What is slowly gaining popularity that most people don't know about yet?

I have a well and septic in Canada. We have internet and electricity coming into the house, but no fossil fuels. I've been reducing our electricity usage by making the house more efficient. We're not anywhere near being off grid, yet, but I've reduce the power bill by $100 a month, $351 to $245. We haven't seen the effects of the second and last heatpump that was installed a few weeks ago, and I'm planning a few more things around the house to further reduce our hot water usage. All told I'm hoping/expecting to get the power bill down to about $155 per month with our $0.15/kWh power. From there I'm going to look into solar PV and/or solar hot water, or further insulating the house.

Am I missing anything?

I've looked at heat pump water heaters, but I live in place with an average annual temperature of 7.5C. We spend too much time in the heating season meaning I'll be heating the room with the mini split heat pump and then heating the water with that heat. Until mini split heat pump water heaters become cheap enough I don't see that as being a worthwhile investment.

I've also read that solar PV is sufficiently efficient and cheap that solar hot water panels are a waste of money.

I've also looked at drain water heat recovery, but that only works when the water is being drained while it's being used. As in during a shower and washing hands. With low flow shower heads and the local prices the ROI doesn't seem worth it.

/r/AskReddit Thread Parent