If it may be desirable to start the dishwasher at midnight or turn down the heating, as Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon is proposing, energy sobriety requires much larger gestures that not all Quebecers have the financial means to make.
Barely a few days after being named energy minister and major strategist for Hydro-Quebec, Pierre Fitzgibbon urged Quebecers to adopt more economical measures to address Quebec’s electricity shortages.
Archive photo
Peter Fitzgibbon
Minister of Energy
“We are not sober in our consumption,” he pleaded. We, as consumers, may also need to change our habits. Maybe wash the dishes, well, we’ll do that at midnight.” But is the minister’s message realistic?
“Small gestures in off-peak times are useless. The only way to achieve energy efficiency is by conserving heat,” says Emmanuel Cosgrove, director of the NGO Ecohabitation.
Optimize the home
To understand how a dormitory’s energy consumption and the programs offered by the government can be reduced, Le Journal followed an assessment visit offered by an energy efficiency expert.
Air infiltration test, heating system, attic inspection, water heater, ventilation, insulation: anything goes.
Meyland Gravel-Labelle, Technical Manager at Expertbâtiment, confirms this: homes must be optimized to reduce heating, as it accounts for almost 60% of a home’s energy bill.
He therefore proposes several improvements and subsidies for the Rénoclimat government program intended for owners.
Then comes the Econologis program.
This is the program usually designed for low-income renters. It would not have been offered to the owner of the family home visited, but Le Journal wanted to know the details.
Advice with very limited effect
This time the solutions are offered much less: behavioral advice to reduce consumption, gift of an hourglass to limit your shower to 5 minutes, installation of plastic seals on windows or even electronic thermostats.
So can we significantly reduce our energy consumption by changing our behavior or by spending less?
No, replies Mr. Gravel-Labelle.
“We’re clearly not going to land a $10,000-$15,000 investment,” he says. With the advice of the Éconologis program and the window sealing, savings of around 5% could be achieved. »
We asked the same question to the organization Ecohabitation, a specialist in this field. New negative response from director Emmanuel Cosgrove.
There are energy-guzzling lifestyle habits that some can change: big hot baths, 26 degrees indoors in winter, 19 in summer.
But for the rest, we have to work on the energy efficiency of buildings, and that requires structural improvements.
Necessary investments
Regarding the amounts to be paid, Écohabitation seems more optimistic than the Experbâtiment supervisor.
At less than $3,000 (2017 study), the organization estimates a 1970s home could save up to 7,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh), or almost 30% of the consumption of the average home.
However, to ensure significant energy savings, much more expensive investments must be made.
Insulation of walls, foundations, installation of an efficient heat pump, replacement of windows… These improvements can reach 28,000 kWh, four times more energy savings than the most accessible improvements.
But the investment is much larger: up to $40,000 in 2017, according to the Ecohabitation study.
It’s still the Wild West
Because the problem is less behavioral and more structural, it requires leadership and good oversight, according to the experts we met.
In other words, the state must intervene effectively.
Today, however, “it’s the complete Wild West,” says Pierre-Olivier Pineau, professor at HEC Montreal and Chair of Energy Sector Management.
If standards for new buildings exist, there would be too little monitoring. Are they respected? Are they effective?
As for the buildings already built, which are less well insulated, Mr Pineau advocates more action on them, citing Europe as an example.
In several countries, buildings must be evaluated and given a “rating”. A minimum level of energy efficiency is also required.
grants for the rich
The other important issue to review, according to Mr Pineau, is subsidies. They would be socially unfair.
“It’s the rich who benefit from the subsidies,” the professor notes. People living in poorly insulated homes whose owners have not renovated pay utility bills and have no access to government assistance. »
The promotion of a very common heat pump, for example, is not associated with any income limitation. Wealthy households can easily access several hundred dollars in grants.
For less affluent homeowners, however, the subsidy may prove insufficient as they still have to pay several thousand dollars to purchase the heater.
As with tenant households, building owners are not required to provide a minimum level of energy efficiency or make improvements to the home.
As a result, their ability to reduce their energy consumption is limited, to say the least.
►The residential sector accounts for 18% of Quebec’s energy consumption, behind industry (34%) and transportation (28%). According to the 2022 report from the State of Energy in Quebec, the per capita energy consumption of the sector is 20% higher than that of Sweden.
BREAKDOWN OF ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION IN A DETACHED HOUSE, FAMILY 2 ADULTS 2 CHILDREN
- space heating
57% | 12,540 - devices and devices
19% | 4180 - Hot water
16% | 3520 - lighting
4% | 880 - Other
4% | 880
ENERGETIC SUPPLEMENTS
- Heated above ground pool – 3 months
23% | 4992 - Year round spa
21% | 4667 - Wall Mounted Air Conditioner 15,000 BTU – 2 Months
9% | 2057
SOMETIMES FREE BUILDING UPGRADE ARE REQUIRED TO SAVE ENERGY
Accessible upgrades
- Low flow shower head
- Improving sealing
- roof insulation
- low-e films
Major improvements
- Highly efficient heat pump
- wall insulation
- foundation insulation
- replacement of windows
costs up to | Annual profit up to
- $2700 | 7,000 kWh
- $40,000 | 28,000 kWh
Sources: Hydro-Québec and Écohabitation 2017 study
Ever larger houses for heating
Photo courtesy of Royal Lepage
The average living space in Québec in 1990 was 108 square meters. In 2019 it was 131 square meters.
One way to become more sober on electricity use would be to reduce Quebecers’ appetites for ever-larger homes, individual pools, spas, and other energy-hungry consumers?
“We go into houses where two people live and they have six bedrooms, so we’re still a long way from being sober,” exclaims Meyland Gravel-Labelle.
The specialist in energy efficiency in buildings invites us to reflect on the spaces occupied and to ask ourselves: do I really need them?
Because in order to reduce energy requirements, households must be efficient, but also economical in consumption.
“You have to understand that you can’t multiply the square footage of buildings,” says Pierre-Olivier Pineau, a professor at HEC Montréal.
However, built-up area in Quebec is only increasing, according to data from the latest State of Energy Quebec 2022 report. Apartments are getting bigger: 108 square meters on average in 1990 compared to 131 square meters in 2019.
And there are fewer and fewer of us per apartment.
For example, energy consumption in the residential sector increased by 15% in this period, despite an increase in energy efficiency of almost a third.
“A Complete Drift”
It’s also the growing appetite for high-energy goods that worries Mr. Pineau: custom swimming pools, spas, even heated driveways, not to mention the ever-increasing number of SUVs on the roads.
“Overall, we are completely off the mark in terms of our energy consumption,” says the holder of the chair for energy sector management.
Even if the heating of the large house, the swimming pool or the spa is very efficient, “superfluous” consumption is not compatible with the goal of energy sobriety.
While the average consumption of a single-family home in Quebec reaches 22,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) annually, an above-ground pool heated in the summer alone consumes nearly 5,000 kWh, according to Hydro-Quebec data. The same applies to a year-round spa. Wall air conditioner used two months a year: 2000 kWh more.
With a pool, spa, and air conditioning, the same home has cut its energy use in half.
So, for Mr. Pineau, we shouldn’t ask Quebecers to freeze at home, we should rather ask them to consume “appropriately according to the limits of the planet”.
Hydro is investigating the issue
Recall that last October, Le Journal revealed that Hydro-Québec had set up a committee to consider measures to raise the price of “luxury” homes.
Crown Corporation could lower the power threshold by 50 kilowatts (kW) for a customer to qualify for 40 or 45 kW residential tariffs.