Walls and a roof were put up on last week for the new Evolve single family home at Red Deer College over a period of six hours.
The economic and environmentally friendly home is a unique construction project in that it will meet standards in energy efficiency, water conservation and sustainable building practices.
As part of the Phase 1 expansion of the project which aims to keep Red Deer College campus green and environmentally friendly, the home offers extensive learning opportunities for trades students attending the school.
“Students have had the opportunity to be on site and do layouts with leveling instruments as well as helped build beams and floors and are currently building the stairs,” said Gary Halvorson, carpentry instructor with RDC.
The house was built in partnership with Landmark Homes and Avalon Central Alberta.
Avalon is well known and respected for their work with the ‘Net Zero’ housing market, which made the partnership a perfect fit, officials say.
“All wall panels were built by Landmark and part of their participation wasn’t just about material and work, but Landmark and Avalon and numerous other trades will be donating the profits from this house to go towards student scholarships,” said Halvorson.
The homebuilders will not be applying for ‘carbon neutral’ or ‘net zero’ status, meaning that it will have a neutral impact on the environment due to the use of recycled materials used for production. It does contain a series of solar panels or photo voltaic cells that allow the house to create almost as much energy as it uses or even more.
“It has a high-efficient furnace and mechanical system and all of the air systems are highly controlled and we are adding solar panels and electrical generation,” said Halvorson.
“The house uses a certain amount of energy and the photovoltaic grids will generate electricity and offset the energy used.
“If the cells create more energy than the house uses which we expect it will then we will get an energy credit from the power company.”
The entire production of the house is available in a seamless time lapse four-minute video through Red Deer College’s YouTube page @RDCTube or at the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_5MTNnLUqk.
jswan@reddeerexpress.com
