What are the changes in Vancouver Bylaw, and how would it affect your project?
The city of Vancouver is going under new changes on the VBBL starting on January 1st, 2022.
Some of the changes are for new home constructions and some can affect the renovations as well. How would these changes affect your project?
The city of Vancouver is changing Vancouver Building Bylaw to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions for new lowrise homes on the new lowrise buildings (single-family homes, laneway homes and infills).
That can be achieved by improving the performance of the homes. A simple explanation for this is that they are moving away from natural gas heating sources in homes. By electrification of the domestic hot water and space heating systems, the new homes will be more energy-efficient and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Use of an electric heat source heat pump which can produce heat during cold weather and cooling during hot weather is encouraged.
The move is to build homes to energy step code four standards, making homes more airtight with higher R-value on the building envelope; specifically, the new changes apply to the roofing systems.
If you are planning to construct a new house after January 2022, these changes will affect your project.
You might ask, “what about a renovation?”
If your renovation is not major, like replacing a bathroom, kitchen or small interior renovation, these changes will not affect your project.
However, if you are adding floor area or the roof is being affected by these renovations, the new bylaw has to be followed. As per walls, the city would ask to improve the performance of the walls and the house in general anyway.
Home recovery ventilation system is commonly used these days in the city of Vancouver and it will be mandatory in all newly constructed homes.
It helps to circulate the air throughout the house, and it will reduce the waste of energy by reusing the conditioned air within the house and combining it with fresh air.
The air quality in homes with HRV is much better and improved and will reduce the need to use individual fans in each bathroom.
If you are thinking of building your new home or renovating it after January 2022, stay in touch with us and take advantage of our 30 minutes free consultations to learn about your options.
We also offer a low-cost consultation which gives you a roadmap of what to expect before getting into more extensive commitments.
All you need to do is fill the form below, and we will contact you to arrange a time to talk or meet.