There’s a way that Ontarians can help themselves to energy savings not widely publicized other than the net-metering options available.  I’ll detail that option more below.

Generally though, Ontarians interested in adding renewables to their home have to take on the brunt of the setup costs. From Ministry of Energy (Ontario) brochure

“”"Electricity consumers in Ontario who produce some of their own power may now take advantage of ‘net metering.’ The Ministry of Energy has filed a net metering regulation, which allows electricity customers who install their own renewable generation equipment to return electricity to the grid for credit. The new regulation eliminates inconsistencies across the province and requires that distributors permit net metering for all eligible projects that produce up to 500 kilowatts. Projects that produce electricity from clean sources such as water, wind, solar power and farm biomass are eligible.

The Ministry has produced a brochure to assist consumers who are interested in learning more about net metering.”"”

Interesting to note that even with a Green Act in place now and three years of net metering brochures, the process still requires you to call another three different sources to get started.  (Utility, Electricians and Gov’t).  Mmmm smell that paperwork!  Not yet an integrated or easy turn key solution.

Sure, go for it, the savings are certainly there, but ask along the way, why isn’t this online?  Why did I have to call you?  Are you old?  The Internet should be used as a focal point for examples, testimonials, and articles on how to size and certify along with timetable averages for completion for different systems to give people a general idea of what to expect.  I would have made it a magazine style with tips and tricks.  1-800 numbers seem to waste our time.  Sell it, don’t bury it!

Given a chance I’d definitely go for it.  Geothermal cooling alone would eliminate air conditioning costs.

Links follow:

http://www.mei.gov.on.ca/

http://www.mei.gov.on.ca/english/energy/renewable/ (click on Net Metering)

http://www.mei.gov.on.ca/english/pdf/renewable/NetMeteringBrochure.pdf

Part II: Paint the Roof White:

BEFORE you lay out the cashola though… and since you have to pay for a chunk of it anyway….  Paint the Roof White! … and you’ll find you didn’t need a big budget after all.

Paint the roof white to save an additional 20-30% off costs of cooling and heating across the board would be a whole lot easier than adding new energy capacity no matter where you live. (Of course this is not listed on the Ontario website).

Note that painting a roof white does not need to meet Utility, Electrician cashola monthly payments nor any political jamboree songs but simple Municipal safety guidelines.  Any roofing company or painting company renovator can do it, there are dozens of companies are they not?  We don’t need specialized and expensive approval from electricians and bureaucrats..yuck.

No, it turns out a white roof is the cheapest thing YOU CAN DO right now and laugh in the face of your electricity bill and city councillors.  Afterwards if you can by all means go and scale for a net-metering system.  Saving your money first though will allow you peace of mind and immediate improvement.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/obamas-climate-guru-paint-your-roof-white-1691209.html

“Now you smile, but if you look at all the buildings and make all the roofs white, and if you make the pavement a more concrete-type of colour than a black-type of colour, and you do this uniformly… It’s the equivalent of reducing the carbon emissions due to all the cars in the world by 11 years,” he said.

“It’s like you’ve just taken them off the road for 11 years. It’s actually geoengineering.”

General notes on cooling rooftops from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_roof

Finally I’ll mention a Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF) Study from 2001.  Here are your tax dollars at work showing how energy savings are studied and what they found.  Google rocks again.

http://epa.gov/heatisland/resources/pdf/toronto_energysavings.pdf

Ontario’s Green Act is seeking supply, but in doing so they are ignoring cutting demand.  Making houses all around us as powerplants is commendable, however this is not the only solution.

Cutting demand first with a white roof would put our energy needs into better context before we spend serious money on other opportunities in the Green Act. Save your money.

Cheers

Ontario to offer rebates for hybrid vehicles

The Toronto Star filters it’s comments and lately hasn’t allowed many articles to accept comments.  I made these earlier but now it’s been taken down.  Here are two comments I made at the time.  One’s a response to another poster so ignore the train references and the other refers to an Ontario solution:

why buy a new car at all?

isn’t $10,000 enough to convert a car over to electric without buying a new
one? If you have a small enough car, that would save you $30,000 then
you’re off gas entirely filling up at $5 a month and no more Ont gas taxes
haha. BTW trains don’t run on diesel, the fuel is used to generate
electricity for electric motors which are needed to run the train.
Electrifying the railways thus replaces the diesel required with little
modification to the trains. As well electricity is +90% efficient thus
would not be a drain on our resources and could be supplied locally rather
than importing diesel fuels. Source: Transport Revolutions: Moving People
and Freight without Oil (2007) www.torontopubliclibrary.ca

There’s a local solution, maybe you’d like to know?

BTW, Electrovaya of Brampton ONTARIO (http://electrovaya.ca/) makes an
equivalent Prius battery with nanotechnology into the size of a shoebox,
which of course they export since no one apparently wants them in Canada.
(Obama certainly wants them) With $10,000 you might instead be able to
convert your existing car, not waste even more energy buying a new one.
Solutions exist today but don’t tell the polly’s; they don’t want to know
and they certainly don’t want to tell you if they did. Lastly if it was
a local Canadian company. Don’t be afraid to check out the website. What is
our Premier babbling about again?

what are we defining here?

http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/article/663121

To have a tree canopy means defining space. There is no definition of space here, nothing gentle about the intentions of the trees in this photo. Only used to block the building view and are called ‘nature band-aids’ by Kunstler.

No canopy to protect you from the sun, only shrubs. Distraction for the win. Is there a commuter line connecting you to the front door? No stores for km in any direction. You better like walking a lot. Doesn’t matter, you’ll drive so often you’ll only peer at this park through the window.

Too many people occupying the same space, needing a car to live, mandates 100% energy dependency. Ironic as location has impressive passive solar potential. Add stores along the street level, demolition to shorten the building, and a redone park to make it a marketplace. Y’know, an OPEN place were people want to go, not trundle through or drive around. Something called a destination. Possible, but serious work during Peak Oil.

PostCarbon Rating: D

This morning drivers are upset at $1.03 a litre for gas in Toronto!  Um… this
isn’t bad.  If market forces with higher prices are supposed to help investment in alternative transportation and alternatives to cars on gas then we need higher prices so that we make those transitions.  Ask not for a lower price, ask for alternatives!

With enough people interested in saving money then there is a market for those alternatives even at twice the price.  But unfortunately market forces are not helping with human nature.  People want cheap gas all the time but as we enter the years of Peak Oil we will find precious little of it.   Even worse, our
dawdling now prevents the investments needed to create the alternatives we will need as prices really do rise.  We need time to plan ahead.

What happens when the price is $2 or $5 a litre?  Will people say to themselves that they should seek alternatives or will they just complain?  Sadly I think the latter.  Go Nissan and their all-electric car, go Electrovaya of Brampton making a Prius-equivalent battery into a shoebox.  We have the technology now.  We have the industry now.  What we don’t have is the appreciation of market signals.

Anything and anyone that continues to cloud those signals of change just means we will suffer moreso as gas prices really do rise.  You’re not going to boycott gasoline are you?  Not unless you’re willing to go 100% electric.  Wake up people.  Seek those alternatives.

What alternatives?  Really right now it’s only the compact car hybrid vehicle, Insight or Prius or others.  It’s not the SUV Hybrid which is not a solution.  The less weight the better for the battery to drive the car at low speeds.  This removes the stop-and-go inefficiencies of gas systems and the best bang for your ever increasing costs.

2010 plus will be the real alternatives though.  Nissan will be out with a 100% electric car.  Between 2010 and 2012 Ford/Magna will have it’s own electric car along with cars from China and India using Electrovaya components.  Europe has higher prices, so should be further along the customer demand curve for change as well.

How much of all that we will get here in Toronto it’s hard to say.  But if you want alternatives you’re going to have to shout for them!

Ask yourself at what price can you no longer drive?  If your price point is $3/litre then this is the time now to plan ahead to seek and make comfortable alternatives, not later when everybody is your competition.  Better yet, tell this to your car dealer.  Tell them at such-and-such price point you can no longer drive an all gas powered car and will be seeking alternatives at that point.

Ask for them now and stop complaining.  The industry is waiting for you.  But first you have to burst the price bubble and accept market forces.  It is then your responsibility to ask for alternatives, not cheap gas.

oh faceless joy

http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/article/641463

Eight floors is way too much for the energy density available, as five or lower would have saved massive needy energy inputs.  The facade is unwelcoming and there is no definition of stores on the ground.

I see far off to the left some red brick stone front with more character, five floors and a defined ground floor.  The glass condo part will need to be demolished, the rest of the block can be left alone with added rooftop garden with passive solar and geothermal to cover baseload.

This building is saved by having lots of access to sun and land but you can forget the looks. Possible that without the glass tophat the centre will be further demolished for nicer three-story row houses instead.

Post Carbon Rating: D

garage or jail?  housing without the stores = drab

housinghttp://www.yourhome.ca/homes/article/637253

3 stories perfect, but what of this building shows any character or humanity? Why are we celebrating this? They needed the colour windows to make it not look like a rundown garage or jail cell.

The facade for any dweller will get old pretty quickly with them guessing where they live everyday suffering from zero definition of space.   They’ll want to humanize it, but not with the amply provided concrete.  Seriously, how can it look any worse?  Some garden pots would help and a roof garden probably your only options.

How hard is it to put stores on the main floor, & two floors of housing above it?  The opportunity to create a real enjoyable street completely lost.

On the plus side, the 8 unit row has the smallest energy footprint of condos I’ve seen so far, & would directly benefit with geothermal heating & passive solar for a net-zero energy building. Some beautifying renovation only or at least a storefront mainfloor conversion is possible in version two.

Post Carbon Rating A

a part of the community

http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/article/633971

A model building: Suitable to site and not overwhelming

Can take full advantage of sunlight southern exposure for passive solar, and its integration into the slope gives maximum geothermal potential. Building already capable of generating more energy than it uses to send it back to the grid (net-metering) as a zero emisson dwelling. Thus residents benefit with progressively lower condo fees.

However a self-contained heated/cooled building might still require fewer residents, with the top floor for vegetable gardening, and that’s already doable here. Over 5 floors a no-no but given the site characteristics it might work out okay.

Pretty close to ideal and otherwise ready to maximize its energy potential right now. A top example and candidate.

Post Carbon Rating: B