How to make your conventional electric hot water heater more efficient – Insulate it!

Good morning everyone.

Very soon, my husband and I will be moving to a nicer, more recent apartment building (having outgrown the “college” setting we are currently residing in) and I will be, for the first time, paying all my utilities, including hot water. That one is very new to me since I’ve always lived in buildings where the hot water tanks were in the basement, gas heated, and I never had to worry about them.

But as of July 1st, we will have access to our electric water tank in our apartment and will have our own separate counter. Not only do we see this as a great way to start really paying attention to how much we use, but it will be a great start to us finding ways to making the adjustments and changes in order to make our conventional water heater as efficient as possible.

According to Natural Resources Canada and the Office of Energy Efficiency :

Storage tank water heaters are by far the most common type used in Canada. These systems heat and store water in a tank so that hot water is available to the home at any time. As hot water is drawn from the top of the tank, cold water enters the bottom of the tank and is heated. The heating source can be electricity, gas or oil.

More efficient storage tank water heaters can perform as much as 40 percent better than conventional models. An energy-efficient model will typically have one or more of the following features:

• extra tank insulation for better heat retention and less standby loss (loss of heat through the walls of the tank)
• a better heat exchanger to transfer more heat from the energy source to the water
• factory-installed heat traps, which allow water to flow into the tank but prevent unwanted flow of hot water out of the tank

So if you are shopping for a new water tank and cannot afford green power like solar panels for water heating, look for the more efficiently rated ones.

But if you are like me, renting and don’t have a say really over the tank that you have or not able to get a new tank, that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about it!

Our tip is to go to a place like Home Depot or Lowes and buy a hot water heater blanket. Now be sure you take all your measurements because not all water heaters are the same! But these places will sell most conventional sizes for under 30$.

The U.S. Department of Energy has posted a very comprehensive guide to installing an insulation blanket that I plan on using to make sure our tank is well fitted. According to them, “adding insulation to it can reduce standby heat losses by 25%–45%. This will save you around 4%–9% in water heating costs.” Not too bad for a 30$ investment. And less water heating means a lesser carbon footprint which is once again the ultimate goal.

Hope this was useful!

What ways do you use to save on your energy bill?

Heating through light : Another reason for using CFLs in your home

Good morning everyone.

With the warmer weather approaching, the time to think about a greener and energy efficient summer is upon us. That is right; it is time to find alternative ways of cooling our homes that won’t leave an insane carbon footprint on the world. So while I was reading back issues of Green Living magazine, I found an article by Mary Teresa Bitti that was published last summer entitled “Cool it : 7 ways to chill without warming the planet” that had a lot of good ideas like :

• Getting rid of the air conditioning units (or if simply cannot live without them, go for Energy Star rated ones)
• Using ceiling and floor fans that use up a fraction of the energy to run.
• Closing windows drapes and blinds during the warmer days and opening them up at night.
• Create patterns of cross-ventilation by strategically opening and closing specific windows to create “wind paths” in your home.
• Make sure your insulation in your attic and basement doesn’t have any gaps and holes so that the cool air stays inside your home.
• Add natural shade to your yard and home by planting trees or by not removing too much of the natural canopy that will provide your home with cooling shade.

All great ideas! But you are probably thinking “there are only 6 tips there!” That is because I wanted to talk more in depth about one of them that surprised me and intrigued me more than the others :

• Replace all you incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs)!

Did you know that more than 90% of the electricity used to power a traditional bulb is lost through heat?

According to Natural Resources Canada, only 4 to 6 % of the energy used to power a traditional bulb goes towards producing visible light. Which means everyone of your old traditional bulbs that is glowing is not only using up a lot of energy, creating more waste buy having a shorter life span, but is also heating your home when you are desperately trying to keep it cool! CFLs produce 75% less heat when lit up.

So as an extra green step to a cooler home this summer, if you hadn’t already made the switch, replace your old traditional bulbs with CFLs.

Thank for reading!

What will you do to lower your carbon footprint this summer?

Your refrigerator : A few ways to make it more energy efficient

Good morning everyone! I was reading a little bit about home appliances and decided to share a few thoughts with you.


If you are like me, you want to be on top of your energy consumption and buy all Energy Star rated appliances, but it’s not always so easy. Everybody’s budget is different and even though we do eventually plan on changing all of them, we have been going at it one at a time. We started by the washer-dryer because to us, that was the first one to come in. With all the water wasted in conventional washing machine, which was a no brainer.

Thinking of which one to buy next is my inspiration for this blog.

Did you know…

That according to Natural Resources Canada’s Office of Energy Efficiency, the average refrigerator sold in Canada used up 487 kWh?

Now here was the surprising part : Most models that are sold with the Energy Star label only cut the energy consumption by an average of 10%.

After reading this, I started thinking that although 10% less is 10% less, there had to be ways to make my existing fridge more efficient itself.

Here are a few tips I found in a book titled 365 gestes pour sauver la Terre (365 things you can do to save the Earth) by Philippe Bourseiller that will help me, and hopefully you, cut down on energy use :

• Don’t position your fridge near a heat source like a the stove or a radiator.
• Do not position your fridge in the light of a south facing window.
• Don’t put in the fridge foods that are still hot. Let them cool down to room temperature before placing them in the fridge.
• Do not overheat your kitchen. Keep the ambient temperature a few degrees lower than the rest of the house. Cooking and baking will easily make up the difference anyway.

I hope these little hints will help in making your kitchen a bit more energy friendly!

What steps do you take to make your appliances work better and more efficiently?

Understanding our carbon footprint.

All of us, no matter how green we live, play a part in greenhouse gas emissions. But how many of us truly understand the concept of the carbon footprint? I decided to take a look and figure out how I could take steps towards lowering mine.

When we think carbon, most of us automatically think cars. And it is true that cars play a big part. In the United States, according to the Nature Conservancy, 20 % of carbon emitted comes from cars. So taking steps towards traveling lighter and getting more miles per gallon is a good place to start for sure. Hybrids, carpooling, public transportation, these are all solutions that have been pounded into our heads for saving the world. But what if the people that drive their hybrids around constantly buy imported foods and produce? Or what if a person takes his or her bike to work in the morning and then comes home and runs the air conditioning unit at full throttle all night.

Every little thing we do, whether it be using a compact fluorescent bulb or buying produce from a local farmer, reduces the impact we have on climate change.

Did you know ...

• That if you replace incandescent bulbs by compact fluorescents, you will save 100 pounds of carbon for each bulb over its life span?
• That by installing programmable thermostats in your home and keeping the air at a constant temperature year round, you could save a great deal of money on your power bill and at the same time, help lower your emissions from overworking your utilities?
• That one ton of carbon is released by planes for every 5000 miles (8000 kilometers) of travels? Which means that every time you buy a package of strawberries that have been flown in from Chile to your supermarket, you are contributing to putting tons over tons of carbon in the atmosphere.

These are only a few examples of how every little thing we do has an impact, for better or for worse.

The first step to understanding that impact is to have an idea of our footprint.

If you live in the United States, a great place to go is on the Nature Conservancy Carbon Calculator and fill in their little survey to know the average footprint of your household. It is very thorough and takes under consideration states that have cleaner energy sources in the calculations.

Another very complex but well done calculator in the USA is the one for Carbonfund.org that actually calculates with a dollar figure how much your carbon offset would cost and offers the possibility of donating to the cause. At 10$ per ton of carbon offset, you can fund projects in renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation everywhere in the world.

For Canada, I've found a few sites that have varying degrees of precisions, but that are still good indicators and can help you make cleaner and more ecologically sound decisions. Here are a few that I've found interesting :

The EcoNeutral Carbon Calculator focuses on both transportation and home energy use. It has a country selector so you can use this calculator no matter where you live.

Tree Canada has a fun little calculator that shows a CO2 offset versus trees needing to be planted to compensate result. For this one, you need to know your average kWh (kilowatt-hour) usage for the year, but it gives a good idea of the importance of trees for the natural balance of our air and environment. Donating to this organization helps with the planting and maintenance of trees in urban and rural Canada and to planting trees for environmental, non-commercial purposes. For every 4$ you donate, one tree will be planted and cared for.

These are of course just a FEW of the programs and sites that are out there for you to start really getting active with carbon offsetting.

I hope that you will go and check out these sites and look for more like them.

Happy greening!