Sue Dexter: Harbord Village’s community champion

When it comes to climate change we’re all in this together, yet most of us have experienced feeling paralyzed by our inability to make a difference. Sue Dexter, a long-time resident of Harbord Village, is a Net Zero trendsetter who knows how to drive change. Net Zero, in this case, means a home that produces as much energy as it consumes. Not only is Sue’s community-based approach to Net Zero more impactful than doing it alone, it’s also more fun to share experiences and celebrate successes as a team.

The outdoor unit of Sue’s new heat pump is whisper quiet and mounted off the ground so snow doesn’t block the fans.

Sue’s latest Net Zero adventure was to replace her gas furnace with a heat pump. Heat pumps aren’t new (our fridges and air conditioners use heat pump technology), but only recently have technological advances made them ideal for heating and cooling homes in colder climates like ours. They use electricity so they don’t produce carbon emissions like burning natural gas in a furnace does, and they’re far more efficient than baseboard heating.

Sue’s new centrally-ducted heat pump, a Mitsubishi Zuba, is providing plenty of warmth as the weather gets colder. It will also deliver more efficient cooling in the summer. An added benefit is that she no longer needs to maintain both a furnace and an air conditioner, just the heat pump. 

The heat pump’s indoor unit was installed horizontally from the ceiling to accommodate the lower basement ceiling in Sue’s home.

Thanks to some help from the City of Toronto, Sue had some cost projections before embarking on the project. Sue thinks her heat pump will cost about the same to run as her gas furnace did but in a worst case scenario it could be $200 more during the heating season. To her this represents good value because she is cutting her carbon emissions by more than 85%. And in fact, as a cleantech trendsetter, it won’t surprise you to learn that Sue installed a solar array in 2007, so much of her electricity is essentially free.

Sue’s solar array isn’t large, only 3 kilowatts, but it paid for itself in 12 years and has been generating a profit since. Sue also made a smart move by installing solar thermal hot water. The sun largely heats her water but she has on-demand gas backup for when it isn’t sunny. In the summer Sue’s gas consumption charge is less than $5/month.

Adopting the latest cleantech is always fun but the most important part of Sue’s project is that she’s not doing it alone. A long-time volunteer with the Harbord Village Residents Association, Sue was instrumental in starting its NetZero Committee. A number of volunteers on this committee have been educating themselves about cleantech options for their own homes and are available to the broader community as a resource. They’re also working on ambitious plans to reduce the carbon footprint of the entire neighbourhood.

If you’d like to make deep cuts to your household emissions (and utility bills!), the best way to get started is with a plan. And better than doing it alone, find others in your community who want to do it with you. We can’t all replace our cars and heating equipment overnight, but we do tend to replace these things every 5-15 years. In 10 years time, many people in your neighbourhood could have zero household emissions from home heating and transportation. 

Try reaching out to your community association to see if they have or want a NetZero Committee. Failing that how about pairing up with a neighbour or friend? Make a joint 10-year pledge to get off fossil fuels and share your experience and learnings with each other over the years. Change is easy when you do it with your friends, and the multiplying effect is far more rewarding than doing it alone.

Sue may be the first in her neighbourhood to fully switch off gas for home heating but there’s no doubt she’s spot on the next cleantech trend. Heat pumps are going gangbusters in Europe and California. And the next major hotspot thanks to a community approach... Harbord Village!