In the early days of January 2012, Shervin and I watched the tsunami of Ontario Building Codes SB-12 changes wash over and bury plans examiners, window suppliers, designers and builders with the simple deletion of the word “voluntary” in front of “EnerGuide80″. By the summer of 2012, things were settling down but over the years, we still see so many custom and tract builders still opting for the black and white of a “package” in SB-12. Even more mind boggling was the fact that architects would limit themselves to no more than 22% glazing to avoid going down the “performance path.” What are they scared of?
We stuck it out and had a handful of architects who were brazenly unafraid of challenging their builds to a blower door test. Meanwhile, we were air tightness testing hundreds of new, tract built homes for ENERGY Star, giving us grist for the mill. As the years past a few renovators and builders started to glom onto our services as they see the value in ensuring their builds offer homeowners a tested product. That’s different! We all know that unlike cars, homes are not made in ISO9000 factories – they’re made outside in rain, snow, scorching sun with crews changing, building material delays and things happen. Quality like time can slip away on any build and having a 3rd party test the building shell before the drywall goes up often catches some major glitches that might have ended in discomfort or worse an ice damn, mould or condensation.
Truth is we can’t believe how much flexibility the EnerGuide80 path offers. It avoids the straight-jacked approach of SB-12 and gives the designer greater latitude especially where glazing is concerned plus they get the product that carries their name tested!
As we approach the halfway point in the 5 year code cycle, we’re wondering if 2017 will bring the same level of upheaval as 2012. Will architects and builders embrace the 15% jump in energy performance in the next code iteration? Our guess is that unlike the avant-garde professionals we work with, most will opt for a package and be run over roughshod by what’s already foretold in the code now. They will rush to approve as many permits by December 31 2016 while the architects and builders we work with will be future-proofing their homes towards Netzero or Passive House standard.