Living in comfort is something that we all want.
Unfortunately it’s not something that is built into our homes by default, at least not without spending money to consume energy. This is especially true during the colder months. When it comes to your basement, it may not be necessary.
Consider that most basements are basically concrete walls surrounded by dirt. When you have cold dirt, you have a cold basement.
Since there currently aren’t minimum standards for energy usage in parts of Canada, unless your home or building was designed and built by a progressive company or professional, you are likely to get the cheapest basement (from an energy standpoint) that code allows.
This isn’t personal, it’s simply the most profitable way of building and hence makes great business sense, and thus it is the default behavior for many builders. When your product is competing based on price alone, this make a lot of sense because the ongoing costs are paid by the consumer rather than the business providing the service.
Unless there is policy that requires better energy conservation in new construction or YOU are educated and demand better comfort and energy savings from your builder, this will continue. It’s human nature to resist change and the momentum of business is traditionally slow to change unless a rapid disruption in technology takes place.
When you realize that a basement is typically four concrete walls that are surrounded by dirt, it’s no mystery as to why an un-insulated or under-insulated basement isn’t typically a place that you want to spend your time in. That’s because you can almost guarantee it to be cold and uncomfortable.
About a meter below the surface, the soil surrounding your home is approximately the yearly average temperature of your part of the world. This fluctuates according to depth and according to outside air temperatures, but in the prairies the dirt is only about 4C.
Unless your basement is insulated around the walls, and even under the floor, this year-round cold dirt is slowly costing you money as you consume energy to keep it warm. Essentially you are spending money to heat the dirt around your home.
This can’t be said when you Future Proof your basement, especially to the level of a Passive House. Building a basement in this way requires next to no heating or cooling year-round creating input-free comfort. This comfort is accomplished without using carpet –which stores dust and other allergens – or expensive in-floor heating systems that can break down and have ongoing costs.
In less than 5 minutes, this video will show you how the basement of a Passive House is built to remain consistently comfortable year-round while also staying dry and very well protected from groundwater.
If you know of anyone who would benefit from learning this information, please pass it on to them. Knowledge is meant to be shared.
Are you a Future Proofer? Does your company provide a product or service that can contribute toward building a better world? If so I would love to help you get your message out there to my growing audience.
You can sign up via www.FutureProofMyBuilding.com/register
Note to Awesome Builders and other Future Proofers:
I know that it can be difficult to compete with the status quo and market what you do. It takes a lot of time and effort. What we do isn’t exactly a subject that most people are educated about or naturally drawn to.
You are likely a green builder because you want to make a difference. If you want your customers to understand why Passive House is better, I wrote “How to Future Proof Your Home” to simplify building science so that anyone can understand it.
I wrote it especially to help you. You can even make money by promoting it. That’s how much I want to help.
Even if you don’t take your customers all the way to Passive House standards, we can still move forward. Every little bit counts.
Let’s build a better world.