A little while ago we mentioned that we were having an energy assessment done on our house to see what type of grants we could receive from the government for making our house more energy efficient. We received the results and here they are:
First of all on a score of 1 to 100 (100 being the most efficient) our house measures in at 8. That’s right EIGHT. So there is nowhere to go but up!
Each homeowner can receive up to $10,000 in grants ($5,000 from the federal and $5,000 from the provincial governments) for making your home more efficient. Here is what we would have to do:
- Replace our boiler with one that has an efficiency of 85% or higher - $1,200
- Increase our exterior wall insulation by a minimum of R-10 - $3,000
- Improve the air tightness of our house by 31% - $300
- Increase the insulation value of the basement walls by a minimum of R-24 - $2,000
- Seal all of our basement header area and increase all of its insulation value by a minimum of R-20 - $200
- Replace 32 windows and skylights with models that are ENERGY STAR qualified - $1,920
- Replace the domestic hot water heater with an instantaneous gas water heater that has an energy factor of 0.8 or higher - $400.
- Replace the exterior door with a model that is ENERGY STAR qualified - $60
- Increase the insulation value of the attic to a minimum of R-50 - $426
- Replace toilets with a low-flush model - $100
We believe we can see a rebate of about $5,000 given what we are doing to the house. And believe me…we can use EVERY penny given our over-flowing budget!
8 responses so far ↓
1 Marvin Thompson // Feb 10, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Where did you get your material prices? $60 for a window? $60 for an insulated door? $400 for a tankless water heater. Come on, get real. Where can I get those deals?
2 Anonymous // Feb 10, 2008 at 2:49 pm
(Sigh) Marvin, Marvin, Marvin….. The rebate from the government is meant as an incentive, not a refund…..
3 Kirk // Feb 10, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Thank you for saying it so we didn’t have to
Kirk
4 mo // Feb 10, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I believe Marvin’s point is that you will have to spend many times more than $5,000 to get the full grant money. So if you are already facing an “overflowing budget” you wont be able to cash flow the upgrades in the first place.
5 Kirk // Feb 10, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Yes that is 100% true. The nice thing for us is that we have to make some of these improvements anyways so the grant money makes it more affordable. It also allows us to make some good decisions for the environment and our monthly bills. A high-efficiency versus a medium efficiency boiler is a good example of that. The grant money makes it affordable and the decrease in the monthly gas bills will be a nice bonus.
6 leonne // Feb 1, 2009 at 8:47 pm
How much does the eco-energy assessment cost? Will it be cost-affective if we only plan a small renovation (eg, hot water tank and furnace)? will the rebate be worth the cost of the assessment?
7 anke // Feb 1, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Furnace and hot water can be $1,000 or more. Definitely worth it. Check out the Building Insight website for a full break down of initial costs and the potential upside. Good luck.
8 bronte // May 8, 2009 at 4:14 pm
The energy assessment is well worth the money even if you’re only replacing your furnace. We has an assessment done recently and it cost around $350. We just received a cheque back from the gov’t for $150 of that initial cost. So the assessment only costs $200 at the end of the day.
We are replacing our furnace with a high efficiency model and we will receive $1000 back ($500 federal, $500 provincial). That already more than pays for the assessment.
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