Falkland Street Passive House Retrofit

Two-story blue house with shingle siding, windows, and a small staircase leading to a front door. The house has a peaked roof with a chimney, and there are power lines overhead. A tree with green foliage is visible on the left side.

Nova Scotia’s First Passive House Retrofit (EnerPHit) Project

Passive House is a high-performance building standard that strives for the highest quality buildings possible in terms of energy efficiency, economics and comfort and health. It is considered the world’s leading energy efficiency standard. The Passive House Institute’s EnerPHit standard is a variation on Passive House adapted for renovations.

Achieving our city’s target of net-zero emissions by 2050 relies, in part, on retrofitting 5,000 buildings per year from 2021 to 2040 (HalifACT: Acting on Climate Together: 2020-21 Annual Report, 2020, p.13).

The Falkland Street Retrofit Project involves the conversion of a two-storey 1850s home at 5522 Falkland Street into office space for the Habit Studio team. This demonstration project was made possible in part thanks to the support of our strategic partner, Efficiency One. Read their report on Deep Energy Retrofits in Nova Scotia to learn more about their work in this area.

PHI's ENERPHIT StANDARDS

Unfinished wooden staircase with floating steps, set against a textured concrete and stone wall in a construction or renovation site.

Empty fireplace with damaged and darkened brick interior, and a living room with peeling wallpaper and missing trim, showing a small alcove with a sink, plates, and exposed plumbing.

An abandoned, dilapidated room with peeling paint and damaged walls. There is a window with a floral curtain, a wooden bookshelf, and a black fireplace. The floor is covered in dust and debris.

A room with damaged walls and a window covered by floral curtains, showing signs of fire damage and scorch marks.

Close-up of old, weathered window frame with peeling paint and a dirty, frayed rope hanging inside the window.

A staircase with patterned carpet runners, dark wooden banister, and spindles, situated on a wooden floor with a distressed look.

View of a narrow hallway with a wooden staircase on the right, a door at the end with glass panels, a hanging light fixture, and a patterned runner rug on the wooden floor.

Interior view of an old house staircase with a wooden banister, wall with peeling paint, and a hanging light fixture.

Interior view of an old house with a staircase, a window, and a patterned rug on a worn wooden floor.

Close-up of an antique door lock with a large bolt and white porcelain doorknob on a wooden door with peeling paint.

Old wooden front door with glass panels, surrounded by rough unfinished wall and exposed pipes, in a construction or renovation site.

Interior of a house under renovation with exposed wooden framing and a staircase with wooden steps and black balusters.

View of an unfinished interior construction site with exposed brick and wooden framework for walls and ceiling, and visible cobwebs in the wooden beams.

Old attic with exposed wooden beams, dust, cobwebs, and discarded doors leaning against the wall, with a small window allowing natural light.

The image shows the ceiling of an unfinished room with exposed darkwood beams and a plywood ceiling. There are cobwebs and dust on the wooden beams.

A damaged fireplace with broken bricks and an ornate metal grate, surrounded by peeling wallpaper and debris on the wooden floor.

Close-up of the front entrance to a blue wooden house with a white door and steps, house number 5522, with large multi-pane windows and weathered siding.

A three-story house with blue-gray siding, multiple windows, and a white front door with a transom window above, numbered 5522. The house has a brick chimney on the right side and a small garden at the base. The sky is bright with wispy clouds.

Side view of a blue house with multiple windows, partially covered by tree branches with green leaves, and construction debris scattered on the ground.

White front porch door with black window panes, a brass doorknob, and the house number 5522 above it. The porch has steps made of concrete and wood, with part of the house siding visible to the right and a tree with green leaves to the left. The sky

Main Floor

Comparison of two architectural floor plans labeled 'before' and 'after.' The plans depict different layouts of rooms such as kitchen, bedroom, hall, and entry, with details of furniture and structural elements.

Second Floor

Before and after images of a house renovation, showing floor plans with labeled rooms and structural changes, including new rooms, office, library, studios, halls, and bathrooms.

A damaged and burned fireplace with a partially broken ornate white frame, dark soot inside the opening, and debris on the floor in front of it. The wall above has peeling and cracked paint, and the ceiling above has damage and stains.

Existing Structure

1850s house

1800 ft2 (plus 600 ft2 stone cellar)

timber frame structure

fieldstone foundation

uninsulated

single-pane wood windows

party wall

air leakage at 24 air changes per hour (ACH)

energy consumption of 352 GJ/year

heating demand 641 kWh/m2.yr

total energy demand 924 kWh/m2.yr

rated GHG emissions of 72.4 kgCO2e per year

existing embodied carbon of ~25,000 kgCO2e

A digital rendering of a modern, multi-story residential building with dark gray shingle siding and multiple narrow windows. The building has an entrance with existing stairs and small planters with flowers at the front.

Post Retrofit

effective R values: walls R-24, roof R-65, floors R-24

Vetta E-92 triple-pane passive house windows

2-ton Carrier heat pump for heating and cooling

Alnor SlimAIR ERV

3.5 air change per hour (ACH)*

heating demand 78 kWh/m2.yr (56 kWh/m2.yr target)

total energy demand 135 kWh/m2.yr (93 kWh/m2.yr target)

net embodied carbon estimated at 9,701 kgCO2e

*The airtightness target of 1 ACH has not yet been achieved, however air leakage has been reduced by 85% to date with work towards further reductions planned in 2026.

heating energy savings were reduced by 92%
total energy use were reduced by 87%
GHG emissions were reduced by 88% per year

Total Cost of Building Ownership

The Total Cost of Building Ownership (TCBO) includes the cost of significant expenses, such as utilities, carbon tax, property tax, maintenance, maintenance capital, insurance and interest, over the remaining useful life of the building, typically 60 years.

A economic study, conducted by SEEFAR Building Analytics, examined the financial and energy aspects of the existing Falkland Street building, comparing a code-minimum retrofit, a Passive House retrofit, and a code-minimum new build.

The result? The Passive House retrofit undertaken at Falkland has a 60-year TCBO savings of $209K compared to a code-minimum retrofit, and $701K compared to a code-minimum new build (calculation not including grants received towards the project).

Line graph titled 'Cumulative TCBO' showing costs over years with different lines representing various project scenarios, including 'code minimum retrofit,' 'code minimum now build,' 'PH - no grant,' and 'PH - with grant.'

By SEEFAR Building Analytics

Habit’s New Home Video Series

In partnership with our sponsors, Habit Studio has launched a 5-part video series showcasing the design and construction processes, the innovative products used to bring this passive house retrofit project to life, and the experts behind these transformations.

People filming a conversation or interview in a studio with professional lighting and equipment.

From 1850 to Passive House: A Deep Retrofit Journey

Step inside the ultimate retrofit journey! We’ve transformed an 1850s house into a modern Passive House office for our firm.

A residential house with blue siding, multiple windows, and a white front door, located on a slightly elevated foundation with steps leading up to the entrance. The house has a brick chimney, and overhead wires are visible in front of the house. There are tall trees and a partly cloudy sky in the background.

Contact Us

Do you have questions about our Falkland Street Retrofit Project? We’d love to hear from you. A member of our team will respond shortly.

Project made possible in part thanks to the support of our strategic partner, Efficiency One.