Canada Greener Homes Grant

HOME ENERGY ASSESSMENT Qualify for a Canada Greener Homes Grant

Reducing home energy consumption, switching away from fossil fuels and adding solar power are all great things to reduce our footprint on this planet. Now there is some help.

The Canada Greener Homes Grant launched in 2021, offers to be a big help in this area. With up to $5000, in grant money for your retrofit and another $600 for an home energy assessment, there has been no better time to jump in and get those home energy upgrades completed. In addition, the provincial Clean BC grant is still active and stacking these grants makes home energy retrofits extremely attractive right now.

So how do you access this grant money? Well it hasn’t been easy so far as the systems have taken some time to be put in place but now Natural Resources Canada seems to be smoothing the process out.

Here are the steps:

Measuring insulation depth in attic.

1) Register online for the Canada Greener Homes Grant (You must be the home owner and it must be your primary residence)

2) Contact an Energy Advisor for your Pre-Retrofit Assessment Here’s what you can expect:

Your energy advisor will provide an onsite assessment of your home energy consumption and

recommendations as to the various opportunities you may have to improve your energy use at home. They measure building dimensions, windows and doors, insulations levels, catalogue your heating cooling and ventilation systems and measure the air tightness of your home.

They then take this data and put it into a computer model to see how your home compares to a baseline standard home. From there we are able to make recommendations about the opportunities you have to decrease energy use. Recommendations can range from Air Sealing, Windows and Door replacement, Insulation, Heating and Cooling Systems, Solar Energy, Battery backup, Basement waterproofing. Your personal preferences are also taken into consideration and included in the report.

3) Complete your Retrofit Upgrades through a qualified contractor. A qualified professional contractor will make sure you have qualifying equipment installed in your home.

4) Have your Energy Assessor return to complete your PostRetrofit Assessment to verify the upgrades and re-measure the air-tightness of the building.

5) Post documentation to Canada Greener Homes portal and await your grant rebate! Don’t forget to apply for any relevant CleanBC rebates as well.

The Canada Greener Homes grant promises 700,000 rebates across Canada with about 187,000 having already been registered to date at the time of this writing. Don’t wait too long to register!

Kuan Jian Foo is the founder of Bia Energy Consulting in the Cowichan Valley and with over 12 years working in the home energy industry is now offering home energy assessments and consulting. info@biaenergy.ca

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