Transition Oakville: A Good Thing

Last evening, I was at a great meeting for Transition Oakville (goal of which is to make the town sustainable). The concept is to create a place to share experiences from setting up a vegetable garden and what to do with the excess produce, hooking up a water barrel, or creating a permeable driveway. There are going to be monthly meetings, which are open to all. Yesterdays meeting had 11 very knowledgeable and interesting people.

If you are interested in a subject which will help us reduce our carbon foot print, that residents can apply to their own lives, make a suggestion. If you are just interested in learning something, you'll be welcomed with open arms.

For further information is: http://www.transitionoakville.ca

Tankless Hot Water Heater: Did the conversion work?

During the past year, the new installation in our home was a gas tankless hot water heater. There were a couple of reasons my wife and I decided for tankless. My wife was getting sick of us running out of hot water, especially while she was in the shower. We heard that it would save gas, since it didn't need to maintain the water temperature in a tank. Finally, it saves space which is important to us, because our home is less then a 1000 sq ft.

So I looked at the gas bill for June 09 vs June 08 to see how things were looking. On a daily average for the month we were using 4.5 cubic metres/day vs 6.1 in the previous June. I noted that the temperature for the month was the same, and we had made no other adjustments. So we were saving about 1.6 cubic metres per day or 49 cubic metres per month. This translates into $20.82 per month or $250.00 per year. This kind of return is welcome, but the cost of the rental still puts us into a negative of $14 per month. So from a financial perspective it hasn't worked out yet.

Did the change help us to accomplish our goals? It provided my wife with hot showers; it saved space; it lowered our environmental imprint. So would I suggest it? From our families perspective the answer is yes; but if you are only doing it to save money, you'll be disappointed.

Why invest in a long term roof?

Any type of home can have a long term roof installed; however, from a financial perspective, some homes will not have a significant enough return on the initial investment. So before taking the leap consider the following:

1. Is the house a home that you intend to live in for next 20 to 50 years.

2. Is your house/home of a particular era which cause it to last the test of time.

3. Is your home in an area which will warrant this type of expense.

If you are wondering about the answers to any of these questions, speak to your local realtor. They should will give you guidance. So here are the basics about long term roofing selections.

Technology Snapshot & Benefits:

Slate, clay, concrete, and composite shingles, as well as metal roofing, offer longevity advantages over common asphalt-based shingles. Properly maintained, roofs made of slate, clay or composite shingles can easily last a century. Metal roofs in traditional "standing seam" or "batten seam" applications are available in terne (a thin mixture of tin and lead coating a carbon steel core panel) and now in terne-coated-stainless ( TCS, the same mixture covering a stainless steel core panel). Well-suited to cathedrals and institutional buildings, one manufacturer estimates a useful life of TCS roofing material to be about 500 years. All non-asphalt options provide freedom from reliance upon imported petroleum products.

Estimated Cost Savings:

Installed costs are nearly always greater than short-lifetime asphalt shingles. However, over the lifetime of the lasting roofing material, costs are usually lower than short-life alternatives. Over the span of a century, building owners may expect 4 to 5 roof replacements of asphalt shingles. The attendant labor and landfill costs are often several times that of a long-lasting roofing material. Also, landfill costs are expected to increase. For the homeowner who typically moves every five years, the real value of this measure is in its ability to increase resale value.

Issues:

Existing market bias towards short-term solutions tends to limit the range of roofing options presented to building owners. This has the effect of "locking-in" dependency on 1) products that rely on imported petroleum, and 2) the need for ever-increasing landfill capacity. Some regions may lack roofers and tradesmen skilled in the art of applying slate, metal, clay or composite roofing materials. Some regions may lack long-term landfill capacity.