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Wliltby Free Prou,. Wednesday, Jarwaryil, 199, Page.15 A HOME DESIGN AND IMPROVEMENT FEATURE ______________ T1une TO SAVE ENERGY Up) yFour hiomn.e With shorter days and colder nights, a personps fancy tturns te, thoughts of ... energy matters, of course. Producing and using energy both contribute to environmental probleme - urban smog, acid rain, polluted waters, even the dangers of global* warming. And wasted energy means wasted money. There are so many reasons te use energy wisely. To belp you along, hore are a few tips from the Ontario Ministry of Environinent and Energy te give your home a winter tuile-up and make it more energy efficient. 1. Ha]f or more of your household energy dollars go irite home heating. One way of keeping those energy dollars inside the home is te install a programmable, or "setback"' thermostat. It lots. you customize the heat in your home te match the way you live , turning down the temperature when you are sleeping, turning it back up in the mornig - il a tatically. 2. Be a draft detective. Unwanted air leakage in a home can make up a large portion of your heating bill. A iece of tissue paper pinned to a clothes banger make a handy diaft detector. Hold it up te windows, doors, electrical outlets, baseboards, exterior mail slots and any other likely places for drafts. Watch for the tell-tale movement of the plastic. Make a note of ail those drafty spots and work out a plan tofix them. 3. Weatherstripping windows and exterior doors net only reduces your heating bills but aise makes your home more comfortable, ridding it of nasty drafts. There are many types of weatherstripping available. Your local hardwvare or building supply store can belp yeu choose the right weatherstripping for your needs. 4. Does your home -have a through-tbe-door mail slot? If it does, you are letting in more than the mail. Mail slots and milk boxes (common in eider homes) are a source of drafts and air leakage. Roplacing the mail siot with an outdoor mail box means you won't be accepting delivenies of cold air. 5. Fireplace flues are an easy escape route for your beating - >j~Saving the past for the future ,.. Home made of -By Whitby LACAC John Thomson built tbe stone bouse at the northwest corner of Garden Street and Manning Road in 1845. The bouse is unique in WVhitby because' it is constructed of limestone blocks iniported from Kingston, Ont. It is the only bouse in Whitby stili in its original condition built entirely of Kingston limestone. In the 1840s, grain merchant John Welsh sbipped grain te Kingson out cf Port Whitby. On the retum trip, needing ballast in bis boats, be brought back the limestone. Many homes in Whitby built in the 1840s and 1850s bad foundations built witb this limestene. St. John's Anglican Churcb in Port Whitby is aise constructed of this material. Thomson came te Canada from Scotland in 1834 and settled in Whitby. He oiginally built a log bouse east of what is now Gardon Street. Later he built a frame bouse just te the south of the stone bouse te replace the log cabin. An offlicer's diary in the Fort Yerk Museum in Toronto refers te priseners being taken from the Thomson farm in the Rebelion of 1837. When the bouse was built, a bottie of liquor was embedded in the stenework -- as the story is told. This is according te, an oid Scottish custom, se that there would always be a drink in the bouse. The limestene house and the Thomson farm were ca]led 1 Mayfleld,' probably after property the Thomsons owned in Scotland. One cf the new streets just nortb of the bouse bas been named £ Mayfield' afier the Thomson farm. The farn included 300 acres up imestone MAYFIELD, the.John Thomson house until Thomson's death in 1866. The famiiy tried unsuccessfuily te seil Mayfieid, and flnally it was subdivided among bis sens. The stone bouse remained in the famnily until 1905. It passed in and out of the bands of several owners and developers since then. The present owners, James Flaherty and Christine Elliott, purchased the bouse in 1987, and have maintained the interior and exterior cf the bouse in excellent condition. Mayfield's design is in the style of the old stone bouses cf Scotand, with a typical Georgian architecture. The front of the bouse bas a two-storey facade divided into tbree bays consisting cf a central doorway and windows on eitber side. There- is a faniigbt window over the front doorway. The ost and west sides of the building are the gable ends. The attic is lit by quarter-fanligbt windows on these gable ends. These fanligbt windows are typically Upper Canadian. The quality cf the workmansbip at Mayfild depicts tbe best cf tbe Scettish immigrant botb in its unassumning character and in its attention te detail. It is an architectural gem, one cf the finest bouses in Whitby dating from tbe 1840s. The Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee (LACAC) bas recommended te Whitby council that the bouse be designated as an historical property unden the Ontario Heritage Act. LACAC is a committee that aduises Whitby council on heritage matters. dollars. Malce sure that the flue damper is closed when the fireplace is not in -use. And if you're not planning te use the fireplace, think about putting in a flue plug. 6 . Caulldng around your windows stops drafts from coming inte the house and warm air froni escping eut of the house. A few dollr invested now in. easy-to-use materials can bring big paybacks in enorgy savinge this winter- u o$0t$2pe wno.And remember, many of the things jou do te keep out wintes cold will also, stand you in good, stead during the bot summer months by helping te keep your home cooler. 7. The second largest consumer of your energy dollars -- after home beating -- is your hot wator heater. By installing a low-flew shower head you can help conserve water and help yourself te up te $80 in energy savings each year. 8. A bot water faucet that drips one drop Per second can drive you crazy. It can aIse, waste as much as $9,600 litres of water per year, water which you paid $24 te beat. A few minutes making the repair will prevent our precious resources and your energy dollars from going down the drain. 9. Make sure that you get the most out of you r bot water heater. Insulate the flrst, two metres of bot water line coming eut of your tank, as well as the first metre of cold water pipe going into the tank. Use preformed insulating Pipe wrap and, for safety's sake, KeeP the pipe wrap at least 15 centimtres away froni the flue on a gas bot water beater. 10. Now that day]igbt hours are fewer and lights are burning longer each day, it's a good time,~ te think about switching te, compact fluorescent light bulbe. They are available in a vaniety of styles for both indoor and oudoo use, last up te 10 times as long, and use about one quarter of the energy of orcinary incandescent bulbs. Se while they coet more te buy,they save you money in the not-so-long run.« 11. Motion-sensitive exterior lighting is a: bright idea for many reasons. Net only wiil it light the way when you or visiters arrve and frighten away unwanted visitors, it will aIse save energy. 12. Leaving a window air conditioner in place -and uncovered during the winter is a sure way te lose heat and waste energy. Cover it up -- or, even botter, remove it completely and, store it in the basement of garage. M.3. Many people don't know it, but yeu can lose a lot- of heat through those olectricai outiets and switches located on wals to the outside. Foam gaskets which cost about 50 cents each, can be installed in a jifiSi and make al the difference. Just be sue te turn off the power te the switch or outlet at the electrical panel before staring work. There are se many things that you can do around the bouse which are simple, inexpensive and can put yeu on tbe path te energy conservation in ne time. And that's good for you and the environmaent. Cali (1-800-565-4923) or write te the Ontarioe Ministry of En'vironment and Energy for free "how-td' information on conserving energy in and around the home. Remember ... energy niatters. 'BkÎè W/hale,¶ SPIMNNING LEQgONS.. February - e6Q. 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