Tract home builder, Kaneff, is producing high efficiency homes in Mississauga Ontario. We are doing pre-drywall insulation inspections and airtightness testing on the finished home.
Each of these homes is unique and Kaneff is working very hard making changes to the way they produce houses our of concern for the homeowner and wanting to produce a better finished product. Kaneff is building green homes by making their homes more airtight, adding HRVs to ventilate for optimal occupant health, and offers other green technologies like drain water heat recovery- a low-tech device that recaptures heat from shower drain water – which can cut water heating cost by as much as 40%!
These generously sized homes are so efficient that the furnaces in some of the homes have a smaller firing rate than the hot water heater. This is significant in many ways, as traditionally the furnace had the largest firing rate. The consequences of installing such a small furnace are better comfort and more efficiency. A smaller sized furnace runs more constantly circulating conditioned air for the occupants. As we make the homes more airtight, with better thermal envelopes, the margins for ‘comfort errors’ become smaller and it becomes more crucial that weaknesses in the thermal envelope be designed out before the house gets constructed and that breaches in the thermal envelope during construction phase be identified and rectified.