What can I do about climate change? – At Home
Mitigation
Mitigation refers to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. There are several things that you can likely do to lower or displace natural gas use, which can save you money and make a big difference in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Buildings are responsible for 32% of the greenhouse gas emissions in Cranbrook. 90% of these building emissions are from natural gas!
Temperature control
Heating and cooling your home require energy. This energy costs you money, so the less of it you can use, the more you can have to spend on things you enjoy. If your home is heated by natural gas, like most homes in Cranbrook, reducing the amount of energy used for heating is also reducing your environmental footprint.
One of the most simplest ways to cut back on energy consumption for heating is to lower the temperature on your thermostat during the winter. This approach is cost-effective but may affect your comfort level if not addressed. To mitigate this, you can consider wearing warmer clothing, using a heated blanket or a heated seat cushion. Instead of heating your entire home, focus on keeping yourself warm.
Many households have periods of time when no one is at home and these times are often predictable. During these times, there is no need to heat the entire house and its contents. The solution could be as simple as turning down the thermostat when the last person leaves the house and turning it back up when the first person arrives. Even a cool house typically feels warm to people coming in from the cold outdoors so if the heat recovery rate for your home is reasonable, it may barely be noticeable that the heat was lowered.
If you’re looking for an easier way to save energy and money on your heating bills, consider installing a programmable thermostat. You can set it to automatically lower the temperature when you’re not at home or when you’re sleeping. Stay cozy at night with extra blankets or warm pajamas. You can even set the thermostat to start warming up your home a little bit before the first person wakes up or arrives back home, so you’ll barely notice the difference in temperature.
Finally, take your home heating to the next level with a smart thermostat. These thermostats connect to your mobile phone or device, learning your patterns to adjust the temperature automatically. They can even detect when you’re on your way home and adjust the temperature accordingly, or you can control it remotely with your phone. Additionally, some smart thermostats can set the temperature for specific rooms based on your usage, for even more precision in your heating needs.
I heard there are no savings from turning down the heat because the heater must work harder to heat back up afterwards?
Yes, your heater will have to work harder to heat back up and yes, during this time it will use more energy than normal, but even factoring this energy use in you will still have used less total energy than leaving the temperature the same the entire time.
Your heating system isn’t bothered by running at 100% capacity; in fact, if you have single stage gas heat, which is common for older systems, it can only run at full blast or nothing. The system should only struggle if there is a mechanical problem, or it isn’t big enough for your home. Sometimes an undersized heating system can be made adequate for your home by reducing the heat loss of your home.
It is important to note that setting the temperature back isn’t equally effective for every system. Boilers and heat pumps in particular may have slower heat recovery rates than a gas furnace. You may need to experiment with different settings to determine what works best for your home.
What about my plants and my pets?
In a natural environment, plants experience fluctuations in temperature, such as a decrease at night. A typical temperature for a thermostat setback in the winter is 16-17°C. At this temperature, typical houseplants don’t have any problems with survivability, and may even see a benefit from the variation in temperature, since it is more like a natural environment. Some varieties of plants would even prefer it that cool more often!
Us humans like to personify our pets, so it’s easy to forget that what is comfortable for us might not match what is comfortable for them. Many animals we keep as pets are adapted to live comfortably outdoors, even in the winter. Pets comfort generally depends on their size and furriness. Furrier, larger animals will have no challenges adapting to a temperature setback, while hairless, smaller animals (like hairless cats or chihuahuas) have more challenges maintaining their body temperature and may need your setback adjusted more conservatively. Providing them with a cozy spot in the warmer room of your home can help them overcome any potential discomfort.
What resources are there to help me do this or provide more information?
https://www.bchydro.com/powersmart/residential/tips-technologies/smart-thermostats.html
Appliances
Major appliances can consume a significant amount of energy. If you have electric appliances, you may have noticed that they require special high-powered outlets or dedicated circuits. If you have gas appliances such as a gas dryer or range, reducing their energy usage can also reduce your environmental impact. When it’s time to replace your gas appliances, consider switching to electric models. Regardless of which energy source runs your appliance, using appliances more efficiently will save you money.
Induction stoves are effective appliances in reducing your energy use and emissions in the kitchen, and without compromising on performance. Emissions from gas stoves include greenhouse gases, but also other things that can be harmful to your health. Induction stoves use electricity to create magnetic fields that heat your cookware directly, instead of the surrounding environment. This means they use less energy, heat up faster, offer better temperature control and prevent your kitchen from becoming uncomfortably hot. While induction stoves are more expensive, they may be worth the investment for you. However, it may be hard to justify the cost without trying one first. Consider purchasing a single burner induction cooktop instead of a full range, as it’s a very affordable way to experience the technology before making a big investment. At the very least, it can serve as an additional burner, but at best, it can help you make an informed decision. It is important to note that many people are concerned that their pots and pans won’t work on an induction stove, but most are already compatible and can easily be checked: if a magnet of good strength is attracted to the bottom, your pot or pan is compatible.
What resources are there to help me do this or provide more information?
https://www.bchydro.com/powersmart/residential/tips-technologies.html?param=laundry
https://www.bchydro.com/powersmart/residential/tips-technologies.html?param=kitchen
https://www.bchydro.com/powersmart/residential/tips-technologies/clothes-washers.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDOONBrWFnc
Heating systems
Heating is what constitutes most of the energy use in Canadian homes, so this is where your best opportunity is to save some money on your energy bills, and if you’re heated with gas, your best opportunity to reduce your environmental footprint too.
Regardless of what type of energy you use, the best way to save money on it is to need less of it. This can be achieved by saving water, managing your temperature control, or reducing heat loss in the home through good insulation and sealing.
The greatest impact in reducing the energy use and environmental footprint of your home can come from switching from using natural gas to using electricity instead. This switch can be done cost effectively. It is no secret though that electricity is a more costly source of energy than natural gas costs, so how can using electricity be called cost effective? Heat pumps have very high efficiencies, so they use so little electricity to produce heat.
Better Homes BC
Energystar – Seal Insulate – Do it Yourself
BCHydro – Insulation tips
I’ve seen gas furnaces with 99% efficiency, so how could a heat pump do much better?
Natural gas heaters have definitely improved a lot over the years. Even the best of natural gas heaters are less energy efficient than the worst of electric heaters. Electric baseboard heaters or space heaters that plug into a wall outlet turn 100% of the electricity they use into heat. Heat is the biproduct of any sort of inefficiency of things powered by electricity, so it really just isn’t possible for an electric heater to do worse than this. However, electric baseboard heaters are clearly more expensive to operate than even low efficiency natural gas heaters, so that means that the only way for electricity to be able to heat at a lower cost is to exceed 100%. This is what heat pumps do.
Heat pumps are essentially air conditioners that are also capable or working in reverse. Heat pumps take advantage of a couple properties of physical chemistry to move heat between two places instead of creating new heat (although some heat is created as a biproduct of the process). This heat can be taken from a cooler environment, such as the outdoors in the winter, and introduced into a warmer environment, (such as inside your home). Because the heat is moved and not created, less electrical energy is used than the actual amount of energy introduced into the warmer environment. This is how numbers greater than 100% can be observed. The industry uses the term “coefficient of performance” instead of a percentage, where 1 =is equivalent to 100% efficiency).
Heat pumps and cold weather
You may have heard that heat pumps don’t work in cold climates. Years ago, this was true, but unfortunately most people don’t realize how much the technology has improved. Outdated information persists on the internet so the answer to this can appear unclear.
Heat pumps can work effectively below even -30°C, and the technology is continuing to improve. Although the technology exists for this cold-weather operation, many heat pumps on the market are not equipped with it. Make sure to specify that you need a cold-weather heat pump, and make sure the contractor you hire is properly qualified and competent to select and install heat pumps. A contractor telling you that heat pumps don’t work in the cold should make you question their competence with heat pumps; you can find a competent and properly qualified installer of heat pumps here.
BCHydro
Cold Weather Heat Pumps
How and when a heat pump could fit into your life
The best case for getting a heat pump is if you want air conditioning. The heat pump will do everything an air conditioner can, but also heat in the winter at a low cost. You can keep your existing heating system as a backup too if you’d like. If you have an air conditioner already and it is due for replacement soon, consider installing a heat pump instead.
If air conditioning isn’t a priority for you, or you already have it and needn’t replace it soon, then your best opportunity to install a heat pump is when your heating system is reaching the end of its life. A cold-weather heat pump in place of a furnace or boiler will dramatically reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, but without costing more to run.
Heat pump water heaters also exist, and when your existing hot water system is reaching the end of its life (i.e., before it floods your house), this is the best opportunity to install one. These water heaters are the most technologically sophisticated, and therefore are more likely to have additional new features such as control from your smartphone, scheduling, and leak detection with automatic water shut-off.
Some considerations when replacing your heating system:
To get the heating system that you want, it is important to plan ahead and replace your heating system before it fails. Once your system fails, you will be at the mercy of whomever happens to be available to replace it, and to accept whatever they have readily available.
HVAC contractors specialize in the installation and maintenance of heating, cooling, and ventilation systems, but typically have little or no expertise in assessing how much energy your house requires to heat and cool. Contractors will typically use very basic means to estimate your energy needs such as matching the size of the existing units or estimating based only on the age and square footage of your home. Using this basic estimate, they will typically size the unit for the worst-case scenario so that the customer does not complain about insufficient heat, which is easy for the customer to notice and difficult for the contractor to rectify. This common method results in many heating systems being installed that are too large for what the home actually needs, particularly if there have been any energy efficiency improvements to the home since it was built. Units that are too large not only cost more to purchase and install, but also work less efficiently and reliably than a properly sized unit.
The actual energy needs of your home depend on many factors such as: the insulation in the walls and ceiling, how well the house is sealed, how many and how large the windows and doors are, how high the ceilings are, and how much sunlight enters the home, just to name a few. A true assessment requires a professional that has training in this area. The cost for you to have an Energy Advisor perform an energy assessment of your home may end up being recovered by paying less for your heating system when it is replaced. At the time of writing, the Government of Canada has a grant program for homeowners that will cover almost all of the cost of an energy assessment.
NRCAN Canada Greener Homes
What resources are there to help me do this or provide more information?
BCHydro Draft Proofing
BCHydro Heat Pumps
BCHydro Water Heaters