Daily Home Renovation Tips

Well, we did it.

We made the call.

It’s been several months since we implented all of the grant applicable, energy conservation recommendations contained in the energy audit (Energy Efficiency Assessment ‘D’ Report) report which we planed on making. Yesterday, I made the call to have the energy auditor return for the follow-up energy audit.

Why did we wait so long? Two reasons:

First, I really wanted to install a tankless water heater. However, as we have previously written about only a natural gas / propane sourced unit qualifies for the ecoENERGY Retrofit grant. However, I just can’t get over (I know, I know …. my wife’s husband can be stubborn from time to time ) that the two installation companies indicated it has to be installed 30 feet away from the current natural gas hot water tank.

I also cannot get over how the financial payback for us, after the ecoENERGY Retrofit grants, exceeds 7 years. I can’t afford that financially; renovating other areas of our home has seen to that.

We were hoping to find a solar water heating a more viable option, but again, there’s that darn financial payback for something that costs even more, net of the ecoENERGY Retrofit grant.

Second, it still disappoints me that solar space heating  qualifies for commercial, industrial and institutional grants under the ecoENERGY Retrofit program, but not for residential buildings. Don’t homes have interior space just like these other types of buildings? And, solar space heating is so much less complex than solar water heating or solar PV energy.

So, I was waiting to see if the plan would change (which it has already once since we had our first D energy efficiency assessment) to allow the same solar space heating products already approved for those other types of buildings to be approved for residences. However, I noticed today that yes the plan is changing with respect to these solar space heating collectors effective September 1, 2008 but only in what to me are administrative and grant calculation changes.

So, without any other applicable energy conservation recommendation to implement, I made the call to have the second energy efficiency assessment undertaken.

Now, you do have to be careful that you are actually finished your energy conservation related activities as they relate to the recommendations in the D energy audit report. Once the E energy audit is completed, if something comes up that  you forgot to do, too late. My understanding is that you have to start the process again, i.e. the D energy efficiency assessment. However, Provinces offering $150 rebate against the cost of the first audit may have rules stating ‘one-and-done’.

Now, the purpose of this second energy audit is to attest (auditors like that word ‘attest’) or validate which of the recommendations from the first audit did we actually complete. I also expect a second blower test to calculate the degree of air leakage compared to the reading from the first audit as air leakage improvement is one of the energy conservation activities for which there is available grant money.

So, September 15th is when we have the appointment with the same person from the same company to conduct the E energy efficiency assessment.

We are told that we should expect to receive the ecoENERGY Retrofit applicable grant money within 90 days and the matching Provincial grant money in a further 30 days.

And, yes, we will keep you informed on the second energy audit a few days after it has occurred.