Cool ideas to beat the heat

The Ottawa Citizen
June 7, 2008
Patrick Langston

Cool ideas to beat the heat

Forewarned, you can forearm yourself in the battle to stay cool and green this summer.

1. Start with your air conditioning system. A power pig, it's a direct contributor to those hot, smoggy days.

A new, well-maintained air conditioning system is more energy efficient than an old, dirty one. You can go a step further with the Peaksaver program. Available through both Hydro Ottawa and Hydro One, it provides a free programmable thermostat that your power supplier can access remotely by radio frequency.

That way, if provincial power consumption hits excessive levels (in 2005, we had 12 days of public appeals to reduce energy use) your energy provider can turn up the temperature on your air conditioner by a degree or two.

The increase usually lasts only a couple of hours in the afternoon, you won't notice the difference, and it can help prevent a brownout. Homeowners can also access the thermostat by Internet, although they cannot override Hydro's remote commands.

Hydro Ottawa now has 5,000 customers on the system and last year won the Ontario Clean Air Alliance's Peak Buster award for reducing peak energy demand by more than seven per cent (since 1998, Ontario has been a peak energy user in summer, not winter, because of air conditioning).

"It's a great way to make a contribution and it doesn't really impact people, particularly if they work all day," says Linda Bruce, program manager for Hydro Ottawa's Conservation and Demand Management group. "And it's installed (for free) by a professional technician."

While the peaksaver program won't shave much off the $8 to $12 a day it costs to run a central air conditioner, the programmable thermostat can slice your winter energy bills by 10 to 20 per cent. To sign up, Hydro Ottawa customers can call 1-866-813-2226 or go to www.HydroOttawa.com; others should contact Hydro One (www.hydroonenetworks.com).

2 Electric fans offer an alternative to air conditioning and cost about 50 cents a day to run. Pointed directly at you, a fan will whisk away the internal body heat that your perspiration carries to the surface. Low-tech but high-impact.

You also need to keep your home from overheating during the day and allow it to cool naturally at night. Close windows and window coverings in the morning and keep them shut until the evening when it's cooler outside than in.

A Wireless Weather Station from Lee Valley (www.leevalley.com) will help: this $36.50, battery-powered gadget consists of a small outdoor monitor and an indoor digital reader that indicates the temperature in both places. The only drawback is that its default setting is Fahrenheit and the procedure for switching to Celsius is buried in the instruction manual.

3 Window film, which blocks the sun's ultraviolet rays, will slash your home's summer heat gain by up to 60 per cent, while also reducing heat loss in the winter. Installed cost is $6 and up per square foot; look under Window Tinting & Coating in the Yellow Pages.

Other cool strategies

- Keep lamps and televisions away from your thermostat: their heat will make your air conditioner work overtime.

- Wash clothes in cold water (a green move year-round: we've been doing it for 30 years and folks don't wrinkle their noses when we walk by).

- Run your dryer at night or use a clothesline.

- Use your dishwasher in the evening and air-dry the dishes.

- If you must use the stove on a hot day, turn on the exhaust fan instead of the air conditioner.