The Greater Edmonton Alliance (GEA) is the most exciting thing to happen to Edmonton, sustainability-wise, in forever.

The alliance, composed mostly of churches and unions, has taken on local food and energy efficiency retrofits for existing houses as its two main initiatives.

They have produced some amazing results so far. Among other things,  they packed a city hall meeting with almost 700 people to help save some of Edmonton’s priceless agricultural land last year, and they also organized the very high-profile potato giveaway last summer.

Sustainable Works Launch on Wednesday

If you’ve wondered how to go about retrofitting of your older home, the Sustainable Works program is for you. GEA plans to help retrofit thousands (thousands!) of homes in Edmonton over the coming years. The big launch is on Wednesday . I’ll be there, and I hope that you’ll consider showing your support.

The Greater Edmonton Alliance (GEA) invites you to the launch of  read more... »

image from sears.ca

Induction stovetops are the most efficient in existence. With induction cooking, an electromagnetic field turns the pot or pan itself into the heating element, so there’s no coil to heat up, and no therefore no heat to lose from the coil. Induction stoves have long been available through commercial or specialty outlets only, and usually only as cook tops (without ovens attached). However, Sears has recently changed the efficient heating appliance scene.

With Kenmore Elite Induction Ranges, Sears has brought the induction cook top to the residential scene. Although more expensive than regular ranges (all of Sears’ stuff can be had for significantly less than their listed online prices, by the way) these super-efficient ranges are at the very bottom end of the Energuide scale.

A new electric range will consume from 330 kWh to 647 kWh per year according to Natural Resources Canada. The Kenmore Elite Induction Ranges consumes about 350 kWh.

When we purchased our appliances for the Mill Creek NetZero Home, we were a bit too early for this brand new range. The problem is, it requires a special 50 amp breaker and special wiring. We missed out, but maybe you won’t. If you choose an induction range when purchasing your next super-efficient appliance let the rest of us know how it went!

P.S. I was worried about health issues due to radiation from the electro magnetism that's involved in induction cooking, so I asked local great Godo Stoyke, author of The Carbon Buster's Home Energy Handbook, for his take. He tested his brother's induction stove and said:

"I measured about 80 milliGauss near the pot, about 10 milliGauss from 40 cm away, dropping to an undetectable/background level from about 1 m away. So, comparable to a cell phone."

Given that stove is so much further away from your body (and your brain) than a cell phone, this put the health issue to rest for me.

image from sears.ca

One of the the underappreciated marvels of the modern age is the cooking appliance. The ability to so accurately channel energy to enable perfect cooking is a vast improvement over how we used to cook (I’m thinking open fire here, but there were probably some cultures that came up with more ingenious methods). I often find myself marveling at how effortless and clean it is to cook food these days.

Replacing or Buying New

Here are some questions, thoughts and consuming strategies when it comes to ranges and stovetops:

• Do you really need a new range? Ovens and stovetops have barely increased in fuel efficiency over the past 50 years. After all, wasted energy is usually lost as heat, which in this case is obviously not a waste at all. Consider just keeping using your old range or having it repaired.
• Can you buy a used range? Used appliances are a dime a dozen, and while I would almost never encourage buying a used fridge (old ones are way less efficient), a used range is probably as energy efficient as a new one.
• Consider gas. A gas range is much more efficient than an electric one because of the massive energy losses (covered here in regard to ground source heat pumps) involved in converting coal and natural gas to electricity.
• Buy the most energy efficient model. Let the range’s Energuide Rating be your guide.

Conservation

All of the following reduce coal burning:

• Use a toaster oven. Because they’re so much smaller, toaster ovens use less energy to bake any given thing.
• Use a pressure cooker and/or thermal cooker.
• Cook with the sun.
• Turn off the stovetop a few minutes before you’re done cooking. The thermal inertia of the pan or pot that you’re using will keep the food cooking for a while after the burner is turned off.

Note from Conrad:This is a guest post by fellow Edmontonian Alice Harkness. Thanks for your excellent work Alice!

I experimented last winter with a very simple way of upgrading the insulation value of the beautiful original windows of my house: I added a third, Low-E glaze between the double hung window and the storm window.

Method

There is a 3/4 inch thick space inside the storm window created by the stop (the strip of wood that serves as the outside edge of the channel for the upper double hung window, and backing for the storm). Here’s what I did:  read more... »

People all over Edmonton are waking up to the fact that we’re in the midst of an environmental crisis. It’s good to remember this once in a while, as we go about life in this city of the one driver per car. Some good citizens at Saint Andrew’s United Church are trying to make a difference. They’ve paid some attention to their church building “through regulated use of more efficient heating, installation of low-flush toilets and replacing doors and windows with more energy-conserving models”.  Now they’re trying to reduce the amount of single-occupancy church commuters through Operation Carpool, “a program designed to help our congregation reduce emissions and fuel consumption by having fewer cars pull into our parking lot on Sundays”.

They’re also keen to share their knowledge through “offering tours and workshops to other churches and non-profit groups”.

We’ve started a new section here at Green Edmonton called “Initiatives”. It will highlight and document organizations that are making concerted efforts in the right direction. Congratulations to Saint Andrew’s Church for their positive initiative.

BC may well be the best province to live in when it comes to available federal and provincial support for greening your home.

Sales tax exemptions on Energy Star windows, insulation and more, plus Livesmart BC - a rebate program that matches federal Ecoenergy rebates for BC residents, all make living greener more affordable out West.  read more... »

I read an interesting article recently about how to calculate the size of an on-demand hot water heater.  OK, while not exactly what most people would consider light reading, what I thought was interesting was how much energy it takes to generate something we take for granted.  The article discussed how running a single shower would require the incoming water to absorb energy at a rate of about 75,000 BTUs per hour and that if the tankless water heater was 80% efficient, then the heater would need to have a rated input of 94,000 BTUs per hour.  If you want the ability to run two showers simultaneously, then the numbers double so that the tankless water heater would have a rating of 188,000 BTU.  (For reference, the boiler I have for heating my house and domestic hot water can modulate  read more... »

I spent the afternoon putting pipe insulation on the hot water pipes in the Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH). I can’t believe how cheap the insulation was – around $100 for the whole house. Its price and the ease with which it is installed make it a must, in my opinion, for those interested in energy efficiency. Anyone can install this stuff, and the insulation is so useful because it just sits and works, saving you energy every single day and never breaking.  read more... »

When we need to "consume", we should be buying stuff that uses as little water and electricity as possible. Comparing the different products for these attributes can be difficult. Here are the best resources:

Searchable Canadian Government Energy Efficiency Ratings of all available:

• ranges
• refrigerators
• dishwashers
• washing machines 
• freezers

The (user-unfriendly) master page is here. I always have trouble finding these databases, so I thought that I would post them here for easy reference. After you've run your initial search, click on "Energuide Rating (kWh/year)" twice. This will order the appliances by the smallest consumption first.

For cars, if you simply must buy one, refer to the U.S. Government's Fuel Economy comparison website.

Here is a diagram from the IBC boiler installation manual showing the specifications for the venting.

 read more... »