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

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!?