Sample Energy Efficiency Evaluation Report
It also indicates that if I made all the recommended changes the rating could improve to 74 and that I could reduce my overall energy consumption by up to 46%!
Woohoo! I’m out to make the gas and electric companies hate me!
What I found very interesting and highly motivational was that at the top of the report I found that my house had an air leakage rate @ 50 Pa: 7.44 ACH (ACH = number of air changes per hour).
That’s like having a hole in my house that is 31.73 square centimeters in size!
The rest of the first page reads:
The results of your pre-retrofit energy evaluation show that your house rates 56 points on the EnerGuide scale. If you implement all of the recommendations in this report, you could reduce your energy consumption by up to 46% and increase your home’s energy efficiency rating to 74 points. The average energy efficiency rating for a house of this age in British Columbia is 56 whereas the highest rating achieved by the most energy-efficient houses in this category is 80.
Did you know that when you reduce the amount of energy used in your home, you also reduce the production of greenhouse gases (GHG) such as carbon dioxide? By improving your home’s energy efficiency rating to 74 points, you will reduce its GHG emissions by 1.2 tonnes per year!
You have up to 18 months from the date of this report or until March 31, 2011, whichever comes first, to complete your renovations and qualify for an ecoENERGY Retrofit Homes grant. The sooner you start your renovations, the sooner you will benefit from the energy savings.And let’s not forget how reduced energy consumption helps protect the environment.
On page 2 of the report were 6 major recommendations about what I could do to improve the energy efficiency of my home and how much grant money I would be eligible for if I did those retrofits.
Here’s one example:
Install an ENERGY STAR® qualified air-source heat pump that has a seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) of 14.5 or higher, a minimum heating seasonal performance factor (HSPF) of 7.1 for Region V and a minimum capacity of 12,000 Btu/hour.
Replacing the heating system alone would increase the EnerGuide rating by 15.7 points.
See how specific that is? It’s specific because heat pumps aren’t generally used in colder regions of Canada.
Another recommendation was:
Replace 33 window(s) / skylight(s) with models that are ENERGY STAR® qualified for climate zone A.
Although potential energy savings was only 1 star (as opposed to 5 for the furnace), the potential grant money for replacing the windows was pegged at $1320.
The rest of the report made for very interesting reading. Especially telling was the Breakdown of Heat Loss through Building Envelope graph shown in the screenshot below.
The red shows current and the green shows where heat loss can be stemmed through the recommended improvements.
I won’t go through the report in its entirety (all 13 pages), but let me tell you… it really woke me up to how much money is being poured out through my windows, doors and even the walls!
The heat pump is being installed tomorrow and the windows (and one door) are on order for installation in January. I’ll post pictures of the renos as they happen.
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