Bringing Home Savings #3: Seal the leaks and soak up the sunshine

Josh Silver is encouraging Island homeowners to tackle some simple home renovation projects, and try a simple hack to capture the heating power of the sun, without spending a single cent.

Silver is on a personal mission to make his home more energy-efficient, following the guidance of a home energy audit that was his starting point.

He is taking CBC P.E.I. along on his quest to make improvements at his 12-year-old Charlottetown home, to save energy and money.

• Bringing Home Savings: Picking projects that will translate into savings
• Bringing Home Savings: Audit is first step to reducing your home energy costs

Easy fix

Silver said insulating electrical light switches and outlets is something that the vast majority of homeowners could handle by themselves.

"What's important are the foam gaskets that we're going to use behind any electrical outlet, any kind of plate that we have for electrical," Silver said. 

"We want to keep cold air out, and we want to keep our warm air in, and these foam gaskets are going to help us."

Silver said the foam gaskets are inexpensive, with a pack of six costing around $2.

Silver said there are three types of electrical outlets: the standard toggle, the double hexagon or the decor, and it's important to know which, because the foam gasket may be specific to just that one. 

Silver said that, like the insulation to his attic hatch, the foam gaskets will provide a small saving, but those savings will continue for years. 

"You'd save a couple of dollars a month, but what you have to keep in mind is, I can buy these for a couple of dollars. I can put them in for a very minimal amount of energy and time," Silver said.

"This is saving me a couple of dollars a month, for the life of this house. So I would be saving hundreds of dollars long term." 

Another simple hack: Silver uses plastic plug protectors to cut drafts from his electrical outlets, the kind you would buy to stop toddlers from poking their fingers into the holes.

And a hack for this hack: He clips the plastic protectors onto the end of the plug of whatever he is using when he unplugs it, so that it is easy to find when it's ready to go back in the outlet. 

Silver said he encourages homeowners not to be intimidated by this kind of simple renovation.

"We start to get scared. We're talking about electricity. We're talking about 'I'm not sure which foam gasket to buy because there's so many different types,'" Silver said.

"Just slow down, ask the people at the hardware store a few questions, and just pick away at it. I did every part of my house with gaskets, and it took me three hours."

Don't have three hours?

"I would suggest you could just take half hour here, half hour there, and before you know it, you're done. And again, you do it once. You'll never have to do it again, and you're saving money that whole time."

'Free energy'

Silver also shared a tip around maximizing the potential energy savings from the windows of your home — in particular, the part that's facing the south.

It's pretty simple: Open your curtains or blinds when the sun is shining on cool days.

"We get tons of free energy from the sun, so we get free light, less light bulbs and we get free heat," Silver said.

"The light comes through the window, obviously giving us daylight. But … when a light ray comes into your house and hits something solid — a couch, a floor, a TV — it turns into a heat ray."

Silver said he also closes the curtains at night, to keep cold air from coming in.

"The blackness of of nighttime absorbs heat. So it's actively sucking heat out of your house. So if you put your curtains down, it cuts that off. It's almost like an insulating blanket."

Silver said the savings, from making this one change in behaviour, can be impressive.  

"Conversely, in the morning, if we open those curtains up, we're going to let that sunlight in," Silver said.

"We can decrease our heating costs by upwards of 10 per cent on an average house like this. If we get into that little simple habit, 10 per cent — pretty significant." 

Rebate programs

Andy Collier of EfficiencyPEI said there are several programs that Island homeowners can tap into for home energy improvements. 

"Under EfficiencyPEI's home insulation rebate program, we have a direct rebate to homeowners that go through that program," said Collier, 

"It's a performance-based rebate, based on the before and after blower door test done by the energy auditors, and there's dollar amounts associated with how much improvement you've made to the airtightness of your home."

Collier said there is also a program that helps homeowners dealing with low to moderate incomes, who don't want to tackle their own air-sealing work, called the Winter Warming Rebate. 

"It provides the tradesperson to do caulking, weatherstripping, air-sealing work. It also includes a set back thermostat, LED light bulbs, a voucher for a free heating system cleaning, and other measures that will help reduce energy consumption."

Collier said the program has been popular, with more than 1,000 Islanders taking part last year. 

On homes that have energy audits before and after the program, he said the average energy savings is around 15 percent. 

"Most homeowners are very happy to have the service provided — especially homeowners who either don't have the time or they don't have the confidence or experience to do their own air sealing work," Collier said.

"It's a great service for them to have somebody knowledgeable and experienced to come and do that for them."

Instant savings

Collier said EfficiencyPEI also offers an instant savings program, in the spring and fall. 

"The Instant Savings Program is a point-of-sale rebate program where we provide rebates through retailers direct to clients. These include options like LED light bulbs, smart thermostats, clotheslines, and those are offered twice a year in spring and fall campaigns."

He said the rebates on appliances and smart thermostats are actually offered year-round through those retailers. 

Collier said the instant savings program had a three-year target for energy savings, which was exceeded during the fall campaign, and the hope is that the program will be renewed.  

In our next episode, Josh Silver will talk about energy-efficient light bulbs, programmable thermostats, and better sealing for doors and windows.

  Note: As well as being a homeowner in search of savings, Josh Silver is the learning manager for the heritage retrofit carpentry program at Holland College. 

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