A New Market
When home owners are looking to renovate, more and more are turning to ways to make their home more environmentally friendly (Often with the reasoning: "If I'm already spending a ridiculous amount of money, I might as well make it count!") These improvements can range from solar panels to low-flush toilets, and there are a lot of new companies which cater to these home owners.
One company, which we use in our home, is called Baxi. They have a line of renewable energy products, from a solar heated water system to biomass boilers to heat your entire home. Baxi is a European company, and the U.K. governmnet offers grant for installing such ecofriendly systems.
Incentive
The Canadian government used to offer something similar, but this ended in March of this year. So what initiatives are there now to encourage homeowners to make more earth conscious decisions?
Though not a government project, there is the Enbridge Home Weatherization Retrofit Project which provides FREE installation to low-income families of insulation and draft-proofing to help reduce energy usage (and therefore, energy bills).
There are other such small-scale energy conservation initiatives, listed on this website,which allows you to search for your eligibility to access as many programs as possible.
If you're going to tear up your home, why not rebuild it better inside and out rather than purely for aesthetics? Eco-friendly is all the rage these days.
Very Interisting article marley. I think renovations like these are vital to lowering our energy consumption and can have long term benefits to the energy bills plus all these addictions definetly make homes look better. Are there any figures available that show how much each device actuallly saves us in the long run?
ReplyDeleteI have yet to find any such studies, however in the Baxi pamphlet
ReplyDelete(http://www.wallhungboilers.com/pdf/salesgen_broch_BaxiLunaHTbrochure.pdf)
it claims to cut energy costs in half- which is quite the drop.
This is a quote from the pamphlet about the Baxi Luna's on it's environmental benefits:
" Household expects to cut fuel consumption
in half, saving 1,500 cubic meters (530 therms) of natural gas
annually. That equates to a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of
about 2.6 tonnes of CO2 a year – the same amount of CO2 not produced
by parking a car for six months, or the amount of CO2 removed
by planting trees on one acre of land."
Also, simply by weatherproofing your home(such as insulation or cocking door and window frames), Enbridge statistics claim you could lower your energy use by up to 30%.
These numbers were both found in the promotional material for both companies, so it would be interesting to find some third party or more neutral statistics.
My mom and step-dad are actually renovating a house right now! Great information Marley, I'll be sure to pass it on!
ReplyDelete- Sav
With a growing deficit that seems impossible to pay off, and thousands of poor people who can barely afford food... in Canada, is so called "green" roofs the best thing to be spending billions on?
ReplyDeleteThere isn't even suitable evidence to support claims these will pay off in the next 30 years, economically or environmentally.
Finally, a post that creates controversy. Do you think green renovation is just marketing. Does it not just encourage greater consumption of materials?
ReplyDeleteBeth