Go Green With Your Home this Summer and Save
Sure, we all want to do our part to help the environment, but what’s wrong with saving money at the same time! Unless you have a remote cottage without utilities, it’s always a good idea to consider how quickly an energy retrofit will pay for itself - in addition to the good that it can do. Here are a few ideas, from easy and inexpensive to trickier and more expensive.
- High Efficiency Lighting - OK, you’ve seen the Conservation Bureau coupons for spiral CFLs and LED Christmas lights (current promotion available at www.everykilowattcounts.ca/), probably even bought some, but there are high efficiency bulbs now available for nearly every indoor and outdoor light in your house - from chandelier, pot, and spot lights, to waterproof flood lights (check out the fluorescent lighting at www.litetronics.com/catalog.cfm). If put in a high demand area, these lights will pay for themselves in three to eight months and will last three times longer than conventional bulbs.
- Home Sealing and Insulating - Arm yourself with a caulking gun and you can work some magic around the home. The same cracks, openings and un-insulated areas that help make your home drafty and cold in the winter, let hot air in during the summer - making your air conditioner(s) work harder. Cracks can easily be filled, however, baseboards and windows sealed, weather-stripping added to doors, attics and foundations better insulated, and water heater blankets applied. Most of these changes pay for themselves in less than a year to two years.
- Air Conditioners - No, you don’t have to buy a new air conditioner to save money, although you could do that with rebates from Conservation Bureau and ecoEnergy programs (www.coolsavingsrebate.ca/ , http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/residential/personal/). You can also get rebates for A/C tune ups, programmable thermostats, and ceiling fans - all of which have good paybacks. There are also economizers available for central air-conditioners that guarantee a minimum of 10% in electricity savings, even on high efficiency models (www.intellidyne.ca). These are easy to install and pay for themselves in three to four years.
- Solar Pool and Domestic Water Heaters – Enjoy your pool free of worries about high heating costs. Solar pool heaters are easy to install and pay for themselves in two to three seasons - that’s a return of close to 40% on your investment! Better than most mutual funds, and you’re saving 15-20 tons of GHG emissions annually (www.enersol.com/). Domestic solar water heaters take longer to pay for themselves, with a return of 10-14%, but they offer greater energy independence, and are very durable. There are also $500 grants available through the ecoEnergy program to help you buy one if interested.
Hope these ideas help, and have a great summer! Please fell free to contact me with questions at 416-559-8774 or pburke@villageenergy.ca.
Patrick Burke has researched and written on sustainability issues, and is President of Village Energy – a local energy saving and energy generation system integrator.
