vidTO: Olivia Chow's Green House Tour

Very cool! It a great example of what can be done with any house to make it low cost and eco-friendly. They even paint the house green :)

That was awesome. Wow.

The part that grabbed my attention was when she mentioned her meter that goes backwards!

Great to see these M.P.'s take our environment seriously. I'd like to see more people considering these types of solutions and there be more tax credits/benefits from the government to encourage individuals to live GREEN!

I'd love to know just how much they save on energy costs compared to a non-greened house.

How many years or energy saving are required to make up for the costs of installing all of these extra green systems?

Also, what kind of condiditions are required and how often can the house create a surplus and feed power into the system?

Yeah, all you need to convert your house into some sort of museum to idealism is a combined salary of nearly $300,000 a year, zero expenses (taxpayers take care of that too) and a political agenda.

Lets hope they like it so much they go inside and never exit, freeing political discourse from their self-aggrandizing braying.

I live around the corner from that house. I've seen Jack Layton leave it a few times, but I didn't realize they lived there.

I believe there are some financial aid or tax cuts for making your house more energy efficient, but I don't know much about it.

Museum to idealism? She didn't say you had to do it all. Just replacing some light bulbs can make a difference.

grounded: You're bashing them for making good money, using it to do good things for the environment, and then incorporating these same green living initiatives into their party's political agenda?!

These are things ALL political leaders of ALL parties should be doing.

IMO, whether you're left or right, or somewhere in between, the environment and climate change should really be a priority.

jerrold:

I agree with your final comment. I'm not bashing the president and first lady of irrelevance for being environmentally motivated. My point is that the lemmings in the comments section think that this is a real alternative or policy choice that average people can attain, or that will have a noticable effect or impact on the issue. They remind me of the person who installed a windmill on his roof at a cost of $30,000 and said that it would pay for itself in the enery savings in 20 years. If you do a rate-of-return analysis, that $30,000 would be far better spent on research and development towards better energy efficiency or in establishing carbon markets etc. which give the polluters a real stake in reducing fossil fuel use. I loathe the self-righteousness of this couple and how it bleeds into their official party platform. The sticker cost of the conversion would be astronomical. Spending a small personal fortune to convert your house into a mall of solar power options is not a viable policy option and it is not commedable to advocate others to do so when the money would be far better spent at a macro level. In short, its obnoxious and irresponsible.

grounded,

There are various approaches to "saving the environment".

We can invest our money and faith in research led by governments and hope that a top-down approach reaches the citizens (via education, policy and regulation creation and enforcement, etc).

Alternatively, we can start now as citizens and begin a bottom-up approach by making small changes in our habits and homes that cumulatively and collectively make a large difference.

I find it highly commendable (and not at all irresponsible) that Chow and Layton are advocating BOTH.

commies

I think that's totally awesome! I would love to do something like that to my house. It may take time and money though. For now I have Bullfrog Power so at least all my electricity bills are going toward green energy:

http://www.bullfrogpower.com/

Thanks for all your comments about the video.

Our neighbourhood downtown has many examples of state of the art green installations.

Those living around the Art Gallery of Ontario may notice a small windmill on top of Professor Steve Mann's house. He has a solar awning, solar tables for his roof deck and during my tour of his house, also showed me solar shingles. Wow.

There is also the incredibly innovative project at the Acadia Co-op on Queen's Quay. They organized the largest installation of solar panels on a residential building anywhere in Toronto. They save over $8000 in hydro costs/year by generating their own hot water.

Any other good local examples out there?

Check out the Ottawa Citizen coverage of the video here:
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=450f4692-4afb-42ed-845a-38518ca4bb75&k=33757

I love the NDP.

My house would be perfect for solar and wind installations, however I don't own it. I have heard that you can purchase portable roll out solar panels for your roof for about $5,000. That's not a bad option. Bullfrog power is a great idea too.