A new type of home that leaves your wallet fatter and your life easier to manage... A home for the 21st Century is not about the latest in gadgetsand wireless alarms, internet connections or top of the lineintercom system. It is about strength, comfort and energyefficiency.
Baby Boomers are buying their last home and they know what theywant.
Enter a new type of home. A home that stands up to fire, noise,sun, wind, rain, snow, bugs, mould and inevitable acts of Godlike, earthquakes and hurricanes; a home that gives youunprecedented comfort and a breath of fresh air 24 hours a day;a home that can resist hurricanes in Florida as well as subartic temperatures in the Canadian North.
Imagine an airtight, steel reinforced concrete cube with about3 inches of styrofoam insulation on both sides of the wall andbody temperature heated floors.
Fresh air from the outside enters the house through a series ofpipes buried 5 feet below the ground where there is always aconstant temperature - 8 Degrees Celsius.
If you really wanted you could open high efficiency Low-E Argonfilled windows, but why would you want to?
During the summer the incoming air is pre-cooled; during thewinter it is pre-warmed. The flow is strictly controlled,pre-conditioned and filtered for a breath of fresh air - 24hours a day.
Computer modeling of this type of air pre-conditioning showsthat just this one idea saves 11% on heating and cooling costscomparable to conventional venting system.
This new type of luxury home is built as a combination of someof the newest technologies in modern home building: InsulatedConcrete Form (ICFs), radiant floor heating, a tank-less waterheater and a low energy consumption air conditioning system(that that you may need to use but very rarely). The outsidewalls, which are built out of steel reinforced concrete makethis home wind and fire resistant, bug and mould resistant andprovide excellent protection from hurricanes,
tornadoes andearthquakes.
Outside voices, traffic noises and police sirens are muffled bythe walls thickness which allows you to sleep soundly everynight. Gone are floor squeaks, drafts and the rattling of glassin your china cabinet.
Because of the exceptional insulation of insulated concreteforms, there is significant ongoing savings in energy costs andgreatly increased comfort levels for the homeowner. The savingsare anywhere from 35% to 60% depending mostly on the style ofhome and the size and type of windows.
Features, such as a high (92%) efficiency tank-less water heaterheats the whole home, while providing an endless supply ofpotable hot water. It turns itself on when you turn your hotwater tap, therefore there are no standby losses as with aconventional hot water heater. This equals approximately 25% ofenergy savings just to heat your hot water.
It is also easy to incorporate a full solar heating, so you canachieve a complete independence from the grid.
This type of home costs only about 10% more than a comparablewood framed home and considering a long term savings, comfortand security why would anyone build homes differently is amerited question.
If you are thinking of building, or simply want to see foryourself what all the fuss is about, the model home can beviewed on Jan 15, and every Saturday after that until the monthof April. It is located on 252 Pearson St. by the golf course inMeaford, Ontario.
About the author:
Harvey Juric CEO of ICFhome.ca has been building InsulatedConcrete Form custom homes in Ontario since 1995. For moreinformation about the model home, Insulated Concrete Forms orRadiant Floor Heating contact ICFhome.ca by telephone 519843-7612, e-mail info@icfhome.ca, or visit their web site at
Ontario HomeBuilder or LuxuryHome
