Huron Expositor, 2007-07-25, Page 10Page 10 The Huron Expositor • July 25, 2007
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News
New Seaforth couple reduces their environmental impact
John and Dorothy MacDonald curb energy consumption in new home with four choices
Aaron Jacklin
John and Dorothy
MacDonald have gone the
extra mile, and then some, to
minimize their impact 'on the
environment.
"We had a water heat pump
put in when we built the
house and I guess 95 per cent
or higher of all the lights I've
changed to compact floures-
cents," he says. "I've bought a
battery lawn mower and I've
just got a Civic hybrid."
MacDonald says he had a
water heat pump in the last
house he lived in.
When he put the original
water heater in that house
about 11 years ago, he was
replacing an oil furnace.
"The winter before I put it
in, I put in about $3,000
worth of oil," he says, noting
that the winter after he put
the water heat pump in,
which runs on electricity, his
electricity bill was up $1,100
over the year.
"So, from $3,000 to $1,100,"
he says. "That's quite a sav-
ing."
He and his wife Dorothy
just moved in to a new house
in the Bridges of Seaforth
subdivision a couple months
ago, so he doesn't know what
his electrical bill is going to
be this winter, but
MacDonald hopes it'll be less.
"I have all the lights
changed," he says, "it's a
slightly smaller house and
better insulated than the old
one was."
MacDonald says the heat
pump is keeping the house at
a "nice, even 75."
"It does air conditioning
too," he says. "In the winter
time it takes the heat out of
the ground and in the sum-
mer it puts the heat from the
house back in to the ground."
He explains there are four
holes, each 165 feet deep,
with water pipes running into
and out of them. A pump dri-
ves water through the pipes
all the time and back into
what looks like an ordinary
furnace.
"A water heat pump furnace
works just like a refrigera-
tor," he says, noting that
while a refrigerator takes
heat out of the refrigerator
and into the room, this takes
the heat out of the water.
"The water is only about 50
degrees or so, constantly, all
year round. It takes about 10
degrees out of the water .. .
and throws that 10 degrees of
heat into the house."
In the summer time, it
works just the opposite.
"It heats the water up, the
water goes out into the
ground, cools down again
and comes back and picks up
the heat again from the
house."
MacDonald says that at
about $29,000, the system is
pretty expensive to put in.
Since the people who built
the house didn't have to put
in a regular furnace, they
took $6,500 off the price of
the house, which MacDonald
put toward the heat pump.
"Then, because the govern-
ment is giving money back,
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Aaron Jacklin photo
John MacDonald gestures at the water pipes that disappear
into his basement floor where the water circulates through
deep holes in the ground to cool. They're hooked up to his
water heat pump, turning his house into a giant refrigerator.
you get your GST back. I
think I'm getting about
$1,400 back for that, so it
brings the price down a
bit."
He says that $1,400 is on
the water heat pump itself
and not on the piping.
"For choosing a water
heat pump, they give you
back the GST on that."
MacDonald says it took
him a day or two to
change out the light bulbs
in his house.
"I replaced about 50, I
guess," he says. "I
replaced every lightbulb in
the house except the chan-
delier which has little wee
things you can't replace
and one other chandelier
in the bedroom which only
has one little light in it."
MacDonald credits his
environmental concious-
ness to growing up during
the depression.
"We just always tried to
conserve as much as we
could, live as frugally as
we could in those days," he
says. "I guess a lot of peo-
ple my age, it just tends to
rub off and you think
about that all your life."
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