Green new home building incentives and rebates – Canada
There’s been a lot of discussion around the recent Canadian renovation incentives, especially the energy retrofit programs. As there should be. These programs are a great way to stimulate both the economy through the renovation market as well as highlight the need for aiming for higher standards of efficiency in legacy homes. As many people have seen who have engaged in the program, it’s easy money and the improvements to old homes with regard to efficiency has been like shooting fish in a barrel.
That said, this is where it ends. In the new home construction market, the incentive cupboard is mostly bare. No way you say. Way. Believe it or not, the majority if not all of the incentives are directed toward the retrofit market, as well as non-profit and commercial – quietly avoiding new homes. Tough question why but the official answer is that the retrofit market has more to gain than the new homes market being that older homes are less efficient, new homes are built to a better standard, so incentives aimed at old homes will be more effective, shooting fish in a barrel. Also, retrofits are a more significant proportion of the voting population… Did I say that.
That said, if the majority of homes that can make a difference are legacy, and new ones represent an insignificant amount, what difference will it make in the grand scheme of things to include them too? How much more would it really cost or what’s it take extra to incentify the few new homes? Strange enough to wonder if there is another reason.
I think if you were to really think about it, you could consider that with time in the equation, putting tax money into an old home to plug this leak and that will bring it up to a moderate, though better, energy standard than it was. Obvious. This will be likely good for another 10-15 years before the next or subsequent owner decides it’s time to reno and improve once again – but likely not before. So, the chance of energy improvements on this legacy before another decade is slim.
On the other hand, putting tax money into a new standard home that could take it from marginally better – and I mean only marginally in many cases with some builders (http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2009/new_home_nightmares/main.html) – to much better could mean a home that far exceeds legacy standards for the next 25 to 30 years before a reno is required or desired. This equates to almost twice as long. Over simplified logic but logic at that. Because this is at least arguable, it leaves me wondering why new homes could be left out at all when they stand the greater chance of reversing our negative trend of destructive consumption on our planet and resources.
Never the less, this is the case and it’s not about to change.
Enough complaining. There are a few incentives that exist for new green homes worth pursuing. The difficulty in finding and interpreting these is another discussion but with the help of Google and some assistance from our geothermal equipment supplier we were able to locate the following incentives, tax rebates or rumours. I’ll certainly let you know how it goes.
It seems the incentives for new homes are focused around Geothermal, Solar, Wind, Insulation, and of course appliances which include all items installed that become “property” of the home — requiring install rather than furniture — ie. Refrigerators, dishwashers, ovens, HRV’s and built-in fans, AC units, etc.
For us, we will pursue the straightforward — geothermal, appliance and HRV credits or tax deductions. It’s a long shot if insulation has a chance since the wording in the website is very convoluted. For clarity on geothermal, I contacted our Canadian heat pump manufacturer as I believed they should know and happily they turned out to be very helpful.
Randy Waylett – National Sales Manager of Northern Heat Pump says:
“Ontario Government: http://www.mei.gov.on.ca.wsd6.korax.net/english/energy/renewable/index.cfm?page=geothermal
Ontario Government should match the amount received from the Canadian Government program – $4375 ??
Canadian Government:
http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/residential/personal/retrofit-homes/retrofit-qualify-grant.cfm?attr=4
Should qualify for rebate of up to $4375 for the geothermal system installation – both retrofit and new system construction
The Ontario Government has been matching the Federal Government rebates which used to be $3500 for the Fed Government program and $3500 matched by the Ontario Government program for a total of $7000.
Please see http://www.mei.gov.on.ca.wsd6.korax.net/english/energy/renewable/index.cfm?page=geothermal and click on Financing A Geothermal System.
Now the Federal Government program has been increased to $4375 and I am assuming the Ontario Government is still matching?? You should check with your installing contractor of the heat pump system who will need to certify the system through the Canadian GeoExchange Coalition (CGC) in order to qualify for these rebates. They should be familiar with the process required and all the paperwork that needs to be filled out in order to get the rebate monies, etc.
Regards, Randy
CGC website: http://www.geo-exchange.ca/en/geoexchange_financial_support_grants_rsc70.php“
In addition to Randy’s advice, I located:
Geothermal
Retail Sales Tax – 3.4% of Invoice
http://www.rev.gov.on.ca/english/refund/windgeo/
http://www.rev.gov.on.ca/english/notices/rst/44b.html
$8750
http://www.homeperformance.com/ontario-rebates-toronto-hamilton-london-barrie-orillia
http://www.homeperformance.com/ontario-geothermal-rebate-grants-for-geothermal-heating
Real Property – Appliances, lighting, room A/C
http://www.rev.gov.on.ca/english/notices/rst/68.html
HRV
$750
http://www.homeperformance.com/ontario-hrv-rebate-grants-for-heat-recovery-ventilator
To sum up, finding and understanding whether we qualify for grants or rebates has been tedious at best. Many many hours have been spent and up until recently, we have been sure there were none. Though our supplier, 4 Seasons could be educated in this area of understanding, as most certainly it would help them to sell a unit or two, they haven’t offered assistance in this perspective as I can guess is similar with other suppliers for various practical reasons; mainly that information just isn’t available to them any more than it is to you and me.
So the short of it is, do your homework, ensure your supplier is qualified and certified by the CGC to do the work, as is 4 Seasons, and inquire if the supplier is willing to do the paperwork for you or provide guidance as part of the deal up front – you don’t want this to be an additional cost as it can be time consuming.
Last note, the grass is never greener over there for me but the US have a leg up on us with a 30% rebate on the geothermal bill – wow:
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=tax_credits.tx_index#c6
August 31st, 2009 at 11:44 pm
That’s right. Other than the Ontario retail sales tax savings on renewable energy & geothermal, there isn’t anything for new build. I tend to agree, because we can’t build our way out of the problem. By the same token, not all geothermal systems qualify for the retrofit grants, notably DX systems, which are actually more efficient than water based systems and can be installed in a smaller footprint, making it very attractive in an urban setting. But because the CSA 448 standard doesn’t cover DX geothermal, NRCan doesn’t want to provide incentives.
September 1st, 2009 at 9:45 am
You’re right – we’re not going to build ourselves out of the problem, we’re going to have to make a broad societal change toward rationale material conservatism. This will mean adjusting our base expectations for comfort and material wealth, the esoteric things that we emotionally build into the perceived standard of living but which truly don’t effect the quality. This is a big step – a generational movement. In the interim, we will have to support manufactured products and techniques that are built to new efficient standards of which many are leading edge. To do this, it makes no difference whether the home is preexisting over 6 months or new.
Perhaps the analogy is that of cars. We need to release our dependency on them, no question. But in the interim, we live within a structure that forces us to rely; whether through ownership, renting or sharing. Just using one means we can’t absolve ourselves of their impact – as we control the structure as individuals. Though there have been many advancements in retrofit energy saving technologies for cars, the real gain in many ways has been in new cars. New cars are the hybrids, or have advanced pollution controls, use less fuel or have better life-cycles. Most importantly, the manufacturers that push the new cars to recover their investments in this technology are doing the lion share of educating the eco-cynical average consumer and making green cars “normal”. They have been making change (along with the David Suzuki’s of the world thank goodness)
Perhaps the few green cars on the road, initially put there primarily by one manufacturer, has carved the way for change. So, as well, perhaps the few green homes that hit the neighborhood are also doing the same thing and deserve a little green back in return for paying for the learning curve and the promotion.
In the end, supporting the handful of new construction homes built to new standards — whether singles or in multi-units doesn’t add up to a major drain on the big picture of tax spending – but it would make a big difference to the industry struggling to move green building forward.
Barry
contact@imberaksehouse.ca