go green

The Benefits of a Greener Home

Nearly half of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada come from our homes.
Calculate your ecological footprint.
We want our homes to be comfortable, safe, clean, healthy and to have the smallest environmental footprint as possible. That’s why consumers, homebuilders, homeowners, property managers, REALTORS®, local governments and schools are all focusing on building homes and buildings that serve people better.
SmartHomes should save you money AND make you money. CREB®’s HomeSmarts program is here to help make that happen.
CREB® HomeSmarts is working with REALTORS®, buyers, sellers and partners to:

  • Factor the efficiency and healthiness of a home into the transaction
  • Reduce the environmental impact of Calgary and area homes
  • Make your HomeSmarts home more marketable
  • Make it easier to find a home that fits your values

A greener home is one that provides healthier and more comfortable living spaces and has features that reduce its impact on the environment. A greener home:

  • uses energy, water, land and materials more efficiently
  • provides a healthy habitat for the people who live in it
  • uses materials that protect human health and the natural environment
  • has minimal impact on the land it’s built on and the surrounding area
  • is located within walking or biking distance to schools, transit routes, grocery stores and other essential services

Greener homes have many benefits and are an important way we can live more sustainably now and into the future. Whether you are building, buying or renovating, there are a few simple ways to enhance your home’s efficiency which can add up to savings.
There are major benefits of a greener home.

Better Quality of Life

How about comfort? Greener homes have better indoor air quality and more natural light, making families who live in them happier and healthier.

Improved Environmental Sustainability

Greener homes use higher quality, less toxic, and sometimes recycled materials. Greener homes waste less water and are more energy efficient so they produce less climate-changing greenhouse gases.
Want to enhance your home’s efficiency? From easy and affordable to a little more complex, there are tips and $mart options that can add up to saving$.
Learn more.

Lower Operating Costs

Greener homes have lower energy and water bills because they are more efficient. They are also more durable because they are better designed and use higher quality building materials.
Once you are in your home, there are a few additional things you can do to potentially realize more efficiency saving$.
Learn more.

Higher Home Values

Greener homes are becoming increasingly more desirable. So when you make your home greener, you are investing in your future because, in addition to saving you money along the way, your house may likely have a higher resale value.
Whether you are building, buying or renovating, there are many things you can do to take action and make your home greener.

WINTER Tips

As the snow flies and the temperature dips, natural gas use increases. Here are some gas-saving tips to try to help you reduce the amount you use:

  • Install a programmable thermostat and set it to optimize your heating and cooling efficiency throughout the day;
  • Insulate your hot water tank and pipes to help prevent heat loss;
  • Check your furnace’s filter every month and have your furnace and ducts cleaned once a year to increase efficiency;
  • Caulk your windows and doors and replace old windows to prevent air leaks;
  • Turn your water heater off or set it to vacation mode when you’re away;
  • In the winter, keep the blinds on your south-facing windows open during the day to let the sun heat your home; and
  • If you don’t need to keep your garage the same temperature as your house, put it on a separate thermostat and turn the heat down.

Source: ENMAX

Decided. Time to Sell!

Now that you’ve chosen to put your home on the market, it’s time to get into action.

So where do you start?
You start by getting rid of the dross. Here are a few rules.
If its broken, fix it (this weekend) or try recycling or re-purposing it.
If you can’t remove the stains, remove what the stains are staining.
If the CRA sent it to you, keep it for at least seven years.
If the best thing you can say about it is that it was cheap, donate it to value village or salvation army.
If it’s got “potential”, actualize it (this weekend) or donate it.
 
Here is what Crazy House Home Staging has to say:
As a further incentive – if you are still holding on to those ceramic egg cups with tiny dancing squirrels painted around the rim, I need not remind you that Dante says that people who hold on to too much stuff go to the fourth circle of Upper Hell. Just sayin’.
Screen shot 2014-07-29 at 7.28.14 PMIt’s not the shelf’s fault if your books are messy, spilling out, or scattered about the home. Styling them is actually quite simple. See above picture. Just line up the books to the front of the shelf.
This also helps to get rid of the tchotchkes in front of books, as well as things such as the almost empty roll of stamps, cassette tapes from the ’80s, snapshots bearing your likeness between the ages of 13 and 17, and your throng of shot glasses from South America.
I also shudder when I see Golden Shelves of Glory (National Geographic magazines) that often rival collections in the Library of Congress. These ALL should to go on to a happier incarnation prior to listing. (I don’t even want to think about carrying them to your new home).
I have a theory that all volcanic activity on earth is caused by the pressure exerted on basement floors by these self-same stacks of National Geographic magazines.

 
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Just Add Water (Sort of)

The difference between the home you live in everyday and the one you put on the market may just be a well-placed vase of flowers. Look at interior design magazines. See the difference by placing your finger over the vase of flowers in the photos. Poof! The room suddenly feels less pulled-together. Flowers are also usually the source that adds that pop of color in a room – great for your MLS photos.
A foolproof arrangement that works anywhere is to use the same flower—like pink peonies or grocery-store yellow daisies— arranged loosely in a cylindrical vase, using a mix of open and closed buds for a natural look.
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So for the last two hours, you have been fruitlessly trying to hook up your new sound system so that beautiful music plays during the showings… repeatedly resetting and unplugging and turning the receiver off while standing on your hands, clicking your heels three times and reciting, “There’s no place like home.” And then, in sublime desperation, you phone the store and they immediately reply with, “You need to reset your receiver, unplug it, wait for ten seconds, plug it back in and turn it on again.” Sigh.
Maybe now’s the time to just download the Songza app on your iPad, and call it a day.
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And then go pick up Chinese food because that’s how you egg roll. (It also keeps the kitchen clean.)
Speaking of, “There’s no place like home.”, it should feel just like that the minute buyers set foot inside. There should be a balance of the deliberate and the accidental. Without that it looks TOO decorated, TOO much like a show home, TOO staged.
As one elevator said to the other, “I think I’m coming down with something.”  So should you. Put some character into things – like these quick ideas that will make your rooms pop.
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Screen shot 2014-07-29 at 7.37.38 PMMailing address:
Crazy House Home Staging
1608 36th Ave SW
Calgary, AB   T2T 6P7

Permaculture Garden at containR by Gaia's Grrls

Have you been to the Permaculture Garden at containR in Sunnyside?

Permaculture is a branch of ecological design, ecological engineering, environmental design, construction and Integrated Water Resources Management that develops sustainable architecture, regenerative and self-maintained habitat and agricultural systems modeled from natural ecosystems. (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture)

The food forest is in bloom, the squash and beans are peeking through the soil and our beautiful Mandela is in full production with all kinds of veggies, herbs and flowers!!


 

When: June 14th: Phase II

Time: 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Location: 1020 – 2nd Avenue NW

What does this day include?

  • Hugelkultur
  • Sheet Mulching & building Raised Beds for our new Food Forest
  • Passive rainwater harvesting
  • Soil building & composting

 

What to bring:

  • A water bottle & gloves
  • Tools – If you have them – shovels, mattocks, metal rakes, wheel barrows etc. clearly marked with your name.
  • Clothing: A good pair of boots/shoes and clothing suitable for digging and playing in the dirt.
  • Lunch will be provided by Gaia’s Grrls & The Permaculture Calgary Guild along with fresh water and healthy snacks.

If you would like to come out and join us and be a part of this awesome event; make sure to register so that they have a good idea of how many people we will be working with and feeding.

RESOURCES NEEDED: If you have access to any plain, unwaxed cardboard, straw bales, compost, wood chip, topsoil and/or plants, please give us a call and we will let you know where you can drop these materials off with our gratitude.

Please contact Michael at genesispermaculture@yahoo.ca or 403.923.5090 if you prefer to register via email or by phone. Click Here to check out more about Gaia’s Grrls!

Red and Blue and Green all over…

Calgary homeowners have a new high-tech tool to help them save money and reduce their impact on the environment.
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Aimed at improving urban energy efficiency, the HEAT (Heat Energy Assessment Technologies) project visualizes the amount and location of waste heat leaving homes and communities by using thermal imaging.
By showing homeowners where their homes are wasting heat, how much it’s costing them, and how to fix it — all on Google Maps and all for free – the tool can help residents improve their home’s energy efficiency, save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Led by U of C professor Geoffrey Hay, the project was chosen for the $10,000 grand prize at the MIT CoLab Conference over 400 submissions from more than 30 countries in 20 competitions.
“HEAT’s mission is to integrate leading edge geospatial technologies and key behavioural science findings to show what urban energy efficiency looks like, where it’s located, what it costs and what to do about it,” said Hay. “We believe that if people could see the waste heat they generate and if they knew how much it cost financially and to the environment that they would take action, and we want to show them how.”
The HEAT maps show grades ranging from red to blue (hot to cold) that represent differences in the amount of wasted heat leaving residential buildings, with blue representing a relatively waste-free home and red representing a home where waste heat is high. Homes are also given scores ranging between 0 and 100, which helps compare one or more houses.
By clicking on an individual home, users of the site can also see where heat is being lost in the home and even what the estimated financial and equivalent carbon dioxide (CO2e) savings per year would be.
Currently, the HEAT pilot project has gathered information on 37,914 homes in northwest Calgary, although the intention is to map the entire city.
“By scaling up the heat consumption results from 37,000 Calgary homes to the full city of Calgary with over 330,000 individual singledwelling residences, we estimate total municipal savings (for natural gas) of $33,564,386 and a reduction of 198,216 tonnes of CO2 per year,” said Hay.
Typically escaping through poorly insulated doors, windows, walls, ceilings, ductwork and electrical fixtures, waste heat represents expensive heated air that is leaving a home, instead of staying and keeping the house warm.
Interestingly, Calgary’s newer neighbourhoods ranked worse than older communities under HEAT’s rankings. With an average ranking of 25, Dalhousie was the “coolest” community in the city while Patterson was the “hottest,” with an average score of 73.
In Canada, buildings account for 35 per cent of all emitted green house gasses (GHG), generate 10 per cent of airborne particulate matter, 33 per cent of Canada’s total energy production and 50 per cent of Canada’s natural resources, of which the majority is used for space and water heating.
For Calgary home inspector Kevin Sixsmith, the ability for homeowners to visualize inefficiencies in their home is a big step forward.
“This type of tool is always good as people act quicker when they can visually see that there may be a problem or that improve their homes and save money,” said Sixsmith. “People are slowly learning the importance of how homes are built so they may save energy which in turn save themselves money.”
Comparing the energy efficiency of their future homes is just one of the new tools available to homebuyers. Along with hiring a REALTOR®, homeowners can now browse listings that come complete with professional photos and video. The power to virtually walk prospective neighbourhoods via Google Street View and criteria such as Walk Scores can help educate buyers about the area without ever leaving their home, while EnerGuide ratings, available through CREB®’s HomeSmarts website: www.creb.com/homesmarts help them better understand how to save money.
“The additional information available to REALTORS® through programs like HomeSmarts enables them to customize the home buying experience and meet the expressed needs of their clients. If energy efficiency is a priority for a client, HomeSmarts enables a REALTOR® to meet that need,” said CREB® Member Services Manager Lisa Roberts. “Connecting with the University of Calgary on the HEAT initiative is another way for us to expand our view of what energy efficiency looks like for REALTORS®.”
– See more at: http://www.crebnow.com/red-and-blue-and-green-all-over/#more-6170

Tankless Water Heaters…

Common in Europe and Japan for 75 years, tankless water heaters are still fighting for market share in Canada. The rising cost of energy may give them the boost they need to replace conventional storage tanks.

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Recently my gas water heater sprung a leak. It had been working away faithfully in the basement since before we bought the house 17 years ago. Since it’s a rental from the local gas utility, I called them and they installed a new unit. It didn’t occur to me to ask about installing a tankless water heater, and they didn’t suggest one.
Many communities and utility companies are now promoting tankless water heaters as a more energy efficient option than the conventional storage units used in most North American homes. Also known as demand or instantaneous water heaters, tankless units heat water only as it is required, eliminating the need to have 200 or more litres of water sitting in a heated tank, waiting to be used.
Information from Green Venture, a non-profit environmental group, and The City of Hamilton, Ontario says that most families use hot water for a cumulative total of about one hour per day. “The other 23 hours you purchase electricity or gas to heat water is unnecessary,” says Green Venture.
Having a constantly heated tank of water is like leaving your car running all night for the morning drive to work, suggests retailer Tankless Low Energy Systems of Whitby, Ontario. On its website (www.tanklesswaterheaters.ca), the company says that “most gas tank type water heaters lose 6 F degrees per hour because they have a flue sucking the BTUs out of the stored hot water.”
Green Venture says that heating water accounts for about 20 per cent of a household’s total energy use, and that tankless water heaters can save anywhere from five per cent to 70 per cent of the energy required to heat water. That equates to annual household energy savings of about 30 per cent, says Green Venture.
Tankless water heaters have several other advantages as well. They take up much less space than conventional tanks and can be hung on a wall. Problems with mineral or scale build-up are unlikely, because there is no water storage and they can be used with water softening systems. They are a proven technology, having been in use in Europe and Asia for more than 75 years. Finally, manufacturers say they last longer than storage water heaters.
So why do most of us stick with conventional hot water heaters?
Money. Tankless water heaters can cost up to three times as much as conventional heaters.
Until recently, there was also a question of whether tankless water heaters could handle the capacity required for whole-house installations. Many of the tankless heaters currently in use are small, supplemental units installed at the point of use, such as a remote bathroom or the laundry room.
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) says that “depending on overall water usage, they may not have the capacity to supply an entire home with hot water. For this reason, they are often used as booster heaters to supplement another water heating system.”
However, in recent years, manufacturers have been making larger tankless units for whole-house applications. “A relatively new tankless technology – the low mass water heater – is capable of supplying much more hot water to the home,” says NRCan. “These systems are typically gas-fired with electronic ignition and power exhaust, which means they are also more efficient than conventional tankless heaters. They can be connected to an external storage tank, if necessary.”
To find out what size of water heater is right for your house, you’ll need to figure out how much water flow you need to meet your home’s peak hot water demands. A report from the U.S. Department of Energy says to list the number of hot water devices you expect to have open at any one time, and add up their flow rates.
Next, select a manufacturer that makes a unit that can handle that much flow.
“Most demand water heaters are rated for a variety of inlet water temperatures,” says the Department of Energy. “Choose the model of water heater that is closest to your needs.”
A report by Platts Research & Consulting (available on the B.C. Hydro website, www.bchydro.com) says that electric heating element and gas requirements for tankless water heaters are higher than for storage water heaters. A gas tankless heater uses more BTUs per hour, so it may require larger gas lines and vents. An electric unit may require 8- or 10-AWG copper wiring, says the Platts report.
One drawback to buying a tankless water heater could be that because they are not yet common in Canada, it may not be easy to find someone to install and maintain your unit.
However, tankless water heater manufacturers are convinced that storage units are on the way out, and that before long, we’ll all be saying, “No tanks”.
Written by: Jim Adair, Homes and Cottages

Going Green: Tips on staying efficient in the colder weather

Fall Tips

As the leaves start to fall and summer comes to an end, we know it’s only a matter of time before winter’s chill returns. Take time to prevent heat loss, while getting ready for the winter season to come, with these tips:

  • An easy way to detect drafts is to hold lit incense sticks near potential leak locations (preferably during windy days). Leaks will be indicated by smoke movement and possible increased glowing of stick tips. Once identified, use the proper material to seal these leaks.
  • To maximize the energy savings in your attic, a minimum level of insulation of R50 is recommended in Alberta. Maintaining proper levels of insulation in the attic will keep your house warmer in the winter.
  • Be sure to position your thermostat where it is not affected by heat and draft sources such as direct sunlight, hot air ducts, appliances, stairwells and outside doors.
  • An un-insulated and poorly sealed basement can result in up to 35 per cent of your home’s total heat loss.
  • Replacing your doors with insulated steel or fiberglass doors will reduce heat loss and can also add to the security of your home.
  • Install and use a programmable thermostat. Once it is set, this device can automatically reduce the temperature setting while you are away during the day, or sleeping at night.
  • Turn down the temperature! For every one degree Celcius you consistently set back your thermostat during the entire heating season (based on eight hours per day), you could save approximately two per cent of your annual space heating costs.
  • You can reduce heat loss through your external wall electrical outlets, light switches, and lighting fixture receptacles by installing foam gaskets behind these outlets and switches. Be sure to switch off any electric power prior to completing this work.
  • Apply plastic film to your windows to reduce air leaks. Products designed for this purpose are sold in most home improvement stores and are easily applied using a hand-held hairdryer.

For more household energy-saving advice, visit our Energy Fact Sheets and Tools and Calculators sections.

(Source: ATCO Energy)

Ecological footprints

Want to know what impact you are making on the earth? Check out your ecological footprint here (via Global Footprint Network)