Green with envy

A $300,000 energy-efficient renovation has helped Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner’s family cut its natural gas bill by two-thirds and reduced electricity use to half the household average

When it came to renovating the family’s 100-year-old house in Parkdale, Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner put his money where his mouth is.

After spending $300,000 on the massive makeover, Schreiner and his wife Sandy Welsh saved 66 per cent on their natural gas bill in February over the same month last year.

“Everyone’s complaining about their energy bills are going up, but mine are going down,” says Schreiner, who was raised on a farm in Kansas and is hoping to be the first Green MPP in Ontario.

Aside from making a beautiful home they say was long overdue for improvements, it’s all about the street cred.

“For me, if I’m going around the province and talking about how we need green homes, it helps if I have a green home myself,” adds Schreiner.

With help from a designer, an energy consultant and a contractor, the three-storey house near Lansdowne and Queen, which the couple purchased nine years ago, was torn out to the walls.

Insulation was added, the basement waterproofed and everything built back up with energy-efficient systems for everything from heating to plumbing and lighting. But it ain’t easy being green. Getting the project off the ground took a lot of research.

“When all this started I only knew the politics of green buildings,” Schreiner admits.

That changed quickly as he scoured the Internet researching energy-efficient building techniques, materials and systems and weighing them against the family’s time and financial constraints to get the best bang for the buck.

“The information is not easily accessible and there’s competing information to sort through, but we were able to make it happen because I was determined,” he says.

“The two things people in construction told me are holding this back are information and financing.”

While there used to be a host of energy-efficiency programs for homeowners from governments and utilities, Schreiner says the only one he could find were discount coupons for LED light bulbs.

Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli said new conservation programs are in the works so utilities across Ontario like Toronto Hydro can tailor efforts to meet local needs, but there are more now for businesses to cut their electricity use.

“We want to get that at the consumer level, where people can bite into some substantive reductions.”

BERNARD WEIL PHOTOS/TORONTO STAR “If I’m . . . talking about how we need green homes, it helps if I have a green home myself,” says Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner.

Bright lights All lights are LED and dimmable, says Schreiner. “They use a fraction of the electricity, don’t contain mercury like compact fluorescents and last years longer.” Natural lighting is also a major feature in the house, which faces east and...

Rad radiators A new, compact but powerful boiler by Veissmann is mounted on the wall of the basement utility room, with insulated pipes leading outward to feed rads throughout the house. There is also a heat recovery ventilation system needed because...

Not your typical tub The plumbing required more planning than usual. A case in point: the heat recovery mechanism for waste water drain pipes from sinks, showers and tubs for just $1,500. “This is, obviously, separate from toilet drain pipes,”...

Riverbed recycling The star of the recycling show is the pine floors milled from logs salvaged from the bottom of the Ottawa River. “They send divers down by the old lumber mills,” Schreiner says, explaining why the strips of flooring are harder than...