By David Dodge and Scott Rollans
Calgary’s Ed Ma built an ultra-efficient solar-thermal-heated home way back in 2007, long before most of us had ever heard of net-zero. You could call Ed a green home pioneer, although he didn’t start out with such lofty ambitions.
“My wife and I decided we wanted to build a home that had some sustainable features and elements,” says Ma. “But, like every project, scope creeps. One thing led to another, and we went as far as we could go within our budget.”
Ed shows us the heart of his home’s energy design, a solar thermal system that provides his heat and domestic hot water. A repurposed 350-gallon tank stores excess heat for use at night, when the sun isn’t shining.
The building itself is made using insulated concrete forms. “Back in that time, ten years ago, nobody did that in Calgary,” Ma says. “Same with the solar thermal. It was very rare you saw that in the inner city, it was mostly out in rural areas.”
Ed also installed some very cool triple-paned windows. “They’re the European style tilt and turn windows, and they have multiple locking points all the way around,” says Ma. “When you build an environmentally sustainable home, you really want to have a very tight building envelope.”
The sounds of silence
Ed’s wife, Rhonda Blair, says the tight envelope comes with fringe benefits. “We live in the inner city, and with the walls and the windows it is so peaceful in our home. We don’t hear all the traffic. The other piece that I really love is that the heat and the cool in the house is flowing. It’s never too hot. It’s never too cold. It just makes it so easy.”
In the years since he built the home, Ma has also become quite enamored with electric vehicles. He was among Canada’s first Tesla drivers, purchasing one of the first Tesla Roadsters in Canada. Not to be outdone Rhonda got in on the act with a Tesla Model S and then traded up to the Tesla Model X, an SUV that does 0-100 in 3.2 seconds. A fact she likes to point out to Ed whose Roadster isn’t quite that fast.
As the price of solar PV came down Ma also added a three-kilowatt solar system to his house. “That does about 38 per cent of our home,” he says. Naturally all of their light bulbs are LED. “Ten years ago, when we bought LEDs, they were about $35 a bulb,” he marvels. “Ten years later, I can get them at Canadian Tire for $2 a bulb. So it’s pretty amazing. We’ve come a long ways, and I’m thrilled about that.”
Ma has become quite big on solar PV. “10 years ago, photovoltaic solar wasn’t economic but solar thermal was—which is why you see the solar thermal behind me. Now, 10 years later photovoltaics is very economic. So, if I were to do it again, I wouldn’t have any solar thermal.”
That said, the Ma-Blair household remains a technical showpiece—from state-of-the-art home automation, to a Tesla Powerwall in the basement, to artificial turf in the backyard, to a spectacular 25-foot indoor string waterfall feature that dazzles you the moment you step through the door. It’s integrated with their advanced home systems and helps keep the humidity up in the dry Alberta air. Frankly it looks like a feature straight out of Las Vegas. The couple is also planning to expand their solar PV system, to take them ever closer to net-zero.
Where you lead, others will follow
Although Ma is proud of his role as an energy-efficiency trailblazer, he’s confident the rest of our society isn’t far behind. “It really is a revolution,” he declares. “I think that we will see more and more of that change. And, what’s going to drive that change is actually technology rather than regulation. Regulation is going to need to try and catch up and keep pace with technology.”
And as cool as their home is Ed is even more excited about society starting to embrace the idea of sustainable homes.
“I’m really excited about about … homebuilders embracing environmental sustainability building practices like that. I think it’s so important too for people to understand that you can live and in a sustainable home without any compromises. Sustainable homes used to be low flush toilets and LED light bulbs and now it’s so much more.”