Press Release
LONDON ONTARIO - OCTOBER 2007
Explaining Grants for your Energy Efficient Renovations
Are you confused about just what grant money is available to improve the energy efficiency of your home. Unfortunately, it seems that even many of the suppliers of these products are just as confused ...and frankly who could blame them. The Federal Government's on again, off again approach to a consumer grant program left everyone up in the air. You may remember just a couple of years ago the old Federal Liberal government were going all out promoting the Energuide for Houses Retrofit Program as part of Canada's commitment to Kyoto. That program involved a consumer obtaining an Energy Evaluation of their home before any work was done and then afterwards a second evaluation to determine how much the energy efficiency of the home had been improved. The amount of your grant was determined by how much you had improved the efficiency of your home. The Energy Evaluation firms were suddenly very busy and were hiring and training energy auditors all across Canada. Auditors were required to be licensed by NRCan (Natural Resources Canada), obtaining licenses only after an extensive training program and passing an examination.
Then the Conservative Government took over and suddenly at midnight on May 12, 2006 the EnerGuide for Houses Retrofit Incentive Program was discontinued. Consumers were left with no form of Federal Government grant to encourage energy conservation. To make matters worse, hundreds of newly licensed Energy Auditors, who had invested time and money in obtaining licensing, were put out of work and many were forced to leave the energy conservation field altogether.
But things changed again...on April 1, 2007 when the Federal Conservative Government announced the launch of the new ecoENERGY Retrofit Program. This program, on the surface, sounds very similar to the old Liberal program, but there are some key differences. You will still require a before and after Energy Evaluation, but how much you get back in the form of a grant is determined by a set of fixed rates, for example if you change 10 windows in your home to qualifying ENERGY STAR®windows you will get $300 back. But you will still have to pay the cost of the two audits up front, which is typically running about $475 plus GST.
But, since March 23, 2007 the Ontario Provincial Government has stepped up to rebate you up to an additional $150 towards your actual audit costs (up to 50% of the cost of the first audit). So in the example where you install 10 windows, you will spend $500 on the evaluation (including GST) and get back a total of only $450 from the Government!
Something doesn't seem right... and that's because this Grant program is really designed to encourage you to do all of your Energy Efficient Renovations BEFORE you have your Second Evaluation done. For example, if after you change your windows, you then decide to get a new gas furnace that has a better than 85% AFUE (annual fuel utilization efficiency), you will get an additional $600 back... now you have a net gain of $550. What about also replacing your old air conditioner...you can add another $150 to the Grant and you have a net gain of $700. Now it starts to make sense!
But here's where it really gets good!!! On June 20, 2007 the Ontario Government announced the launch of the Ontario Home Retrofit Program. Under this program, in addition to the $150 grant to help offset the evaluation costs, the Province will match the Federal Grant.... so instead of netting $700 for those 10 windows, a new furnace and an air conditioner, you will now get a net gain of $1750. For anyone planning multiple renovations it certainly makes sense to take advantage of this grant and get things done now...before anything else changes!
The problem now is getting that energy audit done before you start the work... remember all of those licensed trained auditors who were left in the lurch when the previous program was cancelled, well not surprisingly most of them had moved on and did not want to risk their livelihood on political decisions! So currently there is a huge backlog of audits and waits are sometimes six weeks or more...taking you well in to the cooler months before you could begin your improvements. But once again there is a bright side to all of this... the Federal Government is now allowing Manufacturers and Contractors of Energy Efficient products to provide Licensed Energy Evaluations directly, as long as the actual employee who completes the Evaluation completes the same training and passes the same examination as the outside Energy Evaluation Firms. In fact Centennial Windows in London has become one of the first companies in Canada to send employees for training and licensing and they are now offering Home Energy Evaluations for their customers without that long wait, and without missing out on the grant!
For more information on the ecoEnergy grant visit www.oee.nrcan.gc.ca