With our Renovation Lessons for property owners just a few days away, Ronald Gagnon (Technical Director and Business Development at Collaboration Québec, Coop de Solidarité en Ingénierie et Construction) answers our questions about heating, ventilation, plumbing and electrical systems. He will also lead a workshop on these topics on February 15 and 17.
Over the past year, we’ve been spending a lot more time at home. What advice do you have for keeping our electricity bills from skyrocketing?
Unless you’re extremely diligent and aggressive about lowering the temperature in your home, spending an extra eight hours a day there will have very little impact on your energy bill. Using a computer for eight hours costs approximately $0.12, so 200 days of working from home over the course of a year will set you back a whopping $24.
When buying a house, what are the main things to check regarding electrical, heating and plumbing systems?
- Compliance with applicable codes and standards
- The overall condition of the system components
Can you share three or four practical tips for maintaining a property’s heating, ventilation, plumbing and electrical systems?
- Drain the domestic hot water tank for a few seconds every three months
- Replace washing machine hoses every five years
- Clean the dryer exhaust duct annually
- Replace or clean the filters in energy recovery ventilators (ERVs), heat recovery ventilators (HRVs), and heating and air conditioning units every three months
- If you have fuel-burning appliances (boilers, furnaces, etc.), have them inspected and adjusted annually
What sustainable solutions should we be looking to for the future?
- Low-tech solutions, improved insulation and higher-quality windows
- Properly sized and efficiently operated systems
- Choosing materials based on a more favourable life-cycle assessment
Thank you to Ronald Gagnon for answering our questions!
