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5 Building Methods for Comfort and Energy Efficiency: A Real-World Case Study
Reading time: 4 minutes
Comfort
Products that enhance comfort with little inconvenience to occupants cannot be understated. While energy efficiency is crucial, it must go together with comfort to ensure homes are truly livable. Drafty homes and those using hard water sources often require additional steps to create a comfortable living environment. Builders and designers can take proactive steps during construction to improve comfort and maintain high energy efficiency.
Some tools builders can leverage for future occupants include incorporating tight insulation to reduce energy losses throughout the dwelling, water softeners to dilute hard water, balanced ventilation for energy recovery and an optimized indoor climate, a whole-home HEPA system to filter recirculated air, and residential controls to activate these fresh air systems.
These methods are all integrated into the house and require careful planning to do so. When done right, they improve an occupant's living experience.
The 32 Mill Street Net-Zero Project by Warrior Home
For inspiration, builders and designers can look at a 2024-retrofitted home in Kitchener, Ontario. This house was donated to the Kitchener-Waterloo Urban Native Wigwam Project (KWUNWP) and was made into a comfortable, net-zero energy abode by the Warrior Home student design team.1
A multidisciplinary student team from the University of Waterloo, Warrior Home designs and builds high-performing, net-zero energy, affordable, and sustainable homes for community housing organizations.
For their work on this design, the Warrior Home team finished first in the engineering category at the 21st Solar Decathlon Build Challenge sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.
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Once neglected and ready for demolition, the 32 Mill Street house now stands as a modern engineering marvel. Integrating sustainable building practices, such as new insulation, solar panels, and a re-poured cement basement, allows the home to offset and generate energy.
Building Methods for Comfort and Energy Efficiency
These sustainable and energy-conscious building methods allowed the team to incorporate more comfort solutions into the home, setting up future occupants for healthy living. Let’s look at each system used and see how they deliver comfort for occupants in a net-zero package that keeps energy use low.
Water Softener
Hard water causes mineral build-up (known as scale), which can clog pipes, fixtures, and hot water heaters, reducing their lifespan or rendering them useless. Hard water can also create soap films or mineral spots on glassware, sinks, bathtubs, and washing machines.2
Pierre Roy, a Senior Executive of the Warrior Home team, spoke with us about the 32 Mill Street project and the hard water issues:
We have aquifer-fed water here, so we do deal with hard water.” Pierre told us, “So we installed an extremely efficient water softener, which not only helps prolong the life of the appliances but of course increases comfort for the occupants.”
How They Work
A water softener traps calcium and magnesium, exchanging them for sodium or potassium, improving the taste, smell, and appearance of tap water. Additionally, water softeners save energy by reducing the need to heat water to higher temperatures to clean effectively.2
Tight Insulation
Whether the project is a retrofit or new construction, tight insulation is an important consideration. Tight homes can help homeowners save energy and maintain an optimal temperature without adding too much cost to their monthly energy bill.
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While there is no such thing as “too tight” of a home, homes without the correct amount of ventilation will result in poor indoor air quality. Therefore, this method requires another step to truly create a comfortable environment: a balanced ventilation system.
Optimizing Your Design with Fantech Products
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Fresh Air Appliances
For both tight retrofits and new constructions, consider fresh air appliances with energy recovery (ERV) or heat recovery (HRV). These products bring in tempered, fresh air and, in the case of energy recovery, transfer humidity to improve comfort.
The Warrior Home project at 32 Mill Street uses a simplified installation method, integrating fresh and stale air ducts into the return duct of the forced air system, with a separate branch for a half bath.
For this application, the user activates the fresh air appliance through a wireless control that connects to the TVOC controller.
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TVOC Control System
Installing a fresh air appliance without a control system is an ON/OFF solution. A TVOC touchscreen control activates based on indoor relative humidity and total volatile organic compounds. Furthermore, occupants can set specific points to create automatic functions, offering a passive solution that enhances comfort.
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Whole-Home HEPA Filtration System
A HEPA filtration system connected to the forced air system filters recirculated air, providing cleaner air. When installed correctly, this system passively filters the air, creating a comfortable living space by removing pollutants down to 0.3 microns and eliminating odors.
Bringing It All Together: Achieving Net-Zero Comfort
An ATMOTM fresh air appliance with energy recovery, a HERO® HS300 Whole-home HEPA Filtration System, and an ECO-Touch® Auto IAQ TVOC Control System were installed at the 32 Mill Street home in Kitchener, Ontario.
Pierre talked with us about the setup used within the 32 Mill Street project and how important comfort was for them in the design:
"Ventilation and comfort go hand in hand. It’s why we wanted a whole-home HEPA filtration system along with the ATMO Fresh Air Appliance.” Pierre went on to say, “Along with the TVOC control system, it fulfills our vision to keep future occupants as comfortable as possible."
This comprehensive solution optimizes indoor air quality, controls fresh air entry based on user preferences, and scrubs recirculated air with a HEPA filter to remove pollutants. Along with new tight insulation and a water softener system, this home has been transformed into a net-zero, high-comfort dwelling.
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