Towards Energy Saving Houses
Demand drops for renovation energy audits When the federal government killed the EnerGuide program this year, and replaced it with the EcoEnergy program, applications for the energy-saving assistance program dropped, according to local contractors who perform home energy audits. Architect Richard Kadulski, a Vancouver expert on home energy savings, blames both media coverage and the way the new program is structured.
“There was a lot of news coverage when EnerGuide died, but not a lot explaining the new program, so many homeowners probably thought the federal incentives were finished,” Kadulski said. EcoEnergy also relies on the homeowner to cover the full costs of energy audits, usually between $250 and $300, which had been rebated under the EnerGuide program. As well, EcoEnergy applies different cash incentives values for specific work. The old program paid incentives based on the total amount of work performed. Doug Martin, who handles energy audits for AmeriSpec, said the EcoEnergy program is less popular with homeowners, who balk at paying the full cost of the audits and doubt they will do enough work to qualify for much government assistance. For example, there is a
maximum of $30 in federal grants for each window replaced with a high-performance
mode, “which is not much when you consider the cost of new windows,” Martin said. Kadulski said another concern is that a homeowner can only apply once for EcoEnergy funding, but the payments are based on specific improvements, which may be done over a period of time. Also, in B.C., unlike some other provinces, there is no provincial program to match federal EcoEnergy funding, Kadulski said. He added, however, that homeowners might be opting to improve their home’s performance without dealing with any potential government grants, or red tape. EcoEnergy does offer some assistance, a maximum of $5,000 if major renovations are done to dramatically improve the energy performance of a home.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. This is the ‘Chess’ super energy-saving demonstration house by Laebon Homes near Calgary, Alberta. Solar thermal panels provide the domestic hot water and primary space heating. Additional heating is via a ground source heat pump. The home’s electricity is produced by a grid-tied photovoltaic system. It is one in a series of such demonstration homes being built this year, all east of British Columbia, under the EQuilibrium Initiative of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.