Originally intended to document my experience of DeLorean ownership, focus is often radical and strange, boring and obtuse.

Friday, February 05, 2010

FAIL

Time for a shopping spree on the government's tab, which is my own taxes. Whatever.

I have failed.

And yet, I'm somehow okay with that. Why? Because while trying to be green, I got me a lot of green! Our Home Energy Audit was completed not too long ago. Last week the government finally got around to mailing out the last cheque.

And today I finally got around to updating my blog.

Thanks to Energuy Canada Ltd., who completed my audit, I successfully qualified for an ecoEnergy Retrofit Grant. "Successful." Now there's a word I'm not often associated with.

The original energy audit stated our house, built in 1939, rates 35 out of 100, sitting nicely below the 1939 average of 44. We were a troll under a bridge, staring up at the 44 enviously. In other words, on the mushroom scale, we were a lug nut. Whatever that means.

First came the notice from Energuy Canada. (Check out their website. I went to college with one of the owners, and designed the triple logo.) Their letter included an awesome EnerGuide/Natural Resources of Canada sticker to affix to our electrical panel. And I'd like to point out that stickers are the best thing ever. I still have my sticker album from when I was 8. It's full of puffies, fuzzies, and scratch 'n sniffs, which I may or may not have spent too much time sniffing. Which is why I often run off on tangents. Like this one.

Moving on...

Had we successfully implemented all of the recommendations, we could have reduced our energy consumption by 24% and increased our home's energy efficiency rating to 51. Our new EnerGuide number is significantly higher than our old, at 47. But it's still four percentage points shy of our goal, and 28 below Ontario's new-home average of 75.

Where we failed was a broken window. The first auditor (from a different company) failed to notice that it was leaking worse than a paper roof, and even told us that it did not require replacement.

But that point is moot, as the next thing to arrive was a juicy cheque from the Federal Government for $1,890 followed by a matching cheque from the Provincial Government for a grand total of $3,780. Which will all be spent on scratch 'n sniffs.

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Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter, Mother Earth

Dastardly gremlins can sneak into any house easily. Block all outlets with 'Gremlin-B-Gone'TM insulator plates.

To everyone who celebrates it, Happy Easter. To those who don't, eat it.

One of the recommendations made in our ecoENERGY home energy audit was to increase the air tightness of our house by 23% to achieve an air change rate of 9.5 at a pressure of 50 Pa. If I succeed, power beyond my wildest dreams will be mine, as well as $300 from the government.

I started this process a while back but never got around to finishing. Partially because I'm lazy, and partially because I'm a man. Okay, so those kinda mean the same thing. Anyway, I popped off the remainder of the dining room trim and caulked the giant gap behind it.

Our auditor, a jolly chap who drove a Z28, also mentioned fitting insulation gaskets behind our outlet plates. They were cheap (about $4 for 10), so I decided all the exterior wall outlets would benefit from them. Anything helps, and I'm hoping to pass the next evaluation well enough to receive my government grants in full.

After a chocolatey Sunday brunch consisting of delicious, nutritious eggs (of the Cadbury variety), Suz and myself (full of vitamins and Tramacet) headed a few streets to the left to wander the conservation trails.

This fat dog didn't have a chance. Good thing his owners feed him. Maybe a little to much.It has been years since I've walked a trail. But the weather was nice, and I was really wanting to go. With the sun blasting, we made our way down the trail to the mucky mess of leaves and logs at the bottom.

Flowers were poking through the mud everywhere and squirrels, full of nuts and lust, chased each other along barren branches.

Back at the top of the trail, a chubby dog ran in front of us. We didn't know why at first. But then Suz saw the deer. Three of them at first, then a fourth. As the dog edged closer, the deer turned and high-tailed it back into the ravine.

It was a very good weekend full of chocolate, energy savings and mother nature.

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Sunday, November 23, 2008

Crack Bad. Caulk Good.

Removing quarter-round to fill gaps is easy and boring.

Despite what you may have heard, I am a good boy. Being environmentally conscientious, I had an energy audit done on my 1939 home last year.

Our home, at the time, rated 35 out of 100. The standard for new homes in Ontario is 75. Our objective is to raise our efficiency to 51. This increases the resale value of our home, and saves us money on utilities.

The audit indicated our attic insulation was worse than a hobo's cardboard box, averaging around R-10. Secondly, some of our original windows were performing poorly, allowing air to escape easily. Thirdly, we had no insulation in our basement which essentially made our basement walls act like a heatsink. Finally, we had airtight issues due to gaps beneath our baseboards plus a massive, Oprah-sized 1" gap under our back door, straight to the outside.

Seriously. That's like leaving a window open all winter, for almost 70 years.

The audit had a deadline of 18 months, and with old man winter already clenching his cheeks and squeezing white shit all over us, it was time I got back to work.

While Suz girled it up by baking a cake, I did guy stuff in our living room. To keep from damaging our 6-inch baseboards, I wrapped a towel around my pry bar and popped off the quarter-round trim. Caulk fills cracks nicely. Hidden behind was a large gap. The swell auditor suggested I fill this gap with silicone to stop cold air from creeping in.

Using the palm of my hand I felt a few spots where cold air was coming in. Cold air coming into your house needs to be heated, and therefore causes your furnace to come on more often. To stop this, the gaps needed to be caulked.

I used Mono Ultra interior caulking. It's made in Canada. The type I used comes out white then dries clear, but takes 7 to 14 days to dry properly. It didn't matter to me though, because I knew the quarter-round trim would cover it all up afterwards.

It took me 60 minutes to take off the trim and fill the cracks along the two exterior walls of our living room.

As for the door gap, we had our back door replaced with a steel French door that has a modern-type airtight seal. This was probably our biggest problem and hopefully will make a big difference when we have our house re-tested.

Energy Audits are a wise decision. Even in new homes, they can indicate where something wasn't done properly and show you where you can save money. I would recommend it to anyone. If you're in the Toronto or southern Ontario area, I would strongly recommend the friendly, expert folks at Energuy.

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Friday, February 15, 2008

Replacement Windows

Windows look 69 years younger with L'Oreal's age-defying creme.

Every year millions of people eat at Jack in the Box. And every year millions of people replace their windows. Yet I've never known anyone who has had to do either of these things.

Because of this anomoly, I didn't know what was a good price, didn't know which companies were reliable, didn't know how much damage to expect to our trim, and didn't know how quickly the job could be done.

The one thing I did know, was that our looky-outy things needed to be replaced. Why? They were 69 years old. When things reach that age, stuff happens. Bad stuff. Our wooden windows were totally rotting, some panes of glass were totally cracked, the locks were totally broken, and they were covered in liver spots.

However the worst part was the cold air leaking in, and warm air escaping, causing those particular windows to fog up (seen on left). The problem areas were noted during our home energy audit in September.

If you'd like an audit, check out www.energuy.ca It's not the company I used, but it should've been. Cam, one of the most decent guys I know, will hook you up with the goverment, and get you some sweetass rebates.

On Wednesday, our installers came and ushered our sunroom and our master bedroom into the modern era with double-pane goodness. In all we had 14 windows replaced (just under half our total of 34 windows) along with two exterior doors. By comparison, our last house only had 12 windows in total.

Our sunroom was once the eyesore of our house, with flaking paint and rotting wood. But now, with the perfect white capping, it's going to be my favourite place to chill this coming summer.

Once the work was complete, I immediately noticed how much warmer our master bedroom has become. The windows are warm to the touch and look fantastic, as we ordered the non-broken glass variety. The low-E argon gas is, sadly, invisible, but I've been assured it's doing its job.

For those interested, I'll let you know if we see any visible savings on our heating bills in the upcoming months.

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Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Losing

Caution: Tube empties from toilet directly into street.I keep losing things. My most recent rash of losses began when we bought this house. I was losing heat throught my ceiling and attic because my insulation was, in some places R-0, in others R-10, and in a lucky few places, R-25.

This caused a loss of money, as I continually paid more and more on my Natural Gas bill each month. To put this into perspective: my old house was 850 sq. ft. and my entire annual gas bill, including gas dryer and water heater, came to about $720.

In our new house of about 1700 sq. ft. (built in 1939) I am paying almost that much for January and February, and we use an electric dryer now.

We decided to have a Home Energy Audit done on our house because the goverment gives grants to cover the cost of lots of improvements. The audit costs about $300, but identifies the weak areas of your home, indicates what you should do to fix them, and informs the goverment of everything. Once you've completed your work, the auditor comes back for a second visit, tests your house again, and reports the improved numbers back to the goverment, who then cuts you a fat cheque for a million dollars.

When the auditor came in late September, I took pictures of his fan system that evacuated the air from our house. This is how air leaks are found. Here's where the losing theme comes into play again - I lost the pictures I took (along with the pictures I took of me making my Doc Brown costume. Yes, even more losing).

Our audit indicated, among other things, that we currently have a low level of insulation in our attic, and that if we improved the Resistance value to R-40, we'd receive $400 from the Provincial Gov't and $400 from the Federal Gov't. Sweet!

The Report:
Your house currently rates 35 (out of 100). If you implement all of the recommendations, you could reduce your energy consumption by up to 24% and increase its energy efficiency rating to 51. The average efficiency rating for a 1939 house in Canada is 44.


The standard energy efficiency of new homes built in Ontario is 75. To qualify for an "Energy Star" rating, your house must be 80-100.

We got estimates for doing the work, and things got even sweeter. We could insulate our 900 sq. ft. attic with blown fibreglass for $810. But, if we wanted to save even more money, they suggested doing R-50 for an additional $80. I said yes. Who wouldn't? Maybe someone who didn't have $80. But not me!

The crew came within a few days and filled our attic with practically 3 feet of fluffy, scratchy insulation, pumped through a large plastic tube. It was all over the floors and stuck to our clothes.

Upon completion, our house was so warm that everything began melting. We've had the a/c on 3 days this week, and there's no end to the heat wave in sight. But seriously, I have to say I'm quite pleased and hope that my losing streak is now over.

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