Energy with-out Oil Weblog

Last month I was able to take a short trip outside to Hudson for a presentation on various green topics. That was right after I took a trip to my home state, Mass. What I found our down there is that environmental issues are getting hotter and hotter, everyone I spoke to about the need to reduce oil dependency was so amazingly receptive it was astounding. When that can be turned into action, the oil companies and people who are out to rape and ruin the environment are going to have quite a backlash, one can only hope.

Back to the core if this entry, the Green seminars at Hudson’s Civic Centre. Those topics included about 7 presentations of 15 minutes each on various aspects of the greening of Canada, and how it is proceeding. What was amazing is that the moderator kept everyone to their schedule and it went quite close to the printed times of the talks. Not an easy feat for any gathering, but they did it.

I was pleasantly surprised that the Canadian Government is giving grants for people who push their houses toward more green energy usage. That was one of the talks, who to call to get an energy audit and a list of things that can be done in the home to make it more energy efficient, and then when you do them, the government and Hydro Quebec have a set schedule of repayment for the work, and how much each task is worth in grants.

There were a number of other interesting things included in the topics, Montreal’s entry to a zero net energy house that will product all its energy needs over the course of a year. There will be times when excesses in energy production are put into the grid, and other times where those excesses are retrieved back. But, overall, the home is designed to use no net energy over a twelve month period.

At the time I was also very interested in the use of a wood burning stove to heat the house. I had visited Woodstock stoves in Lebanon, New Hampshire at their factory to evaluate them for my house….and to put it simply, if I decide to go with a woodburning stove in the future, it will be one of theirs with a nice soapstone exterior, the stoves are great to look at, and of extremely high quality. Plus, being from New England in the the first place, the design and old style look is extremely appealing. One of the talks was about eco-logs, artificial wood logs that are sold to use for heating. They have lots of advantages as they are much dryer, use waste hardwood sawdust and ship and pack much more efficiently in storage. If I was to move to a woodburning unit, those would be the wood source I would use for sure. It was almost enough to get me to get the hearth on our fireplace re-done so I can burn off the wood that I have left over since the Ice Storm in ‘98.

But above and beyond everything else, the most interesting topc was the one on the use of Geothermal heating in the home. That is the topic that I have actually taken action on, already haviong two visits from the rep to determine the cost and usefulness of implementing Geothermal heating in my home. The prmise is that I will save two to three watts for every watt I use. If that is true, then I would be much closer to being able to produce the rest of the electricity I use by solar power much easier. In addition to the system being able top provide home heating and cooling, it will also mainly supplement the water heating for home use as well. Of course the roof can be dedicated to solar thermal heating to ensure the rest of the needed heat for showers and dishes is provided in non-polluting ways, so the area of heat is pretty much covered by that. All that would be needed is to add a solar panel awning to provide the electricity and the home is well on the way to energy self-sufficiency.

Follow this blog for further developments in the way of Geothermal implementation on the residential level. Right now it is really hard to wander around the yard to determine actual figures, this has been the heaviest snowfall year in Montreal since I have been here, better than 20 years, so I can’t have true estimates done until the six feet or so of the snow covering the yard slowly melts away. The well will have to be 450 deep to give the proper amount of heat, and that can’t be done unless the earth is fully dry, or frozen, but with so much snow, no truck is going to get in, so it will have to be considered in the late spring instead.

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It covers:

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I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.