Oh Dear, Look at What I Have Done: Lowered the heat.

   Image from: http://avhsenvironmentalclub.blogspot.com/2010/01/bulletin-green-tip-3-turn-down-your.html

     Here is a fact: living in a cold climate is not good for the planet. No matter how you look at it, those of us who live far from the equator use a huge amount of energy to heat our homes and keep ourselves comfortable in the winter. In order to find out the average room temperature of Canadian homes I turned towards tenant acts to see what the minimum temperatures were demanded by law. It turns out that in BC there is very little information about this, it seems that BC has no law governing temperatures and lets municipalities decided. Looking locally all I could find for Kelowna was a proposed by-law from 2002 and a draft resolution calling for a minimum temperature of 20 degrees Celsius, as far as I could find this has not passed. It appears that this minimum is in line with many municipalities in Ontario which must maintain residential properties at either 68 or 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

     These minimum standards are very important for ensuring that no renters must face a winter in the cold and have access to a safe environment which is warm enough to support a healthy life. I will go right out and say that I do not believe that anyone other than those with poor immune systems need to maintain such a high temperature in the winter. Maintaining a house at 20 Celsius allows one to comfortably lounge around in a t-shirt in blissful ignorance of the winter outside of their walls. That's great, and while were at it why don't we eat candy for every meal because it tastes better, never exercise because its too much work, and drink a pint of whisky everyday because it gives us that perky stride.

     Luckily for the planet, my landlord doesn't believe in paying to keep the house warm in the winter. We keep our thermostat set at 58 F during the day and 55 degrees at night. Yes you heard me, fifty-five, or around 12.4 degrees C. Now when the winter started up I wasn't too happy to hear that the house was going to be so cold all of the time but because the landlord is a friend and also lives in the same house in the same conditions, I was willing to give it a chance. 

     Here is what I've discovered: it isn't as bad as it sounds. I wear sweaters more, sometimes I wear long underwear under my jeans, and most importantly I started to use a small 900w space heater. Now think about it: I've been sitting at my desk in my room for about 2 hours, I have the space heater running and I'm comfortably sitting in jeans and a t-shirt as I write this. The rest of the house is about 55-58 F, but that's just fine, everyone else is away at work and I'm only using one room. So based on this strategy I only need to heat the room that I'm actually using rather than a big empty house, this not only saves us money on our energy bill but also dramatically reduces the carbon footprint of our house. Using this quick calculator available on WarmAir.net, lowering our thermostat reduces our energy consumption by around 30%. I'm not suggesting that everyone should start to turn their thermostats down as much as we do, I'm just trying to say that its possible and I adapted to it fast. If I can turn my heat down to 55 F than surely the average Canadian can manage to keep their thermostat set at around 65 F. According to calculator mentioned before turning the thermostat from 70 F to 65 F will result in a 12% decrease in energy use.

    As I said earlier, those of us who live in colder climates require much more energy than those who live closer to the equator. Look outside, its winter! It's cold! If were going to live here we need to make some sacrifices. I love keeping the thermostat at 75 F as much as anyone else but the truth is that we are depleting our planet of resources and polluting its atmosphere in order to keep out feet warm. Put on socks, go for a run, get a space heater and only heat the room you're using, get into the kitchen and cook something over that warm stove, if you're still cold than you're doing it wrong.