When building your dream home, it is essential to make the right choices from the beginning of the process in order to end up with a property that is not just beautiful and stylish, but also safe and healthy for your family.

Beginning on January 1, 2019 all new buildings, additions and major alterations in Saskatchewan must be energy code compliant. This means that all buildings must preform and maintain a certain level of energy consumption.

What is Energy Modeling?

• The design stage starts with us performing a test with a computerized or virtual simulation of the designed building to analyze its characteristics. It usually contains the load designs and energy analysis. It primarily focuses on the future energy consumption of the property and considers the costs and life cycle of energy-related items such as air conditioning, heating and hot water systems, lighting and insulation.

How is an Energy Model Simulation Done?

• An energy modeling simulation consists in creating a virtual replica of your custom home. This is done by top trend software that allows builders to enter property components in a computer and simulate its performance through weather conditions, for a full year, to predict energy consumption, saving and loss.

Who even needs Energy Modeling?

• Technically, it needs to be done before you have a set of finalized blueprints. The Energy Model that is performed for your house is equally valuable for builders, homeowners and the environment.
• The architect can benefit hugely in designing energy-efficient homes while comparing and reducing up-front construction costs and operational energy costs. Having these types of energy performance reports, your homebuilder can choose the best HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) system, air tightness, window types, wall and insulation thickness types to meet your property’s thermal loads effectively.

What’s in it for me?

• Probably most of you who are reading this, and have gotten this far, are in the midst of design or seriously considering doing a major renovation or new home build. I suggest that you do not rule out a very important question, “How green should I build my home?”
• Most people want to build structurally sound homes that have a very high quality of finish. Most of times, home owners will pass by the whole Eco-friendly custom home topic and not look it.
• With today’s technology and the ability to run energy modeling simulation, it makes it more and more affordable to build green. I say this because you can adjust how Green you want to go. You would not want to build a house and then try to adjust later or even in the midst of construction.
• The energy modelling analysis scenarios (like your technical, climatic, economic, internal and external conditions) measure your homes energy performance. Ultimately this removes all worries and headaches in the future.

What’s my next Step?

• Being able to recruit a Design-Build company can really provide great benefits for your home’s energy modeling. It allows the builder and architect to work together to design your energy-efficient home while focusing on reducing up-front construction costs and operational costs.
• At Contegrity we are able to work with our architect to provide you with performance reports so that we can choose the best HVAC system, window types, wall thickness, and attic insulation so that we can meet all the necessary energy consumptions. This will save you on resources, time and money!