Home-Carbon Slim-Home

10/10/10
10/10/10 is just around the corner. Be part of the largest global day of action in history by joining or creating a climate change work party.

Even AVAAZ is getting in on the action.

I’ll be attending the Mushroom Walk & Letter-Writing Campaign near Owen Sound, followed by a family Thanksgiving feast. Special thanks to Margot and Doug Miller for arranging this event.

Results of our Home Energy Audit
We finally received the results of our home energy audit. As you may recall our first audit concluded that our 90-year old house was 43% efficient. The GreenSaver auditor prioritized a series of recommendations to tighten the house. He advised that if we followed the recommendations we could increase our house’s efficiency to 76%.

Well, we did it.

The efficiency rating of our once insulation-free house is now 76. It cost us roughly $40,000 to retrofit our house. Together the federal and provincial governments will cover a quarter of the cost. Our auditor was pleased to report that we are the third client he’s ever had to reach the maximum grant allowance of $10,000.

When I began this blog way back in 2006 I hoped that in my journey to become carbon slim I could eventually slim up the house that Jane and I were about to buy. We’ve come a long way from simply changing the light bulbs to compact fluorescents. The investment to retrofit the house was huge, but worth it.

Jane and I have noticed a big improvement in the comfort of our home. We’ve also seen remarkable savings in our gas bill. I don’t know if it’s due to adjustments in the fixed amounts we pay each month, but our gas company gave us significant credits over the summer. Last year we paid $1258 between January and September. This year, we paid just $397 during the same period. I doubled checked the invoices because I couldn’t believe it. The savings in gas consumed is 279 m3 thus far.

I’m just happy to know we're more carbon slim than ever before.

To follow our home energy audit journey, click here.

Blog Action Day is October 15th – Topic: Water
Next week I’ll take part in Blog Action Day’s spotlight on water.