Passive House Canada Conference 2019

Moderator: Evelyne Bourchard

Advancing Building Standards
Lisa King, City of Toronto
The City of Toronto is part of a cross-Canada movement among cities to advance energy codes and standards in new and existing buildings to make significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. This session will provide an overview of the recent changes in requirements for new construction under the Toronto Green Standard V3, in effect for over one year, and the implied shifts and design implications for the building industry. The session will also highlight how the City plans to tackle emissions from the existing buildings sector. What are some of the emerging trends, challenges and achievements so far? Join the conversation about what you think needs to happen next to advance building standards.

PER Calculation Updates
Neil Norris, Passive House Canada, 
Elena Reyes Bernal, Passive House Institute
Andrew Peel, Peel Passive House
As a greater number of large multi-unit residential projects aim for Passive House Certification, achieving set PER targets can be a challenge. This is especially true for projects with greater occupant density, where appliances, hot water usage and plugs loads are all contained within a smaller treated floor area and where elevators, hallway lighting and other building systems used for normal building operation also need to be factored in. This can create uncertainty as to what types of large residential projects designs can reasonably achieve the PER targets. As such, the Passive House Institute (in collaboration with ZEBx, the City of Vancouver and other partners) are currently developing a new PER target tool to allow for methodical adjustments of the PER targets. This presentation will outline the information behind the PER tool as well as how it can be used in future projects to provide greater assurance that well designed larger multi unit residential buildings can achieve certification.

Exploring Passive House Technologies in the College Sector
Shannon Pirie, School of Architectural Technology at Sheridan College
The rapid pace at which building science evolves provides many opportunities for faculty in the college Architectural Technology sector to expand the boundaries of standard course content. This session will present a unique design-build project that was completed in 2017 at Sheridan College in Mississauga. Beginning with a virtual build that included story-boarding, materials research, and energy calculations, and ending with a day of construction in partnership with our Skilled Trades faculty, students were led on a journey highlighting Passive House methodology. The purpose of this session is to reinforce the relationship between the Passive House community and post-secondary education.