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Chuck Berry is credited as being one of the founders of Rock and Roll in America. Dr Rob Dumont is the Chuck Berry of sustainable home design.

Dr. Dumont is from Saskatoon and has spent most of his career studying energy efficient home construction. We are planning to build a net zero demonstration home at Sarilia Country Estates (www.sarilia.com) and we are very fortunate to have Dr. Dumont on the design team.

figure 1: from presentation by Gorden Howell on the Riverdale NetZero home

In his January, 2003 article in SOLPlan Review, Dr. Dumont outlines the integrated design process:

1) Define the design goals – every owner has different goals for their home. It is important that everyone on the design team understands these goals.

2) Be quantitative with goals where quantitative criteria are appropriate – goals should be quantified in a number of areas:

• • energy related goals
  • air quality related goals
  • water conservation goals
  • natural lighting goals
  • recycling and solid waste management goals

3) Proceed with integrated design

The integrated design session for the Lepage NetZero Home is planned for Monday October 5. Our preliminary design objectives follow:

Figure 2: from Lepage NetZero Home – Planning phase

We are very excited about our NetZero Home and the opportunity to work with Dr Dumont. More to follow …