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EnerGuide for Houses
A Contractors' Guide
Natural Resources Canada
Introducing the newest member of your team...
In today's competitive market, successful residential contractors need to be backed up by a strong team.
EnerGuide for Houses, developed by the Office of Energy Efficiency of Natural Resources Canada, is an independent home energy assessment service that helps you deliver more value to your customers. EnerGuide for Houses provides customers with an accurate snapshot of all energy-related aspects of their home and shows where improvements can be made. EnerGuide for Houses links energy efficiency to comfort and savings – a powerful combination that has many customer benefits. This service makes it easier for you to make the sale to your customers by giving them the right renovation advice and encouraging them to focus on value, not price.
GRANTS FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS
Homeowners are now being offered grants from the Government of Canada toward energy-related improvements to their houses. Only houses that have been evaluated both before and after renovations using the EnerGuide for Houses service will be eligible for a grant.
For full details about who and what kind of house is eligible for grants, please speak to your local EnerGuide for Houses service provider. You can also request a copy of eligibility criteria for grants from Natural Resources Canada's toll-free publications line or view it on-line at our Web site listed at the end of this booklet.
YOU'RE IN CHARGE
EnerGuide for Houses is inexpensive, fast, and available when you need it. It's a service that you can use to give your company a competitive edge.
When your client is planning energy upgrades or when you see the potential to incorporate energy upgrades into your renovation work, take the opportunity to recommend the EnerGuide for Houses service. Homeowners have been using the EnerGuide for Houses service since 1998 to help identify and solve home comfort problems, reduce their energy bills and plan their energy retrofits.
It's all about climate change
Today, 17 percent of all energy use in Canada goes toward running our homes. Every time we use energy from fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas we produce greenhouse gas emissions. By using less energy in our homes, we help reduce the production of the greenhouses gas emissions that contribute to climate change and harm our environment.
EnerGuide for Houses helps you and your customers
make a difference
Homes that are more than 25 years old have the potential to save an average of 32 percent of their energy use. Homes that are more than 50 years old could achieve even greater savings – an average of 38 percent. So far, more than 100 000 homeowners have used EnerGuide for Houses to help identify and solve home comfort problems and plan their energy efficiency retrofits. Natural Resources Canada data shows that if these homeowners undertook all the retrofits recommended, they would reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by almost 4 tonnes per year, per house. They would also have a head start in meeting Canada's One-Tonne Challenge – a challenge proposed to all Canadians to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by one tonne per year.
How can EnerGuide for Houses help my business?
As a professional renovation contractor, you know it's important to consider energy efficiency when planning renovation or home improvement projects. Often, what's most important to your customers is top quality work, preferred lifestyle features, increased comfort and, of course, value for money.
INCREASE YOUR SALES
With EnerGuide for Houses, it's easier to keep your customer's project plans on solid ground. EnerGuide for Houses will help you explain the value of an extra investment in energy retrofits and demonstrate the benefits to your customer. It backs you up with a detailed, independent report on the home's current level of energy efficiency and shows how much its efficiency will improve if the recommended changes are made. The grant also provides an additional incentive for customers to get the work done soon, while grants are still available.
INCREASE YOUR CUSTOMER'S SATISFACTION
Sometimes customers don't realize that factors that may not be obvious such as poor windows, lack of insulation or an inefficient heating system make it a real challenge to deliver the comfort and quality they expect in their renovation. This is where having an EnerGuide for Houses advisor on your team really pays off. Implementing the recommendations made by the energy advisor is sure to lead to an improvement in your customer's home comfort – fewer drafts and cold spots, more even temperatures throughout the house and proper ventilation. That means satisfied clients, more referrals and more business for you.
How was EnerGuide for Houses developed?
EnerGuide for Houses represents more than two decades of research and development by Natural Resources Canada and the home building industry. The computer software that forms the backbone of the EnerGuide for Houses evaluation is based on HOT2000,* the computer modelling program used to design Canada's world-renowned R-2000 houses.
*HOT2000 is an official mark of Natural Resources Canada.
How EnerGuide for Houses works
Across Canada, a network of specially trained, independent service companies are contracted to deliver the EnerGuide for Houses service.
There is a fee for the EnerGuide for Houses service. NRCan partially subsidizes advisors for their work to perform the service. The customer will be expected to pay the remainder of the fee. The price of the service varies because local governments and private sector partners in some regions also contribute toward the service's delivery.
A SIMPLE PROCESS
The EnerGuide for Houses evaluation is easy to integrate into your customer's plans and takes only a few hours to do:
- The advisor will conduct a walk-through tour of the house inside and out, gathering information about structure, insulation, windows, doors and heating and ventilation systems.
- The advisor will also perform a blower door test to determine the rate of air leakage in the home.
- The information is entered into a computer program and analysed.
- A printed report gives your customer clear and easy-to-understand information:
- an estimate of current energy consumption and costs, broken down for space heating, water heating and appliances and lighting
- an estimate of current heat loss and where heat losses are occurring
- recommendations for improvement in order of priority
- a rating of the home's current energy efficiency and how much it should improve if the recommendations are followed
- The advisor will present the report to you and your customer and go through it item by item. The homeowner will also be given an EnerGuide for Houses label to show how the house performed and how much the rating is likely to improve if recommended energy efficiency retrofits are made.
- You and your customer can then discuss the evaluation results and make firm plans about incorporating energy-related renovations.
- When substantial energy retrofit work has been performed, the EnerGuide for Houses advisor will return to the home to perform a follow-up evaluation. This second evaluation will determine how the energy efficiency rating of the home has improved. The EnerGuide for Houses service does not assess the quality of the work performed – only its impact on the energy efficiency rating of the home. The difference between the pre- and post-retrofit ratings determine the amount of the grant the customer will receive. The advisor will complete the application for the grant with the homeowner during this visit and submit it to Natural Resources Canada for payment.
TEAMING UP WITH AN ENERGUIDE FOR HOUSES ADVISOR
EnerGuide for Houses is available to homeowners and contractors. The service and grants are being advertised nationally, so expect more and more homeowners to ask for it.
You can choose to recommend the EnerGuide for Houses service and let your customer make the arrangements. When homeowners arrange for the service, the advisor will present results directly to them. You may choose to make EnerGuide for Houses advisors part of your company's home renovation team by adding EnerGuide for Houses to your customer service package. It may make more sense for you to handle the arrangements and be involved when the results are presented. This gives you a chance to ask the advisor questions and explain to your customer how the recommendations relate to their project plans.
No matter who requests or pays for the service, the EnerGuide for Houses report and grant are provided to the homeowner, and it is the homeowner who makes the final decision on what retrofits will be undertaken.
To find a local EnerGuide for Houses service provider, just call the toll-free number listed at the end of this booklet and ask for the names of companies in your area. You can also find this information on our Web site noted at the end of this booklet.
What does the EnerGuide for Houses rating mean?
With EnerGuide for Houses, each home receives a specific rating of between 0 and 100 that indicates its level of energy efficiency. Unimproved older homes typically have ratings of between 20 and 50, while the average new home falls between 66 and 74. An R-2000 home, which is typically 25 percent more energy efficient than an average new home, has a rating of 80 to 84.
The best time to use EnerGuide for Houses
Not all homes and not all projects will benefit from the EnerGuide for Houses service. However, there are a number of situations where EnerGuide for Houses makes a lot of sense:
- if a house is 25 years old or more and has not been recently renovated
- if a renovation project involves structural work such as building an addition, changes to exterior walls, new windows, siding or roof – "piggybacking" energy improvements onto other planned renovation work can be very cost-effective
- if the renovation project involves changes to the HVAC system, mechanical systems and ducting
- if customers complain about cold spots, drafts or frost-covered windows in winter –these are classic symptoms of poor energy efficiency in older homes (if you suspect that a house has these problems, be sure to ask the customer about them)
- if you see signs of water damage or mould around windows, in the basement or on walls – excessive air leakage or moisture problems caused by poor ventilation means less comfort and can lead to structural problems if left untreated.
Is EnerGuide for Houses a home inspection?
An energy efficiency evaluation and a home inspection are two different kinds of assessment. Energy advisors offer advice on how to improve the energy efficiency of their customers' homes. On the other hand, home inspectors assess the structural integrity of a home and usually work as an expert on behalf of the buyer during the purchase of a house.
Further information
For more information about EnerGuide for Houses or for additional copies of this or other free energy efficiency publications, please contact:
Energy Publications
Office of Energy Efficiency
Natural Resources Canada
c/o S.J.D.S.
Ottawa ON K1G 6S3
Tel.: 1 800 387-2000 (toll-free)
995-2943 (National Capital Region)
Fax: (613) 740-3114
Publications Web site: oee.nrcan.gc.ca/infosource
EnerGuide for Houses Web site: energuideforhouses.gc.ca
Inventory No. M27-01-2011E
© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, 2004 Date of publication: March 2004
Aussi disponible en français sous le titre : ÉnerGuide pour les maisons – Guide des entrepreneurs
Leading Canadians to Energy Efficiency at Home, at Work and on the Road
The Office of Energy Efficiency of Natural Resources Canada strengthens and expands Canada's commitment to energy efficiency in order to help address the challenges of climate change.
