Ever thought of building a home off the grid?
Richard Leblanc did, and his Scoudouc residence will be featured on the DIY Network tonight.
Owner of Riko Passive Homes Richard Leblanc says he was approached a few years ago, by the Producers for the show, “Building off the Grid.”
“We were in the initial stages of designing our own energy efficient home when I was approached to have this marketing opportunity to be on North American television. So, we decided to pull the plug and go completely off grid,” Leblanc says.
He grew up in Grand Barachois and his wife grew up in Moncton.
“Building a home like this requires a lot of planning. You need to make sure you take advantage of the orientation of the sun so you have the natural heat coming in, in the winter and have proper shading for the summer. You have to make sure it is as energy efficient as possible,” Leblanc says.
It is a large custom luxury home, “You’re not connected to NB Power, so you create your own electricity and you store it locally and you are self-sufficient. When it is nice and sunny, the house and the batteries are happy, and when it is cloudy, the propane generator kicks on for a few hours to charge up the batteries, but everything is done automatically and we don’t think about it. We just live our lives like we would in a normal house.”
Leblanc says the crews came and shot the show during various stages of the construction.
“The crew was here for around five or six days. It was a very interesting project. You don’t know what to expect when you are going to be interviewed. All this coverage though and they made it into a pretty awesome show,” Leblanc says.
They moved into their new energy efficient home in July, “My family likes the nature and the water and we are right on the river,” Leblanc says.
Building Off the Grid will air on DIY Network Canada tonight at 11pm.
Leblanc says if anyone is interested in the construction of a new energy efficient home, Riko Passive Homes can help.
(Photo: submitted)
(photo:submitted)
