1. Become an Energy Super Hero!
Part 1: Zap Electricity Consumption
Become an Energy Super Hero!

2. Workshop Outline Introductions Presentation and Discussion
Overview of Efficiency Nova Scotia Programs
Energy Tools – Available at Your Library!
Energy Exploration
Discussion/Opportunities for your place
Workshop Evaluation

3. Presentation Outline Improving building envelope and reducing drafts
Efficiency heating and cooling
Reducing lighting and water use
Using appliances efficiently

4. Energy Saving Actions
One-time changes Example: changing a light bulb, motor or appliance to be more efficient. Repetitive practice Example: turning off equipment to conserve energy.
Changing your behaviour can lead to significant energy savings. Even if the only behaviour you change is “just turn it off”, that can save about $100/year in a residential home. (Efficiency NS, Electricity 101 Presentation)

5. Improving Building Envelope
BUILDING ENVELOPE : the exterior of your building that protects the interior from the elements. This includes the walls, roof and windows. Air leakage in the building envelope can be responsible for up to 45% of overall heat loss.
Stat from ENSC’s “Your Home Energy Assessment Guide: Building Enclosure Rebates”

6. Identify and seal drafts in windows, doors, electrical outlets, light switches, on exterior walls, pipe entry points, etc...
This works best on windy days when the pressure inside the building is different than outside the building.
The best way to locate leaks is to have a Blower Door Test – call Efficiency Nova Scotia to arrange to have one in your home.
If you are having difficulty locating leaks, you may want to conduct a basic building pressurization test to increase infiltration through cracks and leaks, making them easier to detect:
Turn off all combustion appliances such as gas burning furnaces and water heaters on a cool, very windy day.
Shut all windows, exterior doors, and fireplace flues.
Turn on all exhaust fans that blow air outside, such as your clothes dryer, bathroom fans, or stove vents, or use a large window fan to suck the air out of the rooms.
Light an incense stick and pass it around the edges of common leak sites. Wherever the smoke wavers or is sucked out of or blown into the room, there's a draft. You can also use a damp hand to locate leaks; any drafts will feel cool to your hand.
If you don't want to turn off your furnace, you can just turn on all your exhaust fans to depressurize your home.
Other air-leak detection methods include the following:
- Shining flashlight at night over all potential gaps while a partner observes the house from outside. Large cracks will show up as rays of light. Not a good way to detect small cracks.
- Shut a door or window on a dollar bill. If you can pull the dollar bill out without it dragging, you're losing energy.
Improving the building envelope

7. Other places to look for drafts:
Chimneys
Ceiling fans and light fixtures
Pipes and plumbing entering into walls
Attic hatches
Cable and telephone jacks/wiring
Air vents
Baseboards
Chimneys – keep the fireplace damper tightly closed
Ceiling fans and light fixtures – these might need to sealed from the attic, or with some blow-in insulation. Caulking can also be helpful.
Pipes and plumbing entering into walls – use calking around the hole.
Attic doors – use weather stripping to ensure that the attic doors shut firmly. Don’t forget that the attic will likely need some special attention since heat moves up and will exit through the attic. Slow it down with good attic insulation.
Cable and telephone jacks/wiring
Air vents
Baseboards
If you are having difficulty locating leaks, you may want to conduct a basic building pressurization test to increase infiltration through cracks and leaks, making them easier to detect:
Turn off all combustion appliances such as gas burning furnaces and water heaters on a cool, very windy day.
Shut all windows, exterior doors, and fireplace flues.
Turn on all exhaust fans that blow air outside, such as your clothes dryer, bathroom fans, or stove vents, or use a large window fan to suck the air out of the rooms.
Light an incense stick and pass it around the edges of common leak sites. Wherever the smoke wavers or is sucked out of or blown into the room, there's a draft. You can also use a damp hand to locate leaks; any drafts will feel cool to your hand.
If you don't want to turn off your furnace, you can just turn on all your exhaust fans to depressurize your home.
Other air-leak detection methods include the following:
Shining flashlight at night over all potential gaps while a partner observes the house from outside. Large cracks will show up as rays of light. Not a good way to detect small cracks.
Shut a door or window on a dollar bill. If you can pull the dollar bill out without it dragging, you're losing energy.

8. Seal the drafts with caulking and weatherproofing
Seal the drafts with caulking and weatherproofing. Winterize windows with shrink-able insulation film or magnetic windows.
Caulk your windows, weatherproof your doors
Can also improve insulation on window by adding shrinkable-insulation film, insulated curtains, magnetic interior storm windows, or bubble wrap.
Use caulking and weather-stripping to reduce your home heating needs by up to 10%. (Efficiency Nova Scotia Electricity 101)

9. Seal outlets and light switches with caulking and foam gaskets
Seal outlets and light switches with caulking and foam gaskets. Plug outlets with safety covers.
Seal up electrical outlets on exterior walls
Image of switching adding a foam gasket to an electrical outlet.
One outlet might not make a huge difference but all together, the outlets can add up to a whole the size of a basketball. This sealing is most useful on exterior walls, but in older buildings lacking in insulation it can be useful for interior walls too.
David Suzuki Commercial:

10. Efficient Heating and Cooling
With some simple adjustments and some changes in practices you can increase the efficiency of your heating and cooling system by 5% to 40%.
Stat from Institute for Building Efficiency.

11. Clean the filter of your heating and ventilation system regularly.
Image of removing filter from the EAC heater
Changing furnace filters every 3 months can improve performance by up to 10%.
Heating, Ventilation and Cooling System regulates the temperature and air quality in your building.
Have a professional do maintenance on our system at least once a year to ensure that everything is working as well as possible. The EAC had our HVAC inspector in who showed us how to clean the filter without soap, showed us where the outside vents were clogged, where to clean the indoor air exchange vents, and that we had our system set on winter setting all summer. And we thought we knew what we were doing!
Even if your home does not have an HVAC, keeping the the heaters and duct vents in your home clean of debris and dust will make your heating system function more efficiently.
Efficient Heating and Cooling

12. Install programmable thermostats and program them to suitable temperatures for the seasons.
Program your thermostat so that it does not go above 21 degrees in the winter and down to 16 degrees at night.
In the winter, for every degree that you turn down your thermostat over night (8 hours) you can save up to 2% on your heating bill. So if you turn down your thermostat by 10 degrees overnight, you can reduce your heating bill by 20%.
Also note that turning the thermostat up to 30 degrees when you want it to be 21, it will not make the room heat up faster.
Efficient Heating and Cooling

13. Dress for the weather. Consider keeping extra sweaters around for the winter.
The most innovative of technologies… the sweater!
Efficient Heating and Cooling
Image courtesy of remind/stockxchang.vf

14. Close the curtains when it’s hot and sunny, open them when it’s cold and sunny.
(unless they are insulated curtains)
This allows the sun to help warm your home and can save you up to 5% on your heating bill.
Efficient Heating and Cooling
Photo courtesy of David Castillo Dominici/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

15. Adjust the room thermostat accordingly in when the fan is on.
Open windows and use fans in the summer to circulate air instead of using an air conditioner.
Use fans as your first line of defense against summer heat. For example, an air conditioner can cost 15 times more to operate than a 60-watt ceiling fan. (Efficiency Nova Scotia, Energy 101 Workshop)
You can also use ceiling fans more efficiently:
Adjust the room thermostat accordingly in when the fan is on.
In the winter, have the fan turn clockwise (if you’re looking up at it) so that the hot air is pressed up and around the room.
In the summer, have the fan turn counter-clockwise (if you’re looking up at it) so that the air is circulated down creating a “wind chill”.
Turn off fan when not in the room.
Efficient Heating and Cooling

16. Improving lighting and water use
Stat from the Canadian office of energy efficiency -
Lighting accounts for about 11% of electricity use in Canadian homes.

17. Improving Lighting and Water Use
Make it easier to use fewer lights. Use task lighting and natural lighting.
Occupancy sensors outdoors (like security lights) can cut your lighting needs by almost half. Turning off the light will ALWAYS save energy.
Flicking a switch does not use electricity, leaving a light on does.
Improving Lighting and Water Use

18. Change your light bulbs to LED
Also put lamps in corners so that light distributes better.
How much money does one save with LEDs? $ – that’s comparing buying and powering W incandescents (~20,000 hrs worth of light) to the total cost power a 12W LED over its full lifetime (20,000 hrs).
Improving Lighting and Water Use

19. Keep your water heater at 54°C (below could increase bacteria growth, above is inefficient). Get a professional to do this. Install low-flow and cut-off showerheads and faucet aerators.
Consider installing an instant hot water heater. This means that the HWH will not even be using as much energy in the stand-by mode.
Also, if you do not get instant hot water heaters, turn your hot water off if you are leaving for more than 3 days. A water heater sitting in “standby” mode can use 4 kWh of electricity a day. (Efficiency Nova Scotia, Energy 101 Presentation)
Improving Lighting and Water Use

20. Install a hot water tank blanket and pipe insulation on the hot water pipes.
Improving Lighting and Water Use

21. Install low-flow and cut-off showerheads and faucet aerators.
Install a low-flow shower head to reduce hot water use by up to 30%.
Consider installing an instant hot water heater. This means that the Hot water heater will not even be using as much energy in the stand-by mode.
Also, if you do not get instant hot water heaters, turn your hot water off if you are leaving for more than 3 days. A water heater sitting in “standby” mode can use 4 kWh of electricity a day. (Efficiency Nova Scotia, Energy 101 Presentation)
Improving Lighting and Water Use

22. Place a bottle filled with water or a toilet tank bank or dam in the tank of your toilet.
Water use = electricity use, especially in NS.
Don’t use bricks because they will disintegrate, and be careful about placement so that it’s not in the way of the flushing mechanism.
Double check that it’s not already low flow before adding bottle of water or toilet tank bank. If using a plastic water bottle, add pebbles so that the bottle doesn’t float around.
Improving Lighting and Water Use

23. Appliances and Equipment
PHANTOM LOAD: The energy an appliance uses when it is “off”. Many appliances are using electricity even when they are turned off.

24. Appliances and Equipment
Measure the Power Usage of your appliance – measure the difference between on and off.
Dishwasher: use the air dry option and always run it when it’s full.
Estimate how much each appliance costs to run a month, post it, and reminders to turn it off.
Appliances and Equipment

25. What is a kWh ? kWh = kilowatt-hour.
One kWh is the amount of energy it takes to run a 1000 Watt electric kettle for one hour.
Supplying one kWh of electricity in Nova Scotia causes about 800 grams of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, and costs us about $0.15 on our electric bill, all charges and taxes included

26. How are Amps, Volts and Watts related ?
Amps (A) = electric current (flow of electrons).
Volts (V) = electromotive force (like pressure)
Watts (W) = power (energy per second)
Watts = Amps x Volts
Energy (kWh) = Watts x Time

27. How to calculate savings?
Energy (kWh)
= (Watts x Hours)/1000
Cost ($) = kWh * $/kWh
Example: 50 W on 24/7

28. How to calculate savings?
Energy (kWh)
= (Watts x Hours)/1000
Cost ($) = kWh * $/kWh
Example: 50 W on 24/7
50 W * 8760 h / 1000 W/kW
= 438 kWh * $/kWh
= $ per year

29. Use a power bar to turn off equipment that is not in use.
Using a power bar to reduce phantom load can save between $50 and $100/year.
When I measured how much energy the computer was monitor was using when it was “off”, it was about 2-10 W. By turning off the power bar you can reduce this phantom load to 0.
Power bars are very helpful for entertainment systems.
Appliances and Equipment
Reducing Phantom Load

30. Refrigerator checklist:
Is it older than ten years old?
Do you need this one on all year?
Check for leaks around the door.
Clean the condenser coils.
Give fridge 2-3 inches space on top, sides and behind
Keep it well-stocked but not too full.
Turn off the ice-maker
If the refrigerator is older than 10 years and still works then Efficiency Nova Scotia will come pick it up and pay you $30. This is to encourage you to purchase more energy efficient refrigerator (or not use a refrigerator at all!). There are rebates available for energy efficient fridges through Efficiency Nova Scotia
Some people keep a beer fridge for the summer and it’s not necessary to have it running during the whole year.
Leaks around the door can be tested by turning on a flashlight and putting it inside of the fridge then closing the door. If you can see the light coming out around the door, then the refrigerator is leaking and should have the door’s gasket cleaned or replaced.
Cleaning coils can improve its performance by up to 25%. (ENSC)
Giving the refrigerator space on all sides prevents it from over-heating.
Keeping it well stocked, even with containers of water, helps it work less hard to maintain a constant temperature.
Every time you open the refrigerator door, up to 30%of the cold air can escape. (
Appliances and Equipment
Reducing Phantom Load

31. Computer checklist Use energy saver settings. Do not use screen savers
Use sleep state if you leave for less than 30 min.
Power down if you leave for more than 30 minutes.
Use an LCD screen.
Connect devices to a power bar to turn off.
A laptop uses less energy than a desktop.
Modern computer equipment does not last longer if it is left on – Screen savers are not saving your screen!
It is estimated that without implementing energy saving behaviours and settings, just 35% of a computer’s energy goes towards operating it – the rest is used for when it’s not in use. ( Turning your computer off completely, using a power bar, can save you $100/year. (EfficiencyNS, Electricity 101)
A laptop typically uses about 20 W while a desktop typically uses about 60 W.
Appliances and Equipment
Reducing Phantom Load

32. Engage with the other people you live with
Engage with the other people you live with! Remind others and yourself how to save energy with stickers and friendly nudges. Have an energy-saving contest!

33. Thanks to: Efficiency Nova Scotia Halifax Libraries Image credits:
EAC Volunteer Sara Jellicoe for the audit photos
Juliaf on stockxchg (background image)
Remind on stockxchang.vf (clothing image)
David Castillo Dominici on FreeDigitalPhotos.net (curtain image)
Njaj on freedigitalphotos.net (building envelope)