By David Dodge and Kay Rollans
At the start of 2019, 40-year-old Jayman homes decided to do something no other home builder was doing.
“Last year, we made the decision at the beginning of 2019 that solar panels, six per home, were included standard in every Jayman built home that we sold,” says Dave Desormeaux, president of Jayman Built Homes in Alberta.
As baseball legend Yogi Berra said, “Little things make a big difference.”
“We built over 780 homes, all of which had six panels on them this year in 2019. … So we just surpassed one-megawatt in generation for Jayman and that‘s our first year,” says Desormeaux.
Build green and go home
Jayman has made its name as an innovator of sustainable home design in the province. In 2003, the company helped to establish Built Green Canada, a third-party certification program that focuses on encouraging the housing market to adopt energy-efficient practices.
Every home comes standard with an impressive list of energy-efficient technologies. On-demand hot water, triple-paned windows, and LED lights are standard says Desormeaux, a self-proclaimed technology geek. Years ago, they brought in a two-stage, 96-per-cent-efficient furnace that cut heating energy by 30 per cent. Homes also now include heat recovery ventilators and R-50 attic insulation.
And last year, Jayman partnered with Calgary’s SkyFire Energy to add six grid-tied solar modules to the standard features of every Jayman home.
It was a visionary move at a time when the housing market was very tight.
Albertans support solar
Desormeaux says that solar wasn’t always an easy sell. With the market tightening up, Jayman had a decision to make.
“We had one of two options. We start to strip our houses, make them cheaper and really less inspirational,” said Desormeaux. “But when the rest of the industry went left, we went right and we innovated like we’ve never innovated before.”
Instead of backing away from solar, Jayman used their buying power to lower costs and made solar standard in all their homes.
The response from Albertans was overwhelming. “With all the talk about climate change and all the talk about sustainability. People really want to do the right thing,” Desormeaux said. “We have heard customers say that they were proud to tell their family or their friends that, yeah, and our house has solar panels and we’re helping with the carbon footprint and sustainability.”
Desormeaux says that while times are still tough in the housing market, Jayman’s sustainable vision has helped them weather the storm. “We had budgeted for about 650 homes for 2019 and we sold about 780 homes this year… I think solar had a lot to do with that.”
Jayman expects to build over 1,000 solar-equipped homes in 2020.
But for Desormeaux, the bottom line is that homeowners can expect to save money in the long run. “Their electricity bill is going to be reduced 25 percent or more from the solar panels. They’ve got a really well-built home that’s going to minimize their operating costs for years to come as electricity rates and gas rates continue to rise.”
Jayman homes hit one-megawatt solar milestone
“We just crossed one megawatt installed,” says Parker Christensen, of Skyfire Energy. “Completing a megawatt of solar six panels at a time is a pretty big accomplishment.”
This volume deal is good for Jayman, good for Skyfire and good for the consumer.
Besides, “You’re basically creating 750 cheerleaders for solar when they see their reduced electrical bills… So you’re creating all these people that are now excited about solar and talking to their friends and family and we’re getting inquiries,” says Christensen.
SkyFire Energy, is no novice when it comes to major solar installation projects. It was the company behind the Green Acres Hutterite Colony solar project—a two-megawatt solar farm, the first of its kind in Western Canada.
“It was two one-megawatt grid-tied systems, offsetting 100 per cent of their usage year-round,” said Christensen. “So there are about 100 families that live there and that was a pretty impactful project.”
Onward and upward into the smart technology future
According to Desormeaux, Jayman is already hard at work on the next big green innovations in home building: “We now are moving towards smart home technology that will leverage all those things in your house and put more brains behind it to give even more efficiency and lower operating costs to the homeowner.”
“In every Jayman home in 2020, we’re providing a standard smart home package. So it includes a video doorbell in the front and five smart Wi-Fi switches.”
They’re using Amazon equipment as the hub of their new smart home package. “There will be a camera and a motion detector in everybody’s backyard. We’re moving to Ecobee smart thermostats with voice control and an August smart lock on the front door.”
Like solar, Jayman is making the smart home package standard equipment in their 2020 homes.
Desormeaux also has his eye on electric cars. As the production and adoption of electric vehicles ramps up, Jayman is preparing to welcome your next car home. “Every garage will have an electric vehicle charging outlet (220 volt) in 2020,” he said.
Imagining the home of the future can come at a cost, and Desormeaux says the company would probably sell more homes by stripping back their standard features and lowering costs. But, he says, it’s not all about economics. “We don’t have to do these things,” says Desormeaux, “We want to do these things. This is part of our values, part of our culture to balance doing the right thing.”
Dave Desormeaux is the president and chief operating officer of Jayman BUILT homes, a Calgary-based company that has built 28,000 homes in Alberta.