Environmental Issues in Northern Ontario
Cashing In On Home Improvements
Would
you like some financial help to upgrade your home's energy efficiency?
Homeowners contemplating energy retrofits
to their homes can benefit from the Government of Canada's
EnerGuide for Houses Retrofit Incentive. Take advantage of this
service aimed at helping homeowners make more energy efficient choices
to lower their energy bills and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Learn about the requirements for how the grant is determined to receive
a grant from $116 to $3,348, with the average amount being $630.
The EnerGuide for Houses Retrofit
Incentive process involves the following five steps:
Step One: Schedule an Evaluation
The first step is to book an appointment
with an independent home energy advisor who assesses how your home uses
energy and where it is being wasted. There is a fee for this service and
the price varies across the country.
"EnerGuide for Houses provides the
homeowner with a confidential, impartial, accurate assessment of the
energy efficiency of their specific home," explains Bryan Cuthill, head
of special projects for HomePerformance. The Vancouver-based firm is one
of many Canadian companies using trained, certified energy advisors to
help homeowners identify energy efficiency improvements.
"The most important tip I give to
homeowners is, 'Get the EnerGuide for Houses evaluation first',"
cautions Cuthill. "Book it now. Don't wait until you've spoken to your
contractors, or started the work yourself, otherwise you may lose out on
valuable grant money."
Step Two: Learn from Your Advisor
A
home advisor can be a goldmine of information as he or she conducts the
roughly two-hour tour of your home. The EnerGuide evaluation includes:
- A "blower door" test to identify
air-leakage points.
- A comprehensive walk-through of your
house to collect data for modelling your home's energy use.
- An EnerGuide for Houses Report with
customized energy upgrade recommendations for your home.
- An estimate of annual energy
consumption along with an EnerGuide for Houses rating and label.
"We look at the whole house as a system,"
explains advisor Garry Lowney, a HomePerformance inspector and trainer
with 4,500 completed evaluations in his portfolio. "Every house is
completely different in its heat loss. Two similar houses can have very
different heat loss characteristics."
Lowney encourages homeowners to use the
evaluation as a learning experience and to ask the energy advisor a lot
of questions.
Step Three: Get the Rating
"Since our energy efficient improvements
were made, our gas consumption has reduced by 35%, resulting in a
$600 savings in the past year. We also received a $1,181 rebate from
the federal government."
– Joanne Lennon, Ottawa
An EnerGuide for Houses rating is a
standard measure of your home's energy performance. A home's energy
efficiency level is rated on a scale of 0 to 100. A rating of 0
represents a home with major air leakage, no insulation and extremely
high energy consumption. A rating of 100 represents a house that is
airtight, is well insulated, is sufficiently ventilated and requires no
purchased energy. Older houses that have not been upgraded generally
rate between 0 and 50. An energy-efficient old house or a typical new
house rates between 66 and 74.
Step Four: Improvements and
Re-evaluation
Your energy advisor will tell you which
changes will have the greatest impact on your home's energy efficiency.
According to HomePerformance's Lowney, the top choices for
energy-efficient improvements that lead to grants are high-efficiency
heating equipment and air sealing which includes caulking and
weatherstripping. He reiterates the caution that there will be variables
that affect performance.
Complete some or all of the recommended
improvements within 18 months of your initial evaluation. If you decide
to make improvements to your home, schedule a follow-up visit to find
out how much you have improved your home's efficiency. If your
re-evaluation shows a minimum energy performance improvement, you may be
eligible for the EnerGuide for Houses Retrofit Incentive.
Step Five: Apply for the Grant
The energy advisor who conducted the
evaluation will apply for the grant on your behalf after your home has
been re-evaluated. He or she will complete all the paperwork for you to
sign and will tell you how much of a grant you can expect to receive.
The grant application must be submitted
by the energy advisor to Natural Resources Canada no later than 18
calendar months after the date of the pre-retrofit evaluation.
Applications will be accepted until March 31, 2007 (or March 31, 2010
pending Budget 2005 approval).
In Lowney's experience, the average grant
is $700. In the case of homeowners living in Vancouver's mild climate,
conversions to air pumps have led to grants as high as $1,500. Owners in
colder areas, he says, won't see those types of gains unless they
consider alternatives such as geothermal systems that take heat from
under the ground.
Article supplied by the Government of Canada
