Home To Use 90 Per Cent Less energy, 50 per Cent Less Water

Premier Lorne Calvert opened the door to a more environmentally-friendly future in Saskatchewan today, showcasing an energy efficient home that uses 90 per cent less energy, and 50 per cent less water than an average existing Saskatchewan home.

Rolf and Shannon Holzkaemper and their two children will move into their energy-efficient home on Earth Day, Sunday, April 22.

“It’s very important for us to set a positive example for our children, all children,” Rolf Holzkaemper said. “This home shows how individuals can have a very significant impact on large issues like climate change and global warming.”

“The Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) used Smart Science Solutions™ to design and outfit a home that will help move us toward a sustainable future,” Calvert said. “With climate change an ever-growing concern, this home demonstrates technology that can greatly reduce impacts on the environment, reduce costs for the owners and provide a warm comfortable home for a family. I commend Rolf, Shannon and their family for participating and helping pioneer projects like these that help demonstrate in very real ways how we can make life better here for families and build a brighter future for our young people.”

The Factor 9 Home: A New Prairie Approach began as a demonstration project in 2005 to illustrate significant advances in home energy- and water-conservation technologies. The Saskatchewan Research Council co-ordinated the project, working in partnership with Communities of Tomorrow, Saskatchewan Office of Energy Conservation, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Natural Resources Canada.

“This home is a terrific example of what we can accomplish with existing products, and why further investment in clean technology, renewable energy and energy efficiency is so important to our environmental future,” said the Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural Resources. “I’m proud that our new government has been part of the Factor 9 project, helping to show that using less and living better is much more than a slogan.”

“Because of SRC’s long history of working on energy conservation initiatives, we were well positioned to meet the challenges associated with achieving an aggressive target on this project,” SRC president and CEO Dr. Laurier Schramm said. “This Factor 9 Home builds on past initiatives of low energy housing in Saskatchewan, keeping our province in the forefront of energy conservation.”

The house has high insulation levels, solar panels integrated with the windows on the southern exposure, and a rain water capture and storage system. To provide mechanical cooling in the summer, a network of plastic pipes was installed in 22 concrete pilings to extract cooling from the ground.

The Holzkaempers paid for construction of the house. Funding and other resources were provided by Communities of Tomorrow ($100,000), Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Natural Resources Canada ($80,000 combined), Saskatchewan Office of Energy Conservation ($50,000) and the Saskatchewan Research Council ($50,000). The University of Regina and the City of Regina will collect scientific information on the effectiveness of the project for years to come.

The public is invited to tour the four-bedroom, three-bathroom, 150-square-metre (1,614-square-foot) home at 7335 Wascana Cove Place in Regina this week. An open house will run from Tuesday to Friday from 6-8 p.m. and then on Saturday and Sunday from 1-5 p.m.