Low Energy Home Construction Update – December 2024

Construction is underway for this single family low energy home, the Pomona House! The client sent us photos of the progress: The ‘Slate Blue’ corrugated metal roofing is currently being installed. The colour nicely compliments the surrounding sky and harmonizes well with the house’s surrounding environment. The image above was taken on a sunny day, …

Prince Edward County Rammed Earth House – Photo Update

We are pleased to show you photos of the Cherry Valley Rammed Earth house that was completed this past summer. Located in Prince Edward County, the site inspired the design of this minimalist single storey home. The main house and guesthouse are separated by a covered breezeway, which shelters a carport and three-season screened porch. …

A High Performance Wall for the 21st Century: 8″ External Woodfibre insulation with Long-screws

High Performance and Passive house design is based on both rigorous Building Science principles, but also inherited tradition. In this blog post we propose an alterative wall assembly based on first principles: high performance, low-cost, low embodied carbon, durable, efficient use of materials, and flexible.

Design of high performance custom home near Caledon, 2024

We are delighted to share the first round of design images of a new home proposed outside of Caledon, Ontario. The house is situated at the crest of a paddock overlooking a field, barns, valley, and forest.

“Developing a plan to make Canada’s new federal housing plan work?” Sheena’s op-ed in the National Observer

Sheena Sharp, a principal here at Coolearth, had an article published today in the National Observer’s opinion piece column about the new Housing Plan the Federal government released last month.

Window Thermal Performance: Comparing High Performance Wood-Aluminum windows with Fibgrelass windows

This blog post grew from a discussion we were having in the office a few weeks ago about the size of the frames in wood-aluminum “passive house” windows compared to fibreglass windows.
Based on our analysis the smaller frames of the fibreglass windows when compared to the thick frames of the wood-aluminum windows allow for additional wall insulation which improves the effective performance of the window beyond the stated R-value.