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Home-grown celebrity Chef Brad Long makes energy savings palatableTORONTO, Sep. 29, 2011, 2011 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX) -- With more than 10,000 restaurants in the City of Toronto(1), you have to offer something unique if you want to stand out. It's fair to say that a modest size residential home in Toronto has conservation advantages that businesses do not. Brad Long, TV celebrity chef and owner of Cafe Belong at the Evergreen Brickworks, knows that restaurateurs have to get creative to save money on their electricity bill without skimping on the ambiance. With standard operating hours coinciding with peak electricity rates, Chef Long, makes smart decisions about electricity usage wherever he can to keep his costs down. Sustainability and conservation are setting him apart. Participating in Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited's (Toronto Hydro) 'It's Easy To Conserve' campaign alongside other well known Torontonians, Chef Long shares tips on how he conserves electricity. "There are a lot of little things you can do every day to make it easier to conserve," says Chef Long. His restaurant boasts reclaimed materials and the heating system works in exchange with the adjoining skating rink for cost-efficiency. This means that in keeping with the sustainable design of the area, the waste heat from the skating rink's refrigeration system is directed to heat the Café Belong. Learn more about how Chef Long conserves energy at his home and restaurant by watching his video, part of Toronto Hydro's 'It's Easy to Conserve' campaign facebook.com/torontohydro "We want to educate our business customers about energy conservation. The programs and incentives that we offer help facilitate improvements that will lead to more manageable bills," says Catherine Parry, Toronto Hydro's Director, Marketing, Communications and Customer Experience. "As well, there are other little things businesses can do to conserve energy during the fall and winter months." Some tips to help keep your business electricity usage down this fall and winter, when the temperatures drop, include: -- Use recommended thermostat set points: Every degree of heating increases energy use by four to five per cent -- Replace old high-volume kitchen sprayers with high-velocity, low-flow models and save up to a thousand dollars a year in hot water costs. -- Install a programmable thermostat to automatically control temperature settings and save from 10 to 70 per cent on heat and cooling costs. -- Use LED lights everywhere! Replace Exit signs with LED models, if you decorate your business with decorative lights or for holidays, consider replacing them with LED lights which can result in an 85% reduction in energy costs. If you're a member of the Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association (ORHMA), sign up for Green-Eats and find out about retrofit incentives. Green-Eats provides information about financial incentives that are available through Toronto utilities, including electricity, gas and water, to help reduce the cost of retrofits. Other programs for businesses include: Small Business Lighting: offers a free assessment to identify energy savings and up to $1,000 of lighting and other energy-efficient upgrades, including all equipment and labour. Audit Funding: offers financial incentives of up to 50% of the cost of an energy audit to help identify costs and benefits of implementing energy efficiency projects and in prioritizing energy management projects. Retrofit Program: provides financial incentives to replace existing inefficient equipment with high-efficiency equipment and for installing new control systems that will improve the efficiency of your operational procedures and processes. Existing Building Commissioning: provides incentives to evaluate and implement retro-commissioning strategies that increase the efficiency of your chilled water plant. Driven by customer demand, Toronto Hydro continues to offer a series of free workshops for its business customers. The workshops explain the Ontario Power Authority, saveONenergy, programs that are available to help companies make smart investments in energy efficiency. To register, visit torontohydro.com/businessevents About Toronto Hydro Toronto Hydro-Electric System owns and operates an electricity distribution system, which delivers electricity to approximately 705,000 customers located in the City of Toronto. It is the largest municipal electricity distribution company in Canada and distributes approximately 19% of the electricity consumed in Ontario. The information in these materials is based on information currently available to Toronto Hydro Corporation and its affiliates (together hereinafter referred to as "Toronto Hydro"), and is provided for information purposes only. Toronto Hydro does not warrant the accuracy, reliability, completeness or timeliness of the information and undertakes no obligation to revise or update these materials. Toronto Hydro (including its directors, officers, employees, agents and subcontractors) hereby waives any and all liability for damages of whatever kind and nature which may occur or be suffered as a result of the use of these materials or reliance on the information therein. Links: Twitter - twitter.com/torontohydro Facebook - facebook.com/torontohydro YouTube - youtube.com/torontohydro (1) http://app.toronto.ca/food2/FDFAQRegular.jsp To view this news release in HTML formatting, please use the following URL: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2011/29/c7730.html SOURCE: Toronto Hydro Corporation SOURCE: TORONTO HYDRO-ELECTRIC SYSTEM LIMITED Jennifer Link [email protected] 416-542-2725 |