Reid’s Heritage Homes, in partnership with CleanEnergy™, raised the bar in North America for sustainable home design and construction, and has set an example for the rest of the industry to follow.

LEED® Platinum

In 2007 Reid's Heritage Homes built a game changing 2,500 square foot, 2-storey, 3 bedroom, red brick home in Guelph, Ontario as part of Reid’s Heritage Homes’ Westminster Woods community. This home became North America’s highest rated LEED® Platinum home. It has received widespread recognition across both Canada and the United States.

The heart of the energy efficiency upgrades for the home comes from CleanEnergy's integrated geoexchange/solar thermal system. Integrating the two renewable energy systems in the manner that CleanEnergy did meant that Reid's got all of the energy efficiency points available in the LEED rating system, and also all of the LEED® points for innovation.

Reid’s Heritage chose an integrated CleanEnergy™ geoexchange and solar thermal system for the LEED® house because, with an energy reduction of over 80% compared to a conventional system, it offered by far the highest level of energy efficiency of any available HVAC option.  This took the project a long way towards achieving its goal. The geoexchange system was critical in helping Reid’s to reach LEED® Platinum.

The System

CleanEnergy™ has pioneered the integration of geoexchange and solar thermal technologies, creating systems with higher efficiencies than have previously been achieved with stand-alone geoexchange systems.  Integrating the solar thermal panels directly into the ground loop (bypassing the hot water tank) enables the heat collected by the panels to be transferred directly to the ground, which boosts its temperature.  As a result, the fluid coming up to the heat pump in winter is warmer.  The heat pump, therefore, doesn’t need to work as hard to raise the temperature. 
 

Platinum Efficiency

This integrated geoexchange & solar system consumes even less conventional energy than if the systems were operating independently.  The result is a lower operating cost, as well as even less harmful greenhouse gas emissions. 

• There is a reduction in conventional energy consumption of 81.5% compared to a conventional fossil fuel system.
• This reduction in energy consumption results in a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions of 70%, from 16 tons down to 4.7 tons.
• The operating cost savings for this home from the integrated geoexchange and solar thermal system is estimated to be over $2,700 per year.