The EQuilibrium housing competition is funding twelve demonstration homes that are "Net Zero Energy Healthy Houses". Previously we covered a new Montreal condo; the Now House team take a different and valuable approach: a renovation. Canada and the States have tens of thousands of post-WW2 houses " based on a standardized, inexpensive, sometimes pre-fabricated 1 1/2 storey designs" that while small and efficient plans (and now in great parts of town) they are not exactly models of energy efficiency. The Now House team is taking a 60 year old house and putting in " insulation, new windows, the installation of solar panels and Energy Star®-certified appliances, and the implementation of a waste water heat recovery system" to achieve net zero energy. Post-worthy venture Work Worth Doing put this together with schoolmate and architect David Fujiwara and others. The Now House Project

UPDATE: More on this house by Jane Gadd in the Globe and Mail