MyEnergyPal » Home Energy Audits

LiveSmart BC Gets Renewed Energy

Ed Szajniak — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:43:04 +0000

When funding ran out for the original LiveSmart BC household energy conservation program, the hugely successful program closed to the chagrin of many who missed the opportunity to take advantage of rebates and grants.

The Provincial goverment just announced that it found $35 million in its new budget to give to the LiveSmart BC renewed energy.

The LiveSmart BC program offers financial support for household energy assessments and rebates up to $1,450 for installing energy efficient appliances.

Need an energy audit for your home?

You can contract a certified energy adviser to audit your energy usage and recommend the most efficient upgrades to save energy and reduce costs.

Rebates run as high as $1,450 for air source heat pump installations that meet specified efficiency targets, while gas furnace replacements can earn rebates as high as $1,130 in interior and northern B.C. and up to $770 on the south coast. Insulation, window replacements and draft-proofing can net lesser amounts.

Federal ecoENERGY Retrofit Program to End March 31st, 2011

Rosalind Gardner — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:44:30 +0000

Yesterday, the Canadian government announced that it plans to kill the ecoENERGY retrofit program as of March 31st, 2011. Worse, they immediately stopped accepting new bookings for home evaluations.

Here’s the press release:

Important Notice

March 31, 2010

Effective today, the ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes program is no longer accepting bookings for pre-retrofit evaluations. The program will continue to be administered until March 31, 2011. If you have already booked an appointment for a pre-retrofit evaluation, have completed an evaluation or applied for re-entry to the program, you remain eligible to apply for a grant.

Deadline for Post-Retrofit Evaluation

It is suggested that you complete your energy upgrades well in advance to allow enough time for your post-retrofit evaluation, as all post-retrofit evaluations must be completed by March 31, 2011. Contact the energy advisor that is listed on your pre-retrofit evaluation report or contact a licensed service organization and provide them with your file number. For more information, refer to the questions and answers.

While the pre-retrofit assessment phase is now complete, homeowners will continue to undertake energy efficiency improvement work on their homes, which will increase the energy savings and greenhouse gas reductions already achieved by the program.

The Government of Canada will continue to process applications for the complementary programs already developed by most provinces and territories.

The Government of Canada continues to encourage homeowners to have home energy evaluations so that they can identify best opportunities for energy efficiency improvements, improve their home’s energy performance and receive an EnerGuide rating label.

The Government of Canada will also continue to support other programs to help Canadians become more energy-efficient.

To read the full release, please visit the Natural Resources Canada site.

Live Smart BC is Back

Ed Szajniak — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:46:49 +0000

The Provincial Government in British Columbia announced on March 2nd that it is reinstating the Live Smart BC program. The program was cut last year. Details are to follow as to grant amounts and eligible items. It’s a great boost for the economy and a valuable incentive to go Green and cut energy consumption.

How Much of an Energy Grant Can I Get on Heating Systems?

Rosalind Gardner — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:35:15 +0000

Here is the grant table for the Canadian ecoENERGY refit program along with a list of eligible improvements and the grant amount.

Note: To confirm that these amounts are still correct, please check the official site through the link at the bottom of this post.

HEATING SYSTEM	Grant Amounts
	Single-Family Home		MURB
	1st system	2nd system	MURB
Replace your heating system with:
• an ENERGY STAR^® qualified gas furnace that has a 92.0% annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE) or higher	$375	$190	Same as single-family home
• an ENERGY STAR qualified gas furnace that has a 92.0 percent AFUE or higher and a brushless DC motor	$625	$315
• an ENERGY STAR qualified gas furnace that has a 94.0 percent AFUE or higher and a brushless DC motor	$650	$350
• an ENERGY STAR qualified gas furnace that has a 94.0 percent AFUE or higher and a brushless DC motor (when installing a condensing furnace for the first time)	$790	$400
• an ENERGY STAR qualified condensing gas boiler that has a 90.0 percent AFUE or higher	$750	$375
• an ENERGY STAR qualified oil boiler that has an 85.0 percent AFUE or higher	$750	$375
• an ENERGY STAR qualified oil furnace that has an 85.0 percent AFUE or higher	$375	$190
• an ENERGY STAR qualified oil furnace that has an 85.0 percent AFUE or higher and a brushless DC motor	$625	$315
In the case of mobile homes (only) • where a zero-clearance furnace is being replaced, an ENERGY STAR qualified zero-clearance gas furnace that has a 90.0 percent AFUE or higher	$375	N/A
Install an earth-energy system (ground or water source) that is compliant with CAN/CSA-C448 and certified by the Canadian GeoExchange Coalition (www.geo-exchange.ca) – applies to a new system or a complete replacement.	$4,375	N/A
Replace a heat pump unit of an existing earth-energy system (ground or water source). The system must be compliant with CAN/CSA-C448 and certified by the Canadian GeoExchange Coalition (www.geo-exchange.ca). (*per equipment replaced)	$1,750	N/A	*1,750
Replace your existing space and domestic water heating equipment with an integrated mechanical system (IMS) that has an overall thermal performance factor of 0.90 or higher. The system must be compliant with the CSA P.10-07 standard and meet or exceed the standard’s premium performance requirements. (*per equipment replaced)	$1,625	N/A	*1,625
Replace your wood-burning appliance with a model that meets either CSA-B415.1-M92 or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (40 CFR Part 60) wood-burning appliance standard; an indoor wood pellet-burning appliance (includes stoves, furnaces and boilers that burn corn, grain or cherry pits); or a masonry heater. (*per equipment replaced)	$375	$190	*$375
Replace your solid fuel-fired outdoor boiler with a model that meets CAN/CSA-B415.1 or the U.S. EPA Outdoor Wood-fired Hydronic Heater (OWHH Method 28) Program, Phase 1 or 2. The capacity of the new boiler must be equal to or smaller than the capacity of the boiler being replaced.	$375	N/A	$375 (per building)
Install a minimum of 5 electronic thermostats for electric baseboard heaters. Electric baseboard heating must be the primary space heating system. (*for each set of 5 electronic thermostats)	$40/5	N/A	*$40
Install an ENERGY STAR qualified air-source heat pump for both heating and cooling that has a seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) of 14.5 or higher and a minimum heating capacity of 12 000 Btu/hour. See “Important Information about Air-Source Heat Pumps and Central Air Conditioners.” (*per equipment installed)	$500	N/A	*$500

N/A = Not applicable

See the grant table at Natural Resources Canada.

Better still, contact Ed, your friendly energy advisor in the South Okanagan valley.

Sample Energy Efficiency Evaluation Report

Rosalind Gardner — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:28:35 +0000

Below are extracts from the real Energy Efficiency Evaluation Report for my (Rosalind) house. The screen shot below shows you the top of the 1st page, which clearly shows my house with a current Energuide Rating of 56.

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.