Jack Parsons: I’ve Got The Power

It looks just like a typical house at the end of a cul de sac, surrounded by beautiful pine martens in Flatrock, Newfoundland – but in actual fact, this house that Jack Parsons is building for his daughter is an energy-efficient home.

Mr. Parsons is the first person to bring the idea of NET-ZERO homes to the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. His 33,000 square foot, raised bungalow has a predicted heating cost of approximately $285 a year. Yes, only $285.00 for the entire year!

Net-zero homes are built with the environment and your wallet, in mind. They offer energy efficient appliances, solar power, and special insulation designed to keep your electricity bill next to nothing.

Traditional homes and buildings consume almost half of the total fossil-fuel energy in North America and the European Union, and they are significant contributors of greenhouse gases. The zero net energy consumption principle is viewed as a means to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Although still uncommon, they are gaining popularity since these net-zero homes combine commercially available renewable energy technology with state-of-the-art, energy-efficient construction techniques. In a net-zero energy home, no fossil fuels are consumed, and its annual electricity consumption equals annual electricity production. These homes may or may not be grid connected. In Jack’s case, his daughter’s home will be connected to the electrical grid but it will not consume any power from it.

Jack explained what “net-zero means with ease. “The net-zero is a fairly basic concept in that you build a house, and at the end of the year you’d have zero consummation of energy. You’re only producing what you need. And this obviously works because of its specific “building envelope”– the floors, the walls, very good windows, high-quality insulated doors, lots of insulation in your ceilings, and then the whole thing is built air tight.”

The most cost-effective steps toward a reduction in a home’s energy consumption usually occur during the design process. Successful zero energy building designers combine time-tested passive solar, or artificial conditioning, principles that work with onsite resources. Solar heat, prevailing breezes, and the chill from the earth below a building can provide daylight and stable indoor temperatures with minimum mechanical means. Simple concepts such as having the windows and the eaves carefully placed to maximize passive solar gain will help a home benefit.

Jack Parsons, a contractor for over three decades, has been involved in energy-efficient housing since the early 1980s. He was a part of the construction process of the first energy-efficient home in Newfoundland, called R2000. He has also done a lot of consulting throughout the world on energy efficiency on behalf of the federal government. Last year they decided to take a step forward and look at the next phase of housing in Canada – net-zero homes.

He justified, “The way we are doing this one is that everything has to have a payback of 5-7 years. So basically if we invest money, that has to be returned back to the homeowner within a 7 year time frame. This is very affordable. Once the time is up, you can put that money towards a vacation fund.” I liked that idea.

Jack explained, “when you get into a ‘true’ net-zero house in terms of comfort, even with a power outage for three days, you’d still be warm inside. The home is like a furnace.” He continued, “I think more and more people throughout Newfoundland and essentially Canada will be doing it this way (building ‘true’ net-zero homes). That was the main focus of our presentation today. In Newfoundland especially, we hope to get the government on board this year power wise, and then influence construction techniques moving forward.” Parsons says there needs to be on-site power generation – when the house is generating more power than it needs, the excess can be sold into the grid and when it’s not generating enough, it can pull juice from the electricity system. By year-end, he hopes such arrangements will become a reality!