home as long as it made practical, economic sense to do so.

Insulation and Air Distribution

The Ronchka couple chose Integrated Concrete Forms (ICF) for the basement and main floor. ICF is more expensive than the standard 'sticks and boards' construction by about 20%. However, it has some advantages: the outside walls are in the R50 range, and no studs are required to mount drywall around the perimeter. The basement walls are also insulated to that R50 level.

It was simply too expensive to build the second floor with ICF. Since they were using stucco as the outside finish for the upper part of the house, the Rochkas got an additional R8 outside on the upstairs walls, using standard batts in 2" by 6" walls for a total insulation of about R30.

The basement floor was insulated to an R10 standard, incorporating an in-floor radiant hot water system. Pre-stressed hollow core concrete was used for the main floor. This design produced two important advantages: ducting is provided by the hollow cores, thus allowing some in-floor heat while saving sheet metal and installation costs; and the floor provides incredible thermal mass – about 275,000 pounds of concrete spread throughout the house.

Integrated Solar Heating System

Richard Ronchka hired Dryden Mechanical to install their heating and hot water system. The system includes four Baxi solar panels, as well as two dual coil water storage tanks that supplies most of the domestic hot water and a good part of the space heating.

The home's heat loss is a maximum of 55,000 Btu's/hr, and the solar water heating system has the capability of generating about 60% of that load. It is designed to first take all the energy as is available from solar, with the boiler firing as a top up to meet the total heating requirement, as necessary.

The solar water heating system is backed up by a space saving, 98% efficient Baxi Luna HT modulating, condensing wall-hung boiler. While the basement is an in-floor hydronic system and thus ideally matched to a condensing boiler, there is a need for an air handler to distribute both heat and air conditioning. The air distribution system combines the air handling requirement with an HRV and electronic air cleaner, all powered by an EC high efficiency motor.

"The comparable system, efficiency wise, is a ground source heat pump," says Ronchka. "Our system is considerably less expensive and it runs on a lot less energy than a heat pump, making it much more environmentally friendly as well. In fact, the solar system pump requires 3 amps of electric current, and the boiler pump operates at less than 3 amps."

To learn more about energy efficient, eco-friendly Baxi heating and renewable energy solutions, visit www.wallhungboilers.com.

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