The answer is simple – but often overlooked by condo residents – get control of your energy costs. Payments for gas, electricity and water can account for 40% or more of your building’s ongoing operating costs. That makes utility bills easily the largest controllable expense for your condo corporation. 

 

How controllable? Most older condo buildings can cut these costs by 30% with routine upgrades (lighting, boilers). Even relatively new buildings are ripe for 15% or more in savings because the building code that said how your building should be constructed is more focused on keeping it upright than making it energy efficient.

 

So do yourself a favour: Read over this guide and start thinking about how to make your building greener for both your wallet and for our environment. You can also get current info on greening your building at www.TowerWise.ca. You may want to start by viewing our series of four five-minute videos on Cutting Your Condo’s Energy Costs at www.TowerWise.ca/videos.

 

 

 

Cold outside, eh? Good thing we bought that new super efficient boiler. Otherwise, we’d be paying a fortune for gas right now. Can you press P1? Those new garage lights are pretty nifty too. You can see so much more clearly than with those old yellow lights and they’re saving us a ton of money on our electricity bill. I hear the new lobby furniture and carpet is coming next week. With the new LED wall sconces, it’s going to look pretty splashy and it’s all being paid for with the money we’ve saved on our utility bills. I love this green business!

 

 

Marta, you look lost. Nothing to do now that the boilers and water heaters aren’t constantly breaking? Just joking, but the building really is running smoothly, eh? The heat is more even and I’m not constantly either freezing or cooking. Thanks for taking the lead on this energy retrofit stuff – it has really improved the building. You really know your business.
 

 

Yeah, this is a really well-run building and interest in units is through the roof. We’re getting a reputation for really having our act together when it comes to controlling costs and keeping the building in great shape. The only problem is being pestered by real estate agents who want me to sell my unit! No way am I leaving a top performing building like this! 

 

 

See those lights up there? They use just 5 watts of energy. The old bulbs used 50 watts. We’re doing a bunch of stuff like that in this building so that we can lower our environmental footprint -- you kids talk about what that means in school, right? If we use less energy, we are doing our part to fight climate change and air pollution, which is important because I want you to grow up in a healthier world. We’re going to do more stuff, maybe even install solar panels, to make this place a lot greener.   And you know what – it really isn’t hard to do. More people should be doing it.