Energy Audit Ontario Prices

November 1st, 2011 No Comments

Here in Ontario Auditors and the service organizations that they work for are free to set their own price for an energy audit.  For the most part everyone is pretty close in price, expect a fluctuation of about 25$ plus or minus. 

For the most part it is in your best interest to get the audit as cheaply as possible as this will ultimately turn out to be savings in your pocket. 

The first audit in Ontario will cost roughly 350 dollars and the Government will rebate 150$ back automatically.  Then you will complete all your upgrades and schedule the second audit.  This second audit is cheaper and much quicker as the representative is simply there to ensure changes have been made and to upgrade your homes efficiency rating. 

Then comes the waiting part, as we all know the Ontario (Provincial) Government is slow, as well as the Federal.  Eventually you will get the rebate cheques that the Government and Energy Audit program promised you, offsetting a portion of what you paid to upgrade your homes efficiency.

Find out what the cost of an audit for your home is.

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Can An Energy Audit Be Useful?

October 31st, 2011 No Comments

Dawn Walton recently wrote and article for the Globe and Mail outlining her experience with the Ontario energy retrofit program.  Even though this site does promote and help homeowners get and locate Energy Auditors in their areas she does bring up some valid points. 

Here are a few things I take issue with:

  1.  The program has been cut in half, she states that it would cost her 15$ to have the energy audit completed on her home after all rebates had been accounted for.  Her math is correct, but recently the program was cut in half and this has moved the breakeven point down by 50 percent.
  2.  She doesn’t account for the information that she gains with an audit. Sure it works out to cost her 15$ but after that audit you have an intimate understanding of your home, where it lacks efficiency and where it’s a star.
  3. The audit really shows where the low hanging fruits are, find these and you can make the biggest gains at the lowest cost.
  4. She signed up for the audit and based her synopsis on the program by replacing windows; that is probably the worst rebate in the program.  Changing your water heater or furnace can net you well over a 1000$ in rebates, making this program well worth a few hundred dollars extra.

Read the full article here.

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EcoEnergy Program Is Back

September 9th, 2011 No Comments

The ecoENERGY Retrofit Program is back with a Vengeance!

This program provides grants to home owners of up to $5,000 to help make their homes more energy-efficient and reduce the burden of high energy costs. The Government of Canada has renewed the program from June 6, 2011, until March 31, 2012.

It can be complicated with how the new and old program mesh and thus its best you contact a fully qualified ecoENERGY Retrofit service provider.

Enjoy the Savings!

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Understanding the Energy Audit Program in Ontario

May 24th, 2011 1 Comment

Lets be very clear here…..

There are no rebates currently available for upgrades on equipment in your home if you’re living in Ontario.

A few websites are being a little tricky and making it look as though you can still receive a cash rebate from the Government for performing an upgrade.  This is not accurate, and here is how they are tricking people.  The Ontario Government is still providing a rebate of $150 on the cost of an energy audit but (and this is a big but) there is no program that will reimburse for any home upgrades that you do.   A few sneaky websites out there are implying that you can get grants for a new furnace or air conditioner but this is NOT the case.

In Summary

Ontario

Energy Audit – $150 rebate on initial audit cost (the audit simply will rate your home level of efficiency and suggest places you can make improvements).

Government Grants – Nothing available for subsidizing the cost of the upgrades. If the audit finds that you can save a lot of money and energy by upgrading your 40 year old furnace you are on the hook for the entire replacement cost.  The past EcoAction program sponsored by the Government would have provided a grant to help offset the new furnace cost and an incentive for the homeowner to upgrade.



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EcoEnergy Audit Program Extended

March 23rd, 2011 No Comments

The good news for home owners this morning is that the new budget has provided $400 million to revive the ecoEnergy audit program that has become extremely popular.

The program was initially started 3 years ago and funded with $745 million, but its popularity out striped that budget quite quickly and the Federal government pulled the plug.  Provincial Governments realizing its potential continued on with the Auditing program.  This new budget has seen the Conservatives add $400 million for one year, you should expect to see home audits and grants double.

This is a no brainer for the Conservatives as the ecoENERGY program is a no-risk investment for the federal government. It generates more tax revenue than it costs in incentives. It only pays those incentives to homeowners after jobs are created and retrofit work is completed.

Best of all, it creates thousands of jobs across the country.

Lets hope that this program becomes a permanent venture in the near future.

Looks like we need to upgrade our countdown timer now!

UPDATE

Well it looks like the program has ended due to a non confidence vote.  Effectively the program has finished and we now just need to wait and see if it is funded in the future.

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Expect More Funding For The ecoEnergy Home Retrofit Program

March 21st, 2011 No Comments

There has been some interesting developments over the last little while with regards to the ecoEnergy Home Retrofit Program.  The Conservative Government is being put under some pressure with their new budget and it realistically is being left to NDP leader Jack Layton.  For the Conservatives to get his approval of the budget he wants a few concessions made….. and one is the reinstatement of the home audit program that was canceled by the federal Government a year ago.

This is great news to home owners as the program was an instant hit with hundreds of thousands of home participating in the energy savings audit throughout Canada.  It was looking as the program was going to be canceled outright as it is becoming increasing close to the deadline.  This would have resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs, from energy auditors to the support staff behinds them.

There should be some new developments in the coming days on whether the Provincial Government will extend their commitments (doubling the payback to home owners).

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Final Audit, E Audit, Last Audit

March 3rd, 2011 No Comments

The Eco Energy Audit Program is Ending

Were getting a rush of requests for Final audits and space are filling up fast.

If you haven’t completed your E audit you need to start thinking about booking a spot soon.

If you do not end up completing your last audit you will not be eligible for any grant money entitled to you for upgrades you have completed. This E-Audit is the verification step that proves to the Government that you have completed what you will claim to have completed.  Without this audit the Government will not issue any rebates.

NOTES:
  1. This is the CHEAPEST and fastest of the audits.
  2. You can do this audit WITH ANY service organization.

Message an Auditor now to See if there are any available openings in your area.

.

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There Is Still Time To Participate In The Home Audit Program

February 20th, 2011 No Comments

THERE PROGRAM IS COMING TO AN END BUT….

THERE IS STILL TIME TO PARTICIPATE:
Just ensure that you have done all your eligible retrofits and have your post-retrofit (2nd) audit done by the March 31, 2011 end-date. Your Auditor will submit the necessary paperwork in order for you to qualify for OHESP rebates.

Sure the program is coming to an end but its all the more reason to get your audit.  We have heard news that a new revised plan is in the works and will be opened back up to everyone (if you have had a audit or not).  So take advantage of this current program and still be able to participate in the new version (double the savings).

To get an audit still you would need to roughly follow these steps.

  1. Book an audit ASAP
  2. File for audit rebate.
  3. Retrofit your home, new furnace, tankless water heater, air conditioner, home insulation, etc etc. (most of these things can be completed within a week or so).
  4. Book your verification audit (auditor needs to see what upgrades you have completed).
  5. Auditor submits files and you receive your rebates (minimum of 8 weeks to receive them in the mail).

This is a great program and really helps home owners increase efficiency in their home, and this is where we waste the most energy.  We always look ways to increase our power grid and total generation capacity but conservation and efficiency upgrades have such amazing compounding results that we may be able to actually reduce production (idealistically).

HAVE AN AUDITOR CALL YOU TODAY

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