EnerGuide Evaluations
Ecology's Energy Advisors are certified by National Resources Canada (NRCan) to perform EnerGuide Evaluations and can help explain what your home's rating means.
For most homes about 75% of the cost of an EnerGuide Evaluation is directly refundable through provincial and federal grant programs if eligible upgrades are installed and EnerGuide Evaluations are performed both before and after the installation of upgrades.
Did you know?
What is an EnerGuide Evaluation?
An EnerGuide Evaluation is an assessment of the physical characteristics of your home that influence its energy efficiency. This evaluation considers parameters like size, number of windows, type of heating, etc. to calculate how your home uses and loses energy.
Once our Energy Advisor has completed the on-site assessment of your home, they build a model of using specialized software. This model is then used to estimate the annual energy consumption of your home. This estimate, measured in gigajoules per year (GJ/year), is your home's EnerGuide Rating.
Each EnerGuide Rating includes the annual energy consumption of a reference house. This reference house has the same physical characteristics as the modelled home but is assumed to be built to modern building practices and codes. This enables the Energy Advisor and the homeowner to gauge whether the home is energy efficient or energy inefficient, relative to the reference house.
The image to the left is the EnerGuide label for a home in Victoria BC. This particular home had an unfinished basement and several single pane windows. This is reflected in its relatively high EnerGuide Rating of 121 GJ/year. The reference house (ie. a home with similar characteristics built to today's standards) had a rating closer to 74 GJ/year. This difference of 47 GJ/year is the energy equivalent of burning 1500 litres of gasoline per year.
Why get an EnerGuide Evaluation?
To save money and help the planet, but also make your home more comfortable
An EnerGuide Evaluation provides a breakdown of how your home uses and loses energy. With this estimate you will have the information you need to make decisions about which upgrades will benefit you the most. Our Energy Advisors can provide a cost-benefit analysis for these upgrades to ensure you're accessing all available grants and minimizing your monthly energy bills.
More energy efficient homes means fewer greenhouse gasses emitted to power them. Particularly where homes utilize oil or natural gas for space or water heating, this increase in efficiency can lead to significant reductions in emissions.
Air-sealing and increasing insulation in your home can mean fewer drafts and more consistent temperatures throughout your home. Replacing older furnaces or hot-water tanks with more efficient models can reduce noise. New windows and door can do it all: fewer drafts, fewer cold spots, and less noise from outside.
Which grants require an EnerGuide Evaluation?
The following grants and refunds require the completion of pre-upgrade and post-upgrade EnerGuide Evaluations:
- Canada Greener Homes Grants
- CMHC Green Home mortgage insurance refunds
- Sagen Energy Efficient Housing mortgage insurance refunds
- The Better Homes BC Home Improvement Bonus
- Certain municipal grants, depending on where you live