Located in Toronto’s Danforth neighbourhood, the Sammon Passive House home has the advantages of a newly-constructed Passive House, including increased comfort, resilience, durability, and energy savings of almost 75-90 per cent of typical homes (Passipedia), but it is a deep retrofit of an existing 80 year old building. 

Existing buildings are Toronto’s “largest source of emissions, accounting for about 55 per cent of total city-wide emissions”. Yet, the deep retrofit of existing buildings also represents an opportunity: building emissions reductions of over 80 per cent are possible if Toronto’s existing building stock undergoes deep retrofits by 2050 (City of Toronto ‘Net Zero Existing Buildings Strategy’ June 2021).   Passive House design principles used throughout the home include: adding additional insulation to the floor, walls and roof; triple-pane high performance Passive House windows; an air-tight envelope; a ventilation system with heat recovery ensuring hygienic reliable, fresh air while reducing heating costs. Reduction of thermal bridges (highways for heat) as much as possible via careful detailing; waste water heat recovery to pre-heat incoming water from the hot water tank; and, large south facing windows in the main living area and kitchen to harvest sunlight in the winter, while exterior shading helps block the hot summer sun.

Re-using the existing home meant we were able to substantially reduce the embodied c...