Vancouver Building By-law 2022 update

January 17, 2022 Yau Samuel

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The City of Vancouver has changed to the Vancouver Building By-law (VBBL) that includes updates to the energy compliance requirements for new construction of single-family and multi-family residential buildings 3-storeys and under. These changes will go into effect on January 1, 2022 and will apply to all new permits after that date.

There are three level of Update for energy compliance paths: Prescriptive path, Performance path and Passive house path., however; we only discuss the most common path – prescriptive path. (The addition of these paths is intended to provide more flexibility for building designs to meet energy compliance targets. To understand each Compliance Path and what may be the most appropriate for your project, see the 2022 VBBL link at the end.)

1. Electrification and Gas-Fired Equipment (Heating and Hot Water)

All mechanical systems used for space heating and hot water are required to be electrically operated (i.e. electric hot water heaters, boilers, and heat pumps).
Cooking equipment are still allowed to use natura gas for fuel.
Heat pump will be more popular for the main heating system for the building.

2. Gas Fireplace

Gas Fireplace is allowed for the building, but it has a limit on combined total rated input of < 60,000 BTU/hr

3. Solar Ready Pipe-Runs

Requirements to pre-install pipe chases to accommodate future solar hot water or photovoltaic systems, as per 10.2.2.18-19, have been removed for all pathways.