An Update on the Affordable Housing Navigator

The OPEN Technologies Team has been working hard on putting together a beta version of the Affordable Housing Navigator, which aims to provide early insights on the viability of new non-profit housing projects based upon various design parameters, unit mix and affordability targets, and performance standards. General highlights of our recent work include:

• We now have functional energy and costing models for multi-unit residential buildings in certain geographies, and will have full national coverage by March

• We have integrated the finance and incentive models for CMHC NHCF and FCM-Sustainable Affordable Housing finance and incentive models to the pro forma generator

• We have built the pro forma module that will synthesize the various project assumptions and design trade-offs into clear financial terms for viability and scenario testing.  

We are currently at a point where additional user and market input would be helpful to ensure that we hit the ground in March with the best possible set of features and functionality. If you or someone you know is working in the non-profit housing industry, and would be interested in participating, please contact us at AHN@opentech.eco. We look forward to hearing from you! 
 

The Affordable Housing Navigator project received funding from the CMHC Housing Supply Challenge - Data Driven Round, however, the views expressed are the personal views of the author and CMHC accepts no responsibility for them.

Building Benchmark BC - Year 3 Data Coming Soon!

Building Benchmark BC, Canada’s biggest and most successful voluntary building energy benchmarking program, is wrapping up its third year and preparing to release the 2021 data. We have been proud to welcome many new partner jurisdictions and organizations into the program, which will now cover over 1,500 buildings in British Columbia. 

Watch this space for updates on the Year 3 data coming soon, and don’t forget to check out the Year 2 report and results at buildingbenchmarkbc.ca in the meantime!

New features for ThermalEnvelope.ca

ThermalEnvelope.ca, a web-based application developed by OPEN that helps building industry practitioners to account for thermal bridging, has recently been updated with some new features. Thermal Envelope provides comprehensive evaluations and calculations for building envelope thermal performance in new and existing buildings. Users can now create an account on the site, enabling work to be stored and saved on the cloud. Users can also now create and save multiple calculators within one collection.

Call for interviews with contractors

If you are a heat pump installer, manufacturer, or wholesaler, we would love to talk to you.  We are now in the design stage of a software tool focused on streamlining the decarbonization of existing ground-oriented homes.  We have just done a tonne of homeowner research (summarized in the Stuck report) and are now interviewing industry participants to identify the friction points where we may be able to help. 

Our goal is to better understand your business, the points of market friction, and the ways that our toolset could best serve your needs as this industry shifts and grows in the coming years.  

All interviews are confidential, and we provide a $100 honorarium for your time, which can go to you personally, your company, or to a charity of your choice. Please reach us at hera@opentech.eco. 

New and Notable

A few news stories, reports, opportunities, and other resources that recently caught our eye:

• The Canadian Federal government has made switching from heating oil to heat pumps more affordable with the new Oil to Heat Pump Affordability Grant! This is great news for both climate change and affordability. 

• The Province of British Columbia is ranked as the most energy efficient Canadian province for the fourth consecutive year, according to Efficiency Canada’s annual report! Check out the full article from the Remi Network. 

• The latest blog post from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy showcases strategies and case studies on how local governments can protect renters while cutting emissions. Check it out! 

• The Building to Electric Coalition, in collaboration with the Vancouver Economic Commission, has released the BC Heat Pump Technology Attraction Strategy. Read the full Strategy here. 

• The ZEBx BC Green Building Calendar has lots of exciting events coming up before the end of the year, don’t forget to take a look at https://bcgreeneventcalendar.ca/