Now into its 3rd year, visitors to DailyHomeRenoTips.com in past month or so may have noticed an adjustment or two over on the left.

Quietly, and without any fanfare, we updates our previous 504 item collection of energy conservation and water saving ideas for the home. Now the total number reads 535+.

We have added the 30+ additional tips we received from our two prior giveaways this year to our existing collection.

So, officially or otherwise , we are announcing the 3rd edition of our Free Energy & Water Savings Guide for the home.

What does it contain?

The Guide includes 535+ different ways, some unique while others slight variations, to save money by reducing your home’s utility bills. Oh, and yes, by using less electricity, natural gas, home heating oil and clean water you also reduce your carbon footprint, the amount of polluting emissions your household generates, and reduce the amount of non-renewable resources.

Here is a summary of the energy and / or clean water saving tips in our updated Guide:

• 440+ which are easy and simple to do
• 300+ which cost absolutely no money to do
• 125+ which cost just a few dollars each to do

This huge collection of energy and clean water saving ideas (the largest we have found) includes the following, more focused sub-collections of tips:

• 115+ electricity conservation suggestions
• 110+ home heating ideas for the winter
•   80+ home cooling tips for the summer
•   80+ water conservation tips for inside the home
•   65+ water conservation tips for outside the home
•   25+ water heating saving suggestions
•   20+ cooking related ways to save energy
•   20+ long term ideas impacting all forms of energy as well as clean water

Further more, many of the ideas included in our comprehensive Guide overlap, meaning that you save in multiple ways. For example, reducing the duration of your shower both saves on your water bill and also saves on your hot water heating bill too

Now, teachers and head of families, I’m talking directly to you.

I realize that such a huge list can be more than a little challenging in knowing where to start or for any individual idea to be seen.

So, we will be soon to have one very, very brief article each day focusing on one of the 540+ energy or water saving idea. With so many suggestions it will take about a year and a half to get through them all.

However, as a teacher if you are looking for a classroom project for your students regarding energy or water conservation, you might want to have them visit our site or join our RSS feed so each day they will automatically receive a new tip, free. You can then have them do homework on how they would apply it in their own homes.

Heads of families might want to do the same, not waiting for your child’s school to teach your children the many life long lessons contained in our Guide.

So, starting September 1st, we will have a very, very brief article about one of these money saving, environment saving, ideas. This will be in addition to our regular articles on our home renovation, maintenance and energy conservation experiences.

Until then.

Yesterday we had Fitz of Clarke Basement Systems commence the repair to the crack in our home’s foundation wall by confirming the point and extent of the water leak.

Today we describe how he began the repair by confirming the location of the foundation wall crack inside the house.

Now remember, the FlexiSpan foundation wall crack repair system is unique to Basement Systems franchises whether in the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom.

So, the first thing Fitz did was to carefully remove the baseboard so we could reuse it.  In our case it was about 12 feet in length.

Then he proceeded to measure and then make his initial cut into the drywall.

The purpose of this initial drywall cut was to confirm the location of the crack on the inside of the foundation wall while minimizing the amount of drywall removed which would have to eventually be repair.

This was followed by removing cutting into the vapour barrier, removing the fibreglass insulation and the tar paper to expose the foundation wall and the crack on the inside.

Now that Fitz located the foundation wall crack on the inside, he then proceeded to cut away more of the drywall to fully expose the foundation wall crack and allow sufficient room to apply the FlexiSpan repair.

The good news was that no mold had occurred. Not on the tar paper, also not on the bottom of the 2 X 4 wood on the cement floor which served as the base of the wood frame for the drywall. Fitz removed this part of the wall frame for reasons which I would learn shortly.

Had there been evidence of mold, then Fitz told me he would have applied concrobium, which would have killed any mold on the wall.

Of course there was water damage to the fibreglass insulation as evidenced by the now black areas which you can see in the above pictures. When he had repaired the crack in the foundation wall and was repairing the hole in the drywall he would be using new insulation. 

Next time we begin with the first part of the water leak solution. And, no, it was not applying the FlexiSpan to the crack in the wall.

Yesterday, in our continuing review of our bathroom floor tiling project using SnapStone porcelain floor tiles, we discussed a few different aspects of the flexible grout.

Today I wanted to cover the approach taken with the floor vent.

This was the situation with the placement of the floor vent in the bathroom. As you can see in the picture below it is located very close to the wall just off to the side of the sink.

We made the decision to center as much as possible the floor tile over the vent. As you will see it was not exactly center. However, this decision meant that we would start with a full tile against the adjacent wall to leave a narrow piece of tile at the opposite end of the room.

We could have gone with the more typical approach to floor tiling; that being have the same width of tile at opposite ends of the floor. However, this would have meant a very narrow tile right by where the cut would be made for the floor vent. While these porcelain floor tiles are very strong, we were concerned that it might have weakened the tile leading to frequent cracks in the tile over time.

When it came to cutting the tile on top of the floor vent opening, Bennett did not cut first then lay the tile. Rather, he laid the tile, marking as you can see in the picture below, the opening needed for the floor vent.

Then, once all the floor tile was laid and grouted, he returned in a few days to make the cut. As this was spring time, there was no issue with the central force air furnace being on very often and all that hot air heating up the underside of the tile covering the floor vent.

It took him no time at all (OK, it took him about 5 minutes) using a simple hand miter with a circular blade, followed by a shop vac to get the dust, to cut the opening for the floor vent’s register. The end product looks like it was a perfect fit, because it was.

Next time, I want to write about the approach taken to deal with the situation where the top of the floor tile was taller than the top of the carpet from the adjacent room. It is such a simple approach one has to wonder why everyone does not know about and use this approach.

Good question.

When we undertook our front garden makeover project our intent was to have a relatively low maintenance garden.

That meant slow growing bushes and shrubs.

One type of evergreen shrubs included in our new front garden were Hills Yews. They are short evergreen shrubs which we are using in collections of three along the wall of our garage.

If one is not a full time gardening professional, which we are not, one has to rely on the advice of the person at the garden center.

So, after two years, how fast have they grown?

Well, take a look for yourself.

First we present two pictures from just after we planted these 6 shrubs back in the spring of 2008:

Now compare to two years later in the pictures below taken in the spring of 2010: 

Do you see a big difference? What you do see are all the light green sprouts in the 2010 pictures immediately above (taken 2 weeks ago) indicating that these Hills Yews have not finished growing yet this spring.  I’ll return in a few weeks so see the impact.

To me, these evergreen type shrubs are filling in nicely, but not too fast; just what I wanted.

We continue our review of the results achieved by the ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes program upon the completion of its third year. This program, which provides financial grants to incent Canadian households to undertake certain prescribed energy conservation renovations, was discontinued on its third anniversary on March 31, 2010. No more new participants are being accepted. Existing participating households have until March 31, 2011 to have their follow-up or second energy audit which will identify the energy conservation related financial grants the household will receive.

Now, even though the program is being discontinued, it is still worthwhile to review the results being achieved by the ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes program. For one thing, a similar type of program was recently announced by the Obama Federal Government in the United States. Second, other country governments throughout the world may be thinking about introducing similar programs. It would be nice if they had some sort of benchmark from the Canadian experience as they decide on the amount of the grants, the specific energy conservation home renovation items to be included in their programs, etc.

Another reason is that any government spending of any type should be reviewed by its citizens to determine its effectiveness.

Previously, over the past few days, we reviewed the other 3rd year anniversary data provided to us on the ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes program.

First, we reviewed both the amount of the grant payments made and the estimates in the reduction of polluting emissions achieved.

Then we examined the different types of energy conservation related home renovations which were recommended in the report from the initial energy efficiency assessment (i.e. energy audit) to those which were actually undertaken. 

Most recently the  percentage of participating homes which actually are completing the program.

Today, we want to examine the degree of energy efficiency achieved by homes which have completed the program.

By degree of energy efficiency, we mean the increase in the EnerGuide rating assigned to the participating homes at the start of the home’s program participation from the initial home energy audit, to the maximum EnerGuide rating the home could achieve from completing all of the energy conservation home renovations (again per the first energy audit report) upon completion and of course to the EnerGuide rating actually achieved by the home from the follow-up or second home energy audit.

Here is the EnerGuide rating achieved from the first energy efficient assessment on our home:

The following statistics were provided to us by Media Relations Assistant | Adjointe aux relations médias  of | de Natural Resources Canada | Resources Naturelles Canada, with our sincere thanks.

The following table compares the EnerGuide rating from the initial energy assessment, or energy audit, of participating homes in the ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes program (labeled ‘D’), compared to the maximum EnerGuide rating which could be achieved if the home undertook all of the energy conservation home renovation recommendations (labeled ‘U’) as as to the actual EnerGuide rating achieved from these homes from their follow-up energy assessment (labeled ‘E’) for all of Canada. For interest we have broken out these rating comparisons by the decade which the homes were constructed.

                               # of E&F Evals     D   / U  / E        Increase

Before 1945                   43,359            43 / 67 / 60             18

1945 to 1959                 44,920            56 / 72 / 67              11

1960 to 1969                 39,612            60 / 74 / 69                9

1970 to 1979                 61,088            63 / 75 / 71                8

1980 to 1989                 68,781            65 / 75 / 72                7

1990 to 1999                 29,353           68 / 76 / 74                 6

2000 to 2009                  6,953           71 / 78 / 77                 6 

See any interesting information from the above chart?

Now remember, the EnerGuide rating is the degree of energy efficiency, or inefficiency, of the home.

As one would expect the older the home the lower its EnerGuide rating as well as the greater amount of possible opportunities for energy conservation through various home renovations.

What also stands out to me is the large amount of increase in the actual EnerGuide rating achieved throughout each decade of data. Yes, only the homes constructed in the latter two decades came within 1 or 2 points of the maximum possible rating they could achieve. However the older homes did see significant increase in their ratings as well.

Too bad this program has been discontinued.

One has to think how the Canadian Federal Government will meet its international commitments to reduce its greenhouse emissions if it does not have one or more programs in place to increase the energy efficiency of Canadian homes.

Until next time. Yes, more statistical data from the 3 years of the ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes program to come.

The past two years has seen us provide detailed reviews of the electric, cordless, lawn mower from Linamar Consumer Products with the optional solar charging option. 

This lawn mower is sold throughout North America under the Solaris, Epic and Utopia brand names, each with slightly different finishing.

For historical purposes, here is the link to our review of the 2008 electric cordless lawn mower, its first year, including our use of the optional solar charging station to maximize our energy savings by using only electricity generated from the sun, for those interested.

What about our series of articles reviewing the 2009 model? You can see it in the picture below with the optional rear grass catcher.

As those who have already followed both series know, there were major changes between the 2008 and 2009 model years.

However, just before I was about to write our article summarizing our reviews from last year I received a request from a visitor to our site, DailyHomeRenoTips.com, to compare the 2009 model to the 2010 model.

So, I first tried to do my own research and went to the Solaris web site. I seemed as if it was the same as last year; same for the Epic and Utopia web sites as well.

I then contacted Linamar Consumer Products directly to ask them what was new for 2010 with any of the Solaris, Utopia or Epic brands.

The reply from Steven, their lead Customer Service representative, was that there was to be ’… no changes in design…’ or pricing in any of the three brands for 2010.

Of course, retailers may have their independent promotions during the year.

So, if you see a 2009 model on sale, all things being equal, buy it rather than waiting for a 2010 model to be available later in the year because, according to Steven, there are no design changes. So, this picture of our 2009 model, this time without the rear grass catcher below, is what you will also get for 2010.

With that in mind, what follows is the collection of articles we wrote last year on the 2009 model which are now equally applicable for 2010.

One aspect I did not get to last year was to setup the 2008 solar charging station. Life sometimes gets in the way.

As well, I have also received emails asking me how my Solaris lawn mower is performing, as well as its batteries, now one year later. Once the snow is gone from our lawn, the grass has started to grow I’ll return to revisit both aspects and let you know.

For now, here are the links to each article of our review of the 2009, and now also 2010, Solaris electric cordless lawn mower.

Part 1 – Looks Very Different from 2008

Part 2 – Status Indicator and Height Adjustment

 Part 3 – The Batteries and Recharging

 Part 4 – Terra Phase Brushless Electric Motor

 Part 5 – The Test Drive

Part 6 – 2008 vs 2009 (and now 2010) Model Comparison

Hopefully the weather cooperates and in a few week’s I’ll return to let you know how the 2009 model performed during its first use in 2010.

Bios Life Get Slim Challenge

I found out about this great eco friendly weight loss product from our reader, slimnancy42. It’s a fantastic way to shed off pounds and instead of using magic chemicals and mysterious bunk science, it’s based on the proven method of fiber based meal conditioning. Check out Bios Life, slimnancy42 lost over 80lbs in just over 6 months, and walked away with $20,000 in prize money.

The site is www.usebioslife.com for product and purchasing information, and www.getslimchallenge.com for information about the weight loss challenge!

Last winter we installed a solar air heater on the south wall of our home.

It was one way we were trying to do our part for the environment and have heat generated in our home without consuming any non-renewable resources like natural gas or home heating oil or electricity (generated from fossil fuels).

And, it would reduce our heating bill to save us money … albeit in the very long run.

However that is not the only way to achieve energy savings. Not by a long shot.

On weekend mornings, I have started to look for air leaks. We have started to write about them and will continue so you can perhaps look in the same areas where we found ours in case they are also in the same place as your home.

On one of these weekend mornings I was about to clean the air filter for our solar air heater. As I was going to unplug the air intake blower I felt cool air coming into the room. It was coming from the electrical outlet into which we had plugged the air intake blower, shown in the picture below:

This surprised me. so, I thought that I had simply forgotten to install an insulating gasket behind the electrical outlet cover.

So, I unplugged the outlet cover and was surprised to find that there was already an insulating gasket. However, part of the issue was that it did not cover the entire opening in the wall for the outlet.

In the picture above you can see opening on top and on the right of the outlet insulating gasket. So, I proceeded to use some of the left over DAPtex product to insulate the openings on the outside of the electric outlet. The product label even included a picture of this approach.

Once done, I then replaced the insulating cover and used a little bit more of the DAPtex sealant foam to cover the opening at the top and right as shown below.

Once done, I replaced the outlet cover and noticed a little cold air still coming in from the  plug openings. So, I simply installed one of those child proof electrical plug covers, as shown below.

The other electrical plug is used by the solar air heater air intake unit, so it will plugged as soon as we clean it’s air filter. And that is where we pick up things tomorrow.

During the first year of my personal campaign to cut energy costs in our 1,770 sq. foot town home in Fort Worth, Texas, I put up with a lot of teasing from our friends. One christened me the “Electricity Nazi” for obsessively turning off lights and unplugging gadgets. No one really believed that the little things I was doing would save enough money to be worth the trouble. They were wrong.

When I started, we were using 23,113 kWh per year, better than twice the national average of 10,656 kWh per year. By switching to CFL bulbs, altering my cooking methods, augmenting our cooling system with fans, tinting the windows in one room, and getting on top of bad habits, I had, by the end of 2006, lowered that figure to 20,817 kWh. While that was still far too much, with minimum effort I reduced our usage by 2,296 kWh and saved $724.41.

I was facing some unique challenges in going beyond these levels. I live with an elderly relative who is a stroke survivor and who is completely heat intolerant. North Texas frequently sees temperatures of 105 degrees and above in July and August — and our roof has zero shade. The climate control gods smiled on me in 2007, however, when our air conditioner compressor failed. I may be one of the few people who has ever been glad for a dead AC.

In consultation with a technician I trusted, we selected an Energy Star-rated replacement unit that was the right size for our space. It was a hefty upfront investment of more than $1,500, but the difference in our energy bills was even greater than my modest results from the previous year. By the end of 2007, we were down to 17,984 kWh, a drop of another  2,833 kWh. Over two years, I had successfully lowered our energy consumption by 5,129 kWh or roughly 20%.

Since 2007, we have continued to average about 18,000 kWh per year. I religiously record the figures every month from the statement. A lot of energy inefficiency is just giving in to bad habits. If I see the numbers going up, I know I’m being lazy, for instance leaving a lamp on in my home office instead of working by the light from the window aided by an LED task light, which is more than adequate. I really urge keeping monthly records as part of any effort to lower your electric bill. It keeps you accountable.

If I did not live with an older person who is painfully sensitive to heat and cold, I know I could drive these numbers down farther. What I have proven, however, is that the most simple changes can make a major difference and that initial success encourages even better behavior. Just recently friends helped me clean out and reorganize our garage with a surprising result.

Next week I’ll be donating an old refrigerator and freezer to Goodwill. They’ve been sitting in the garage drawing power for years. Why didn’t I get rid of them before? I have no good answer for that. Lethargy probably and ignorance definitely. I never bothered to look up the fact that most refrigerators use about 1,462 kWh a year! I suspect unplugging those two appliances will equal savings as large as those I saw in 2006 and 2007.

Rather than being upset with myself, I’ve taken this to be a lesson that when you think you’ve done everything you can do to save electricity — you haven’t. Every energy saving action counts and they all add up. It would have been more interesting to put up a residential wind turbine or solar collectors on the roof, but the small changes I could and did make shaved more than $1,200 a year off our electrical bill. That’s definitely worth the time and effort!

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Editor’s Note: This two part article is by a guest writer, Rana K. Williamson, a journalist and former history professor, lives and works in Fort Worth, Texas.  If you would like to write about your energy savings experience, just drop us an email.

Still looking for the right Christmas gift to brighten up your kitchen?

This might just be the ticket.

My friend Harvey needed a new faucet in his kitchen. As fortune would have it, DailyHomeRenoTips.com was asked if we would like to try the new Pilar kitchen faucet with the Touch-2-O technology which allows the faucet to be turned on and off by simply touching the faucet itself.

When I looked at the pictures and information from the Delta product web site, I immediately said ‘Yes, please.’

The faucet itself, product number 980T-SSSD-DST, is gorgeous as shown in the picture below once it was installed in Harvey’s kitchen.

It has all the bells and whistles one would want of a high end kitchen faucet, including Brilliance Stainless finish, lead free, new diamond-coated valve for protection against leaks and dripping which per the packaging lasts up to 10 times longer than the industry standard, one-piece construction eliminating joints and seals (a common source of leaks), and more.

There are three aspects I personally really like about this kitchen faucet.

First, it turns a full 180 degrees from one side to the other. I have used a lot of faucets in my prior homes which did not do this and caused frustration during its use.

Second, the sprayer is right from the faucet rather than from the back of the sink which makes it very convenient, as shown in the picture below where I pulled down just a little the sprayer part away from the faucet body:

Third, yes, the technology, which can be compared I guess to an iPhone where you simply touch the icon on the and an application starts, where you can optionally simply touch the faucet and the water turns on at what ever temperature setting you have placed the traditional lever residing to the right of the faucet. Here’s a video showing you the Pilar faucet’s Touch2O technology in action which is actually pretty cool:

Notice in that video that if your hands our dirty from preparing a meal you do not have to also get dirty the valve to turn the water on. Rather, you simply touch the faucet itself with a clean part of your hand or arm.

Now, we are getting a little ahead of ourselves, aren’t we? What about the installation?

Well, for a variety of circumstances, I was not able to personally install this faucet, not was Harvey. So, Harvey had Mike do the installation. 

Return tomorrow where we discuss the installation of this new faucet from Delta and how it is working for Harvey.