Chris Higgins

Single stair in Vancouver? Is this the first or the second? First 6 storey for sure: dailyhive.com/vancouver/21...

Single stair + single lot 6 storey is this the first in Vancouver under the new regulation ? It may be the second? Either way, Let's go! Enable owners of a single lot to redevelop! www.shapeyourcity.ca/2150-w-16-ave

Work I have done with @bchydro.bsky.social and @cityofvancouver.bsky.social to allow lower cost electrical service highlighted. Three years of work, average per lot savings $50k and 300 days waiting removed.

Nice to see the Heat Pumps not one way AC policy I developed for the City of Vancouver highlighted by this morning's keynote at Momentum electrification summit.

This one's for @energysmartwv.bsky.social , check out declining sales of AC in new homes and growing number of heat pumps / two way AC in new homes.

You need a spark gap below 3 to see people switch to heat pumps. Great to see this province by province breakdown!

Heat pump sales in Canada increasing, with some ups and downs but heading in the right direction!

At the electrification focused Momentum conference this morning. Heat pump sales globally have doubled in the last decade and are up in Euro and NA markets

You don't need to retrofit your envelope before you get off gas. I put a heat pump in my 1908 home to replace gas and it works great. cleantechnica.com/2026/10/04/s...

Wow. This would be an awesome program to have in Vancouver to make tricker treating safer!

At the farmers market. I see an opportunity for low cost power for vendors. All the stalls with generators were in one area and that area already has significant power available via overhead. It would be quite low cost to provide a kiosk that could be utilized for vendors. Less noise. Less exhaust.

For decades, China followed the fossil-heavy development taken by other industrialised economies. But since the 2010s, China’s economy has been increasingly lockstep with electricity consumption – while fossil-fuel use flattens. ember-energy.org/lat...

Here comes offensively cheap solar! arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026...

In eight of 11 industrial sectors in China— including textiles, food, pharmaceuticals, and machinery — fossil fuel use has already peaked. www.yahoo.com/news/science...

Heat Pumps FTW! oilprice.com/Energy/Energ...

How China became the world's first ElectroState

Looking at a heat pump hot water system for 123 homes using the Waterdrop Sanden co2 system. The efficiency of hot water delivery is incredible. COP of upto 5!

I am looking for publications that might be interested in a piece talking about (a project where we developed) a language to map how Vancouver is changing as we adopt greater electrification and green infrastructure. Any suggestion of publications welcome.

Who is the smartest person in the heat pump world when it comes to growing the market? @energysmartwv.bsky.social is at or near the top. I have stolen many a great idea from him. Listen to him in "A simple fix that could unlock the heat pump market" www.latitudemedia.com/news/open-ci...

Excellent piece by @andreawoo.bsky.social on the many costs of wildfire, particular to our health: www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

Nice to see this deflector on a new Mitsubishi condenser in a tight retrofit of a townhouse. My first time seeing a deflector on a residential installation. Design and installation by Combined Comfort System on an existing 100A service with a peak load of 39.5A (using hourly data from smart meter).

Any time you see a picture of wind turbine blades piled up for disposal, remember - even if none of it gets recycled (which it increasingly can) - it's about a 95% reduction in solid waste from coal ash (just the ash! not the CO2 or mine waste or additional CO2 and methane from mining and transport)

Canada is being asked to make a $40B bet on the past. We’re told another oil pipeline will bring national unity, economic security & prosperity. We’ve heard this before. You don’t prepare a country for the future by betting billions on the past www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

“OneCity Vancouver is promising to make it cheaper to install heat pumps, provide cooling systems to hundreds of vulnerable residents, and reverse building-related climate policy changes made under Mayor Ken Sim...” Vancouver must be a climate action leader again. dailyhive.com/vancouver/on...

This plant provides peaking electric capacity about 15 days a year and supports the low cost electric grid where 98% of the electricity is renewable. I am good with it as a measure for such a brief part of the year. dailyhive.com/vancouver/bc...

This is why blindly using generative AI is a very, very bad idea. It doesn’t *know* anything… “A Reuters analysis found the image of the map … contained an artificial intelligence watermark that signals it was made with OpenAI tools.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Nice little piece on this all electric net zero build: vancouversun.com/homes/net-ze...

Solar PV inverters about to drop in price in Canada and the EU? www.pv-magazine.com/2026/07/29/f...

REGULATIONS ARE GOOD ACTUALLY

Our household has been trying out the new BC Hydro (electric utility) optional time of day rate. Saving money so far. We have been able to shift most load out of the peak time. Shifting a good chunk (EV Charging, Dishwasher, and clothes drying) to the night time discount period. No gas use.

Another day, another plug in balcony solar inverter comes to market: pv-magazine-usa.com/2026/07/17/a...

A Redditor put together some instructions on on how to make an optimized 1-filter air cleaner using a box fan from my experimentation several years ago. It's in a Google drive folder here: drive.google.com/drive/folder...

Nice to see the BC to Yukon and Alberta Intertoes named cleantechnica.com/2026/07/13/c...

Nice to see this clean mobility pilot that provides transit passes, electric car-sharing and EV education to low-income Indigenous urban-area tenants! electricautonomy.ca/policy-regul...?

Nice design for a lot where a pole support wire would impact parking. This design for a 4 home Multiplex lowers the impact and makes best use of the area for car parking.

Love it.

How about Free? Is that affordable enough for you? Latest from @billmckibben.bsky.social on how, beginning next week, Australians will begin getting 3 free hours of electricity every afternoon. open.substack.com/pub/billmcki...

New blog post on the CfB website from yours truly, discussing our four story single-stair proposal that will be in the 2027 IBC. Encourage anyone interested in single-stair to take a look, even if your city/state has already passed it!

Shift drink: Reflecting Pool 1oz rum 1oz mezcal .75oz lime .75oz honey barspoon matcha muddled mint

Free fuel! We are getting a 40A electric vehicle charging circuit installed using RVE DCC-9 which allows us to charge off our townhomes 100A service (our own bill), without a service upgrade & enables free charging leveraging the peak payments from the utility & the clean fuel standard payments.

BC Hydro entering a big build period. Along side the wind farms approved it looks like the Site E hydro electric dam is to be studied along with a larger dam near Powell River: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Whole home Mitsubishi going in a townhome, 100A service. Two semi ducted units with one low low wall / floor unit. Silent operation of the outdoor unit. Going from Electric resistance heating. Just in time for this spring heat wave!

Great turnout at British Columbia Institute of Technology this morning for the Homebuilders of Vancouver on air to water heat pumps. Thanks to Daikin for the learning set up!