Who doesn’t love coupons?! Our moms used to clip them from magazines and newspapers, keep them in a folder and hit the grocery store aisles… nowadays, we flock in the millions to sign up for Groupon, LivingSocial and the like to get our digital coupons emailed to us.

My local utilities company, Horizon, knows this, so they tap into the Ontario government’s SaveONenergy program and its coupons. See here Horizon’s web page promoting the savings (a reskin of a page within SaveONEnergy’s site):

I’ve written about the power of coupons before in this blog – and will continue to bring you news of all the discounts and coupons and grants out there for Ontario homeowners to do the right (green) thing and save the green… the colour of money!

Yesterday the Ontario government announced that they have begun a review of the MicroFIT program, scheduled two years ago when the FIT program was first announced. The review will include:

• A review of FIT rates to balance the interests of rate payers while at the same time encourage clean energy investment
• A review of new technologies for possible inclusion in the program
• Assessment of government’s processes; how they can better establish Ontario as a leader in the green economy
• A review of the Renewable Energy Approval process

What Does This Mean for You?

If you already have a MicroFIT contract, a conditional offer or applied on or before August 31st, 2011 then it means nothing for you. If you applied after August 31st or are applying now then you will be “subject to new rules and pricing”.

Get your Application in NOW

The announcement is clear that all applications being recieved now will be time stamped and processed after the two-year review is complete and changes are announced on December 14th, 2011.

Of course there is no way of telling what the new rules will be – but it is almost certain that the current rate of 80.2 cents for roof mount solar PV systems will be coming down. I suspect that after December 14th the government will announce that all applications that have been recieved will be honoured at the 80.2 cent rate but that all new applications after December 14th, 2011 will have a new lower rate.

Sooooo… you need to get you application in now and hold your spot. (Thank goodness my wife and I just did, whew!)

If I’m wrong and the OPA does not honour the old rate then you still have an application in the system and you can then decide whether or not to go ahead based on the new rate. Either way NOW is the time to put your application in to get your solar project started.

As I have said before I work with Solar Logix and we have helped thousands of people submit MicroFIT applications. If you want to submit your application now click here to send me an email.

Make Your Voice Heard!

There are several ways that you can make your opinion heard and find out more:

1. The OPA is holding a webinar with more information about the MicroFIT review tomorrow (Tuesday November 2nd at 10am). To register and participate in the webinar you must register here.

I am going to attend this webinar, and I’ll be blogging about it to keep you in the loop.

2. You can also complete a survey the OPA has set up for feedback on the FIT program by going to the website of the Ontario Ministry of Energy and clicking on the link “Click here to take the survey” (it is about half way down the page).

Stay informed to get the most of this awesome solar energy program in Ontario!

We’re on our way to getting home solar panels!! We’re very excited, so we’ll share the process to date with you.

OPA MicroFIT Application

There are two applications that must both be approved before your MicroFIT program can move forward.

1. The Ontario Power Authority – If approved, the OPA application if approved will result in a conditional offer. This offer will convert to your 20 year contract with the OPA once your project is connected to the power grid.

2. A Connection Agreement from your local hydro company (in our case Horizon Utilities) – It confirms that the hydro company is ready and able to connect your system to the power grid. (Here is a sample of a conditional offer from the OPA website.)

It is possible to apply for these both yourself; however, the process is difficult to navigate if you are not familiar with all the ins and outs. Working with a solar installer that has submitted thousands of applications will speed up and simplify the process.

That’s what we did. We filled out a couple of simple forms and authorized our chosen installer, Solar Logix to handle our application on our behalf. It was quick and easy and the only things we had to find was our hydro account number and the legal description of our property (from our tax bill).

Solar Logix is now working with the OPA and our local hydro company to see this project through, they will also handle all permits and schedule all required inspections and hook ups.

Typically it takes about 6 – 8 weeks to get the above approvals. While we wait, Solar Logix will be working on our feasibility study which will give us all the details about our property, the system they recommend and the revenue we can expect from our specific solar installation. Look for more on the feasibility study soon at this blog; it is scheduled for next week!

For a long time now I have been interested in solar energy. There is no question that we (as in, all of humanity) must eliminate our dependency on fossil fuels. Emissions resulting from these fuels are killing our environment, and the limited and finite supply make the current system unsustainable from a political and financial perspective, too.

There are clean and renewable alternatives – and fortunately, the Ontario government is getting behind the green energy movement. (No matter how you voted in the recent provincial election, you’ve got to be happy that their Green Energy policies are still in place!)

Two years ago the Ontario government passed the Green Energy Act (GEA) with the purpose of eliminating green house gas emissions, establishing Ontario as a leader in the green energy sector in North America and the creation of jobs for this province. One of the key components of the GEA is solar energy production under the MicroFIT program.

FIT stands for Feed In Tariff because energy produced by these solar installations is fed into the local power grid and the owner is paid a tariff. Micro as the name implies is for small projects of 10KWh capacity of less. MicroFIT projects are ideal for residential homes, farms and churches.

What would be your reason for joining the MicroFIT solar program in Ontario? What might keep you from doing so? Leave your comments below, or you can email me at doug@ecorenovate.ca.

Green energy continues to be a force for good in our home lives; a couple of years ago my wife and I began eco renovations with the goal of saving money (taking advantage of various federal and provincial grants and credit programs) when we did much needed work on our home.

We the plunge and committed to the Canadian government’s ecoENERGY Retrofit homes program in a big way. As you can see from our previous posts in this blog, we had an eco audit and based on those recommendations we added more insulation, replaced windows and doors and upgraded to a high efficiency furnace and air conditioner.

By doing this we have accomplished what we set out to do:

1. Lower energy consumption (i.e. our September 2011 energy usage was 30% lower than 2010).

2. Increased the resale value of our home by having an EnergyStar rating of 79 (vs. 61 before we start renovated) which is very good for an older home we are told.

3. Maximized government rebates available (total rebates totaled more than $7,000).

The OPA solar program installs panels on your home's rooftop

Now we are moving on to a new eco-adventure in the form of solar power!!

Not only will we be installing solar panels on our roof but I have just started working for one of Ontario’s biggest and most experienced solar installation companies, SolarLogix.

SolarLogix designs, install and maintain roof top and ground mount solar arrays under the Ontario Power Authority’s MicroFIT program, which is:

• Establishing Ontario as the leader in green renewable energy in North America by encouraging individual property owners to install clean energy solutions that feed into the power grid and allowing them to earn 10% or more return on investment
• Is good for the environment
• Is good for the economy (creating tons of Ontario jobs, more on that in a later blog post)
• Is great for Ontario residents who choose to participate.

( Subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed (top right corner) so you don’t miss any updates.

So the direction of this blog will now change slightly. We will keep you up to date on our own solar panel installation as we go through the process, but we will also use this space to inform you about what’s happening in the green energy movement and what you can do to make a difference.

I look forward to your comments – both about solar energy for homeowners, but anything you read here about our own eco renovations!

Call me at 905-512-8500 or email Doug@ecorenovate.ca

Today we continued our journey to make our home more eco-efficient and to be more environmentally sensitive.

The people from the Great Refrigerator Roundup where here today to take away our old chest freezer – living in our backyard for a few months now, removed from its home in our laundry room when we did the insulation there (see right, prior to insulation).

It took about a month to book it but today two guys showed up, and just took the old beast away.

Not only is there no cost and no fuss for us but they even left us a couple of free compact flourescent light bulbs and a night light!

Fridges have to be between 10-27 cubic feet, in working order and and 15 years or older to qualify. Appliances like this can waste between $120 and $150 per year!

I have to admit that we hadn’t ever plugged in that chest freezer, so it wasn’t wasting any electricity, just taking up space.

However, it’s good to know that it is being disposed of properly. As they say on the Great Refrigerator Roundup site, “When we are finished recycling and reclaiming material, very little will be sent to the landfill.”

Honeywell UtilityPRO Touchscreen Programmable Demand Control Thermostat

We recently signed up for a great program that our power company (Horizon Utilities) offers called PeakSaver. The program is a win-win-win.

WE WIN because Horizon installs a brand-new, high-end thermostat (see right) in our home for free (yes we own it – I checked) with zero installation costs! In fact, for participating in the program, we even get a $25 credit on our bill, so they actually pay us!

THEY WIN (the utility company) because the new thermostat allows them to remotely control our heating/cooling system so that – during the warmest summer days when the power grid is overloaded – they can cycle our air conditioner off for short periods. We were told that we’ll hardly notice any change, and the power grid will be more stable as a result.

THE ENVIRONMENT WINS because by putting less strain on the power grid, the utility company can use less “dirty” power sources (such as coal) – which means a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and a positive effect on climate change issues.

Step 1: Removing the old thermostat

We booked an appointment with our utility company and just by accident, it turned out our install was scheduled for Earth Day, April 22, 2010! Matt showed up at the scheduled time to install our new thermostat. He works for Honeywell (the manufacturer of the thermostat) so we know it was correctly installed.

The Whole Thing Done in 40 Minutes

Step 1: Matt removed our old thermostat, which he recommended we keep close to the furnace just in case we ever need an emergency backup. The new thermostat needs power that he learned our existing wiring doesn’t have (only 4 wires, not 5). So…

Step 2: Matt had to install a small device in the furnace to use one of our four wires for power.

Step 2: Installing thermostat module in our furnace

Step 3: Applying Insulation Tape

Step 3: Matt pointed out that it is good to apply a piece of insulation tape over the hole the wires go into. Cold air can circulate in the walls, and if that cold air is coming out through the hole in the wall, your thermostat will think it is cooler than it really is and the furnace will be running when it doesn’t need to.

Step 4: Then he hooked up the wiring to the new thermostat, and attached it to the wall in our main floor hallway.

Matt then gave a quick tour of the features and functions of the thermostat and showed me how to program it. He left me with a Honeywell operating manual for our model – the Honeywell UtilityPRO Series touchscreen programmable demand control thermostat.

Step 4: Rewiring for the New Thermostat

Remote Access

Matt of Honeywell next to our new Peaksaver thermostat

And how 21st Century is this!!… Now that we have the Peaksaver thermostat set up in our home, we can turn our house thermostat on/off from anywhere via our computers, Blackberries, any computer (or we can phone our utility company to ask them to switch heat or cooling up/down, on/off for us when we are away from home.)

We now have a brand-new, high-end thermostat that didn’t cost us anything… how sweet is that!  Thanks to Matt (right) and his employer, Honeywell, and to our local power company, Horizon Utilities, for making this possible!

Have you signed up for the Peaksaver program yet? If so, what do you think of it? If not, what is holding you up?

Turns out, we’re not the only Canadians who want to get their tax credits and rebates, too for all their new renos! There is a waiting list for the best renovators out there.

Canadian TV reno guru Mike Holmes writes about the importance of waiting for the right one – in The National Post. He expects to see a drop in the “grey market” (i.e. paying someone under the table for contracting work) because now folks like us can get the HRTC money back, so there is savings to be had there. He notes, I think wisely, that it was never a good idea to pay cash, but to use a “legitimate” contractor or else…

“That leaves you with the other guy: the guy who works for cash and who’s willing to cut his rate and cut a deal. But don’t kid yourself: Things cost what they cost – and don’t think for a minute any contractor is taking those cash discounts and deals out of his bottom line… That discount is coming out of your job, somewhere.”

Well, considering that Doug and I want a good job to be done on our renos, we are going to opt for the squeaky-clean ‘white’ market and pay by cheque, including the GST (and soon to be Harmonized Sales Tax - but we are going to beat that rap!!)

We want to find the RIGHT man for our eco-reno jobs, and you know what they [women)] say… It’s hard to find a good man!

In the meantime, Doug is taking it upon himself to do reno work:

• It took him 2.5 months (just ended last week) to drywall the newly insulated basement bedroom of his teen son – as well as install the laminate floor, build a large closet and install mirror doors, etc.

• He spent today installing a low-flush ecoEnergy-rebate-worthy toilet in the basement bathroom, which – as the tiles flew up from the floor – will no doubt now lead to the full-on gutting and rebuilt of that room. (We do have the new vanity cupboard/sink, shower stall etc. sitting in the garage the last six weeks!)

Making our home eco-responsible involves more than just maximizing our government rebates.  We are also making some upgrades that we won’t get any money back for.

Our natural gas company, Union Gas, had a display at one of our local malls recently where they demonstrated some tips for making your home more eco efficient. They gave out free “Energy Savings Kits” – which included a low-flow showerhead.

We decided to replace our old worn out and barely functioning shower head in our main floor bathroom. We had given up having showers upstairs, so hopefully the new shower head will make this bathroom more useable and save some water, too.

Step 1: Make sure the water is turned off and use the vice grips to unscrew the old shower head from the neck.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 3: Now screw on the shower head over the pipe tape.  You can start this by hand until snug.

Step 4

Step 5: Turn on the water to make sure that you have a good seal.  If water comes out from around the screws, turn off the water and tighten it a little more using the kitchen towel to again so you don’t scratch the fixtures.  Once you have a good seal you are done.

Step 5

When Doug and I went to Home Depot last month for our last-minute HRTC shopping spree, we had 2 new toilets on our list. (I don’t know about you, but having to use a plunger for all major “activity” for years is kind of a turnoff).

Of course, per usual, we weren’t about to grab just any toilets: we needed to get ones that the government helps pay for!

One of the many pieces of paperwork that came with our Home Energy Audit was a bright-yellow sheet titled “Required Documentation for Grant Eligibility.” We almost forgot about it, but at the last minute, came across it and saw written there:

“TOILETS must appear on the list of ecoENERGY-eligible toilets available at www.veritec.ca. You must show the advisor:

• a receipt that lists the model numbers for both the tank and the bowl; OR
• cut the model numbers from the toilet boxes and give those to your Advisor

Many low-flush toilets do not meet the flush performance requirements. We are required to verify that new toilets are on the list of eligible toilets. If the model numbers are not made available to the advisor, there can be no grant.“

So, we surfed to veritec.ca – the website recommended in the Home Audit Report, to see which brands qualify for ecoEnergy-eligible toilets.

Government-Approved List in our Cellphone

This website is a really bad user experience. Save yourself the headache; just click on the link we provide in paragraph above – it will take you to the right web page to download the report.

My husband Doug downloaded the large spreadsheet (about 15 pages long) from this website. The list breaks down the toilets by Retail Store name.

He highlighted the toilets listed under “Home Depot” and emailed those to his cellphone. Then we took his phone to Home Depot and showed the toilet model names to the customer service dude in the orange apron, who helped us locate them. (We got the brand, Pegasus, dual-flush, shown in the photo above.)

Oh, and as a sidenote: I heard a hilarious conversation between my husband and another male toilet shopper discussing the merits of longer toilet seats; apparently, standard size isn’t quite sufficient for their umm, manliness!! Who knew!?

We have a lot of old windows in this house… 8 to be exact, and a couple of those double or triple-sized windows.

While we would like to replace them -  the ecoENERGY retrofitting rebate from the government is not very much ($80 per rough opening). And our home auditor told us that new windows don’t really bring much energy savings in terms of lower heating bills.

Since this winter is so ridiculously mild (NO SNOW and it’s almost February!) we just went around and sealed the old windows on the main floor and basement, like we have other winters. (Shown here is one of our basement windows with its 50-year-old single-pane glass.)

We bought a window-sealer kit at our local hardware store: plastic wrap (thin, like Saran-Wrap) and double-sided tape. You put tape on the window frame, attach plastic to the tape, and then use your hair dryer to shrink the plastic so there aren’t ripples in it.

All the main floor windows aren’t done yet (only the huge front bay window in the livingr00m) but we don’t have the same sense of urgency we have in past winters… Because our newly insulated main floor walls are making the rooms toastier. No more wind whistling through the plaster to make our guests shiver, with us running to jack up the thermostat! And our new EnergyStar steel front door had made the front hall warmer, too!

Maybe next year – but in time to meet our specific deadline of Feb. 2011 – we will purchase new EnergyStar qualified windows and have them installed on the main floor. But as mentioned, at only $80 each in combined fed and provincial rebates, that grand total of $640 won’t make much of a dent in the thousands they will cost.

I just grabbed this CO2 Toaster Widget from CO2now.org It shows what carbon dioxide levels are right now on our planet, as well as what the CO2 has been and what it should be for our planet to be healthy.

This toaster serves to remind me that everything that my husband and I do to save energy in our home renovations means that our utility company does not have to dip into “dirty” sources of energy (coal, oil) that make global warming worsen.

Beyond our green renovations, the CO2 Toaster reminds me and my family that with every light switch left on, we are making a direct contribution to greenhouse gases.

Widgets are awesome – a portable way to spread one’s hyperlinked brand and message across various platforms (blogs, Facebook pages, etc.). I am working on creating an EcoRenovate widget with live-streaming updates on our green renovation project.

On top of all the green renovations we are doing, and energy-saving devices and practices we’re adopting, I’m looking into zero-VOC paints for the decorating jobs we need…. primarily touching up the hallway door that got scratched to hell this week when we bought a new sofa and tried to squeeze the old one into another room. (Note: Don’t buy giant couches that don’t come apart when you have a quirker older house with dogleg shaped rooms and non-standard doorways!)

By the end of 2010, Canadian law will regulate the VOC content in paint, with an end to improving indoor air quality and respiratory health, as well as reducing damage to the ozone.

VOC = Volatile Organic Compounds – solvents that get released into the air as paint dries. Exposure to high amounts can pose health hazards.

Paint manufacturers such as Benjamin Moore features zero VOC paint in the whole range of colours. (Used to be, only pale colours could be fully zero VOC).

Here are some more stuff I’ve learned about zero VOC paint:

• You have to be careful when some paint makers claims to be VOC-free. In pure white, it is – but adding a colour (or rather, the guys at the paint store do) can add unhealthy VOCs. And the deeper the colour, the more VOCs.

• Some coloured paints that are zero-VOC are using dry pigment, which doesn’t always disperse well in the wet paint, so colour isn’t as good.

• Zero VOC paint nowdays has the same application ease, “hide” ability and durability as regular paint. It’s virtually odourless, dries fast and is washable.

Now, to find out what kind of price difference there is between regular paint and zero VOC paint. Obviously, indoor air quality and our respiratory health is important – as is not putting more chemical pollutants in the environment. But alas, sometimes the cost of new technologies can be prohibitive, making it a bit harder to “do the right thing.”

I know, this is a relatively dull subject; you could say it’s like (gasp) watching paint dry!

But this is interesting: I just learned (thanks, ecochick.ca) about a Toronto manufacturer of zero VOC paints – both the latex variety and milk (!) variety. Is this stuff organic enough?! Our dog would probably end up licking the walls if we used their all-natural milk paint, soy gel paint and hemp oil varnish!

I was doing research for a client of mine, and was blown away by all the great non-profit renewable energy associations in Canada, including:

• Canadian Renewable Energy Alliance
• Canadian Wind Energy Association
• Solar Energy Society of Canada
• Canadian Renewable Fuels Association
• Canadian Energy Research Institute
• Ocean Renewable Energy Group
• Canadian Energy Efficiency Alliance

My favourite website in a while – not just among renewable energy sites, but in general – is that of the Canadian Wind Energy Association – great look, easy navigation, great photos, videos, stories … and it’s all also available in French. (Only web 2.0 thing missing: where’s the blog?)

It appears there is a renewable energy association that everyone in Canada can get behind!

Eco renovation expert Gail Lawlor shows me how to caulk properly

Betcha read this post title and thought, why can’t I find something that fun to do on a sunny, unseasonably warm weekend?

Well, maybe you’re just not reading the flyers that come with your bills. I didn’t used to, but this month I actually ripped open a Union Gas bill and found a booklet announcing this demo event.

So yesterday Doug and I were off to an energy savings demo hosted by Union Gas and Sears in nearby Mapleview Mall.

The photo shows me getting a caulking lesson from independent consultant, Gail Lawlor, of Energy Matters, at the demo. She is contracted by Union Gas to instruct the  public on the fundamentals of home energy conservation.

Gail also trains contractors (for more than 20 years now) on green practices, including for RONA – with a current focus getting them to appreciate the largely untapped market around ecoENERGY retrofits, and of course, the Home Renovation Tax Credit (which most of them know about, she says.) Gail told me:

“In a room of 50 renovators, I ask ‘who knows about the ecoENERGY retrofit grants from the government, and about 3 people put their hands up. Then I ask, who is talking to their clients and prospects about these huge opportunities, and maybe 1 person puts their hand up!”

Free Stuff – Who Doesn’t Want That?

Union Gas was giving away FREE Energy Saving Kits ($35 in product) that contain the items shown below.

We haven’t unpacked our free kit yet – hey, it’s only been a day – but we’ll be using all these parts… or handing them off to contractors who comes tomorrow to give us a quote on some energy retrofits (including an insulator).

This Energy Savings Kit is free only to folks who are Union Gas customers.

If you’re a Union Gas customer, have you picked one up? Have you done anything with it yet?

Love note left by my husband on the kitchen table this week:

“For the insulation guy we need a separate quote for each floor of the house
Upstairs
* Insulate the attic and side walls
* Install an attic hatch
* Fix and install attic ventilation as required

Main Floor
* Can any insulation be added to the walls on this floor?
* He will probably need to drill a hole in an outside wall to evaluate this. If he does please put the hole in an inconspicuous place (i.e. in the hall closet or in side one of the kitchen cabinets

Basement: There is no insulation from the furnace area, through the laundry room and around Hayden’s room.  Depending on the labour costs we might do this ourselves but you know how good we are at doing these sorts of projects.  Therefore please ask him for a quote and what kind of insulation he recommends for this
* As part of the quote we will need to frame in the parts that are not framed now so please ask him to include this in his quote
* Also as per the EcoEnergy Audit a big loss of heat comes from the headers – please ask him about this and ensure that they will be including this in their work

Wow, that’s the longest thing my husband has written to me in years! Doug wasn’t able to get the time off work to walk through with the insulators himself – as he did with the home auditor.

And to think, without his direction, I am was just going to tell the insulators:  “It’s cold in here… knock yourself out.”

Well, after 3 hours with 3 contractors, I’ve learned…

• You only “blow” insulation in when you’re doing an attic; otherwise you’re “spraying” or ‘battening”
• You cannot insulate a double-brick home without reconstruction of the walls, as there isn’t enough space between outside and inside worlds
• We have knee walls that, strangely, rise up past my shoulder
• We have enough room behind those knee walls to house a full children’s nursery or store large pieces of furniture, bikes, etc.

Stay tuned for a breakdown of the 3 contractors’ quotes as to insulating the 3 levels of our old, drafty house.

“No, we don’t do framing, nor batten-type insulation. No, we don’t knock through your knee walls, but we will create an attic hatch for you….”

That is just a sample of the different, sometimes conflicting information I’ve gleaned after visits from 3 insulation contractors in a 24-hour period. I took notes, and was guided by my husband’s (written) directions.

One insulator, from EnerLiv, went to his car for 20 minutes after his review of our insulation needs on all 3 levels of our home, and came back with an itemized quote on the spot. The other 2 contractors said they will phone in their quotes.

Our home energy audit report is already getting dog-eared after the number of times we flip through it to get “government-sanctioned” advice. And we are just starting to dip into the 130-page Keeping the Heat In book we got for free from our auditor, that’s published by Natural Resources Canada.

(Interesting, an energy consultant we meet last week at a Burlington mall giving demos to the public said she was shocked to discover how many local residents did NOT receive this apparently valuable book from their auditor… So we were lucky. If you weren’t so lucky, you can order the Keeping the Heat In book at 1-800-387-2000.)

Meanwhile, I just read a blog post warning of Typar vapour barrier woes when used for inside basement walls (an area we need to get insulated).  Yikes! We’re really going to need to be consumer-researchers extraordinaire!

Stay tuned for more on the insulators’ quotes.

My husband Doug wants us to sign up for the peaksaver program so we can become – as our local utilities company, Horizon, says – “neighbourhood power stars.”

So he calls them up and places an order to join the program which, in effect, does this:

FREE Programmable Thermostat Worth $350

Someone installs a $350 programmable thermostat – for FREE – at our home which lets Horizon Utilities and the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) send a wireless signal that alters our central air conditioner’s compressor cycle to 15 minutes on, then 15 minutes off for 4 hours (with no disruption to our comfort, we are assured).

If we want, we can also allow them to add a switch to our electric hot water tank so that, at times, the utility company and OPA can turn off power to the electric water heater for up to 3 hours.

Not Natural Gas? You’re Facing a Wait List

The peaksaver rep calls me to set it up, but when he finds out it’s forced air oil heating, he says there is a waiting list since not many of their technicians are trained in that type.

Turns out, we actually have natural gas heating (you’d think I’d know, eh? I knew that the gas fireplace and BBQ uses it, but not the dryer, so got confused) – so the peaksaver folks could have come out and hooked us up right away!

And – as usual in our race to get eco-friendly while cashing in all we can – there is a time limit to this, if we want monies back. In the next 2 weeks, to get the full $50 rebate, we need to:

• Have the programmable thermostat installed in our home by Nov. 30, 2009
• Give proof that we’ve had our furnace cleaned sometime in 2009

I dunno if we have to cash in on every single rebate! I mean, we automatically get a $25 rebate just for signing up for peaksaver. Do I need to rush another service appointment – admidst the contractors starting to arrive at our doorstep – to get our furnace cleaned, for a measly $25? (Don’t ask my husband; I know the answer

Too “Big Brother” for You?

Meanwhile, one of my friends and fellow resident of Dundas, Ontario, is adamantly against the whole notion behind the program: letting the government turn on and off your power when they see fit. Too controlling for her, she says.

I dunno. What is the big deal if, as they say in their policy…

“A peaksaver activation event could take place up to 10 times between May and Sept. between 12 p.m. and 10 p.m. but never on weekends or holidays…”

What do you think? Would it creep you out to have someone else cranking down your A/C and/or water heater during the hot months?

BEFORE: Our old front door, right

AFTER: Our new EnergyStar front door, far right

About a week ago we had our old, drafty wooden front door replaced with a new EnergyStar-certified (to climate zone B) steel and lead-glass front door.

Here’s what the new door actually cost us:

Door (prehung): $480
Cost of contractor to hang door: $500
Handle & lock set: $120
Total costs: $1,100

Minus:
HRTC credit (13%): $143
ecoEnergy rebates:
provincial: $40
federal: $40
Total deductions: $223

What our new door – all in – actually cost us: $877

According to our home energy audit report, we are supposed to keep the door sticker to show the auditor at the end of all eco renovations in order to claim it for the rebate money. We tried to follow that advice, but the only way to get the damn sticker off the glass of the new door was to scrub it thoroughly with warm water, which naturally dissolved it to illegible shreds.

French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre famously wrote, “Hell is other people” (L’enfer c’est  les autres) which is, in my opinion a bit harsh. Or so I thought until I entered the wild-west world of contractor quotes!

The hellish task: Trying to get a uniform answer as to A) the best way to insulate the three levels of our home, and B) a cost quote. Here’s but a sampling of the confusion:

One insulator has quoted us the following for our attic insulation work:

Insulate attic, including installation of access hatch: $2,000 – $4,500 depending on situation*

A second insulator has quoted us the following amount, for the same job:

Attic insulation R-50 includes the hatch and sloped ceilings: $1,571.78

(*something tells me that our “situation” with a drafty ’50s home that wasn’t built to code will not be at the low end of this quote!)

A third insulator tells me his company only spray or blows in polyurethane – then advices me to use batt insulation (e.g. pink fiberglass) instead in the basement!

Two contractors question why we think we need insulation level of R-24 in the basement, since it is way above code (R-10) But R-24 is what it says in our home energy audit (and that is what the federal government has received)  so…

Photo ID of your Insulation Needs is NOT Acceptable

I phone our home energy auditor, Cliff, who confirms that it does have to be R-24; he adds that “code” in Ontario is really outdated. Then, since I have him on the phone, I confirm with him that we will be taking photos of what the “mystery” insulation is like when our attic hatch is created by the insulators.

Nuh-uh. Cliff says, oh about that… the government will not give us any rebate money if the auditor does not physically see for himself what the state of attic insulation is first, before any work is done! Great to know now!

Wooing the Home Energy Auditor

And because my husband Doug didn’t smash through the ceiling to show Cliff this when the home audit happened - back in August, I wasn’t home – now we won’t cash in on a job that will cost us upwards of $2,000.

I cannot accept this, so I convince Cliff to drop by next week to poke his head up there; he says there is a chance he can do it but can’t guarantee what time given his crazy schedule. (Apparently the public is waking up to the $ opps of home energy audits.)

Being impatient and curious by nature, I decide to check out the attic myself right away. As luck would have it, another contractor – the sixth!! – was about to arrive at my home to quote, so I did some smashing with him watching (I don’t think he wanted to get involved, beyond holding my wheeled chair while I climbed up.)

Smash Through and All Shall be Revealed

It was as simple as moving a ceiling panel, by hand, and smashing through this spongy board – not wood – again by hand. And, lo and behold – there was insulation! (See my hatch hack job, right.)

The insulator dude stuck in a long stick and estimated that we have at least 6 inches of fibreglass in there. We cannot tell how far it goes across the home, and hence the need for me to smash a bigger attic hole today.

Crawlspace access in upstairs bedroom knee wall

Oh, and while he was here, I decided to pry open the mini-door in the the knee wall in the smaller upstairs bedroom… an opening that every contractor/insulator has seen. (See photo, right) It took me 2 minutes to open, using a ordinary dinner knife, and voila! There was fibreglass insulation, properly sealed on the outside with vapour barrier and everything!

So now, after I create a bigger attic opening with a crowbar today, I’m going to break through the knee wall in the other upstairs bedroom to see what’s there. It doesn’t have a pre-existing framework/door way in that knee wall, so likely that room hasn’t been insulated…

But hey, who knows… If my experience has shown me anything this week, it’s that you don’t know what previous owners have done to your home unless you call them up, or break through your walls and ceilings.

By Doug

At our local mall recently, Sears had a special display focusing on eco renovations. They had representatives there from Union Gas handing out Free Energy Saving Kits, as well as independent energy consultant Gayle Lawlor (shown, right, holding a foam insulation on a pipe) demonstrating tips for making your home more eco-efficient.

For Sears’ part, they where promoting their furnaces (and their own home energy audit services). I talked to the Gary Long, a Sears Canada sales rep, and he had some interesting perspectives – but not what I expected.

His main focus was on selling furnaces.  He was quick to point out that with the Home Renovation Tax Credit and the ecoENERGY Retrofit grants that there is no better time to make this investment in your home.  The Sears top of the line furnace is 97% efficient and would normally cost about $3,500 installed.

With the various rebates available from the federal and provincial governments, this furnace could cost us only about $2,000 (even less if you are replacing an older furnace than ours).

Our old furnace and water heater

Our natural gas furnace is about 15 years old, we think, and we rent a water heater (the 50-gallon tank variety), see both right.

What surprised me were the upgrades that Gary did NOT recommend to me – even though it would have meant more sales for Sears!

Pros/Cons of the Heat Pump

For example, he did not recommend a heat pump to use heat from the air to heat our house during the fall and spring. His reasoning was that if you have already upgraded to a 97% efficient furnace that there is little if any savings with a heat pump.

In addition, since the heat pump uses more electricity than the furnace and electricity is more expensive than gas this mitigates some of the savings. For the few months of the year that we would actually be using the heat pump, we wouldn’t likely see any savings.

Tankless Water Heater: Worth the Extra Money?

Gary also did not recommend a tankless water heater.  I was shocked to find out that this type of water heater costs in the range of $2,000 to $3,500! That seems like a lot of money, to me, for what it does.  They even cost about $35 a month to rent – compared to about $18 a month for the old tank model we have now.

A tankless water heater heats your water as it comes into the house and only when you turn on the hot water. Because it is not constantly heating and re-heating water in your tank it is a more efficient system.

Gary of Sears’ point was that, even though it is more efficient, probably a tankless water heater is not going to save you the difference of $17 per month that it would cost.

This Sears salesman was very helpful, and I like that he was not just trying to make a sale but was recommending what he would do for his home. However, Gary was only interested in the economics of the issue and our home renovation is based on two goals 1) to save us money now and for the future and 2) to make our home as efficient as possible to minimize our impact on the environment. It’s this second issue that Gary wasn’t concerned with.

What is your heating system like right now? Have you considered a heat pump and/or a tankless water heater? Leave your comments here!

OH HAPPY DAY!! Insulation is coming our way… just in time for Christmas!

Yes, it’s true… we have actually BOOKED a job for the eco-renovations; let the games begin!

On Dec. 17th a crew from Jerry’s Insulating Co. comes over to:

• Inject Icynene Pour Foam (only used for plaster walls) into all four exterior walls of our main floor – from the inside, by drilling small holes in the walls

• Spraying polyurethane foam onto the exterior walls for the half of our basement that is unfinished [we have to first to build a 2 x 6 wood frame over the cinder block walls]

Total Quote: $5,240 (plus GST)

And … drum roll please…  We will get about $4,000 of this cost back from the fed & provincial governments combined. This federal grant table, below, shows the value we get for each area, and then double that to get what Ontario will pay, too.

Our entire home will be warm and toasty, at last – guests who come for Christmas this year won’t have to bring their slippers and extra sweaters as they always have. And we will save mucho in energy bills this winter …. All for the discounted price of $2,000 of our own money. Ca-chink.

Update on Earlier Post about Attic Insulation

Turns out we do NOT need any insulation done at all in the attic or the knee walls of our 1.5-storey floor!

We ripped up three areas up there, our home energy auditor swung by our place today to pop his head into the new holes to check, and: Clean Bill of Health on the upstairs floor. Yesss! Score one for the previous owners.

I got yet another promotional piece in the mail from my bank  (RBC Royal Bank has to be responsible for a lot of trees dying each year)…. This brochure was touting the virtues of an “ecohome.” That got my attention just before it headed to my blue box.

RBC has invested in the complete green renovation of a wartime bungalow in Windsor, Ontario – a home only about a decade older than my own drafty house.

The "Now House" project in Windsor, Ontario

Last month was the formal unveiling of  what they’re calling the Now House (not sure why that name) which is part of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Equilibrium™ sustainable housing initiative.

What? Another Rebate?… that We Didn’t Know About?!

RBC offers a $300 rebate towards your home energy audit when you finance with them. (It was mentioned in a video on the RBC site.) We didn’t know that, we are long time RBC customers and they currently hold our mortgage.

Or maybe they mean only new customers, who just getting a mortgage with RBC now? (Hmm I’ll check that out with my branch manager.)

“I’ve never seen anything like this”, says Jay Sigurdson, above, one of the The “A” Team – aka the Spray Team – who is squatting in my living room with his insulation spray gun. (Oh, I’ve heard that before about this drafty old house built like Frankenstein from spare parts over the decades.)

The worker from Jerry’s Insulating is referring to the space under our front bay window (shown above) – about 10 feet long and a couple of feet deep – that he’s discovered is completely empty and is taking in tons of the “pour foam. “Just wait until you feel how much warmer you’ll be in here,” he adds. (Music to my ears.)

I hear the hiss of their spray guns as they pour the Icynene foam (only used for plaster walls) into the toonie-sized holes they drilled in the exterior walls of he living room (2 walls); kitchen (1 wall, including drilling through back of cabinets); bathroom (1 wall); kids’ bedrooms (2 walls each).

Speedy Gonzalas with Guns

“This job would have taken us at least a couple of days when the company started” almost a decade ago, says John Allan, the second insulator. Instead, today it’s taken only 3 hours total – and that’s for the main floor AND basement insulation work!

Some more photos here:

The truck that took up our whole driveway…

… And inside the truck – a nest of hoses and pumps and more insulation wizardy:

Next blog post: What Went Down… Downstairs. Insulating another level of our home, using different insulation material and a different method.

Lying on my stomach on the floor to get this photo was probably not the best thing for my respiratory health (considering what the worker had to wear!)… but hey, it is a great shot, no?

The dude is spraying polyurethane spray foam in between the 2 x 6 wood framing we had built over the exterior walls of half our basement. (The other half was insulated by the previous owners of our home.)

This room – where our eldest son sleeps, or will once we finish drywalling and painting and putting in new carpet – is soooo much warmer now, it is quite something!

Like probably every home owner in the country, Doug and I just endured long lines and depleted stock at our local home hardware store in the race to meet the deadline for the Home Renovation Tax Credit (HRTC)… which is now less than a week away.

Here is what our garage looks like now – stacked with renovation products; we shall see how many months they stay in the garage! A single hour in the store yielded:

• About 200 square feet of laminate flooring
• Two low-flush, ecoEnergy-authorized toilets
• Glass sliding doors for a new closet
• Steel door for cold cellar in newly insulated laundry room
• Neo-angle shower stall
• Vanity and sink for bathroom

As you can imagine, Home Depot on a Saturday was a zoo. Couples picking through messy aisles of product, occasionally sharing tips with other frantic buyers. I saw no reason not to tell that friendly pair that the toilets they are eyeing qualify for the ecoEnergy retrofit grant money – in case they didn’t know. (They didn’t.) Of course, that kind of helpful sharing stopped when there was only 1 item left that we wanted!

We bought a lot of stuff – more than $2,000 in fact, which is what we needed to spend to reach the maximum amount of HRTC tax credit when we file for 2009.

That maximum is $10,000 and it yields 13.5% tax credit, so we’ll get $1,350 back from the government, thank you very much!

Coming Up…

In the next blog post, I’ll focus on the items we bought that will get us the good ole “Double Dip” (actually triple if you think about it)

1. HRTC tax credit
2. Rebate from the federal government (ecoEnergy retrofit grants)
3. Matching amount from Ontario government (ditto)