Penticton deep energy retrofit builds comfort, savings, and safety.

Brian Rippy has called Penticton home for the past decade, ever since he took up a position as Professor in Sustainable Building Technology at Okanagan College. His family lived in the kind of well-loved, post-war home found all across BC—a 2,000 ft2 bungalow with beige stucco, a hip roof, and a basement. It had a great location close to parks, the creek, and the local mountains.

“We really love the location, close to green space. And we have great neighbors—when you find great neighbors, you don’t just root up and move somewhere else,” said Brian.

That said, for a professor who spends his days teaching and learning about high performance building approaches, Brian felt the weight of owning an old, inefficient home. Even with newish double-pane windows and minor upgrades done over the years, Brian still recalls it was “an energy hog of a home.” And like two thirds of detached homes in BC, it relied on fossil fuels for heating (plus natural gas for domestic hot water and in the kitchen). “It’s the kind of thing that crawls under your skin over time,” said Brian.

While Brian was thinking about this, he was also engaged in the roll out of the BC Energy Step Code. “There’s been a lot of conversation about whether or not we could get retrofits to the highest level of the BC Energy Step Code,” said Brian. He intuited that, not only could it be done (with good design, careful workers, and quality materials) but a retrofit could even be cheaper than new construction and more environmentally sustainable than in-fill housing.

He had been itching to convince a client to try and prove it, and eventually he realized—maybe it’s something he should just try himself. So that’s just what he did.

With a one-year sabbatical approaching, Brian decided he was ready to lead a deep energy retrofit of his family home. It would be an opportunity to use the latest technology and modern design approaches to trial and document a potentially replicable methodology for whole home retrofits. In particular, he wanted to focus his retrofit on achieving some specific goals:

Reduce energy use by at least 50 per cent (a deep energy retrofit) and keep going until it matched Step 5 of the BC Energy Step Code (net-zero ready).
Maintain at least 75 per cent of the original structure, reducing waste and embodied carbon.
Completely switch away from fossil fuel-based heating and appliances.
Implement design choices that reduce wildfire risk and create a refuge from wildfire smoke.

“There’s an expression, ‘the greenest building is the one that you don’t build.’ You could say a retrofit is by far way greener than a new build because it has less embodied energy, it uses less new materials,” said Brian.

Everyone on board

As someone working in sustainable construction, Brian was excited to bring new innovations to the work site, set aspirational goals, and to really be involved with every aspect of the project. But more than a professional interest, this was a personal project. “It’s about feeling better about my sanctuary, my place of refuge, and knowing that it’s not polluting my family, and that I’m doing what I can for the planet,” said Brian.

A deep energy retrofit can be a significant disruption for homeowners continuing to live in the home throughout the renovation. Brian’s family had to move into the basement for six months and, for a shorter time, had to deal without a roof. But they were all supportive and willing to make short-term compromises. It helps that both Brian and his wife, Nadia, an occupational therapist, saw their priorities reflected in the retrofit. “We find that our work is crossing over more in terms of the health aspects of the built environment,” said Brian. They were both excited about clean, healthy indoor air and increasing their views of the outdoors, so those aspects became part of the design—e.g. adding larger, high-performance windows for better daylight and the feeling of connecting with nature.

Intentional collaboration

A key approach in modern building science and sustainable design is Integrated Design Process. This collaborative and holistic approach brings together the owner, architect, and primary contractors right from the beginning all the way through to the end of a project. This method contrasts sharply with traditional design approaches where disciplines work in isolation and sequentially, which can lead to inefficiencies and missed opportunities to optimize energy performance.

Brian aimed to have a light version of Integrated Design Process by bringing together the designers (himself and a colleague), trades, and contractors early on. This would allow everyone to work together throughout the retrofit to finding optimal solutions to the novel problems that often pop up in a retrofit.

Brian started with a 3D laser scan of the existing building, creating a building information model (BIM). Using this data, he and his contractors could then plan out in much greater detail various designs. For instance, Brian used computer modeling to understand the possibilities for shading, lighting, energy modeling, and passive heating and cooling.

As part of this integrated approach, Brian secured an EnerGuide home energy evaluation in May 2022, providing a solid baseline for everyone involved in the project delivery. He also took steps to ensure all tradespeople involved were working to a common standard. He held workshops on site so all workers and his Sustainable Building Technology students knew how to do things like install windows without introducing air leaks, and show HVAC installers and electricians how to properly seal introduced penetrations.

Innovative Technologies

Brian dedicated himself to his retrofit project not only because it embodied his passion for beautiful, healthy, and regenerative buildings, but also because it was an opportunity to incorporate and test innovative technologies like 3D laser scans, smart vapour membranes, and Canadian-made wood fiber insulated sheathing products. For example, for parts of the renovation that required new sheathing, Brian found a wood fiber product that is both insulating and structural sheathing, replacing both plywood and exterior board insulation. The product is manufactured in Quebec and made entirely from recycled and recyclable wood fibres.

One of most impactful, albeit least flashy, innovations that Brian prioritized was conserving and reusing as much of the original elements as possible. By keeping all interior walls and roughly two thirds of exterior walls, almost 80 per cent of the original structure was saved. This dramatically reduces the building’s embodied emissions, and the amount of material Brian had to send to the landfill.

By May 2023, the project was completed. Brian and his family couldn’t be happier with the results. “This isn’t just a just a home that’s going to be super energy efficient. At the end of the day, it’s a home that we want to be in for the rest of our lives,” said Brian.

Energy consumption

The retrofit succeeded in cutting the home’s energy consumption by more than 50 per cent. A post-project EnerGuide assessment completed in May 2023 showed modeled energy efficiency savings dropping from 95 GJ/year to 45 GJ/year EnerGuide—a drop of 54 per cent. In terms of air leakage, the retrofit dropped the home’s air changes per hour from 4 ACH to 0.98 ACH. Brian also used his utility bills for 2021 to 2024 to look at the real world utility savings. This showed his home’s energy use going from 78 GJ/year (gas and electricity) to 38 GJ/year utility use (electricity only)—a reduction of 53 per cent. At current utility rates, that represents a savings of $1,500 a year.

More subjectively, Brian’s experience is that the house is always the right temperature. With two winters since the renovation, they have experienced several cold snaps without noticing any change in the home. They enjoy sitting beside the windows in even the coldest of weather and their feet aren’t shuffling across cold floors. “It’s so warm at home, we have to remember to wear extra clothes when we visit other people now,” said Brian.

Climate resilience

Brian’s home is close to four unmaintained city parks and a creek leading up into the mountains. This puts it in a higher risk zone for wildfires. For this reason, the retrofit design made use of many climate resilient features:

Metal roofing and cladding (resists fire)
Mineral wool insulation (resists fire, infestation, moisture)
Backup wood burning stove (in case of power outages)
High efficiency mechanical systems to lower heating and cooling needs
Air filtration system to control indoor air quality during wildfire smoke events.

“We're going to be facing some climate challenges. We're going to have more heat waves. We're going to have some power outages and we're definitely going to have more smoky summers, and I know that I and my family can be comfortable,” said Brian.

Air quality improvements

Home energy retrofits need to be handled carefully to avoid negative impacts on air quality. Older homes are naturally replenished with fresh air because they are so leaky, which mitigates the effects of humidity and the build up of indoor air pollutants. Airtight homes (new and retrofits) require mechanical ventilation to provide fresh, clean air.

Brian went a step further, installing energy recovery ventilation to reduce the energy cost of mechanical ventilation. He also installed a whole house HEPA filter and air quality monitoring so that he could respond to changes in outdoor air quality from wildfires and other indoor air quality issues that often go undetected.

All of these changes provided dramatically improved air quality in the home. Radon mitigation lowered gas levels down from 100Bq/m³ to only 23 Bq/m³ (without mitigation this likely would have risen due to the airtight building envelope). The home also has lower carbon dioxide, pm 2.5 particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds. Humidity levels also improved, rising from 30 per cent to 45 per cent in winter.

Finances

At the time Brian was undertaking this retrofit, post-COVID inflation and supply chain difficulties caused construction materials to become 30 per cent more expensive in just six months. While the final price tag was more than expected, it remained far below the cost of new construction. With final materials and labour, the cost of the retrofitted area was roughly $120 per square foot. The cost for new home construction was generally $350 to $450 per square foot at that time.

The cost was mitigated by successfully accessing several provincial and federal grants and incentives that encourage homeowners to make energy efficient renovations:

$4,500 CleanBC rebates
$5,000 Canada Greener Homes Grant
$40,000 Canada Greener Homes Loan (0% interest, 10-year term)

Plus, Brian’s family is already saving $1,500 a year on lower utility bills. Nevertheless, the cost rationalization isn’t top of mind for Brian. “Just knowing that I have a healthy environment, for my family’s well-being, that’s huge, right? It is more important to me than the savings on my energy bill,” said Brian.

Deep energy retrofits are of benefit to the wider community.

Brian’s successful deep energy retrofit highlights how benefits of individual projects like this extend to the broader community, especially in a small-to-mid size city like Penticton. By retaining almost 80 per cent of the original structure, Brian sent dramatically less demolition waste to the landfill—a cost that is ultimately borne by the municipality. By cutting his energy needs in half (and then some), he has reduced his demand on the electricity grid which can be especially beneficial during periods of stress. And by creating a well conditioned, filtered air environment, Brian’s family is less likely to get into trouble from periods of heat wave, extreme cold, or wildfire smoke.

While new construction that is Energy Step Code compliant can provide some of these benefits, the lower price tag of a retrofit means the community’s building stock can be upgraded more quickly and equitably.

Permitting tends to disincentivize deep energy retrofits.

While many local governments may want to see them, there aren’t currently many mechanisms to incentivize homeowners to take on a deep energy retrofit. And the cost of building permits tends to punish those who do.

Instead, local governments can design to incentive energy efficiency by offering fee reductions or accelerated processing for retrofit projects that include ambitious energy efficiency measures. . The Township of Langley currently offers a building permit rebate when a renovation leads to a reduction of last 10 GJ/year (based on pre- and post-EnerGuide Evaluations).

“We're not really incentivized to do deep energy retrofits. In fact, the more that I pay to do a deeper energy retrofit, the more cost it is, the higher my permit fee is. And to me that just seems a little backwards, right?” said Brian.

Building code enforcement should be performance-based and officials should have the flexibility to support energy efficiency innovation.

Because older homes pre-date modern codes, any attempt to update an older home faces challenges—energy upgrades or not. Energy efficiency work on the exterior of an older home can run up against things like setbacks and limiting distance between structures. In Brian’s case, adding exterior insulation was the best way to upgrade the building envelope, but this meant shrinking the gap between him and his neighbour—a gap that was already below code. Brian understood that these regulations are meant to reduce the risk of fire spreading from structure to structure. So he mitigated the risk of reducing that gap by choosing insulation and exterior cladding with high fire resistance and removing vented soffits from the portion of the new roof design adjacent to his neighbour’s home.

Because Brian engaged with his building official early in the planning process, treating them as part of the team rather than an adversary, they were able to get this design approved. Local governments can support this kind of innovative permitting by giving building officials flexibility to consider the spirit, if not the letter, of the code.

Radon is a risk all across BC

Many older homes in BC can experience elevated levels of radon as a result of sealing air leaks—unless radon mitigation is introduced. Local governments can encourage or require radon measurement and mitigation to protect residents' health (especially residents living in basements).

BC’s homebuilding industry would be strengthened with support on energy efficiency approaches

Because retrofits tend to present novel challenges, an Integrated Project Delivery approach can be the difference between success or failure in many deep energy retrofits. The industry would benefit from training and incentivized shift toward integrated project delivery.

More broadly, there is a distinct need to upskill trades people so they know how to install and maintain airtight envelopes. This needs to happen broadly, because even if a building envelope is expertly installed by the general contractor, a plumber, electrician, or HVAC installer can quickly undo this hard work.

Retrofit needs

Canada’s pace of home construction means 80% of the buildings we need in 2050 have already been built. Many of these will need to be upgraded—simply to modernize and maintain, but also to deal with climate change to deal with heat waves and poor air quality from wildfires. Penticton’s exceptionally older population is especially vulnerable to poor indoor air quality, which could bring allergies and asthma, infectious disease transmission.

While neither the City of Penticton nor the Province of BC have retrofit targets, Canada’s National Housing Strategy aims to have 300,000 homes renewed and repaired nationwide by 2027.

While the city had a relatively static population from the mid-90s to mid-2010s, Penticton has started to see annual growth of around 2 per cent. Situated between two lakes, with mountains on both other sides, and adjacent to First Nation jurisdictions and Agricultural Land Reserves, the City of Penticton is unusually restricted in its options for greenfield development. And already the rental market is tight, with a 1.2 per cent vacancy rate in 2024. A City of Penticton housing needs assessment projects this will add 20,000 additional residents by 2046, mostly in the over 65 age range.

Advantages of retrofitting over rebuilding

Construction, renovation and demolition waste represents 12 per cent of the solid waste stream in Canada. Kamloops and the Thompson Nicola Regional District (the region north of Penticton) reported that almost a quarter of its landfill waste comes from construction and demolition. In BC, over 2.5 million tonnes of waste are generated each year from construction and demolition.

Demolition wastes materials that are often better quality than what is available now (lumber, for instance) and increases carbon footprint (through the loss of embodied carbon in the demolished materials). Unbuilders found that 30 per cent of wood in a typical home can be salvaged, whereas only 1 per cent is typically salvaged.

While it may be easier for builders to start from scratch on a new build, homeowners can enjoy significant savings from retrofitting. Retrofit Canada gives $100,000 to $200,000 as a guideline for a deep energy retrofit cost, including new super-insulated envelope, heat pump, solar panels, new windows, etc. By contrast, building a new home in Penticton will run upwards of $450,000.

Key stats about this home

Configuration: Single family home constructed 1956

Size: 2,200 ft²

Renovation Budget: $360,000 for deep energy retrofit, renovation and addition.

Energy Efficiency: Measured reduction in annual energy use from 78 GJ to 38 GJ.

Air tightness: Reduced air changes per hour from 4 to 0.98.

Climate Zone: 5

Insulation and airsealing:

Open web truss roof for 22” of cellulose attic insulation and a perfect seal with the walls
5” mineral wool rigid board added to exterior walls. Additional mineral wool batts insulating cavities on new walls, for a total of R-29 to R-37 insulation.
SONOclimat ECO4 insulation panels used where new structural sheathing required.
SIGA-brand smart membranes installed on both sides of exterior walls to stop air leaks but allow water vapour to diffuse.
AeroBarrier-brand aerosol sealer to find and seal even the smallest gaps in the structure, controlling air and moisture.

Windows: Triple-pane fibreglass windows providing greatly increased daylighting.

Heating and Cooling:

Air-source cold climate heat pump installed with energy recovery ventilation and whole house HEPA filter and air quality monitoring (filter can be turned off and on depending on exterior air quality).
High-efficiency wood burning stove for back-up heat.

Hot water: Heat pump hot water heater.

Other Notables:

Retained close to 80 per cent of the original structure.
Energy Star electric range.

Definitions and Key Concepts

Integrated Design Process: a way of planning and designing buildings by bringing together everyone involved—like architects, engineers, builders, and homeowners—right from the start. This teamwork helps make better decisions about how to save energy, use high-performance materials, and ensure everyone onsite is contributing to project efficiency goals.

Net-Zero: A net-zero energy home produces as much energy as it consumes on a yearly basis and has at least one on-site renewable energy system.

Net-Zero Ready: A net-zero energy ready building has been designed and built to a level of performance such that it could, with the addition of solar panels or other renewable energy technologies, achieve net-zero energy performance. This is equivalent to Step 5 of the BC Energy Step Code.

Energy Step Code: The BC Energy Step Code sets performance requirements for new construction. Meeting Step 5 for homes is equivalent to building a net-zero energy ready building. The Energy Step Code is performance-based and applies to the whole-home. Retrofit projects tend to be more piecemeal and prescriptive (e.g., replacing old windows, or switching out a furnace for a heat pump, adding insulation, etc.). It is tricky to apply a whole-home standard when only a specific part of the home is being updated. Whereas in new construction rebates and incentives are often provided when a builder achieves higher than required levels of the Energy Step Code and/or the Zero Carbon Step Code, with existing buildings rebates tend to target the equipment being installed.

Penticton deep energy retrofit proves you don’t have to tear down to own a healthy, net-zero home.

Someone who really brings his work home

How it came together in under 12 months

Everyone on board

Intentional collaboration

Innovative Technologies

A forever home and a refuge

Energy consumption

Climate resilience

Air quality improvements

Finances

Lessons for Local Governments

Deep energy retrofits are of benefit to the wider community.

Permitting tends to disincentivize deep energy retrofits.

Building code enforcement should be performance-based and officials should have the flexibility to support energy efficiency innovation.

Radon is a risk all across BC

BC’s homebuilding industry would be strengthened with support on energy efficiency approaches

Background and Context

Retrofit needs

Advantages of retrofitting over rebuilding

Key stats about this home

Definitions and Key Concepts

Contributors

Move from inspiration to implementation

Related Content

Contact Info

Additional Links

Key Resources