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8 Energy saving renovations for your home

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(Oct 30, 2007) Save money, energy and the environment with tips from CMHC, Canada’s national housing agency.

Improving the energy efficiency of your home can do more than reduce energy consumption and help protect the environment. It can also help you reduce drafts and noise, fix moisture and condensation problems, improve your indoor air quality and comfort level - and help save your family money year round.

Regardless of where you live or the type of house your family calls home, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has a number of energy-saving tips you can use to help you save money, save the environment - and reduce your energy use by as much as 47 percent:

1. Draftproof everywhere, including foundation walls, attic hatches and doors, around window and door frames, at ceiling penetrations, around light fixtures and wiring, and around service penetrations through exterior walls. Plus, seal the joint between the window frame and wall, and keep weather stripping and storm windows in good repair.

2. Consider upgrading to more energy-efficient windows to prevent heat loss, greatly improve comfort levels and reduce maintenance needs.

3. Consider upgrading your furnace or boiler to a new high-efficiency unit.

4. Cover hot water pipes within three meters (nine feet) of the hot water tank with pipe insulation, and if possible, insulate all accessible hot water pipes.

5. Install a programmable thermostat to lower the temperature at night and during the day when your home is unoccupied.

6. Replace and recycle older refrigerators, freezers, electric ranges and dishwashers with newer Energy Star rated models, and switch to energy-saving fluorescent, compact fluorescent and task lighting where possible.

7. If you own a fireplace or woodstove, replace any leaky dampers and repair chimney flues. Also consider switching to more energy-efficient options such as an electric fireplace insert, EPA-rated insert unit or direct-vent natural gas fireplace insert.

8. Save energy and water by installing low-flush or dual-flush toilets, low flow faucets and shower heads, and front-loading clothes washers that reduce water heating loads, water consumption and clothes dryer operation.

CMHC also offers a new series of fact sheets, Renovating for Energy Efficiency which describe ways of saving energy in houses of all types and ages, including pre-World War II houses, post-War 1 1/2-storey homes, post-60s two-storey homes, 1960s or 70s one-storey homes, split-level and split entry homes, mobile homes, duplexes and triplexes, row houses, homes with walkout basements and common additions.

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11 Comments

posted Nov 15, 2007 - 2:54 pm by Ashley

I can agree with step 6 changing your light bulbs to save energy. I have been changing out the incandescent light bulbs in my house for CFLs and they are great. They last a lot longer and save energy at the same time. To find out how much you can save using them this might be helpful:
http://www.nvisioncfl.com/savings-calculator.aspx

posted Nov 21, 2007 - 8:47 pm by Dan Powell

I'm surprised the number 1 tip is before doing anything to have an 'energy audit' as part of the ecoENERGY Retrofit grant. No one told us about this prior to us adding insulation to our attic, replacing the air conditioner, toiliets and other renovations we undertook in our newly purchased home, causing us to loose around $1,000 or more. Luckily, we had the energy audit done prior to the purchase of Energy Star windows. We were quite upset that this was not told to us by our chosen suppliers, some of whom we all know.

posted Dec 15, 2007 - 12:35 am by Bob

The calculator referenced by Ashley is only valid for outdoor lights or when the building is not being heated or cooled. If you have electric heat going you save exactly nothing by changing to CFL's. If AC you save twice as much. But try this. If you have a house with one themostat, you can heat one room by using several light emitting heaters LET's (old fashioned light bulbs) and save heating the rest of the house. So its not as simple as the tree hugging wackos pretend

posted Jan 19, 2008 - 10:12 pm by Jason

Bob, you are assuming that an electric furnace is no more efficient than using light bulbs to heat? CFL's are more cost efficient because they require less wattage to create the same amount of lumens as their inefficient counter parts. Use your furnace to heat, not light bulbs. Furnaces are designed to heat and do it much more efficiently.

posted Jan 23, 2008 - 5:53 pm by Sami

#7, replacing a Wood Burning Stove with a Gas one?

The Carbon Released by Wood burning is farily recently removed from the atmospher, when compared to Gas, not to mention the Energy and Carbon going into Natural Gas Retrieval and production. Wood is a rewnewable resource, and if you source from a local Arborist for example, is wood that was going to be removed anyway. The important thing is to make sure you have an energy efficient Fireplace, not just to look pretty, but an effective way to heat your home in the winter, and gives you control over regulating temperature, Fire goes out when no one is home, and the Furnace can be set low enough to keep pipes from freezing.

posted Feb 21, 2008 - 5:15 pm by John Marian

I've got the windows, the bulbs, the toilets, but I'm anticipating that the single most useful technology I employ to cut my energy use may turn out to be the whole-house demand-hot-water unit I installed in the fall.

Mine replaced a 40-gallon hot-water tank. Despite steady cold temperatures that may have reduced the intake temperature of piped in local water, the unit has done the job and freed up eighty cubic feet of space taken up by the tank room.

The delay in getting hot water at the tap is about double, but I consider that a small inconvenience in exchange for not heating water needlessly in a tank. Gas units might be a little quicker.

Europe is just as cold as Canada and demand hot water is extensively employed there. More of us should consider doing it here.

posted Feb 25, 2008 - 8:51 pm by Bob

Sorry Jason, the only assumption I made was that the laws of conservation (physics not environmental) apply. I was comparing heating one room to heating the entire house (mine - which has only one thermostat). Actually both the light bulb and the furnace operate at 100% efficiency as far as changing electricity to heat (minus a few photons that escape through the windows).One library was going to change to CFL's and discovered they would need to augment their heating system if they did.

posted Mar 6, 2008 - 10:06 pm by Dan

I'm curious if anyone has used or know of anyone who has used externally applied solar shades?

I found a company which sells them for very easy installation by an average home owner themselves for about $2.75 a square foot, which sounds like a very good price.

The are to blog 80 to 90% of the sun's UV rays to keep the house cooler in the summer while letting those on the inside of the house still see outside.

Sounds much less expensive than an awning.

I'd appreciate hearing from anyone with any experience with such a product as we are thinking of purchasing and installing it on our south facing windows.

Thanks,
Dan

posted Mar 29, 2008 - 10:09 am by Michael

The new light bulbs are a HOAX---Something WALMART IS EXPLOITING to gouge the public...THESE BUlBS WASTE ENERGY IN THEIR TAKING EXTRA TIME TO EVEN TURN ON PLUS THEY ARE MERCURY containing that will require hazmat teams in your home to clean up any broken bulbs--WHAT ABOUT THEIR disposal? DID ANYONE THINK(?) ABOUT THIS + the additional toxic mercury in the soil? Aren't the oceans and fish already polluted with enough mercury?

posted Apr 25, 2008 - 1:14 pm by Chuck Dungey

If low flush toilets are to be included --- so too should be greywater reuse --- diverting shower water to a holding tank for use as toilet water. 30% water savings in the average home.

posted Apr 27, 2008 - 12:16 am by Margot

I agree with Michael - Mr. Suzuki doesn't address the mercury issue - how are we to safely dispose of them? Everyone's just going to throw them into the garbage and we'll have mercury leaching into groundwater. In addition, studies show that the flickering of the fluorescent lights is linked to headaches and even depression. I won't have them in my house.

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