LiveSmart BC Community Hero
LiveSmart BC Community Hero: Wally Martin
Wally Martin wants to see his power usage drop down to zero, and keep falling.
Earlier this year, Martin, the proprietor of the Princess and the Pea Bed and Breakfast in Murrayville, became an electricity provider to BC Hydro, as well as a customer.
Solar panels on the south side of the building provide it with electricity when the sun is shining. If they make more than the building needs, power flows back out into the Hydro grid, and the B&B's meter runs backwards.
When Martin moved into the heritage building, he was shocked at the first year's power bills, and set out to cut them down to size.
"We've been at this for five, six years; it's not something we've done overnight," Martin said.
The air conditioner was the prime offender, so improved insulation was the first step. Martin installed old-fashioned wooden shutters on all the windows, helping to keep out the sun during hot days. He also planted trees in front of the windows, providing natural shade even if the guests left the shutters wide open.
Keeping warm air in during the winter was also key, so he added two-inch thick slabs of styrofoam insulation to every part of the house.
He also used styrofoam to insulate his two large refrigerators. It keeps them from running as often, thus lowering power costs and reducing the waste heat fridges throw off.
Light bulbs were next. Martin replaced the building's dozens of incandescent light bulbs - a design scarcely changed since Thomas Edison patented them in the 19th century - with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs). He has 100 of the CFLs currently.
"Now we've gone to LED," Martin said, calling the light emitting diode bulbs "magic."
They use even less power than the compact flouorescents, with the smaller LED bulbs using just one watt where a small 25-watt incandescent would have been used.
The bulbs are pricey, up to $47 apiece. But they last longer and use much less electricity.
"It's actually cheaper to buy expensive bulbs and not use the power," he said.
Martin also has a device called Kill-A-Watt, which can be hooked up between any appliance and the wall socket. It measures how much power being used at a given moment, as well as counting up how much has been used over a period of hours or days.
The changes have worked. From about 130 to 140 kilowatts per day in 2005 and 2006, the Princess and the Pea was down to about 40 kilowatts per day this year.
Outside, Martin is also trying to save the environment with the B&B's driveway. He uses permeable gravel rather than asphalt, so rainwater soaks into the ground. Grape arbours over parking spaces help soak up the groundwater.
A local church has asked Martin for some help designing its parking lot along the same lines.
