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!

Because I was surfing around for more government programs to help offset our eco renovation costs when I discovered…

A $100 rebate for an Enbridge natural gas heating system that ENDS Sept. 7th – and that’s only eight days from now!

Maybe you can get your ducks in a row that fast, so here is the info anyway.

Oh, lookie here… we can still get $15 off on a programmable thermostat. Oh, wait… I just walked downstairs to check our thermostat; sigh, ours is already programmable, thanks anyway. (Doug bought that a few years back when he could no longer stand the hot-cold-hot-cold behaviour of living with a female; he wanted pre-set numbers around the clock.)

Meanwhile, we ARE considering making a switch to a more energy-efficient water heater. I am going to bookmark this $300 on-bill rebate for an Energy Star Qualified natural gas tankless water heater.

Our home audit report suggests that we go with an “Energy Star qualified instantaneous (condensing) gas-fired water heater that has an energy factor of 0.90 or higher.” It does NOT mention anything about “tankless” which is necessary as stipulated by Enbridge for their $300 rebate. (arrgggh! Do I need a PhD to figure this stuff out?!)

OH NO, wait!… as I type this, I am reading the itty bitty fine print about this rebate and I have to have installed the natural gas tankless water heater BY AUGUST 31… which is tomorrow!  Given that today is a Sunday and most retailers are closed, I am not thinking we can get it that fast.

I really have to stay on top of these rebate programs; I hate watching free money go past!!