The Canadian federal government is reviving the ecoENERGY Retrofit - Homes Program. The program offers grants up to $5000 to home owners to increase the energy-efficiency in their homes. Some of the improvements that could be covered include heating and cooling systems, insulation, windows, doors and skylights and water conservation.
The way it works is home owners
- get a registration number from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)
- hire a service organization authorized by NRCan to do a pre-retrofit energy evaluation
- make any of the eligible upgrades indicated by the pre-retrofit energy evaluation
- get a post-retrofit evaluation, showing receipts.
Since your upgrades might also be eligible for complementary programs from provincial or municipal governments or energy utilities, check those programs out first so you can coordinate requirements and deadlines.
If all goes well, it takes about 90 days to get a cheque from the federal government program.
This program has been on-and-off again since the Liberals first introduced it as the EnerGuide for Houses program. The Conservatives cancelled it in 2007, brought back a variation later that year, then cancelled it abruptly in March 2010. The main reason it gets cancelled is probably because it's so popular, and it runs out of money.
This time, the government is warning home owners to move quickly. The program has a deadline of March 31, 2012. You need to get an initial energy audit done, then the renovations, and the second post-retrofit audit done before then. Don't forget, there are a lot of winter months in there that aren't renovation-friendly. The government has also said that when the $400 million currently allocated for the program runs out, the program will be cut off, so that deadline could come earlier.
Photo: Adam Smythe / Getty Images
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Comments
We signed up when this first came out and we did everything that was suggested. We re insulated and went from an R12 rating to an R50 rating, caulked all windows and doors, installed low flow showers and toilets, replaced appliances with energy star rated ones and too many other things to list. We reduced our heating costs from $142 to $68 a month. Our electrical bill dropped from $87 to $47 a month. Our water consumption dropped by more than half. We are saving money left and right on our monthly bills. The Canadian Government says that by saving more than 50% on our utility bills means that our house is only 7% more efficient, so they can not give us any grant money. Our neighbours and friends have been told the same stories as to why they can not receive any grant money. This is a rip off and someone is getting this grant money in the form of kick backs. We are saving money, but the grant money we earned would have been nice to pay some of our incurred expenses.