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

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?