At a special meeting of council, clean-energy policy advocate and Bowen Island resident James Glave said that the municipality can use the province’s new BC Energy Step Code to ensure that all homes built on Bowen Island will be more comfortable, more efficient, more affordable to heat, and healthier for those who live in them.
If the municipality chooses to reference the BC Energy Step Code in bylaws starting at Step 3, Bowen Island would be aligned with the three North Shore governments that will require that level for all new homes starting in July, Glave said.
The provincial government has set the target that all new buildings must reach a net-zero-energy ready level of efficiency by 2032. Such buildings are so well insulated and carefully sealed that they could meet all of their own energy needs via renewable energy generated on-site—such as solar panels on the roof.
The BC Energy Step Code serves as the pathway to help reach that goal, Glave explained. In communities that choose to use it, he said, it acts like an energy-efficiency staircase. “It incrementally increases the standard of efficiency that builders are required to meet.”
Glave told council his company has been supporting the Energy Step Code Council since early last year. The Council, which includes the major building-industry associations, developed the new standard, and is supporting its roll out as communities across the province begin putting it to work.
The province is not yet “making a lot of noise” about the Step Code, Glave said. He said it is a tool that the province is making available to local governments, and that the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, which oversees the standard, is being clear that it is up to municipalities to choose to use it, or not, and do so at a pace that works for them.
“They are offering it and just want to see what the pickup is,” said Glave. So far, 15 local governments have notified the province that they intend to use the BC Energy Step Code.
Glave explained that Step 1 simply confirms, via testing, that builders are meeting the current building code requirements. Currently, energy efficiency requirements are in the building code, but they are “prescriptive.” That means builders and architects are provided with a long list of combinations of materials and practices that will meet the requirement.
Municipal planner Daniel Martin explained the situation to council.
“Right now,” he said, “You can check that the insulation’s in the building. You can make sure the walls are two-by-six and that the insulation is of a certain value, but Step 1 would require the builder to complete a blower-door test to ensure that the building meets BC Building Code efficiency standards.”
Instead of this prescriptive approach, the BC Energy Step code is “performance-based.” Each step establishes measurable levels of energy efficiency in the building; it is up to builders to figure out how best to meet it.
To prove they are meeting Step Code requirements, builders will need to retain the services of an energy advisor. Prior to construction, the advisor would use software to determine whether the plans would meet requirements. Following construction but before drywall goes up, the advisor would perform a “blower door test” to measure the building’s air-tightness.
If the building leaks air anywhere, the test will find it, and the builder can patch the leaks to meet the level of air tightness that the Step Code requires.
Glave told council that there are benefits to adopting Step 1, but buildings that meet steps 2 and 3 are already fairly common in British Columbia. Builders can meet that standard by paying special attention to walls, windows, doors, and heating system. On the other hand, Steps 4 and 5, he said, would require an entirely different approach to home building, and carry higher upfront costs.
“It’s not tuning and polishing around the middle, the Upper Steps are a different approach,” he said. “Much thicker walls with more insulation, you’re going to be looking at triple-glazed windows, and using ‘thermal breaks’ to ensure there’s no leaking of heat through the frame of the building into the outside world.”
Glave added that there are buildings of this standard out there, but at this point they are still few and far between. Glave shared findings from a recent BC Housing study of the costs impacts of the Step Code. In most situations, that agency found, builders can reach the Lower Steps for less than a 2 percent construction cost premium above that of a traditional new home.
A slide showed that a hypothetical row house in Surrey, that would likely sell for between $550 to $800 thousand, would cost a builder an extra $3 thousand if he or she was required to meet Step 3.
“There are additional construction costs, but when you are looking at a half a million to $800 thousand dollar home, a premium of three-thousand dollars will vanish into the mortgage,” Glave said. And the homeowner will immediately see lower energy bills, right off the bat, he said.
Councillors had a number of questions regarding the impact of meeting these new standards, including their application in municipal and commercial buildings. Acting Mayor, Gary Ander, told Glave his only issue with this plan was the cost.
“It’s less than two percent,” said Glave, referencing the BC Housing study.
“Yeah, but I don’t buy the numbers,” replied Ander.
In the introduction to the study, BC Housing says the research represents “one of the most extensive energy analyses of buildings in Canada.” It was commissioned in partnership with BC Hydro, the Province of British Columbia, the City of Vancouver, and Natural Resources Canada.
In last year’s Strategic Plan, council committed to discuss the Community Energy and Emissions Plan and, if approved, move forward with Year 1 items, “including adoption of the Energy Step Code.”
Councillor Maureen Nicholson says that a decision on this matter can be expected by summer.
