Government cash still available for home retrofits post-Home Renovation Tax Credit
The Canadian government’s popular Home Renovation Tax Credit program is expiring on Feb 1st, but a Kingston environmental non-profit is spreading the word that other funding will be available after that date to help offset the cost of home upgrades. “Homeowners still have fourteen months left to take advantage of ecoENERGY, a generous government program, to help offset the cost of energy efficiency upgrades,” says Steve Walker, the Executive Director of Hearthmakers Energy Co-operative.
Until March 31, 2011, homeowners are eligible to receive up to $10,000 in combined federal and provincial grants by improving the energy efficiency of their homes. Grants may include $1,580 for a high efficiency furnace, $80 per Energy Star-rated window and up to $3,750 for exterior wall insulation. The governments are also trying to encourage renewable energy retrofits through grants of $2,500 for a solar hot water system and $8,750 for a ground source heat pump.
“These types of retrofits tend to be the smartest home improvements you can make because they have several paybacks,” says Walker. “These include reduced energy costs, improved home comfort and increased home resale value. When government grants are factored in, going ahead with retrofits is an easy decision for many homeowners.”
Like the Home Renovation Tax Credit, the ecoENERGY program also provides a boost to the local economy. In the past few years, Hearthmakers clients alone have received more than $2.1 million in grants. For every grant dollar received, three are typically spent on contractors and supplies, which translates into a $6 million cash injection for area businesses.
Lloyd Perry, a sales representative with Brunet, a busy local heating and air conditioning contracting firm, has seen the program’s impact first-hand. “The Home Renovation Tax Credit was good for business and got a lot of attention from homeowners, but ecoENERGY provides a much bigger incentive,” says Perry. “We’re telling people who didn’t take advantage of the Home Renovation Tax Credit that there’s still plenty of incentive to get energy-efficient products installed – especially if they do it before July 1st, when Ontario’s 8% Harmonized Sales Tax takes effect.”
To qualify for a grant, homeowners must have an energy-use assessment performed before and after their retrofits by a licensed ecoENERGY service organization such as Hearthmakers. Homeowners typically have 18 months to complete the retrofits before the follow-up assessment, which verifies the improvements and quantifies the size of the grant. With the March 31, 2011, deadline, that end-date has shrunk to roughly 14 months and closing. The combined cost of the assessments is roughly $400 and includes a custom report on energy use, a home energy-use rating on a scale of 1-100, and a list of recommended cost-efficient upgrades for the homeowner.
Natural Resources Canada launched ecoENERGY in spring 2007 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The province of Ontario announced its support for the program shortly thereafter in the form of matching grants and a $150 rebate to offset the cost of the initial home evaluation.
It’s estimated that 15% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Canada come from homes. Locally, Hearthmakers’ 4500 clients – some of which participated in a previous government program, EnerGuide for Houses – have reduced their collective emissions by an estimated 4000 tonnes per year, the equivalent of taking 500 cars off the road.
