Written by Homegrown | 28 June 2009
Posted in Feeling Warm and Dry This Winter

So we’ve talked so far on how to warm yourself-up from the inside out with hearty winter meals, or if you’re outside bearing the elements. But what about staying warm when you’re inside?

There are a few things you can do to help keep things toasty, without paying to heat the outdoors in the process. Some may even help you be a little more green in the process:

1. Everyday Environmentalist^™ for Winter & Home Heating
2. EnerGuide Rebates & Assessments
3. Conserve NS
4. Other Local Environmental Agencies

a. Everyday Environmentalist^™ for Winter & Home Heating

We’ve come up with some basic methods of keeping the heat in, the cold out, the money in your wallet, and the planet happy. Here are our thoughts:

EE for Winter - Heating Your Home (Low to No Cost Options):

1. Turn heat down at night or when you leave the house.
2. If your must heat your bedroom at night, close the door to prevent heating the entire house while you sleep. Besides, rest is said to be sounder when it is cooler.
3. Purchase & install a programmable thermostat to ensure heat is automatically reduced when not required.
4. Put draft-eliminating plastic on windows in older, “draftyer” homes. Sold in hardware stores.
5. Open drapes during the day to enhance passive solar heating.
6. Close drapes at night to reduce draft and your heaters’ attempt to heat colder air from the windows.
7. Place under-door draft-savers on inside doors.
8. Install whether-stripping on doors.
9. Ensure windows are properly sealed.
10. Check insulation in roof to ensure all pieces, including those damming the eaves, are properly positioned.
    1. Tip #1: If icicles form along your eaves, it is likely indicative that heat may be being lost there and of the potential that your eaves lack insulation.

It’s quicker to achieve your return on investment (ROI) when carrying-out our energy-saving suggestions above. After all, they are low-to-no cost.

However, when the suggestions involve home renovations or improvements, it is far more difficult to achieve the ROI quickly. Therefore, it’s all the more important to look at expenditures as a long-term investment and consider the life-cycle of the product you are purchasing or the improvement you are making.

So, we’ll leave you to determine where these renovations fall in your personal budget for now, and leave you with our list of home improvement suggestions that to you, the Everyday Environmentalist^TM for Winter can achieve:

EE for Winter - Heating Your Home (Home Improvements - Higher Costs & ROI):

1. Install a wood fireplace insert (traditional wood or wood pellet) 1 Consider getting a fireplace that is EPA-Certified. “ It can reduce smoke by as much as 90% and can reduce your wood use by 25%” according to Conserve NS. It may also be beneficial to consider a certified Wood Energy Technologies (WETT) technician, to install your fireplace.
2. Switch oil-fired furnace or natural gas boiler. 2
3. Install an electricity thermal storage (ETS) heater. During off-peak hours, the ETS unit’s heating elements convert electricity to heat, which is stored in high-density ceramic bricks. The heat is distributed by fan to your home during higher cost, on-peak hours. Built-in thermostats maintain desired temperature all day.
4. Blow-in Insulation into the Roof and Walls >> Do “Blower Test” 1st!
   1. Tip #1: Check for frequent formation of icicles, suggesting heat loss, or by placing small piece of tissue in door frame. Observe motion showing draft.
   2. Tip #2: If you can afford to insulate only one, select the roof as heat rises.
5. Enhance passive solar by replacing/ adding properly sized and located windows.
6. Install active solar to provide heat for hot water tank.
7. Install active solar to provide energy to your home. See http://www.cansolair.com for handsome outdoor-mounted solar panel, made in Newfoundland with re-used beer cans!
8. Install geothermal energy units to complement your heat system. It draws from the heat of the earth’s core in the winter and the opposite in the summer.
9. Select energy-efficient products and materials when you build or renovate.
10. Select energy efficient appliances, such as EnerStar or better.

¹ Significant cost savings may be achieved by burning wood instead of oil.
² This might be switching from one problem to another. However, dependence on oil would be reduced. Check with your municipality to determine whether you can be serviced in your area.

That wraps-up our the home heating portion of our Everyday Environmentalist (EE) Winter section. We’ll leave you with a couple more easy EE suggestions to keep you toasty:

Everyday Environmentalist™ for Winter… Everyday

1. Dress for the weather. If you are, you’ll be less likely to take a vehicle.
2. Don’t warm yourself up by letting your car idle. You won’t need to if you did #1.
3. Keep a blanket in the car in case you have to wait in the car. Might keep you from turning the car on and will surely keep you warm!
4. Keep a hat and gloves with you in case it turns cold when you’ve walked somewhere. Might prevent you from taking a taxi back instead.
5. Shovel snow before it turns to ice to reduce unnecessary consumption of salt/sand that could also tax drainage systems.
6. See CRUSISIS Everyday Environmentalist™ for Home Heating ideas (above)
7. Read the rest of our green winter tips in our CRUSISIS winter guide: Winter Wonderland!
8. Join us!

b. EnerGuide Rebates & Assessments

You can qualify for up to $1,500 in provincial rebates and up to $5,000 in federal rebates.

If you’re planning to make energy efficiency upgrades to your home, participate in the Nova Scotia EnerGuide for Houses/eco-ENERGY program.

In order to be eligible to qualify for a rebate, be sure to have your home assessed by a certified EnerGuide program representative. They will do a blower door test to determine the rate at which your home looses heat-related energy. After you complete your renovations, they will return to repeat the test and submit proper documentation.

See Conserve NS (below) for more details on how the program works or visit Canada’s website at gov.ns.ca.heatsmart to understand EnerGuide, initiatives, loans and more.

c. Conserve NS (www.conservens.ca)

Conserve NS is an energy conscious Nova Scotia-based initiative. They have extremely useful and well organized on-line tools such as:

• How-to-Videos for home & energy-related topics, including EnerGuide Rebate
• Energy-Conservation Tips (www.conservens.ca/energysavingstips/quicktips)
• Energy-related Info. & Tips for your Renovation/ Construction projects (www.conservens.ca/enerinfo/faq)
• And more…

Congratulations Conserve NS for teaming with NS Power tfor exchanging 7,475 sets of incandescent holiday lights for energy-efficient light emitting diode (LED) lights sets, at 41 Christmas tree lightings throughout Nova Scotia!

d. Other Local Environmental Groups

Here area couple other local environmentally-friendly groups that focus on energy issues and solutions:

Clean NS

Clean NS is another environment focussed Nova Scotia-based group whose goal is to inspire environmental action. They are an NFP, who for the last 20 years, has evolved into an institution with a broad mandate to work with individuals, government, business, and communities to improve our environment.

Contact them at 420-3474 to find out more. (www.cleanns.ca)

Ecology Action Center

The EAC is another NFP that been around for over 37 years. They promote earth-friendly goals, education and champion these at political levels.

They have an Energy Action Committee, one of 7 under their mandate. Contact them at 429-2202 if you’d like to learn more about their energy initiatives. (www.ecologyaction.ca)

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