I was going through my stack of magazines and catalogs that I keep for references etc... and was curious to see what others are reading?  I'm going to change some of my subscriptions to online only, but some you like to have the physical reference material.

The catalog I've been browsing through lately is the newest arrival: Veseys Seeds.  I'm very fortunate to be a couple hours drive from Veseys.  They are located in York, Prince Edward Island, which is just East of New Brunswick.  My mother recommended them when I started gardening and told me my grand parents always bought their seeds and supplies through Veseys.  Veseys does extensive trial gardening on all seeds they offer and since they are in the same climate as me, I feel very confident in the experienced information they provide.  On that note, can't wait to put in my seed order for this year!

Mother Earth Newsis one of my favorite magazines out there and they've been around for a long long time.  I find they cover a wide range of topics that always seem to be on my "need to learn" list.  I will most likely subscribe to them online since I can browse, download and save articles I want to keep in my personal library.  I will most likely break down and buy the Mother Earth News CDs as well.  They contain38 years of the magazine published from 1970 to 2009.  This way I can have all the 8000+ articles at my finger tips ;o)

Urban Farm is a new magazine from the editors of Hobby Farms and Hobby Farm Home that came out in November 2009.  I was very excited to read through this mag as it is marketed directly to "Sustainable City Living".  I wrote a quick review on Urban Farm that you can check out so I won't go into much details here.  It will be interesting to see how the magazine evolves and I hope it will stick around as it delivers to a specific niche.

Home Power magazine is another one I really like for the Renewable Energy market.  They focus on solar, wind and mini-hydro products, designs and installs.  I love their buyer guides and particularly liked their "Off-Grid Inverter Guide" from their Sept 09 issue.  I find they always have a good mix of content between the different renewable energy systems available including up to date product testing and data.  I don't currently subscribe to Home Power yet, but an seriously thinking about it as I pick it up every time it comes out anyways.

Permaculturemagazine is a new one I picked up in November.  It's a UK based magazine (I picked it up at Chapters magazine rack) and is in their words "Inspiration for Sustainable Living".  I have to say I enjoyed the magazine and what caught my attention was the mix of articles such as: Sustainable Beekeeping, How to Catch and Store Water and Permaculture Principles Explained.  I read the Beekeeping article at the stand and was starting on "The Art of Reading the Landscape" when my wife said it was time to go, so into the basket it went.  I'll be picking up the Winter issue to read part 2 of Sustainable Beekeeping and Living Without Money (that would be nice eh?).

So that is what makes up my usual magazine purchases when I do make it out to Chapters for a book buying spree.  I know there are many others out there and they are all pushing for our $$.  I'd like to know what others are getting?  What magazines to you subcribe to for green living, gardening, renewable energy or any others?

While browsing my local Chapters store, I was delighted to see a new magazine: Urban Farm.  Flipping through the premiere issue I decided to pick it up along with my copy of Home Power.  The Urban Homestead movement is definitely picking up which is exemplified by a dedicated magazine.

Urban Farm magazine comes from the editors of Hobby Farms with a focus on those of us who live in the City and/or Suburbs.  Filled with DIY and articles about raising chickens, goats and bees, along with gardening, composting, raised beds and recipes... there is something for everyone. 

My favorite article in this premiere edition was "The Sustainable Live" by Lynda King.  The article is a great list of ways we can all do our part, large or small, to get on the path of living a more sustainable life in our (sub) urban environments.  You don't need an acre of land to start a raised bed garden, compost, power conservation, support local farmers and such.  The best message of the article is to "Start Small"... you don't need to change everything at once which is overwhelming.  Pick an area that is close to your heart and start there... nuf said!

Another of my favorites is "Beekeeping in the 'Burbs" by Susan M. Brackney.  This is a great introductory article for those of us who are facinated by the option of beekeeping and definately got my attention to do more research.  I've always been interested in beekeeping and do plan on introducing this to our homestead within the next 2 years.  We have a few other projects and many more hours of research on the subject before then.

There are many other great articles and DIY projects like self-irrigating planters, turning lawn to garden, recycling, composting, community gardens, etc... If the editors keep each issue packed with this much great info, it will be a must have for any (sub) urban farmer out there.   

Obviously i loved it... check it out... what do you think?

In other articles I've discussed that the first step to becoming more energy efficient and planning for renewable energy system implementation is to know exactly what you are consuming.  Once you are able to fully understand your consumption habits, it's easy to "pick the low hanging fruit" and make some rather drastic changes that are better for the environment and your wallet.

In our home, we've made some changes to reduce our energy consumption and have seen some encouraging results.  Our second step is now to pin point exactly where our current reduced electric loads are coming from and to fine tune them before planning for a renewable energy system implementation.  This is where research on Smart Electricity Monitors came into play.  For us, it came down to 3 choices:

Kill A Watt from P3 International is a single plug monitor that you can use to monitor and bench mark each 110v outlet and do all the calculations manually.  Although the cheapest option, not really a candidate for what we wanted to achieve as there is not "total home consumption" real-time monitoring, history to run reports and trending and the biggest downfall being it could not monitor 220v large appliances.  We still may purchase a couple of these are they are very affordable, have great reviews and can give you "at the plug" readings.

Cent-a-Meter was a close second as it is a home energy consumption model that is connected to your entrance electrical panel via CT clips and monitors real time electricity used.  It has a nice wireless receiver that you can bring around the house if you wish.  The cons of the product is it uses batteries for the sending unit and the receiver.  It provided the real-time data I was looking for but no software for archiving, trending etc...

T.E.D, The Energy Detective is the unit we actually purchased.  This unit has great reviews and bundled with the Footprints software, does everything I ever wanted and then some.  It does not require batteries, however it does use panel electricity to operate.  About .08cents a month according to the site.  It also comes with CT clips for easy installation and the receiver unit plugs into any wall outlet.  I purchased the additional software package Footprints so I can connect the receiver to a computer via USB and see a real-time dashboard chalk full of information including 13 month historic data retention. 

Stay tuned for a full product review on The Energy Detective once I receive and set it up to see if it stands up to it's claims on their website.  In the meantime check out this video review from Mavromatic which is very well done and detailed.

What electricity monitor do you have setup in your home?  Has it been of value?  Has it contributed to reducing your energy consumption?  Has it paid for itself?  Questions i'll be answering myself as well...

Courtesy of The Energy Detective

In our quest to lower our energy bill and in essence reduce our energy consumption, we completed a few list items with regards to hot water.  We installed a hot water tank insulation blanket, lowered the preset on the tank and ran insulation from the hot water tank to the faucets.

I've read that if your water heater is new you may not need an insulation blanket.  Rule of thumb seems to be if you place your hand on the water heater and feel warmth, then you will save money using a thermal blanket.  For the minimal cost of $20-$30 dollars I think it's a wise investment either way.  Wrapping the heater with an insulation blanket can reduce heat loss by up to 45% and save you approximately 4% to 8% in electricity cost to heat your water.  We plan on also sitting the tank on a rigid insulation foam board which is supposed to further reduce heat loss through the floor.  Another item we're looking at installing is Anti-Convection Valves, but still researching these to see if it makes sense.

Before we put the insulation blanket on the water heater we turned the temperature down to 120F.  It was preset to 145F and so far showering has not been a problem ;o)  This move not only helps save on energy, but makes our taps safer for our young son, win-win.

Last thing we did in this project was wrap the copper pipes with foam insulation.  There are a few choices of wraps, but we went with foam pipe wrap simply for the cost and ease of installation.  We hope to see a substantial return on investment.  Total cost was $25 for the insulation blanket and $15 in foam insulation.  The insulation blanket went on pretty easy with minor trim for the power cable.  We used Tyvek tape usually used for house wrap vapor barrier to attach the blanket together.  Tyvek is by far the best adhesive tape for this job, which was also used to keep the foam insulation together as well.

If you have an attic, chances are you have a substantial heat loss if your attic door or hatch is not properly sealed.  For most of us, the attic and attic doors are not the first item we think of when we think of heat loss.  Usual suspects are windows, doors and outside facing walls.  How many times do you go up to the attic in your house anyways?

We had an air leak test in our 30 year old home and although our attic was rated above average for insulation, the attic hatch or better described in our home as the sheet of plywood held up by four latches, was just as effective as a 24 square inch hole in the side of the house.  During our EnerGuide test, our poor excuse of an Attic Hatch was the third item on the list of offending items to address.

I could have just worked with the sheet of plywood and some weatherstripping, but I wanted to address the size of the hatch as well so I opted for an engineered hatch from the local hardware store.  The pre-fabricated attic hatch is built with a sturdy structured pine frame, one and a half inch thick insulated door with magnetic strip that keeps the door air tight against the accompanying magnetic weather stripping on the hatch frame.  This system works like the seal on a fridge door.  The weight of the door sitting on the magnetic weather strip keeps it nice and tight, but also easy to remove for access to the attic.  For the price, ease of installation and piece of mind, you cannot go wrong with one of these pre-fabricated units.  All that was needed was to cut the existing hole to 32 inches and the attic hatch fit snug between the rafters.  I used caulk and insulation foam to create a tight seal around the frame and the rafters.

This is a pretty easy upgrade and good bang for your buck.  The entire process should take approximately 2 hours from start to cleanup.   Basic hand tools and handyman knowledge is required, but I would not consider this out of anyone's league.  If you own a saw, hammer, drill, 3ft level and a measuring tape you should be good to go.  Don't forget to seal the deal, pun intended, with caulk and insulating foam after the hatch is level and securely attached.

If you are wondering what the number 1 and number 2 items on the EnerGuide to do list where: Basement insulation and replace old leaky windows and doors.  Windows and Doors have been replaced and we hope to move on to insulating the basement before Winter comes to Atlantic Canada ;o)

Until the next time... Keep it Green!