Reducing the Energy Consumption of New Construction Residential Buildings in Ontario: The Development of Prescriptive Compliance Packages 20% Below Ontario Building Code Requirements

To address energy concerns in new home construction in Ontario, advanced compliance packages have been developed that meet an energy reduction of 20% compared to SB-12 standards. The prescriptions are based on measures identified by homebuilders in the Savings by Design program. Energy simulations using HOT2000 have been conducted to establish the optimum combination of measures that will enable builders to meet the target, for 3 different house archetypes. Additional analysis was conducted to determine the effect of building orientation; climate; thermal bridging; air conditioning; and the SHGC of windows. A total of 9 advanced packages were developed. The findings from this study indicate that builders are more comfortable upgrading the systems components of a house as opposed to the building envelope components; different archetypes can reach the reduction target using different measures; and the other design factors must be considered in order to ensure the reduction target is achieved.