Siga's polymers have a guaranteed service life of 50 years, which means they will continue to ensure air tightness-a key element of Passive Houses. Martin Knowles/Siga

This is a rare supply chain story in 2021, with a happy ending.

Earlier this fall, new tenants of the YWCA affordable housing complex in Hamilton, Ontario began to move into their newly completed apartments-one, two and three-bedroom units, located in the largest "passive house" project. Ontario is done.

"Passive house" is a method of using thick insulating materials, heat recovery systems, and triple-glazed windows to build extremely energy-efficient, air-tight houses. There is no so-called "thermal bridge"—a place where heat can escape. Project leader Deborah Byrne, director of passive house design at Kearns Mancini Architects (KMAI), said that compared with similar structures built in accordance with traditional standards, the energy consumption of the YWCA building will be reduced by about 90%.

Although some components of the Passive House project are specialized, such as windows and HVAC systems, Ms. Byrne said that her team did not encounter any difficulties in procuring them-which was a surprise because many construction sites appeared Extreme delays. "There are no supply chain issues," she commented. "We got the material we wanted when we needed it."

The reason is worth mentioning: As a principle, YWCA requires Ms. Byrne’s contractors to source locally as much as possible. These instructions provide a glimpse into the evolution of the growing part of the building materials industry that is shifting towards low supply-to hope to build Developers and contractors of low-emission buildings provide carbon content.

Project leader Deborah Byrne said that Hamilton’s YWCA building will use about 90% of the energy compared to similar structures built in accordance with traditional standards. Industrial photography

In British Columbia and more and more Ontario, increasingly stringent regulations on building energy performance-called "step codes" in British Columbia and "green standards" in Toronto-have stimulated And the need for innovation.

"Now we have [the] step code," said Sean McStay, vice president of sales and operations at Siga Swiss Canada, a Swiss manufacturer of highly elastic sealing tapes and films. Looking at it, "These types of products almost have to find higher-performance products to meet these new building code requirements, depending on the city they are located in. The target market and customers must have expanded a lot. "

Siga set up an office and distribution center in Canada six years ago and increased its staff from 1 to 10 employees during this period. Unlike traditional sealants made of plastic, the company's products are made of acrylic polymer, which is a water-based material. Mr. McStay pointed out that plastics used in construction materials emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are not only related to poor air quality but also to degradation.

As Ms. Bryne explained, “We have to tape each panel and floor [and windows] with tape, because if you don’t do this, air will leak out of the gap.” She added that when using traditional tape , The viscous backing will eventually break and lose its grip, which will dissipate heat. In contrast, Siga's polymers are guaranteed for 50 years, which means they will continue to ensure airtightness-a key element of Passive Houses.

Although the cost of Siga tape is about twice that of traditional products, Mr. McStay said that these materials only account for a small part of the overall construction project, but they produce significant savings in ensuring that heat does not escape. "Part of our construction budget is very small. If you are looking at a single-family house, some of our competitors will have a price of $3,000, depending on the house, and we may be $4,500 or $5,000."

The YWCA project not only used higher-quality materials; it also seemed to prompt a Canadian supplier to design more energy-efficient components for the domestic market.

Like most new multi-storey apartments, this building is made of precast concrete slabs, which are basically designed as a sandwich-two layers of concrete wrapped in an insulating core. The insulation value of a typical prefabricated panel is R-20-or four inches thick-but the Passive House standard requires twice the number.

Ms. Byrne contacted Coreslab Structures (Ontario) and asked them if they could upgrade the insulation in their panels for use in the interior walls of Project Y.

Coreslab’s business development manager Joshua Fede said that the company has been considering designing more energy-efficient panels, but made a counter-proposal. They can build the entire YWCA house, not just the interior walls, and develop high-performance panels to provide the necessary insulation for the entire envelope. "This is our first passive house project. We had to start from scratch."

Since taking over the YWCA project, Coreslab has received inquiries from contractors who are looking for more energy-efficient panels. Core board structure

In order to improve the thermal insulation effect, Ms. Bryne suggested that they use the Irish-made "phenolic foam" product KoolTherm K20, which is located between the concrete slabs and has a higher R value per inch than traditional foam. Mr. Fede said, therefore, the width of the panel only needs to be increased by 25% instead of doubling, which means more internal space and fewer interruptions to the Coreslab production process. "We don't have to reinvent the wheel." Ms. Byrne added: "They just did it; they just bought it."

The only other change is related to the clips that hold the panels together. These are traditionally made of steel. However, due to the high conductivity of the steel clip, heat loss will occur. Ms. Bryne asked Coreslab to switch to fiberglass clips.

Mr. Fede said that the total cost of Coreslab's new passive house panel is about 5% to 10% higher than traditional panels. However, he added that the insulating material, like the sealing tape, only accounts for a relatively small part of the overall project cost, so the return on investment is high.

Since undertaking the YWCA project in Hamilton, Coreslab has been seeking inquiries from contractors who are looking for more energy-efficient panels, whether for passive house certification buildings or projects designed to meet standards. "I think the market will continue to want to see these kinds of things," Mr. Fader predicted. "[Developers] know that the government has incentives to help them improve performance. This will be slow, but we will see organic growth."

Ms. Bryne added that KMAI also has several multi-unit passive house projects in progress in Hamilton, Windsor and Sudbury. The result: Just like in British Columbia, increasingly stringent energy regulations are transforming into green jobs, stimulating R&D investment and promoting the prosperity of passive house development projects. Suppliers such as Siga Swiss and Coreslab expect more orders and Growing interest.

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