The City Council of Vancouver has approved the bylaw amendment that will allow the construction of laneway houses! In late July the council struck a decision after a year of public hearings and considerations.

Laneway houses must follow certain stipulations, particularly:

• The building must also accomodate one vehicle
• The building cannot stratify, and must only be used by renters or family members

To read more about laneway housing, visit the City of Vancouver's site.

Light House is working with one of the first laneway projects, which was the last project to be submitted to the 2010 Challenge.

Getting a greywater reuse system installed in your home is still more difficult than water conservationists would hope. Health concerns of reusing shower and bath water for flushing toilets make the process more complicated. Additionally, the plumbing code of the City of Vancouver does not currently define grewater capture systems, and as such the plumbing department is unable to approve them.

In order to seek approval, a homeowner must seek review with the chief building official for an "alternative solution" of one item: a grewayter recapture system. The approval costs approximately $600, is not guaranteed, and must be received in advance fo conducting the work of inputting a system.

For those looking fo a self-contained treatment unit that filters and disinfects grewayter from your shower, bath, and washing machine, the Brac tank is a great option.

Local business Hartman Land Design designs installations of greywater reuse for businesses and commissions out ConservePump systems. Like the Brac tank, the Conservepump system uses water from showers and baths to flush toilets, and can be added during new construction or during a renovation.

The first example of residential greywater re-use in Canada is the Quayside Village greywater system in North Vancouver, sponsored by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in 1998. The system was originally based on the reuse system in the Toronto Healthy House and utilizes a septic tank, a Waterloo Biofilter and a sandfilter prior to chlorine disinfection.

The Strandberg House, Light House's first 2010 Challenge participant and the only new build in the challenge, is striving to be the first LEED for gold house in Burnaby. The Burnaby Now published an article on their efforts last Wednesday, written by Jennifer Moreau.

"A Burnaby family is blazing trails of green while going for the gold.

Longtime local resident Coro Strandberg and her partner are building a green home near Deer Lake and hoping to get a golden stamp of approval from LEED Canada for Homes. If all goes according to plan, they will be the first home in Burnaby to land the LEED Canada for Homes gold level certification.

'This project is a case study in how to go green at home,' says Strandberg. 'This will help homeowners make sure their properties maintain their value in future housing markets.' ..."

[Story continued in Burnaby Now] 

Radha Yoga and Eatery, located at 728 Main Street, is a second floor restaurant and yoga studio with exposed brick walls and hardwood floors. Daylight is provided through large windows on the West side, and smaller windows along the south side.

To help Radha find alternative ways to light the space, an architect came for a two-hour site visit and interviewed the owners. The resulting 11 page report can be viewed here.

The report concludes that lighting a combined yoga and restaurant will present challenges, one in particular being that the owner must weigh the relative merits of energy efficient technology against teh environmental impacts of the building as a whole. Allocating a portion of the budget to a sophisticated lighting system may yield a smaller net environmental benefit than allocating those same funds to a better HVAC system or kitchen operations.

By reinstalling the ceiling with a high reflectant finish and adding high-reflectance wall panels to the north and south walls the rooms can be brightened naturally. The addition of a light-shelf, or louver, to the south windows can be used to bounce daylight from the south windows into the space.

After running about town to find a new furnace, Tracy Hayter tackled the outside-the-house issue of a dying tree in her front yard.

"After receiving a couple of quotes for the removal of the sickly fruit tree in my front yard, I decided to remove it myself (upward of $700 to remove one tree!).  In any event, we were out there sawing it down by hand and the neighbors very kindly came by and offered to let us use their brand spanking new-fresh out of the box chainsaw." With the tree mostly gone they need only a larger chainsaw to cut away the thicker part of the trunk.

While some people came in the night and took away the good fireburning pieces, Tracey was left wondering whether there were any eco-friendly ideas for disposal of what was left and what kind of ground cover would be the best for bees/bird/hummingbirds once a new tree is planted.

She jokes, "I was thinking of digging a big hole in my backyard and burying [the tree] back there as I can't grow anything under the cedars trees anyway and letting them decompose there--Nick thinks I am nuts so any helpful hints would be great." 

Tracy's experience rose two questions:

• What does the City of Vancouver do with yard waste? and
• Are there eco-friendly ways of disposing yard waste like tree branches?

In terms of ground cover, it's a good idea to choose drought tolerant speciesto minimize the need for irrigation.  You should also incorporate native species whenever possible.  They are better suited to the climate and will require less fertilization and irrigation. Evergreen Lawn and Garden Smart has a database of native species, and  the Washington Invasive Species Coalition also has a database of invasive species to avoid

Tracy, over at the Hayter House in Surrey, has been renovating in leaps and bounds. Following the completion of her energy audit, she embarked on finding a new furnace for her house. Below, Tracy explains the reasoning behind the choice she made and her experience in furnace shopping.

"I just bought a furnace today. I obtained 4 quotes - one for an American Standard, one for a Lennox, one for Carrier, and one for Trane. They all came in around the same price. 

In the end I purchased a Trane through Home Depot/CR Martin Heating. The salesperson, Sean, was courteous and helpful and answered all my questions without getting defensive, putting other companies down or making me feel stupid. He was very professional and CR Martin Heating has an excellent BBB rating... I have purchased one Trane XV95 TDH2B060A9V3V 95% efficient furnace. 

Aside from liking the company's history and that professionalism of the sales person, I chose Trane over the others because Home Depot offers 10 years Parts & Labour, and in addition to the prov/fed rebates I will also receive a Home Depot gift card in the amount of $400 and lets not forget the HRTC!  I have also taken advantage of the don't pay for six months promotion. 

So in the end money and company history were the driving forces behind this purchase. I have also been told that CR Martin takes away the old furnace (ok furnace but noisy, not very efficient, and 26 years old) and recycles it."

Three of the 2010 Challenge homes have recently completed their energy audits, identifying a combined total in potential GHG reductions of 12.6 tonnes per year.

Energy audits, also known as energy assessments, are one of the first and key steps to any green home renovation. These home checkups analyse the workings of a house and give an indication of how energy efficient the home is. At the end of the audit, a home is given an EnerGuide rating that shows where the house stands today and what its potential energy efficiency is.

Seen above in the EnerGuide rating, the Hayter House, a two storey detached home located in Surrey, BC, has the potential to reduce its energy consumption by up to 56% per year, raising its EnerGuide rating from 64 to 82. The reports issued also give suggestions for what changes can be made to the home to improve the EnerGuide rating.

Some suggestions for improvements in the Hayter House energy audit include:

• replacing the home's heating equipment with an ENERGY STAR qualified gas furnace
• increasing the insulation value of the attice to achieve a value of R-50
• improve the air tightness of the house by 11 percent

The two other houses to complete energy audits, the Norman House and the 21st Ave House, are also two-storey single family detached homes. The three homes' individual potential GHG reductions are:

Hayter House: 2.8 tonnes GHG reducation per year
Norman House: 5.6 tonnes GHG reduction per year
21st Ave House: 4.2 tonnes GHG reduction per year