Zero today with a week that looks more manageable

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Alberta housing project employs and stores thermal heat

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A project in Okotoks in southern Alberta captures heat from the sun in summer and uses it to heat homes during winter. It appears to follow the geothermal heating concept employed at a home at 43 Bessborough Drive in Leaside. This project was profiled in 2011 and is re-published just below. Advocates of this method, like the man interviewed in this CBC report, speak of the practical to climate change. But it is also a concept to achieve uninterrupted power supply (UPS), or at least more consistent power when a home or neighborhood goes off grid. Home storage batteries fed by solar is another.

FLASHBACK: Geothermal conversion at 43 Bessborough

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This story was published in The South Bayview Bulldog in February 2011.  A home at 43 Bessborough Dr. is being converted to geothermal heating, a technique which uses the earth’s heat to heat and cool the building. It would seem to be a fairly rare project. The home is undergoing a renovation and with it, workmen are drilling down an unknown distance to tap the heat of the earth. As one worker at the site said, “This house is going to be completely disconnected from natural gas.” At the left, a bin containing mud from drilling is being evacuated. At right, shots of the drilling equipment.

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Geothermal heating relies on an energy exchange between the air within the building being heated and the ground. Below ten feet the earth’s temperature is fairly constant (generally between 50º-56°F). During the summer when the ambient temperature of the building exceeds that of the ground heat pumps are used to pump heat from the building into the transfer medium (typically water with small amounts of ethanol or glycol) and is subsequently pumped through narrow pipes into the ground so that the heat can be dissipated in the earth. When the ambient temperature falls below the ground temperature the process works in reverse. Heat pumps extract heat from the ground and use it to heat the building. Wikipedia

Furtado O Canada furore as West beat East 196-173

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Twitter furore of Nellie Furtado rendition of O Canada    NBA game final on Twitter

John Lippert taught music to generations of East York kids

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John Lippert

A funeral service was held January 31, 2016 for Joseph John Lippert Jr. at the  Heritage Funeral Centre on Overlea Blvd.  He died on January 28 in his 90th year. Mr. Lippert was the founder of the Lippert Music Centre at 970 Pape Avenue and was known to generations of East York children and their parents as a kind instructor of great talent. The service in his memory featured music of the harp, cello and his personal instrument the accordion. Mr. Lippert founded his music instruction business in 1957 after studying music at what was then the Ontario Teachers College on Carlaw Ave. The music centre is now run by his daughter, Charleen Beard. The well-attended service saw friends and former students present as well as local representatives MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth) and Councillor Mary Fragedakis (Ward 29).

IT’S LOVE: Thousands spend Saturday riding UP Express

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It was absolute love as more than 10,000 people crowded the UP Express Saturday for the Valentine’s free weekend service to Pearson airport.  The day’s ridership, which Metrolinx guessed was composed of 30 percent travellers and 70 percent curiosity seekers, seemed to prove that people like the idea of a train to the airport but don’t like the fare of $27.50 (one way). Spokesperson Anne Marie Atkins said the service will be launching a new program to encourage ridership soon. That sounds like a decision to reduce prices which would make sense because it represents some revenue as opposed to very little. It is said that the trains normally run at about eight per cent of capacity.

Loblaws MLG and Summerhill stores open Family Day

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Loblaws at Maple Leaf  Gardens will be open on Family Day as will Summerhill Market at 446 Summerhill and at the satellite store at 1048 Mt. Pleasant Rd. These openings reflect a pattern of holiday food shopping options that has been set in the past year or so by these two stores. Other full-service grocery stores will be closed including Metro, Loblaws and Longo’s stores.

PRESSURE ON WHOLE FOODS TO OPEN

Whole Foods at 87 Avenue Road (in Hazelton Lanes) will also be open but it is a little further away from South Bayview. The pressure is on Whole Foods to stay open. It is experiencing a sag in business related to consumer resistance to prices, although this may be somewhat unfair. When the new Whole Foods opens this spring at 1860 Bayview it will be interesting to see if it opens on holidays, and if so, what pressure that puts on nearby competitors.

Mt. Pleasant Village profiled by Shawn Micallef in the Star

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Shawn Micallef

Mt. Pleasant Village is profiled in the Toronto Star online and in Saturday’s paper (February 13, 2016). Shawn Micallef who should glory in the title Living Columnist has observations about the old street. He notes the traffic lanes and concludes there are 1.5 in each direction. This is an odd leftover from the 1948 road widening (and sidewalk narrowing) which accompanied the Mt. Pleasant extension down to Jarvis St.  Shawn Micallef goes on to discuss much other Mt. Pleasant history in his column which is worth a read. That history recalls a parallel time when the Town of Leaside was able to put up the fight of the century and save Bayview Ave and its wide sidewalks. The two lanes of traffic remain on Bayview but the angle parking is gone of course. It can still be seen just as it was then on McRae Drive at Trace Manes Park.

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Lawyer adjusts finances so he can send 26 kids to college

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Man through skylight at Keg Mansion on Jarvis Street

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A man has fallen through a skylight on the roof of the Keg Mansion at Jarvis and Wellesley Streets Sunday morning. He is in critical condition in hospital. It appears to have happened, or maybe was just discovered, after 8 am. Police are calling the incident suspicious. The old mansion was built in 1867 and was owned variously by the McMaster family (McMaster University) and Hart Massey family (Massey Ferguson).

Rookie Brendan Leipsic scores in first Maple Leafs game

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Marlboros 21-year-old Brendan Leipsic got the news by phone that was dressing with the Leafs for the game against Vancouver Saturday night. His mother and father, Kathleen and Greg, turned the world upside down to get from Winnipeg to Vancouver by way of Minnesota and Seattle to see Brendan play. Their reward came as Leipsic scored for the Leafs (video below) in a 5-2 victory over the Canucks. Were Mom and Day happy? Is the game played on ice?

“Mystery project” as checkout aisles slip from 8 to 7

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There’s a buzz at the venerable Loblaws store at 301 Moore Ave where staff is wondering about the mystery project at some of the older stores where the checkout aisles have been reduced by one. At Moore Ave. that means seven not eight. “They want to use the space for something  but nobody knows,” said a whisperer. As of Saturday evening, aisle eight (the former fast lane) was stacked with potted plants and the “12 items or less” aisle had moved to number seven.