Living in "balmy" Vancouver, we don't usually need to worry about shovels, rock salt and plunging temperatures. Except last year. And this year. And, well, let's admit it; climate change is happening. Like the rest of Canada, we are routinely finding ourselves victims of colder weather, bigger winter storms, and the need to increase the amount of heating in our homes.
Since David and I currently rent the house we live in, we reap a lot of benefits from being non-owners. Our landlords shovel our walk, keep the rock salt and sand in high supply, and arrange to have our furnace vents and filters cleaned for us. However, some things we would like to do, like a home energy assessment, are not really possible.
A home energy assessment allows a home owner to discover how heat is leaking out (or cold air seeping in) to a house. David and I can stand by the windows in the house and feel the cold air coming in. We know there's a problem, but since we don't own, we are limited in our options: seal the windows with plastic or crank the heat.
For those who live in BC, there are many incentives for doing a home energy audit, including rebates, saved energy costs, and greater savings to the environment. The less fuel we have to burn (oil, gas, electricity) to heat our homes, the less toll we put on our environment. If you're building a new home, or looking to do a serious renovation on your own, one of the best environmental ways to heat and cool your home is geothermal. A home owner can receive up to $5,000 in grants and rebates from the BC government for investing in this type of heating.
BC just received over a foot of snow in the past weeks with more to come. While I try to keep the heat at the lowest possible temperatures, and work on a way to minimize the window heat loss, I may just be dreaming of geothermal heating. Now that the white Christmas is a reality!
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