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New incentives help homeowners and the environment

by: NC

(NC)�It just got easier for Canadians to do their part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change thanks to a new federal incentive that provides extra motivation for improving the energy efficiency of your home.

Beginning this fall, homeowners who undertake renovations may be eligible for an incentive of up to $3,348 if they can demonstrate that the project has made their home more energy efficient. The incentive is part of the EnerGuide for Houses Program, launched by Natural Resources Canada's Office of Energy Efficiency in 1998 to help homeowners identify and undertake energy efficiency upgrades.

With the EnerGuide for Houses service, an independent energy advisor visits the home, performs a basement-to-attic energy evaluation, calculates an energy efficiency rating and recommends measures to reduce energy consumption while maintaining a healthy living environment. After the homeowner has completed some or all of the recommended upgrades, the advisor performs a follow-up evaluation and determines the new energy efficiency rating.

Among the more commonly recommended improvements are caulking and weatherstripping around doors and windows, upgrading insulation and replacing old, inefficient heating systems. In addition to reducing energy bills and increasing comfort, such measures are good for the environment � the less energy a home consumes, the fewer greenhouse gas emissions it produces.

Now, the Government of Canada has introduced an incentive that will allow eligible homeowners to recoup some of their investment when they implement improvements recommended by an EnerGuide for Houses advisor. The amount of the incentive is calculated based on the home's rating before and after upgrades are completed � the greater the improvement, the larger the incentive.

The incentive is part of the government's strategy for implementing the Kyoto Protocol, under which Canada is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 6 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Homeowners who renovated after using the EnerGuide for Houses service achieve average energy savings of 32 percent and greenhouse gas reductions of 2.2 tonnes per year, putting these families well on their way to meeting the government's challenge to Canadians to reduce their personal production of greenhouse gases by one tonne per year.

For more information about the incentive program or to locate a licensed EnerGuide for Houses agent in your area, visit energuideforhouses.gc.ca or call 1 800 387-2000 (toll-free) or 995-2943 in the National Capital Region.

- News Canada

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News Canada

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Home Improvements � The Fun Stuff
by: Raynor James

Planning home improvements necessarily involves addressing numerous practical matters. That doesn�t mean you should ignore the fun stuff!

The Fun Stuff

The first thing to plan for in home improvements is the practical stuff. The second thing you need to talk to family members about is the fun stuff.

Most people have colors they like and colors they don�t like. They have things that interest them and things that don�t. Get your family to talk to you about those things. Each person�s bedroom, or bedroom area, should reflect his or her taste and interests.

A boy who likes green, football, and backpacking can easily have a sage green (it �reads� as more neutral than many shades of green if re-sale of your home is a concern) room with cream woodwork, cream interior shutters, and cream ceiling. Framed football posters and wilderness scenes might be pleasant. Bedding with a rustic motif (rows of stylized pine trees?) from L.L. Bean or Plow and Hearth would work right in. Add a touch or two of a bright color like red or yellow.

Does he need a desk in his room? A chest of drawers? A bookcase? Would he enjoy having a bulletin board? Even if they�re small, most rooms need at least three lamps so that illumination is general and even. The shades are usually best in warm, neutral colors. (Light coming through green shades tends to make people look sick.) Lamp shades should be level and the seams should be toward the wall so they�re not visible. When the bottom edge of most lamp shades in a room are the same height from the floor, the room tends to look serene and cohesive.

Hanging pictures usually look best if the bottom edges of the frames are the same height from the floor and level with each other, too. There are exceptions to this and every generalization of course. A grouping of pictures can have the bottom tier follow the �rule� while all of the other pictures are higher. A picture over a fireplace often looks good higher than the other pictures in the room.

Pictures usually look best when they have a relationship to furniture or an architectural feature. Pictures centered over a chest, bed, bookcase, or fireplace are good examples. Pictures don�t tend to look good if they�re scattered willy-nilly around a room, or if they�re up near the ceiling (unless they�re part of a grouping), or if the height at which they�re hung varies wildly with no rhyme nor reason.

A girl who loves pink, the ballet, and swimming can have woodwork the same cream as her brother�s while her walls are a soft pink (a pink with a hint of yellow in it tends to go well with cream), and her art work reflects her interests. If she loves to read, make sure she has a good reading lamp near her bed, or near a comfortable chair, or both.

A cream colored dust ruffle with widely spaced pink stripes and a quilted plaid coverlet in pink, green, yellow, and blue on a cream background might look nice. Add cream fabric window shades with large pink polka dots and I�ll bet she�ll smile.

The bigger point is to simply have fun with some of your home improvements. There is no need to look exclusively at practical matters.

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