Clinton News-Record, 1984-10-24, Page 41Conserve Energy—Page 8
Chimney sweep revives tradition
By Joanne Buchanan
It's a dirty job but somebody's got to do
it. That could be chimney sweep Harold
Leddy's motto.
Harold took up his unusual occupation
part time four years ago. It seemed like a
natural progression from his full time job
as a firefighter at Douglas Point and his,
volunteer job as a firefighter for the Town
of Goderich.
In 1980 when Harold first launched his
Lakeshore Chimney Sweep business, he
remembers that there were 23 chimney
fires in the town of Goderich in the month
of January alone. With statistics like that,
he had decided there was a serious need
for a chimney sweep service in the area and
his next step was to learn the business by
-taking a course from Aaran Chimney
Sweeps in Newmarket. He has since
attended two conferences, sponsored by
the Chimney Sweeps Association of
Canada, where he has been updated on the
latest techniques for cleaning chimneys.
Besides his ladders and truck, Harold
has about $2,000 invested in stiff wired
brushes, a special vacuum cleaner and
tools for getting in behind dampers, etc.
Chimney fires are caused by a build up
of creosote - a black tar like substance
formed when steam from burning „wood
mixes with various gases and condenses.
The chimney sweep removes this build up
of creosote by pushing or sweeping it off
the flue with his brushes and then _
vacuuming it up.
Harold says the Ontario Fire Marshal's
Office recommends that people using wood
burning stoves and fireplaces should clean
their chimneys or have them cleaned at
least once a year. He predicts there will
come a day when insurance companies
insist on it and governments begin to
regulate it.
The best protection against a chimney
fire is prevention by using common sense,
says Harold.
"Wood burning stoves have made a
come back and are a great energy saver - I
have one myself - but this generation
doesn't know how to use them properly,"
he explains.
He says people shouldn't use a lot of
green wood or wet wood in their stoves and
fireplaces. And they shouldn't use them as
incinerators. They should also buy the '
proper sized stoves for the areas they are
trying to heat. Otherwise, the dampers get
closed down and the excess gases don't get
burned up.
Harold says people can check the build
up of creosote in their chimneys them-
selves by- putting a mirror at the bottom
and looking up.
"All you have to do to prevent fire is
keep your chimney from getting dirty and
dangerous, he says. However, he also
recommends that people keep fire exting-
uishers handy, smoke detectors in place
and the local fire department's phone
number near by.
"If a fire does start, get everyone out of
the house, call the fire department, shut all
doors and dampers to cut off the air flow
and dampen down the surrounding curt-
ains, carpet, etc," he says.
Harold's business is picking up all the
time and many of his calls take him out of
town to places like exeter, Grand Bend and
Hensall. He charges between $25 and $35,
Mpending on the difficulty of the job.
Sometimes, a chimney won't need cleaning
at all but at least the owners have the peace
of mind that comes from knowing it's been
checked out. Other times, Harold has
found himself doing th eunusual by
removing bird's nests and even mallard
ducks from chimneys.
Although he has seen homes destroyed
and lives lost in fires that might havebeen
prevented, Harold says he won't use scare
tactics to drum up business. He simply
wants to let people know that his service is
available and let them take it from there.
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Stretch your
energy dollars
In the face of rising energy costs and
diminishing energy supplies, consumers
have been attempting to stretch their
energy dollars by taking such actions as
turning down their thermostats and adding
insulation to their homes.
To help consumers achieve energy
savings, architects, builders, and manufac-
turers have been working to develop
energy efficient heating and cooling equip-
ment that offers long term energy savings.
Art Dreidger, president of Earth Systems
feels that one device that has been
attracting more and more attention as an,
efficient and economical alternative to
conventional heating and cooling equip-
ment, is The WaterFurnace System. Earth
Systems Ltd., of Leamington, exhibiting at
the 7th Annual Energy Lifestyle Show,
October 26 to 28, at the Toronto Interna-
tional. Centre, Airport Road, is the
Canadian Distributor for the WaterFurnace
System. Contact. Cliff Mann of Cliff's
Plumbing and Heating, the WaterFurnace
dealer in Lucknow and surrounding area.
The basic principle that operate a Water -
Furnace System is not entirely new. The
'Vapour -compression refrigeration cycle"
was originally developed in the 1850s and
later refined by Lord Kelvin in 1918.
Today, this same scientific principle is
offering and the homeowner of the 1980s
an energy efficient earth coupled heating
and cooling system:
How does the WaterFurnace System
work? Heat energy will•flow naturally from
a warm area to a cooler, one as from the
warm earth to the cooler house and vice
• versa.
The WaterFurnace Systems takes the air
to air heat extraction process of the
conventional heat pump a technical and
economical step into the future by utilizing
the heat of the earth as a heat source. A
closed loop system, installed vertically or
horizontally depending on the home's lot
size, is filled .with water and antifreeze
solution. The solution is recirculated
through the underground pipes absorbing
ground heat in the process. The. Water -
Furnace unit extracts this heat in the heat
exchanger, .which contains Liquid Freon.
The liquid freon is vapourized by this heat,
pressurized by the compressor and pump-
ed through the air coil. A blower then
distributes the warm air throughout , the
home.
While conventional systems use energy
to create heat, the WaterFurnace System
uses energy,to Trarlsfer and intensify heat
that is already in the earth. Using the
available heat from the ground gives the
Turn to page 110
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