ecoENERGY Retrofit - Homes

Country / jurisdiction: Canada · Year: 2007 · Status: In force · Level: National · Type: Voluntary

ecoENERGY Retrofit - Homes encourages the existing low-rise housing sector in Canada to become more energy efficient, reduce emissions produced through energy use, and contribute to clean air, water and energy and a healthy environment for Canadians. ecoENERGY Retrofit - Homes provides property owners with the information they need to make good home energy retrofit decisions, and rewards energy and water saving measures with a grant. At the beginning of the programme, funding was sufficient to provide 140,000 homes with an average CAD 1070 grant. As part of the Government of Canada's 2009 Economic Action Plan, an additional CAD 300 million was invested in the programme. This allowed as many as 200,000 more homeowners to participate in the programme from 2009 - 2011. A CAD 285 million funding expansion was announced in 2010. As part of the Government of Canada 2011 Budget, an additional CAD 400 million is being invested into the programme. This allowed as many as 250,000 homeowners to participate in the programme from 2011 -2012. In total, ecoENERGY Retrofit-Homes helped over 640,000 Canadians increase the energy efficiency of their homes. Homeowners reduced their energy consumption by an average of 20% for ongoing savings of more than CAD 400 million a year.

Under ecoENERGY Retrofit -Homes, grants are provided to homeowners of low-rise residential properties who improve the energy performance of dwellings. This includes owner-occupied as well as rental units. Housing on First Nations territories and band-owned lands, social housing and housing cooperatives also qualify. The programme uses a third-party delivery system with energy assessment services under license to Natural Resources Canada. These organizations hire and train energy advisors and quality control personnel and provide local energy audit services. Energy advisors perform pre-retrofit assessments and provide a checklist of recommended upgrades, along with an EnerGuide for Houses home energy rating to the property owner, who chooses from the recommend retrofits and implements these within an 18 month time period. Energy advisors perform post-retrofit assessments, determine that retrofits have been done, and submit the grant application for the property owner. The grant is based on the total of the amounts allocated for each of the eligible retrofits. The programme is supported by stakeholders such as provincial, territorial and municipal governments and utilities who may partly subsidise the audits and/or offer complementary grants. These and other stakeholders (e.g. environmental and community groups, product suppliers and manufacturers, renovation and mechanical contractors, home inspectors, trade associations, etc.) also promote the programme. It is anticipated that the programme will save 0.75 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2011-2012.

This initiative builds upon the core services related to the energy rating tool, technical support, and quality assurance provided by the ecoENERGY for Buildings and Houses initiative, which ran from 2007 -2011.

Official source: http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/residential/6551