Sustainable Living in Durham

Finally!! we're Netmetering!

After almost 7 weeks since we connected up the wind generator, Hydro One has finally changed our meter.  It isn't like we didn't give them 8 months notice or phone them about 6 times to provide info they should have had...

anywho...  I'm happy to report that after 24 hours we are netted out to exactly 0; meaning we generated as many KwH's as we used.  The new meter is digital rather than the spinning disc type that I thought they were going to put back in.  This digital one (not the smart meter that they installed about a year ago and had to take back out since it isn't actually too smart) reads what is delivered to us and what we return to the grid.  I'm pretty sure the first few bills will be painful to straighten out give the arduous process to get the meter in.  Oh well, now it will be easier for the next people who decide to generate their own power...

 

Meet Mike (Event Cancelled)

http://durhamgreens.ca/meet-mike-schreiner

 

Sorry the event has been cancelled due to the venue double booking rooms TWICE

Blowing In

Yesterday my brother and I blew in 44 bales of cellulose insulation into the boys house.  This should bring the attic R value up to almost 60.  I need a minimum of R50 to get the ecoenergy grants from the federal and provincial gov'ts totaling $750.  The total cost of renting the blower and the 44 bales of cellulose was $459.

The job was pretty easy to do too.  Plug the machine in and point the hose where you want it to go.  It takes two people to do it with one feeding in the cellulose into the hopper on the blower and the other spraying in the attic.  One hint for trouble free operation: don't load the machine with a whole bale before turning it on or it jams it up.  We lost about a half hour and the better part of one bale when we had to clean it all out and un-jam it.  Reading the instructions first always helps too...!

We did the whole job in about 8 hours including picking up and returning the blower; building a damn around the attic hatch and insulating the back of the attic hatches.  There are two separate attics in the kids house so that probably took us longer than a single attic house would.

Cellulose insulation is one of the greenest insulation you can get (apparently denim is the best) as it is made from recycled paper.  It is treated with borax to make it fire proof and taste nasty to the critters.  It's been in use for many decades.  I can't see why anyone would use anything else in their attic.  It is easy to install; environmentally friendly; has a higher R value per inch compared to firbreglass and isn't deadly itchy or to inhale.  Fibreglass is toxic when it burns as well.

Now the kids will have a warmer house that uses significantly less energy and costs less to heat with the gevernment program paying for the whole thing!  Not bad for a days work!

Hot Water on Time!

 
 

Here's the kids new hot water heater and the timer that controls it.  The timer was from a local electrical supplier for $80 and the insulating blanket for the tank was another $30 at a local hardware store.  Should pay for themselves ten times over in electricity costs in the next ten years!  We can set the timer to come on in the middle of the night to take advantage of lower demand and eventually lower costs.  It's all plumbed up ready for the solar panel that we'll add on in the spring.  Now that's green hot water!

New Bath c/w Timer

 
Here is a pic of the new bath we put in at the kids house.  The old tile had failed and the dry wall and insulation behind it was saturated.  My brother Darrell helped with roughing in the exhaust fan and light and I finished everything else off.  The light and vent are on a timer so we can ensure the bathroom is properly vented AND the fan gets turned off every time.  You can get timers at all the house ware stores for around $30.  Money well spent in my opinion!

Let the Air In

As part of the improvements we are making to the kids house under the ecoEnergy program ecoenergy@homenrg.com , we are upgrading the venting and insulation in the attic.  Today was the day my brother Darrell and I put in some more vents and baffles and sealed up all the penetrations in preparation for blowing in some cellulose tomorrow.  Darrell did most of the work actually and I was the helper.  There were only 5 soffit vents in the whole roof originally and we added 7 more.  The 5 that were there had been painted over >50% and covered with fibreglass insulation.  Obviously previous owners didn't understand how important good ventilation is!  It lets out the warm moist air in the winter that can cause rot in the roof members and keeps your attic cooler in the summer reducing your AC needs.  They probably spent >3K putting in a central AC unit when they should have ventilated the attic properly for under a $100 and may not have even need the AC at all, after all this is Canada... 

Another important thing to do before adding more insulation is to seal up all the penetrations in the ceiling.  This includes wiring for lights and switches, plumbing vents, interior wall gaps, etc.  We used expanding foam on all the gaps.

Tomorrow we pick up a blower and the cellulose and blow in another 14" on top of the existing fibreglass to bring it up to R50.  Total cost for 30 bales of cellulose and blower rental is going to be around $300.  The rebate from the federal gov is $375 and the province will match it.  That will cover all the material costs and our time to do it.  This is a great program that puts money into the local economy; costs essentially nothing and saves money on the heating bills for as long as house lasts.

Caught off Guard!

Was anyone else caught off guard with the hard frost last night?  It was right around zero this morning at 7:00 AM.

I was totally lulled into a false sense of a warm Thanksgiving!  I went out yesterday and harvested a wheelbarrow full of squash (41 in total) and placed them all on a wood pile to cure for the next couple of sunny days.  Unfortunately when I checked them this morning I saw they were all touched by the hard frost.  Freezing the hard shell will mean they won't keep very long; a few days rather than a few months.  I checked the others that weren't picked and many of them have frost damage too.  I'd estimate another 50 were still out in the garden and probably half of them were "touched".

We've already harvested most of the other tender crops so not much else was lost.  Nothing like a frozen jolt in the arm to get your butt in high gear to prepare for the coming cold weather.  Got to get the cold frames over the carrots, lettuce and Chinese greens soon so we can extend the harvest well into the frosty fall.  Better get at it...

A Green Omelette

Doesn't sound too appetizing but it was!

This morning I had the greenest omelette possible, at least at our house.  It was made with fresh picked ingredients from our chickens and gardens.  Four eggs (only two yokes the other yokes went to the cats as a special treat), garlic, onions, celery leaf, basil, rosemary, swiss chard, tomato and tatsoi.  It was cooked on our wood stove with wood from our property.  Cooked in a non-stick frying pan made of aluminum, ceramic coating and bamboo handle. 

See for yourself:

Update on Wind Generator

The "Genny" is doing well.  Unfortunately we are not yet able to take full advantage of the power it generates as our electricity supplier hasn't installed the Net Metering meter.  The idea is that the meter will spin back our electricity charges when we are generating excess.  So right now if we don't use it, we lose it!  Once the meter is installed we expect the Genny to produce pretty much what we use every month on average.

It hasn't been the windiest September so far but we've seen the generator producing up to 3,200 watts at a peak.  It is actually rated to produce 2,400 max and if it stays over that speed for any prolonged time it would put on the brakes.  We have a wireless remote monitor to watch how it performs and this can be logged into a software program to track it over time.  We had this set up for a few days but it was interferring with our wireless internet so I moved the data logger to the front of the house where it doesn't interfere with anything.

The propeller has to spin at about 80 RPM before it generates anything and it reaches full power at about 350 RPM.  You can hear it revving up and down with the gusts of wind so it rarely stays at a steady output. 

Once we get the Net Metering meter in I'll update everyone on it's overall performance. 

Time for a Timer?

We installed a timer for the exhaust fan in our upstairs washroom.  This will ensure that we are getting good ventilation and don't forget to turn it off, wasting lots of electricity (the fan is 600 watts).  It was pretty easy to install (especially since our seventeen year old did it!) and it only cost $30 at Canadian Tire.

It is very important to ventilate a bathroom properly and I feel every bathroom should have one.  We just installed one at our son's home where they only had a window in the bathroom.  It onlytook a couple of hours to put it in since we gutted out the whole tub area to fix the extensive water damage that had occurred over several years (probably because it wasn't ventilated properly!).

We also installed a timer for their hot water heater.  These cost about $75 and can be obtained from most electrical supply stores.  Itis an Intermatic timer made specifically for electric hot water heaters.  Theyhave it set to come on from 5AM to 8 AM and then again from 5PM to 8PM.  The boys seem happy with it so far.  I'm going to put one in at our place too as it should work very well in conjunction with our solar hot water heater.  We are planning on putting in a solar hot water heater at the boys house too in the near future and already plumbed it up for that when we replaced the rented hot water heater (why pay someone else for your appliance?) 

The boys had a home energy audit done the first week they moved in and that will enable them to get thousands of dollars in grants from the federal and provincial governments for insulating the basement walls and attic; sealing up the sill plate and various gaps we found during the blower door test and $2,500 for a solar hot water heater.  If they do all the work themselves, the grant should pay for most of the materials.  Smart kids!