Energy-efficient & high-performance homes

British Columbia's Energy Step Code sets increasing levels of energy efficiency for new construction, and municipalities are steadily raising the required step. Meeting a higher step is not only about thicker insulation, it depends on air-tightness, window performance, mechanical ventilation, and how carefully the envelope is built.

Because these choices interact, they have to be planned together and protected on site. A small gap in air sealing or a substituted window can pull a home below its target. We coordinate the energy advisor's modelling with the real construction sequence and verify the critical details during the build, so the finished home actually performs at the level it was designed for.

The practical difference between Step 4 and Step 5 under the BC Energy Step Code is roughly 20 to 30 percent lower energy consumption in the finished home. On a typical Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley new custom home of around 2,500 square feet, moving from Step 4 to Step 5 typically adds between $20,000 and $40,000 to the construction cost, depending on the design, the chosen mechanical systems, and how the envelope is detailed.

Most of that premium is in three places: a higher-performance window package (triple-glazed units with low spacers and thermally broken frames instead of double-glazed), a tighter air barrier assembly verified by a blower door test before drywall, and a heat-recovery ventilator (HRV) or energy-recovery ventilator (ERV) sized and commissioned to meet the BC Building Code's ventilation requirements at the tighter Step level.

The payback on that premium depends on local energy prices and how the home is used, but the comfort difference is immediate and consistent: fewer cold spots near windows in January, less humidity mismatch between floors in summer, and a quieter interior because the tight envelope also reduces sound transmission. For some clients the comfort is the primary reason; the lower utility bill is a bonus.

We model the energy advisor's targets against real construction costs during pre-construction so you can make an informed choice between step levels. We do not add performance targets as an afterthought, by the time framing starts, every envelope decision is already specified, the HRV is already selected, and the energy advisor has signed off on the plan.

The most common way a high-performance home loses its performance is not in the design, it is in the execution. An air barrier that is continuous in the drawings develops a gap at a window rough opening. A ventilation duct is substituted for a similar-looking but less efficient one. A piece of framing covers a thermal bridge that the model assumed would be broken.

These are not careless mistakes. They are the natural result of building at speed without explicit checkpoints for the details that matter for performance. Our approach on high-performance projects is to build those checkpoints in: we hold the air barrier inspection before any wall cavity is closed, we verify the HRV commissioning before the building is occupied, and we make substitutions only with confirmation from the energy advisor that the alternative meets the same target.

The result is a home that performs as designed. A blower door test at completion does not reveal surprises, it confirms what the pre-construction planning already established.