Ross Elliott, Homesol CEO
Founder and CEO of
Homesol Building Solutions Inc., Ross Elliott, is sharing his passion for sustainable building. Drawing on knowledge of sustainable building construction developed through 30 years of experience in the industry, and work in his Ottawa-based residential energy design consulting company, Elliott has gathered together a four person team of experts in Passive House design to spread the word at Ryerson University in Toronto this summer. Elliott’s aim in creation of the nine day Certified Passive House Consultant (CPHC) Training course is to inspire a new generation of Canadian Passive House architects, designers, contractors and engineers to build to this emerging, high energy saving residential design standard. Specific goals for the course include training building professionals in the latest techniques for implementing Passive House principles in residential, commercial, and retrofit scenarios and in the use of local materials suited for Passive House applications through presentation of built examples designed for Canadian climactic zones. The course has received approval from the professional community – it has been recognized by the Ontario Architectural Association (OAA) and the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI), and qualifies registrants for 32 hours of Continuing Education credits in the green building design and consulting areas.
‘Passive House’ began in Canada in the late 1970s as research into super energy efficient residential design, though it was not called such at the time. Elliott pointed to work on the
Saskatchewan House, a demo project he contributed to that essentially set the
Passive House standard, which is now emerging out of Europe, as example of this type of work. Passive House, he explained, is a collection of building design and construction processes that can reduce energy consumption in a residential building by 80-90% as compared to a structure built according to current building code. A home that is built to Passive House standards is ultimately defined as one that consumes 15 kilowatts per square metre per year in heating requirements. Passive House represents a significant improvement over
R-2000, a building standard created by the federal government, CMHC, the NRCan in 1982 that aimed to reduce energy consumption in homes by 50% (over 1982 code) by the year 2000. The 2012 building code, Elliott noted, is “pretty much at the R-2000 standard” though he noted that officials are looking this year at boosting reductions a further 50%.
