The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) has announced that Eco- home’s Edelweiss House project, a passively heated, cold climate demonstration home in Wakefield, PQ, has become the first project in Canada to earn LEED v4 certification. Edelweiss is not only the first project in Canada to be certified under LEED v4, but it has also earned the highest level possible – Platinum – making it only the second LEED v4 home in the world to reach LEED’s most rigorous level CaGBC says.
The hyper-efficient cold climate house boasts an average price tag and an extremely low operational budget. The 1,522 sq. ft. home, 40 minutes from Ottawa in the Gatineau Hills, cost less than $250,000 to build and its en-ergy bills are estimated to be less than $1.40/day. In comparison, a standard new home of comparable size con-sumes roughly 10 times more energy.
The Edelweiss House was designed and built by Emmanuel Cosgrove and Mike Reynolds, co-founders of Eco-home. “We don’t really build anymore as our mission is education,” they say. “We undertook this project to show builders and homeowners that it isn’t that hard or expensive to build better performing homes, and that your true monthly overhead can actually be lower, right from the moment you move in.”
The home will now be used for full day workshops, as well as for short-term rentals that allow building profes-sionals or future homeowners to experience the comfort of a passive solar home first hand.
“The Edelweiss House is a phenomenal achievement – the first Canadian project to meet the stringent requirements of the latest version of LEED at its highest level,” said CaGBC president and CEO Thomas Mueller. Canada currently has nine additional projects registered for LEED v4 certification.
