Green Dream Home An Interactive Project

Watch web cams and time lapse videos of green build in Kamloops

Everything about the house is green - including the eco tile roof, made from recycled rubber tire.

The Green Dream Home project taking place in Kamloops, BC has recently seen a solar hot water install – and is the first of its kind as a demonstration training home, which has been a joint project of the Canadian Home Builders Association (CHBA) and the students of Thompson Rivers University.

The Green Dream home is one of 15 projects across Canada and two in BC, which won a national sustainable housing competition, led by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Equilibrium Sustainable Housing Demonstration Initiative. The first competition was in 2004, and was a call out to developers to build net zero homes. The first round of winners was 12 homes across Canada built by developers for homeowners or on spec. There was a second call out in 2008, and the CHBA, in partnership with the university, responded and won the bid for a home in BC.

"We are the only one that is a partnership with a university for training purposes," says Patsy Bourassa, CHBA Executive Officer for the Central Interior. She adds that close to 100 students are taking part in the build, from construction to landscaping, and that Thompson University’s involvement stems from their strong focus on sustainability. This project has become a case study, and every part of the build is being captured to share with other universities around Canada.

"We have two web cams on the site and from the first day pictures were taken every two minutes, so we’ll have a time lapse video from start to finish," says Patsy. "We also have a gallery on the website. On the home page is the current state of house with web cams that show what happened the day before."

The solar hot water system was installed by Sun Solutions (a Division of Optimum Air), a registered installation company based in Kamloops, BC. According to installer Geoff Shimmin, this type of project is perfect for students to be trained on. "The more green building techniques that are incorporated into the training programs for the various trades, will only help to encourage the industry to use these techniques and products," he says. "I think that the efforts in this house to fully incorporate the green features available is the right type of step forward."

Geoff added that he enjoyed the design team’s vision to try and include as many features as possible to increase the efficiency and decrease its environmental footprint. From the drain waste water to water heat exchanger, a geo-forced air system with HRV, to the low flow/energy star appliances and solar hot water as well as PV, the house takes advantages of many technologies that he says have been proven to be effective but are not standard in new construction. "I think the green features are excellent and we will hopefully see more houses designed around the idea of energy efficiency and independence."

Patsy explains that they did extensive research to make sure everything used was as green and energy efficient as possible, while maintaining a high quality aesthetic. "We want it to be tasteful and beautiful, it is a dream home."

Once the house is completed it will be open for six months to take interested members of the public on tours, as well there is the virtual walk through on the website. The two-storey Platinum level Built Green Home is located in the Sun Rivers Resort Community just five minutes from downtown Kamloops. For more information visit: www.greendreamhome.ca