Project overview
This research aimed to create an overview of the replicable solutions and tools available to address the challenges facing the high-rise residential retrofit industry. It focused on the 3 persistent technical challenges of:
- thermal bridging
- upgrading ventilations systems
- cost-effective and non-combustible building envelopes
Key findings
Advancing the building sector toward “deep energy” retrofits requires system-wide movement. This ranges from supportive financing to industry upskilling to regulatory change.
The most common barriers limiting the uptake of deep energy retrofits are:
- risk avoidance by owners
- absence of regulatory requirements to undertake retrofits
- unsatisfactory return on investment on many deep energy retrofit measures
- expensive retrofit design solutions due to lack of off-the-shelf products
These barriers need to be addressed in order to move market acceptance beyond the early adopters.
Implications for the housing industry
There may be significant opportunities and a strategic business case for advancing “made-in-Canada” high performance retrofit products.
The federal government can a play key role in codes and enforcing, promoting, communicating and funding new technologies, products and demonstration projects.
This report is part of the Research Insight series. Read the full reports Advancing Building Retrofits (PDF) and Enabling Complete Communities (PDF).
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About CMHC Research Insights
Research insights are summaries of our research reports. These insights:
- identify a housing research issue, gap or need
- provide an overview of the research project undertaken to address it
- Present major findings of the research
Examples of research insights topics:
- adaptability and accessibility
- affordable housing
- housing market and finance
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