Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Busy Little Bees

The last few days have been absolutely crazy. We've had family gatherings, community park parties, I lost and found my watch (man, we have great neighbours!), playdates, ballet and Sparks, grocery shopping, Survivor, and of course shopping for a new furnace.

I think we've pretty much settled on the Lennox G61V "The quietest furnace you can buy". The quotes are within $200 of eachother, which doesn't make it any easier to decide, and all offer us slightly different packages/warranties. I think we're leaning toward Kirkland Metal Shop, their quote is in the middle and they take our silver beast of an oil tank, and a 10 year parts & labour warranty is only an additional $250. And, he was the nicest fellow of them all. Sears, however never called back.... humph!
Right now there are so many different rebates out there, it's hard to ignore them all. With the installation of a high eff. furnace, Terasen (our natural gas company for BC and Alberta), will give you a rebate of 350bones on your bill. Lennox also has a sale on the G61V- $300! And then there's Energuide...
EnerGuide is a fan-tas-tic idea, and should be implemented all over the globe... or at least those signed to the One Tonne Challenge (which is to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide by 1tonne/person). There are some sample homes which give you a great idea of how much of a homeowner grant you could be eligible for. A HomePerformance Energy Advisor comes to your home and works with you to determine what priorities are suitable for your home. The first step is to do an evaluation, which is a science-based analysis. This describes the home's current performance and estimated energy costs. It also creates a heat loss profile and offers advice for improvement. I have no idea how this is done, or anyone who's done it, but we've scheduled the appointment and we'll let you know!
After you've made as many of the recommended changes, or as many as you can afford (windows can get pricey!), you schedule another meeting with the Energy Advisor for another analysis. He will process the grant application on your behalf once he has reassessed your home. He will prepare all the paperwork for you to sign, and at the same time may be able to tell you how much you are eligible to receive. Eligible homeowners will receive a non-taxable grant cheque from Natural Resources Canada within 90 days.

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