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September 21, 2008
Energy savings for people like me (renters)
Posted by Nola Poirier
I live with my husband and our hound dog in a one-bedroom suite of a house in Vancouver. I’m always trying to conserve energy to reduce my environmental impact, but sometimes when I think about the things I need to do around my house, I’m met with what feels like a big hurdle: I rent.
I know there are still lots of ways I could reduce my energy use. In the Power Smart Green Guides there are many tips that involve behavioural change, not only equipment or structural changes. I’d like to fix my bad habits. I’ve already improved a lot of them. I turn my computer off at night, I take short showers and I turn lights out when I leave a room (even if my husband doesn’t – more on my struggles with this later), but I want to do more.
My house is pretty old and apparently years ago part of it caught on fire. It doesn’t all fit together tightly anymore. There are some gaps. In fact, I could probably get my mail carrier to push envelopes through the space between my living room window frame and the wall. I wish I was kidding.
I felt that improving the energy efficiency of this house was of out of my hands, until I saw that Team Power Smart is developing a way for people without BC Hydro accounts to join. It made me think about how much more I could do and made me curious to see their plans and offerings for people like me.
I wonder if my landlady would be interested in saving energy. I bet she’d at least be interested in saving on the energy bill. I am going to make a pledge: with all of you as my witnesses, I am going to talk to my landlady and try to get her to join Team Power Smart. If we all work together in trying to meet the 10% Team Power Smart target, we can share in the savings on our bill.
If I tell her that my husband and I will do our part to change energy wasting behaviours, maybe she’ll be more interested in making some small structural improvements. Even if she doesn’t join, I am going to figure out all the things I can do to become as energy efficient as I can. Check back in to see how I do.
Nola Poirier is a Vancouver-based freelance writer and a key contributor to bchydro.com’s Green Guides.
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Source: BC Hydro
