EnerGuide’s New Label Proves Knowledge = Less Power!
By Corey McCloskey, Customer Response Team
We are a species of information gatherers. Our brains are incredible tools when it comes to data management: collecting information through our five senses, sifting through it all, deciding what’s important and what isn’t, and making appropriate decisions, all in the blink of an eye. It’s how we learn, it’s how we grow, and, in theory, how we get better, both individually and collectively, through shared knowledge. I’m not sure if my addiction to advanced hockey stats or min/maxing loadouts in the realm of video games has improved my quality of life, but I’m writing this blog today, so I must be doing something right!
We’ve evolved beyond sniffing dirt and playing with fire, and our methods of chronicling our individual learnings evolved right along with it. From cave paintings to stone tablets, feather pens to the printing press and, today, digital media, our ability to share collected information on the topics we know with those who yearn to know it have changed right along with our low-browed ancestors. Access to consumption of more information, faster, has never been easier, or more specific.
EnerGuide labels have evolved as well! (how’s that for an egregiously grandiose lead-in?) As a Cedarglen homeowner, you will receive an EnerGuide package, specifically tailored to your home, with the other documents at your Possession Inspection, or shortly thereafter. I’ve already introduced EnerGuide in a previous blog, where I mentioned the new rating scale they have adopted for their labels and reports. What’s changed? If I haven’t made it painfully clear just yet, the answer is simple: more information!
Aside from the obvious addition of colour and interesting looking things on the new label, the major change is the way your home is rated. The previous 0-100 scale (left example) uses a great deal of the same information, but the rating your home received lacked context, and made for poor comparisons. Using a completely fictional situation as an example, a 1600 square foot, semi-detached home, built to code, with favourable exposures could theoretically receive the same rating as a 6000 square foot walk-out in Springbank with some energy-efficiency upgrades. While the EnerGuide number is the same on both homes, Brendan Fraser’s Link could have figured out that they aren’t going to use the same energy, over the course of a year. Bonus points to those who get that 90’s drop without using Google!
The 72 on the right-hand label looks a lot like the 77 on the left, but they mean very different things. The numerical value on the new label is the estimated annual energy consumption of your home, measured in gigajoules per year, which gives you a tangible measurement. What’s more, the charts directly below the rating scale indicate the breakdown of fuel consumption in your home (electricity, natural gas, etc.), as well as a percentage-based breakdown of where that energy is consumed throughout your home.
The Homeowner Information Sheet, which accompanies the EnerGuide label, is the detailed report which further delves into the energy performance of your home. As anyone who has paid the bills through a Canadian winter will attest to, space heating consumes the most energy annually, so this sheet will give you specific data on where you lose heat in your home. No idea what an RSI value is? There’s a glossary included with the report, as these are uncharted waters for many, and there’s a whole sub-set of terms to go along with the bevy of information being thrown at you.
So now what? All of the information contained within the information sheet is based on a side-by-side comparison of your home to an identical home constructed to energy code, which I’ve also blogged about, in the past. From there, it’s very easy to analyze energy performance and make suggestions on where improvements can be made; while the averages used in these reports are based on generalizations, you can very easily pair this information with the data you receive with your utility bills, and make a plan to suit your and your family’s lifestyle.
Knowledge = Less Power!
Have a great weekend,
Cedarglen Homes