An Airdrie family has won the Canadian Green Challenge by achieving a net zero home

Content of the article

It's a big payday for one Airdrie family who were the grand prize winners of Canadian Geographic's Live Net Zero challenge, with eight families pulling out all the stops to reduce their carbon footprint.

After 14 weeks of trials, Samantha and Kevin Shannon, along with their three young children and their dog, Nana, won the competition and brought home a check for $50,000. They received the award from Canadian Geographic President Emeritus Hon. Lois Mitchell at her home in Airdrie on Friday.

Content of the article

“Because it's Canadian Geographic, part of it is how you tell the story, and how many emissions you save,” Samantha said.

There were a total of six challenges and a general home improvement challenge that ran from September to the end of February.

“We completely cut off the natural gas line, ditched the 1980s furnace, dug five boreholes in the front yard that went down 250 feet, and used ground source heat pumps to heat our house — which is 400% efficient for heating, 800 cents efficient for cooling per person — the highest An efficient natural gas furnace is in the high 90s, so it's four times more efficient.

To offset their electricity consumption, the Shannons installed solar panels on the roof and got rid of the hot water tank in favor of an air source hybrid heat pump hot water tank. “We have an air source heat pump for the garage so we can still use the garage as a workshop in the winter,” added Samantha.

Content of the article

Challengers took the $5,000 the Shannons used for a product called the AeroBarrier.

“It basically pressurizes your house, and then it releases the aerosol sealant, and it tries to find all the little holes that you can't see with the naked eye, even under the drywall — and it seals all the holes and it's done. you lose about 30 percent of your heat energy through leakage, which helped make everything else more efficient,” Samantha said.

Kevin says some of the challenges are trying to find ways to make changes by using less or less attention. “Obviously we've had a lot of changes, but also changes in habits and changing the way we do things at home. It's also looking at your habits and the little ways you can do things differently in your daily life.”

“We've done big things, but we've spent years on the little things, and I think that's my favorite part of racing,” added Samantha. “Because not all of our homes are the same, it's not a one-size-fits-all approach. Some of the houses were 1920s—you couldn't do that; some contained asbestos; you couldn't do it, but we can all work from the same toolbox.”

“The contest was basically a conversation with other Canadians and resonated, and I think Canadian Geographic did a good job here in choosing their families because they chose eight families who are passionate about what they do. They wanted to share their stories and inspire other Canadians,” said Kevin.

Share this article on social media