EnerGuide Results

A couple of weeks ago we had our visit and scientific evaluation from EnerGuide, and now the results are in! Anytime over the next 18 months we can apply for a grant between $216 and $4,580. The grant value will roughly equal our first year of energy savings. The funds for this program are available on a first-come, first-served basis. The government of Canada has allocated $73.4 million dollars to the EnerGuide for Houses Retrofit Incentive. Our energy rating is 47 out of a possible 100. Of course to get a rating of 100, we'd pretty much have to have to be "off the grid".

Our results for heat loss were no surprise to us. Out of a rating of 50 (lower number= more energy effecient), the basement is rated at 49 (there was no insulation at all), air leakage and ventilation at 41, the main walls at 40, windows at 38 and ceiling (attic) at 8. The next step is to see what's financially possible, i.e. small investment= big return. With the windows being currently rated at 38 and improving to 9 (after installing all new windows with double glazing, argon stuff, etc.) and it costing a fortune to replace, we probably won't be doing that improvement... although we will be replacing the front windows.... eventually. The basement is the easy one to bring down to their suggested 13 (from 49). We've already started insulating and putting up vapour barrier (dont' worry, it's in the next post), and for the heating... well, you've already met Slim... which was a huge incentive to get the evaluation in the first place.

In our results there's also a chart that shows the energy use for the heating system in gigajoules (GJ). They estimated that The Beast used 180GJ of energy to run. If all the upgrades they've suggested are implemented, the energy usage drops quite dramatically to 50GJ. Now that's energy saving! Too bad windows cost so freakin' much!

Once everything is updated, insulated, spray foamed and weather sealed, we'll be calling back our friendly energy advisor and aksing him to bring his big yellow fan to see how close we came to their suggested rating of 75.