Innovative energy systems for housing

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Single-family housing is the dominant building type in Canada. By 2009, Canada's 9 million houses comprised 57% of the floor area of all buildings, accounted for almost a quarter of the country's consumption of electricity and natural gas, and caused about 12% of the country's total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Despite advances in building codes and regulations, equipment efficiencies, and construction practices, there has been a 13% increase in energy consumption due to single-family housing in the past two decades. Clearly, to meet ambitious GHG emissions reduction targets and to provide for a sustainable and secure energy future, Canada must address this significant and growing sector: innovative new concepts for single-family housing are imperative; incremental efficiency improvements are not sufficient. The long-term goals of my research programme are to improve the understanding of residential energy use patterns and to develop and critically evaluate novel concepts for mitigating the impact of energy demands and for delivering energy services through renewable and sustainable sources. To contribute towards these long-term goals, efforts will be focused on two research areas over the time period covered by the current grant application: - Small-scale cogeneration of heat and electricity (micro-cogeneration). - Seasonal storage of solar thermal energy for space and water heating for high-solar-fraction housing.