electric-baseboard-heater / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

Noisy baseboard heaters -yeah, it's a thing... Over the years we’ve had many questions about ticking, humming, popping or even banging or clicking noises coming from electric baseboard heaters or hot water heated baseboard heaters. The main complaint is that they are loud enough to wake people up – or subtle enough to ...

Is electric heating eco-friendly? Determining whether or not electricity is an efficient and ecologically responsible means to heat a home should include the initial electricity production as well. Burning fossil fuels to fire electric power generation is only around 30-60% efficient. There is also significant loss fro...

Enter the Scrooser. The Scrooser is a German engineered electric scooter / e-bike with a top speed of 24 km (15 mph) and a range of 35.5 km (22 miles). It works with an Impulse Drive that is literally kickstarted by it's rider as the engine engages when the scooter reaches speeds over 3 km per hour.  The Scrooser no...

  Solar thermal panels in cold climates are at risk of freezing in winter, so in the North, we use a glycol mix as a heat transfer fluid. This prevents panels from freezing but introduces new problems in the summer months when they are at risk of overheating.  There are two main types of residential solar thermal heate...

Electric heating is the best option in Quebec. The downside? Winter peaks, where during cold winter days, the grid can become overloaded. Bi-energy heating systems address this problem by using another energy source, which unfortunately is often a fossil fuel. To reduce GHGs and meet environmental targets, fossil fuels...

There is no question that the best way to lower emissions as we scurry about a city is to travel by foot, bike or public transportation, yet it’s unlikely we will see the end of the personal vehicle anytime soon. Transit would need to become much more extensive and gas much more costly for us to see any significant red...

We found this video at Whole Systems Design, a New England based company who identify, design, and develop human habitats. In their own words from their website : "We design and implement regenerative food, fuel, and shelter systems that operate on current solar energy. These are homesteads, farms and schools fit for a...

There are many manufacturers of heat pump water heaters on the market, which, rather than heating water with an electric coil as a normal electric hot water tank does, employ an evaporator to extract heat from the air (either interior or exterior) and use it to make hot water. The byproduct of an air-to-water heat pump...

As someone who heats his home partly with firewood, I am aware of the ecological impact, as well as the impact on air quality inside my home and for my downwind neighbours. I live in a rural area of Quebec, and my guilt is assuaged somewhat by the fact that easily half of my surrounding neighbours also heat with wood. ...

Any of us who've owned gas powered vehicles over the years know how convenient it is to be able to jump in, turn it on, make a quick assessment of the gas level and how far we're going and get on the road knowing that we have enough fuel for the journey, or that we can get what we need with a quick stop en-route. The t...

Buying an electric car (or EV) is on the increase For a lot of people though there's a nagging question in the back of everyone’s mind - When is the right time to buy an electric vehicle and which is the best EV? Over decades, and even more so over the last few years, the purchase prices of EV's continue to drop, gover...