How to Future-Proof your New Building (for Owners, Designers, & Contractors)

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the ways buildings change over time.  For instance, I just installed a new vented range hood to replace the old, greasy re-circulating hood in in our hundred-year-old house.  Not the easiest job!

A lot can happen to a building over time—technologies and space usage can change. Our climate is changing—we now have to design for humidity control in parts of the country where we didn’t used to need it, for example. The goal is to build resilient buildings that can easily adapt to these changes over time.

One example of current trends is the push towards electrification, which seeks to replace technologies that use fossil fuels, such as natural gas, with technologies that use electricity as a source of energy.  Several utilities and municipalities are already beginning to include electrification in their policies and local codes, helped along by a rapid increase in low-cost, zero-emissions power. 

Below are some ways you can consider future-proofing your new home or business, specifically for HVAC, electrical, and plumbing systems.  I have focused on low-cost ideas that are cheaper or easier to implement during construction than during a retrofit.

HVAC

Even if your new building will use fossil fuels, such as a gas boiler, in the near future, consider planning ahead for electrification.  Some options include:

1.      Design hydronic heating systems for lower supply water temperatures that are suitable for future water-to-water heat pumps (120 degrees F or less).

2.      Provide adequate space in the mechanical room for larger equipment in the future.

3.      Provide clearly marked, easily accessible chases and pathways for mechanical utilities such as ducts, piping, and refrigerant linesets.

4.      Use variable-speed drives on fans and pumps, which can be more easily re-balanced in the future for any building changes, such as ventilation load.

Electrical

Some of the likely changes that may affect your electrical design include rapidly decreasing solar PV costs, the increased use of electric cars, and HVAC changes associated with electrification (above).  Consider some of the following ideas in your next design:

1.      If not currently included, go ahead and plan for rooftop solar PV.  Provide conduit from the roof to the inverter location, and ensure that there is enough room for a future inverter panel.  Work with the structural engineer to ensure that the roof’s dead-load rating can handle the weight of a system.  Provide a designated PV circuit breaker in the panel. 

2.      Provide wiring for future electric car charging point(s), such as a dedicated 240V circuit to the garage.

3.      Consider running empty conduit in walls to allow future low-voltage wiring to be easily pulled.   

Plumbing

In many areas of the country, water scarcity is becoming more of an issue.  Plan for lower-flow fixtures and associated issues.  For example, with low-flow fixtures, HW piping must often be sized smaller to avoid long delays in waiting for hot water.  Or, consider going ahead and piping a dedicated hot water return. 

Other ways to future-proof your plumbing include considerations for aging-in-place, like using a walk-in shower over a bathtub.