For years, people have been counselled to turn down their heating at night to save on energy bills.

But with hydro prices high in rural areas, homeowners with electric heat should be doing the opposite, says a green building contractor.

“I still know people who are setting back their electric baseboard heaters at night,” says Ben Polley of Evolve Builders in Guelph, which specializes in green homes and renovations.

“They’re hurting themselves.”

Aside from buying energy-efficient LED light bulbs, improving insulation and cutting down on drafts, that’s just one of several ways to trim hydro bills for people who can’t heat their homes with natural gas, Polley adds.

Ratepayers with electric heat should be taking advantage of cheaper hydro rates between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. and on weekends to crank up the heat, says Polley, who recommends a programmable thermostat for the job.

Rates overnight and on weekends are less than half the peak daytime prices from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Cutting down on drafts, by targeting cans of spray-foam insulation in open areas behind the walls surrounding windows and doors, or using weather stripping and caulking in those areas and where walls meet foundations or roof lines, can also make a big difference.

“It’s really simple, low-tech stuff and low skill for the average person. The payback can be good,” adds Polley, who says such measures can enable homeowners to lower their thermostats by a couple of degrees because rooms feel warmer when drafts are eliminated.

Insulation should never be left out of any major renovation because it doesn’t add much to the construction cost but makes a huge difference in energy bills.

Other potential measures include adding solar water heaters, and, for small families, on-demand water heaters with small tanks that use half the electricity compared with traditional models with large tanks.

They can account for as much as one-third of a household hydro bill, so it’s worth replacing the old-style tanks when they wear out after 10 to 15 years, says Polley, a former Green party candidate.

“The cost is double a normal hot water heater, but the payback is there after a few years,” he said.

Polley himself lives in a fully renovated and thoroughly insulated Ontario cottage home first built in the 1800s and disconnected his natural gas line to the furnace and installed electric baseboards.

These were cheaper than a new furnace. He augments these with a wood stove when the mercury dips drastically.

“Right now, my house is set at 15 degrees,” he says, wearing jeans and a polar fleece top over a T-shirt. “That’s all our bodies need if there are no drafts.”

New Democrat MPP Peter Tabuns, who spent about $3,000 a few years ago insulating the attic and some walls in his Toronto-Danforth home and also bought LED light bulbs, says he noticed a drop in his electricity and natural gas use.

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“It was not a lot of money. We were surprised,” says Tabuns, who spent the money on top of a government subsidy program for energy retrofits and called on the Wynne administration to offer more help to homeowners.

“We desperately need people to get the work done without having to lay out a lot of money up front.”

The government has promised more home retrofit programs soon under its new cap-and-trade plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions.