Michael Lio was recently interviewed by the Globe and Mail for his insights on net-zero. Below is a clip of the article containing Michael’s observations.
Can net-zero net the average homebuyer?
An Edmonton house with solar panels selling for less than 10 per cent more than one without signals a possible shift
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Millennials aren’t buying single-detached houses, yet, she says, but when they do, net-zero will be an expectation, not an upgrade. These buyers “tend to expect [net-zero] to be a feature within the home,” Weatherston says, based on the company’s experience selling town homes to millennial buyers. “They expect it to be standard.”
Weatherston says the market may be forced to respond even before the codes make them.
But for Michael Lio, a leader with the for-profit BuildAbility Corp., in Ontario, which works to create change in the housing industry, the key is electricity and energy prices.
Lio uses Ontario as an example of where net-zero can and can’t make sense to the average consumer. “In Ontario, for instance, given the high price of electricity, if you have a house that’s disconnected from natural gas lines and you’re currently heating with electricity or you choose not to use oil, then it makes a whole lot of sense to go that extra little bit and go to net-zero,” Lio says.
But, thanks to the cheap price of natural gas, “We are absolutely not at the tipping point of moving off it,” he adds.
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To read the full article, click here.