Thank you very much.
I'm going to present to you a technical presentation because I am a scientist and an engineer. I'm certainly not involved with policies and the implementation of those policies.
I did a retrofit on my house. In the process, I have delivered tours for those folks who are interested in seeing how all of the equipment works. I have delivered over 400 of those to groups of up to about six people. In the past, I had a consulting engineering firm, where I worked primarily with homeowners to encourage them to access incentive grants and any R and D tax credits available for them to go and convert their houses to become more energy-efficient.
Of course, we all know that electricity is required and used in every second of your life for your entire lifetime. It's supported by the world’s largest and most expensive machine, which we call the electrical grid. We have a variety of rates for each kilowatt hour; these depend on the time of day. In Ontario, we have ultra-low overnight rates, which means you can save a lot of money if you can shift your energy consumption to after hours. In fact, that's where—to do so—you need a home battery.
The big shift that can transform and modernize Canada's energy sector includes solar energy, windmills, geothermal, battery storage, electric vehicles and, of course—the big one—heat pumps, either air-source or ground-source heat pumps.
My retrofitted home interacts with the grid. It, of course, produces environmental benefits, greenhouse gas reductions and economic benefits—clearly, to save money—as well as social benefits, which give one some independence. With my house, I can island myself from the grid, so the grid can't see me, and I can't see the grid. This is very useful when there are outages. Everyone else is struggling with whatever means they have, whereas I have this automated.... Often, I don't even know that an outage has occurred.
My journey included retrofitting an existing home. I replaced the windows and doors—the windows to triple-glazed and argon-filled, with double-low emissivity—and, of course, paid great attention to ceiling air leaks in the home. I added up to R16 in the attic. I have three Tesla-powered well batteries in my basement—lithium-ion batteries. I also have 7.5 kilowatts of rooftop solar panels, as well as a ground-source heat pump.
This has provided sustainable energy collection, equity, public health—no GHGs—a reliable supply, resilience and, of course, power quality protection. This gives me preparedness and peace of mind. All of these are quite difficult or even impossible to put a dollar value on.
Now, this system is compliant with indigenous principles of education and action—over seven generations in terms of sustainability and with an eye to looking at future generations and stewardship in terms of one wanting to be a responsible steward of the land and resources. This leads to impactful decision-making. Every decision made today should be evaluated based on its potential impact on future generations.
Also—
