Earth Energy Because we live in a rural area many of us have enough land to install the horizontal pipes used to circulate water to absorb and carry the earth’s warmer or cooler temperatures for use in our homes.
Electricity In order to reduce our use of electricity, we began by understanding where our electricity comes from, how we use it, and how much we use. We needed to know if there are alternate sources of electricity.
Home Energy Conservation: This workshop addresses the Going Carbon Neutral objectives of Eden Mills looking at ways to identify energy use and by discussing some of the ways in which we can simply reduce our use of fossil fuels. Practical examples from some Eden Mills’ residents are included. View the first portion of the workshop here – contact us for a DVD of the complete workshop.
Priorities for Household Change: Richard Lay discusses the changes we can make in our own houses that will have the greatest impact. View the first portion of the interview here – contact us for a DVD of the complete interview.
A Good House I – Home Energy Conservation In order to conserve energy at home, we began to learn just how to make a house work efficiently from a heating/cooling point of view. We looked at some examples of Villagers who had succeeded in reducing household energy costs significantly without costly or dramatic changes. Workshop guest Don Eaton described A Good House. View the first portion of the workshop here – contact us for a DVD of the complete workshop.
A Good House II – Home Energy Conservation We invited Don Eaton back to go into more nitty-gritty on home energy conservation. He and Brent Cooper (Registered Home Inspector & Certified Energy Advisor) walked us through basements, peered into attics, dug out our foundations and compared insulation values in detail. We don’t recommend making change with an eye to energy-efficiency without a look at this very practical video. View the first portion of the workshop here – contact us for a DVD of the complete workshop.
The Geography of Hope Inspiration is key to keeping our spirits up as we face the very real challenges of going carbon neutral. We are constantly on the look-out for ideas and successfully implemented strategies. Canadian writer Chris Turner came to the Village to make a presentation in November 2008. His book, The Geography of Hope, describes innovative and forward-looking projects from around the world – both grassroots and governmental. View the first portion of the workshop, or the interview – contact us for a DVD of the complete workshop.
Wood and Bio-Mass Heating Wood is the most ancient source of heating. Wood and biomass products are also fuelling leading- edge energy technologies. Wood/biomass can be a renewable energy source (heating/cooking) for the home with very low emissions. It can also be carbon neutral and economical! View the first portion of the workshop here – contact us for a DVD of the complete workshop.
Solar Water and Photo Voltaic Energy for your Home Our timing was amazing. We had invited experts in solar energy to give a workshop just at the same time that the Ontario Government had launched an incentive program for small solar arrays to feed into the provincial power grid. We learned how we can harness the sun to lower both our energy bills and CO2 emissions. We learned about the government programs make it possible that these ‘green’ technologies might just be the best investment that we could make. We learned enough about the technology to help us decide about taking this step towards carbon neutrality. View the first portion of the workshop here – contact us for a DVD of the complete workshop.
Local, Sustainable Food: Food is always a big part of our conversation about going carbon neutral. Although we live in a rural community, we find that much of the food we buy comes from hundreds, if not thousands of kilometres away, and we drive some distance to purchase it. In this workshop we began to explore the possibilities of local sustainable food and cooperative growing/buying. Martha-Gay Scroggins joined us from the University of Guelph to share some of her experiences. View the first portion of the workshop here – contact us for a DVD of the complete workshop.
Food Preservation: To preserve the best of our growing season, to have locally grown, even our very own, produce on hand all year round, and to reduce our need to drive to purchase food, we thought we would learn about preserving food – through de-hydration, freezing and canning. Three experts from the Village were able to demonstrate precisely how to go about it! View the first portion of the workshop here – contact us for a DVD of the complete workshop.
Transportation: Travel contributes more to our household footprints than anything else. Local car travel is part of our daily village life for school, for work, for cultural life and for shopping. There is no public transportation available in Eden Mills, and in many other rural communities. We got together to begin to investigate ways to share and get our heavy carbon feet off the gas pedal! View the first portion of the workshop here – contact us for a DVD of the complete workshop. Summary of Transportation Workshop Participant Ideas.
The Old Stable: Many of the homes in this old Village of Eden Mills are built on old foundations, stretched from earlier shapes. The Old Stable on Barden Street is no exception. Local resident and engineer Richard Lay shares his expertise on retrofitting older homes to much higher energy-efficiency. He has purchased and upgraded the Old Stable and addresses everything from foundation excavation to humus toilets! View the first portion of the workshop here – contact us for a DVD of the complete workshop.