Search results matching tag 'going green'

Cansolair Solar Air Heater

180308 — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:32:00 GMT

One of our past clients emailed me a few weeks ago to let me know he had installed a Cansolair Solar Air Heater to his home last fall. He compared his oil consumption last winter to the previous winter and estimated a savings of 1100 litres of oil. That is a pretty significant savings! He provided me with some additional information on the system which you can find here: http://www.cansolair.com. He had it installed by this company: http://www.renewablelifestyles.ca.

It all looks very interesting and by the looks of things, wouldn't take long to pay for itself. This is what our client had to say about his Cansolair Solar Air Heater:

On a bright sunny or partly cloudy winter days the unit blows hot air
from about 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. On spring days it heats from about 8:30
a.m. until 4:30 p.m. or so.

One day this winter it was -20 outside and my solar air heater was
blowing +40 degrees c air into the house.

A success!

I hope you find this post interesting and helpful. Kudos to our past client for doing his part in "GOING GREEN" - and for sharing it with us!

Carol and Steve

http://www.peihouses.com

Loblaws charging for plastic bags

180308 — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:34:00 GMT

I had to run a few errands today and couldn't help but notice the amount of people using cloth bags at the Superstore. Out of all the people I saw, only one person was using plastic and he looked like an old man who was very set in his ways and just not ready to make a change. I think it's a wonderful idea to charge the nominal fee for the plastic bags as that seems to be all the motivation most people need. I think many people intended to switch over to the reusable kind, but just never "got around to it". Having that little bit added on to your grocery bill is incentive enough to finally get around to doing it.

According to research, stores that charge this nominal fee for the plastic bags use 55% less bags than those stores that don't charge. The company had another promotion they tried which was to offer a rebate to customers who brought their own plastic bags to use but this incentive led to only a small drop of 4% in plastic bag use.

I also noticed during this errand run that other people seemed to be checking out their fellow customers to see if they were using their cloth bags. I think people will start to openly frown on others who use plastic and it may become rather "uncool" to leave a grocery store with a cart full of plastic bags!

It's a small step in becoming green, but if everyone does it, it then becomes a BIGGER step and makes a difference. Props to Loblaws and other companies for putting the incentive in motion. And props to those customers who are taking the initiative and going green a little bit at a time!

Happy Earth Day!

180308 — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:29:00 GMT

I thought Earth Day would be a fitting day to start blogging about “going green”. I have recently taken a few online courses on energy efficiency and have earned a few certifications in this area. One such being Eco Broker which is American based. I spent approximately 30 hours online learning about such things as radon, asbestos, insulation, energy ratings, green roofs, landscaping for energy efficiency and so much more. I thoroughly enjoyed learning all this material but was a bit frustrated that most of the resource materials were US based. I did some more research and found a Canadian based Energy Efficient group called The National Association of Green Agents and Brokers (NAGAB). They offered a similar type of course with Canadian based resource materials. So now I am certified in both of these groups. I am by no means an “expert” and would never claim to be such. But I do have a real interest in energy efficiency in homes and am eager to continue to learn as time goes on. I want to use this blog to post some valuable information to home owners on how to make your home more energy efficient. I will post things that renters can do as well so as to cover the entire spectrum. I am taking baby steps to become greener so I will be learning and experimenting right along with you. I think if we all do even a little – we can make a difference! I look forward to others posting their ideas and experiences as well and together we can all become a little bit GREENER!