Tag: Heat Pumps

My Greener Homes Retrofits

Before starting my Greener Homes retrofits, I needed a Pre-Retrofit Audit. The audit is pretty interesting. They take measurements, look at your insulation and then do a blower door test. The blower door test puts your house under negative pressure and while it is running you can walk around your house and find out where outside air is getting into your house.

When the report from my audit was completed it included an EnerGuide label, an information sheet explaining how and where my house uses energy and a Renovation Upgrade Report. The upgrade report is the one that outlines your recommended upgrades. In order to be eligible for the grant and the loan, your upgrades must be on that list.

My Recommended Energy Efficiency Upgrades

With my recommended upgrades was and “Energy Efficiency Roadmap” which prioritizes upgrades by potential energy savings.

  1. Upgrade heating system for a potential savings of 22 GJ/year by installing a new Energy Star certified air-source heat pump. Potential grant between $2500 and $5000.
  2. Upgrade hot water system for a potential savings of 12 GJ/year by installing a new Energy Star certified electric heat pump water heater. Potential grant of $1000.
  3. Insulate Foundation for a potential savings of 9 GJ/year. Potential grant up to $1300.
  4. Perform air sealing to improve air tightness of home by 28% for a potential savings of 4 GJ/year. Potential grant $550-$1000.
  5. Increase attic insulation for a potential savings of 2 GJ/year.

Greener Homes Retrofits I Chose

Before applying for the Greener Homes Grant, I had already decided one of the retrofits I wanted to complete was installing a heat pump. This had the benefit of adding centralized air conditioning, reducing my dependency on Natural Gas and my dependency on an aging furnace.

Encapsulating my crawlspace was also something I really wanted to do. Not many people would consider crawlspace encapsulation sexy, but as the person crawling in and out of mine to change furnace filters, I do. I have a dirt crawlspace with minimal clearance and tons of spiders. Looking at pictures online showing clean white plastic instead of dirt has a definite appeal. Encapsulating the crawlspace would reduce household humidity and adding spray foam insulation to the crawlspace would seal up a lot of drafts.

Next up in this journey – getting quotes!

Canada Greener Homes Program, My Experience

I’ve been busy this last while making some upgrades to my house through the Canada Greener Homes Program.  You guys, this has been a process! Parts of it were super cool, parts of it were nerve-racking and it is, or at least it was for me, a lengthy process. But I’m almost at the finish line, so I figured I would share how the program worked for me, the retrofits I had done and a bit of a timeline.

If you’re not familiar with it, the Greener Homes Program is a grant of up to $5000 that the Canadian Government is offering for to homeowners who make improvements to their home to improve it’s efficiency and/or reduce fossil fuels consumption.

Why I applied to the Program

Some time ago, my central air died. The outdoor unit or “condenser” developed a leak and could not be repaired. Because my system ran on an older refrigerant, I would have to replace the entire system at a cost of $4000 – pre-Pandemic. I just could not see my way to paying that much to add central air to a 25+ year old gas furnace. While researching the most economical to run portable/window air conditioners (Midea U-Shaped Smart Inverter Window Air Conditioner for the win) I kept seeing heat-pumps come up, and by chance remembered the Greener Homes Program. And – jackpot – heat pumps are eligible!

Greener Homes Program Eligibility

To be eligible you need to be a homeowner and not have started or completed your planned work. That’s it. The program isn’t restricted by income or age. Personally, I feel the program design has too many barriers for anyone on a limited income to take advantage of it. Which is a real shame because there is also an interest free government loan available but again, barriers.

My Canada Greener Homes Timeline

  • May 29th 2022 – Application to the Greener Homes program submitted
  • June 16th 2022 – Application reviewed and officially approved
  • June 19th 2022 – Received email advising of the Canada Greener Homes Loan.
  • June 23rd 2022 – Pre-retrofit audit performed.
  • July 12th 2022 – Inquired with Service Organization on timeline to receive audit results. Advised 40-60 days was average.
  • July 25th 2022- I received my Home Energy Evaluation Report which was also uploaded to the Greener Homes Grant portal.
  • September 20th 2022 – I questioned the delay in processing my report.
  • September 22nd 2022 – The issue corrected, I was finally eligible to apply for the Greener Homes Loan
  • October 4th 2022 – Submitted Loan Application
  • November 14th 2022 – Loan Approved
  • December 8th 2022 – Loan Accepted
  • February 14th-16th 2023 – Crawlspace Encapsulation and Insulation completed.
  • February 21st-24th 2023 – Ductless Heat Pump System installed.
  • March 1st 2023 – Post Retrofit Audit
  • March 5th 2023 – Reports received but not yet available for NRCAN review
  • April 14th 2023 – Audit reports available for NRCAN review, my invoices etc submitted and balance of loan funding requested.
  • April 17th 2023 – Loan funding approved

Some final thoughts

I went into this process expecting I would be just looking at installing my heat pump around now, so in reality it went a bit faster than my expectations. But when the initial approval was processed so quickly, my expectations went up  and it still took nearly as long as I originally thought it would. There was also a bit of a glitchy delay between my pre-retrofit audit uploading and it actually being reviewed. Later applicants were actually beating me through the process. As of now, I still have not received anything from the government beyond a very small loan advance in December but I will update the timeline as things happen.

My understanding is the program has changed and new Ontario applications now go through Enbridge rather than NRCAN.