Saturday, March 28, 2009

Eco Artists

Jayne Lindskog of Ecoscape has finalized some sketches for our green deck area and Laura Hale the artist in residence at the Barr Colony Heritage Centre has made great progress with our exterior facade. Things are really falling into place and these ladies have done a great job.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Lloydminster Showcase

Hey! We're down at the Exhibition Grounds in Lloydminster at the annual Showcase. We have a stage and some information on our suppliers and trades. Our Eco 6 stage will be featuring three speakers on the following topics:

1. super insulating the building envelope - PFM Engineering
2. green parking - Expocrete
3. green roofs - Carlisle Syntec, Harty Roofing

See you there. Watch for updates throughout the weekend.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

You're right from.....


"you're right from your side an' i'm right from mine.......we're both just one to many mornings and a thousand miles behind"
How can a guy this young write stuff like that. It's just not fair.
Speaking of not being fair.... you know what's not fair? People looking at you and laughing about the payback on your eco purchases. Well guess what I have a response to that.
To me its like the difference between a chuckle at an off color joke and the joy you have when you hold one of your grand children in your arms. We're choosing to be on the "holding in the arms" end of the spectrum.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

I am the Egg man you are the Walrus

"The time has come the walrus said to talk of many things"

So now, dear Saskatchewan MLA's, its time to talk about the Ontario iniative and how you might respond to it. I'd appreciate comments from someone out there in the Saskatchewan political universe.

Morgan Solar is a cutting edge company in Ontario. They have developed some very innovative products that will soon be on the market. Here's their perspective on the program. It's well worth the read.

http://www.morgansolar.com/blog/2009/03/13/new-ontario-feed-in-tariff-rates-for-solar-energy/

Today its cool to be Green

Happy St. Patrick's day! The original Greenpeacer? Perhaps.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Ontar - i - o Hurries Hard

Hey! Who would of thunk! Me cheering for Ontario. Well I'm not in curling - but in terms of a forward looking solar policy. Go Ontario....go Ontario. To say the least, a pretty significant policy for the promotion of solar energy.

Tyler Hamilton of the Toronto Star follows the energy beat. His articles are great and he also has a great blog - Cleanbreak. Check out this article on the Ontario solar policy:

http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/600018


http://www.cleanbreak.ca/

Window Coverings

Hunter Douglas has a pretty impressive window covering - Duette Architella. If their numbers are accurate they offer R values of up to 7.18 to the R values of your windows. For a breakdown on their different models follow this link: http://www.blindalley.com/portfolios/hunterdouglas/portfolioslarge/duetteenergyefficiency.html

Hunter Douglas is represented in Lloydminster by Decorators Den - Dell Dyck and Bonnie Armstrong, 306-825-2478

Hurry hard, hurry haaaaaaaaaaard

Well it was a great weekend in Calgary. Caught the semi final at the Brier. So now it's "hurry hard" for this project. We had a very good visit with our solar PV and solar Thermal supplier and hopefully we will have the details for that portion of the project finalized by the end of the month.

As well, we are getting close to finalizing the details on the green roof portion of the project.

Two other important events to report:

1. we met with Conrad Norbert at his Net Zero house in Edmonton. What a great visit. I'm hoping to have some links to his project soon.

2. Ontario has just made a very important announcement regarding solar power. Details in a future post.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Calgary here we come

I know this blog has been a bit lame lately. Primarily we have been waiting for the plans to be finalized, WHICH THEY ARE NOW. Therefore things should be heating up substantially. Ruth and I will be visiting a photovoltaic supply company, our green roof people and an eco store in Calgary on Friday. I'm hoping we can finalize our dealings in that regard.

When we get back - the heat draw on the building will be completed and we can get down to the details on our heating requirements and options. So stay tuned. Don't bail out. Things are going to get very interesting.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

this cute little guy


What has this cute little guy got to do with the project?
Stay tuned. As it turns out he's a very important critter.