Monday, July 9, 2007

Energy Efficiency in 1848

Our house was built in 1848 (plus lots of additions with unknown dates). Today the house will have an energy audit by a government approved company called S.H.E. Consultants - Sustainable Housing and Education Consultants - the only company in Nova Scotia which can determine if you qualify for government grants to improve your energy use. Since our only insulation is in the 2 bathrooms and the library, which Wayne has put in, it will be interesting to see what the consultant says. The process costs a couple of hundred dollars (for which I think we get an actual written report) and then we have 18 months to do any grant eligible work and get an auditor back (that's the hard part with only one firm in the province) to check that it was indeed done.

We have the insulation firm (Alstar from Bridgewater) on hold awaiting this audit - we're going with blown in cellulose, R40 in the attic and whatever the exterior walls will hold. The firm guarantees that it won't settle (how I don't know) and they will return during the winter with infra-red equipment to make sure they didn't miss any areas. So at least we should be much warmer next year on cool days and if we are here all year we shouldn't go broke paying for oil - the bill this year was $2400 to keep the temperature at 5C all winter, and the last year the previous owners were here (2001-02) they spent $6000 on heat, so it won't take long for insulation to pay for itself.

It will be interesting to see what other recommendations we get.

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