SSHH Self Sufficient Healthier Housing 3 Page Primer

8/6/2019 SSHH Self Sufficient Healthier Housing 3 Page Primer

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SSHH - Towards Self-Sufficient Healthier Housing (northern & on-reserve) - a 3 page primer

KEY FEATURES of “Self-Sufficient Healthier Housing” - northern & on reserve.

SSHH is about choices. It is Environmental Resourcefulness In Action (ERIA).

A SSHH House is not only healthy for the people living inside the home, but is an integral part of a communitythat can actually retain farmland, forest, and wetlands. Such quality housing is not necessarily more expensive

and may actually cost less overall, not to mention lower energy bills and maintenance/upkeep costs.

Materials are carefully chosen for occupant health to avoid allergies and respiratory problems.

House designs & construction techniques avoid moisture, humidity, mold buildup. Building envelopes gobeyond R2000 (even less heat if using passive solar energy) with some thermal mass to eliminate frost andcondensation damage when left unoccupied.

Continuous ventilation systems remove polluted air, and circulate fresh filtered air.Biological treatment of potable water removes bacteria/parasites without chemicals.

(CMHC provides training & materials on Indoor Air Quality inspection / mitigation)

Flexible housing design/construction accommodates changing needs - both in the age & size of the family, andto permit seniors, disabled people, and children to move more freely (CMHC's "Flex Housing" Innovations).

Community & home designs provide healthier and more secure areas for youth activities, plus traditionaloccupations and lifestyles, including temporarily high occupancies. These designs also permit the integration of indoor/outdoor facilities for crafts and the processing of game & produce (traditional foods and remedies);

Plans for sustainable harvesting/recovery of local timber for fuel/building materials, and where appropriate thegrowing/storage of local herbs, vegetables, fruits, grains;

Plans for community agriculture/aquaculture, composting, recycling, tree planting.

"EcoSystem Rescue” designs reduce infrastructure requirements for water / sewage / heat / power / firefighting / stormwater. Alternatives to conventional sewage infrastructure reduce pollution/save water by onsitebiological treatment of wastewater for direct discharge, and even reclaim 40-80% water for local reuse onsite.

Planning & site development should extend all the way – from streets and subdivisions up to retaining 2/3 of site as farmland, forest, wetland - up to 2/3 less infrastructure, 2/3 less land development, not to mention up to2/3 less $ cost (CMHC's "Fused Grid" community designs use 1/3 less land & ensure better pedestrian access).

Build Smart / Operate Smart to encourage the supply and usage of water, heat and power in more efficientways. Like CO-GENERATING heat/power to recover 2/3 of the fuel energy normally wasted, and choosingequipment that uses 2-20x less power. Use factory or site prefabrication methods to reduce home building costsup to 40% over local stick-built construction (CMHC provides Builder/Inspector capacity training/certification)Consider in-house firefighting installations based on non freezing pre-charged foam systems. Specifyautonomous building designs where appropriate - eg. camps, recreation, farm, and remote facilities.

___________________________________________________________________________________ 1ERIA EcoSystems Inc - 70 Como Gardens, Hudson, QC J0P 1H0 - 450-458-7974 - www.eria.info




STEWARDSHIP ROLE OF HOUSING - or - “ It’s the Environment, Stupid .”

Communities of homes (housing developments) are man made components placed in the ecosystem where theyassume a role similar to other ecosystem components. As an artificially created component this role is notalways self evident. As a result most housing developments tend to degrade their own supportive networks bydemanding energy, resources, water and land which they cannot replace or rejuvenate, unlike natural

components which restore what they draw from the ecosystem.

This stewardship role of housing is not always self evident or understood, especially in large urban centres. Inmany remote, rural, northern and First Nations communities however, environmental degradation is becomingmore and more self evident, and the role that settlement plays in this is much better understood. Many of thesesame communities also have less access to energy, finished materials and "southern" technological expertise.Furthermore they may still be dependent on traditional foods, materials, and energy sources.

This combination of improved awareness, diminished resources and acute needs has led to the development of anumber of Healthier Housing solutions which underscore the issues of sustainable development. Both HealthierHousing and sustainable community planning are strongly linked thanks to alternative infrastructure approaches

which make better land use patterns possible - they certainly don't have to "cost the earth". These "HealthierHousing" principles and ideas are equally valid in other parts of Canada and the USA, even in urban andsuburban areas. They help all of us to address key questions like - Do our communities have to be land short?Can we protect our farmland, forests and wetlands - our ecosystems? Is it possible to build quality housing thatis affordable?

Healthier Housing minimises its needs for land, material and energy by optimizing natural forces for support,and maximizing efficiencies from appropriate technologies and methodologies. This allows the greatestflexibility and lowest cost to encourage "non-mainstream" solutions including renewable energy and greater useof locally available materials. Sustainable community infrastructure(s) delivers clean air, water, soil and somefoods for these healthy homes, and receives their waste and wastewater, restores them to their original state or

better, and returns them to the ecosystem.

LAND USE CHOICES - Alternative infrastructure permits efficient land / resource usage, and thereby protectsthe ecosystems/watersheds, retains agriculture, saves money & scarce resources (Connecticut river 300 acres).

175 homes

+ strip retail

175 homes

+ village retail

Forestry, dairy,

berries, sugarbush





TOP 10 POINTS to Improve Northern Housing Renewable Energy Performance

1. LOCATION: point main windows south; shelter entrances from wind.

2. FOUNDATION: build on rock rather than permafrost; insulate the crawlspace. Rock can be a good buildingmaterial. It is often available locally and reduces dependence on imported materials.

3. ENVELOPE: better than R2000 if possible (?); can we go beyond minimum energy code requirements (?);choose quality windows that can be readily repaired (i.e. not too big); shutters for windows (used in mostEuropean homes); consider SIP panel systems for the building shell.

4. VENTILATION: tempered airlock entrance room with dedicated ventilation system (to catch the humiditygenerated from boots and clothing before the humidity gets into the heated area of the dwelling); “Solar-Wall”system for preheating of ventilation air; preheat Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) exhaust air to avoid intake airfreeze-up; try to control / manage humidity at source(s); find cooking methods that don't produce so muchhumidity (why not use pressure cookers more often?).

5. APPLIANCES: combo furnaces for space & DHW heating (use external utility room to gain space for anextra bedroom - no more need for vent holes in the building envelope); STOP leaving lights/appliances on, andavoid ‘instant-on' operation. Choose the latest LED lighting (better/healthier than CF compact fluorescents).

6. COMMUNITY ENERGY: cogeneration of heat and power; avoid resistance heating; clustering of housesand symbiotic integration of work and living spaces to optimize mechanical systems; efficient street lights(three times less power draw and better lighting); micro co-generation systems “daisy-chained” to allow forembedded communal power generation and back-up if main power generation system fails; vehicle dockingstation to allow for house/vehicle interface “HOUSE-CAR” or hV2G.

BIODIESEL can be generated from community wastes (particularly the biodegradable stuff from garbage &

sewage) and can be an eventual energy source in the larger communities like Kuujjuak. Note that BioDieselcontains similar power to regular D2 diesel and 30% more power than cold weather diesel fuel. As a result, thepower losses that can be attributed to using higher percentage blends of other additives are not present whenusing BioDiesel.

7. RENEWABLE ENERGY: solar air pre-heaters for daytime ventilation; solar domestic hot-water heaters(DHW) heaters; rugged yacht type wind turbines (0.4 kW output, mounted nearby, NOT on large remotetowers); new vertical axis wind turbines (3-12 kW output, mounted on the garage); small PV arrays for gridinter-tied power.

8. HOUSE WATER SYSTEMS: low flow (or even composting toilets – that provide a clean soil);

Microsystems that permit on-site water re-use, for example, grey-water reclamation systems (also recover 2/3 ofheat energy); bath and shower water reclaimed for use in toilet ONLY.

9. MUNICIPAL WATER SYSTEMS: are there alternatives to continuous pumping? Alternatives are neededthat avoid freezing of buried / exposed water lines.

10. TRAIN PEOPLE about key differences: maintenance, operation, choices. Can we avoid the “NorthernThermostat” = Heat set to maximum and Open the windows?


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SSHH Self Sufficient Healthier Housing 3 Page Primer