FAQ – HOME EFFICIENCY
9 steps happen during a pre-retrofit evaluation, your energy advisor will:
- Ask you about your goals for your home and any efficiency or comfort issues you’d like help solving
- Measure the size and heated volume of your home
- Document the existing insulation levels throughout your home
- Record the make and model of your space and water heating systems
- Perform a blower door test to identify air leakage problems and calculate your air changes per hour and your home’s equivalent leakage area (how big a hole the air leaks in your home would make if all combined together)
- In the following week, use HOT2000 to build an energy model of your home
- Explain relevant rebate programs
- Provide you with a Renovation Upgrade Report which gives you customized recommendations about which energy saving upgrades make the most sense for your home, and what energy savings you can expect from each upgrade.
- Issue you an EnerGuide rating, which demonstrates the energy performance of your home, and the EnerGuide Label which is the proof of that energy rating.
Whether you’re planning small fixes or major renovations, consider making energy efficiency upgrades. It will help lower your consumption and energy bills, and add value to your home.
Think of your home as a system
All the elements of your house – the building envelope, mechanical systems, indoor and outdoor environment and even the occupants – interact. A change in one area can affect the others. For example, in sealing up air leaks you may need to make changes to your ventilation. Learn how to keep your home operating efficiently by reading the Natural Resources Canada publication Keeping the Heat In.
If you prefer to speak to our Certified BC Energy Advisor to get expert answer personalized for your home, Contact Us.
A BC Energy Advisor will come to your home to evaluate your home’s energy performance from the basement to the attic. Our unbiased energy professionals bring industry expertise right to your door.
- An EnerGuide home evaluation gives you detailed information about your home’s energy performance and which house components are the best retrofit options for reducing energy consumption.
- An EnerGuide rating demonstrates the energy performance of a home and the rating label our Energy Advisor produces – is proof of that energy rating.
- Personalized recommendations may be provided through an evaluation report. These recommendations can help you make decisions about which upgrades or renovations would save the most energy and money while also improving the overall comfort in your home.
There are also EnerGuide evaluations for New Home Construction
The EnerGuide rating demonstrates the energy performance of a home. It is an estimate of the net amount of energy a house consumes in a year, calculated by subtracting the estimated renewable energy contributions from the estimated annual energy consumption. An energy advisor produces a rating by collecting house information during an on-site evaluation and entering it into Natural Resources Canada’s energy simulation software.
The calculation uses standard operating conditions to ensure the rating focuses on the house, rather than the occupants’ behaviour. This makes it easier to use the rating to compare the energy usage of one house to another. The rating is not meant to represent your actual energy consumption as shown on your utility bills.
The rating is part of the broader EnerGuide home evaluation which provides consumers and homeowners with useful details about the energy performance and greenhouse gas production of a house.
As soon as you have decided to get started with a home renovation rebate program you can Book A Time for BC Energy Advisor to come to your home for taking measurements, pictures, and data collection. You need to be at home during the 1.5 to 2 hour home energy evaluation, and will need to prepare with items like your property tax number, signed consent form, and the fireplace off. A check list and summary will be emailed in an appointment reminder.
You can reschedule by email with 48-hours, or by phone with 24-hours notice of the time you booked. We will send an email confirmation 2 days before the time, and an SMS text message 1 day before your booked time seeking your confirmation reply. We want to avoid the non-refundable situation where the CEA arrives and there is no one home and no rescheduling message was received.
The CEA needs approximately 2-hours to complete the data collection for the home check-up. One adult must remain at home during the evaluation time and will be asked a few energy related questions about the home. He will start by pictures of the exterior walls, mechanical systems, and attic insulation. Then he measure all the windows and doors and develop a floor plan plus an elevation plan for input into the HOT2000 software back in the office.
Scheduling an EnerGuide Rating service is a step in the process to get your home energy rating for incentives or planning upgrades. It typically starts with buying the Basic EnerGuide Service first, then booking your preferred day and time slot. You will get a confirmation by email, or a request to be grouped by City when our CEA plans to be in your area to see 2 or more homes in one morning or afternoon.