Cornwall ON – News that should shock us all out of our complacency, (but probably won’t) came out last week – China is now the NUMBER ONE global energy consumer, surpassing the United States, which has held that position for the last century or more. According to the latest report from the International Energy Agency [...]
Cornwall ON – As we saw in the previous article, Peak Oil is something that will happen, whether we like it or not. No politician or government can stop it, and no amount of denial can stop it. It will happen, period. The world’s three largest oil consumers are the US, Europe, and China and [...]
Cornwall ON – The Government of Ontario operates quite a nice news room on its website, highlighting some of the events happening around the province. It’s designed particularly for members of the press. It also has a service which will email press releases, media events including cabinet ministers, etc. I subscribe to this service. Of [...]
Cornwall ON – Following the Harper government’s unprecedented lead in cancelling its part of the ecoEnergy refit program last March, a year ahead of schedule, the McGuinty Liberal government has announced it is cutting some of the rates paid to producers under the province’s MicroFIT program. Until just recently, the province was guaranteeing a price [...]
What is “Peak Oil”? I have referred to Peak Oil several times in earlier columns, so I think now I should go into a little more depth on the subject, and explain exactly what Peak Oil really is. Oil is created deep under the earth from dead animal life (mostly plankton) dating from the dinosaur [...]
Electric Storage Heaters Come to Sudbury by Richard Komorowski Cornwall ON – Most of Ontario, with the notable exception of Cornwall, will be using Smart Meters by the end of this year. The reason given for the conversion to Smart Meters is to balance the electric load on the Ontario grid and generating facilities. If [...]
No Adverse Health Effect from Wind Turbines by Richard Komorowski Cornwall ON – The scientific evidence does not demonstrate any direct causal link between wind turbine noise and adverse health effects, according to a new report from Dr. Arlene King, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health. The report, published today, was prepared by Dr. King, [...]
Towards a Greener Ontario – Provincial Government Supports New Solar Technologies by Richard Komorowski Cornwall ON – The Ontario Government today announced that it is supporting Morgan Solar Inc. to the tune of $1.86 million to help the company start commercial production of new, highly innovative solar electricity generating panels. The panels use a radically new [...]
US Congress Votes in Favour of Upgrading US Homes Cornwall ON – Recently the Harper Government suddenly cancelled the ecoENERGY Retrofit Program, which was designed to help homeowners and landlords upgrade the energy efficiency of their homes. Among things which were eligible for a grant were energy efficient furnaces and hot water heaters, energy efficient [...]
Insulating the Basement Cornwall ON – The average basement typically accounts for a major heat loss unless it is properly insulated. The good news is that a poured concrete basement (as opposed to concrete block or field stone) can be easily and effectively insulated by the homeowner. The first and most important step is to [...]
Insulating your Attic – Part 2 by Richard Komorowski Cornwall ON – At the end of the last article, I promised to deal with basement insulation. However, because of space and time constraints, I left a lot unsaid about insulating the attic. Last time, we dealt mostly with fibreglass insulation, which is relatively cost effective, and [...]
Insulation – Part 2 Proper insulation is probably the most important factor in staying warm at an affordable cost. There are four basic types of insulation used in construction today: fibreglass, cellulose, rigid foam sheets, and spray foams. Each of these can provide a cost-effective solution towards insulating your home and insulating your wallet from energy [...]
Insulation There are lots of ways of looking at your home, e.g. “Home is where the heart is”, “Home Sweet Home”, and so on. For many of us, our home is the biggest single financial investment we’ll ever make, so it had better be a good one. For the engineer or building contractor, a home [...]
Houses without Furnaces So far we’ve been quite lucky – the fall has been mild, and it hasn’t been until the last few days that winter has really struck. However, with all the white stuff on the ground, temperatures are only going to fall, and our heating bills are only going to rise. In the [...]
Munich Takes the Initiative Canada, and North America as a whole, have always lagged behind the Europeans regarding energy efficiency. Perhaps it’s because we’ve had it too cheap for too long. As we’ve never had to pay European prices for oil, gas and electricity, we don’t appreciate the true value of what we have, and [...]
by Richard Komorowski: The Future of Cornwall As everyone in the city knows (often to their own personal cost), Cornwall is going through economic hard times. The future may look bright, but at the speed we are going, that future is a long way away, and other events might overtake us first. As I mentioned [...]
Cornwall Council Ignores Green Option – Will Continue to Plunder Taxpayers Progress continues on Mayor Kaneb Drive, the new road between Second Street East and Marlowe. This week, the street lights were installed. Last month, I suggested in this column that the city install LED streetlights on this new road, which would have saved taxpayers [...]
2012 – It’s only a Myth Today, as Canadians thanked their veterans for their sacrifices during the World Wars, Korea, UN Peacekeeping duties, and Afghanistan, similar ceremonies took place throughout the world. In a historic event in Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy noted that not only did French children cry for their lost fathers, but German [...]
