An energy-efficient home can save you thousands of dollars and help the environment. Making the necessary eco-friendly upgrades can be very expensive but, thankfully, there are several different federal and provincial home rebates and loan programs that can help to offset the cost. Jordann Kaye is a personal finance expert, green home renovation enthusiast and spokesman for Zillow.ca. She joins me this week to discuss ways you can take advantage of these programs to save money and make your home more energy-efficient. 

 

Welcome to the Maple Money Show, the podcast that helps Canadians improve their personal finances to create lasting financial freedom. This episode of the Maple Money Show is brought to you by Willful. Did you know that 57 percent of Canadian adults don’t have a will? Willful has made it more affordable, convenient and easy for Canadians to create a legal will and power of attorney documents online from the comfort of home. In less than 20 minutes, and for a fraction of the price of visiting a lawyer, you can gain peace of mind knowing you’ve put a plan in place to protect your children, pets and loved ones in the event of an emergency. Get started for free at maplemoney.com/willful and use promo code Maple Money to save 15 percent. Now, let’s chat with Jordann… 

 

Tom: Hi, Jordann. Welcome back to the Maple Money Show. 

 

Jordann: Hey, thanks for having me. 

 

Tom: Thanks for coming back on. This is the quickest turnaround because it was just episode 197 where we covered eco-friendly upgrades. You pointed out something that’s new and it kind of opened up a whole series of thoughts with me. Basically, it’s Canada’s Greener Home Initiative. Now they have a loan on top of the grant. That got me thinking of things I could be doing and other people might want to consider because some of this is free money or at least interest-free money. I just kind of wanted to walk through all of that with you, from beginning to end, what people could be doing to make their homes greener for as little as possible and take advantage of these programs that are out there. 

 

Jordann: Yeah, absolutely. I think now, especially with the rising costs of, well, basically everything, one of the things that a lot of people are probably thinking about is how can I reduce my monthly spending? One of those aspects is, obviously, utilities—how much you’re spending on electricity and heating and cooling. A lot of people don’t know that there are some very significant grant and loan programs available through the federal government that will help you upgrade the energy efficiency of your home, either for free if you’re using the grant programs or for very, very low-interest loans if you’re using the loan program. I thought that might be something that you might be interested in learning a little bit about. This is something that’s near and dear to my heart. I always like bringing these programs to people’s attention because they’re really not very well-publicized. If you don’t go looking for them, they’re kind of hard to find. 

 

Tom: Yeah, it’s easy for people to complain they’re paying too much in taxes or too much for their house and all these things but when programs like this exist, it’s good to find out about them—know the details and make sure you’re taking advantage of that. When I moved into my house, I had the home inspection and the inspector pointed out all these things so I kind of already had this to-do list in my head that I was going to do. And now I’m thinking I should hold off and do this through the proper hoops because some of the things he pointed out were we didn’t have the best insulation in the attic, which I’m sure is covered under this. He wasn’t concerned about it, but whatever the different numbers were, it could have been better. Some of these things I was ready to just go ahead and do, and now I’m thinking I better follow the right procedure. If someone’s considering any renovations—just to find out what ones are eligible here, where do they start? I believe they need to get an evaluation done as sort of step one, right? You can’t do anything ahead of that. 

 

Jordann: Actually, this is really good advice, whether you’re considering applying for federal green energy rebates or loans or provincial because most of them all start with the very first step, which is to get your home evaluated by a home energy assessor. Usually, they will come into your home and do a top to bottom evaluation of every aspect of your home and all of the energy efficiency—what’s lacking or what exists. And what they’ll come up with is a list of everything you could upgrade in your home. Sometimes there are cost estimates and they’re usually quite specific. Then they’ll also come up with what’s called an EnerGuide rating, which is a number that represents the energy efficiency of your home. If you are interested in upgrading your home’s energy efficiency, don’t just go to a Home Depot and buy some insulation and start laying it down. It’s absolutely worth it to take this first step and get that evaluation done, because it provides you a baseline to show the difference the energy efficiency upgrades have had on your home. And that’s what you will use to apply for any of the loans and grants. That is definitely the first step that you’ll want to take. I would say even before that, I would take to Google and I would just start Googling energy efficiency grants in my province, in Canada, and see what the requirements are. But that is a good first step. And, typically, there is a bit of a wait because these programs are very, very popular. So it’s always a good idea to just get your name on the list right away and try to get an appointment as soon as possible. Once you have that, then you can start planning your upgrades. 

 

Tom: You mentioned provincial programs. We can’t get into every province, but do they exist in most provinces? 

 

Jordann: They don’t exist in every province. For example, as far as I know (to my most recent recollection) there is no energy efficiency program in Ontario. There is one in Nova Scotia. There’s one in British Columbia. There’s one Quebec. In fact, for some of the federal programs, they actually recommend you go through the provincial organization because they’re already set up locally. They already know all the contractors and energy assessors. So you will find that on the federal government website for the Canada Greener Homes Loan and Grants. They actually direct you to the Nova Scotia website, the British Columbia website, the Quebec website, because they have all that local information. Unfortunately, not every province has their own local energy efficiency association, but some do. Those ones that do, sometimes offer their own rebates on top of what’s offered federally. There are also some rebates that are generally offered by power companies because it’s in their interest for you to consume less power so that they don’t have to upgrade their infrastructure, which is very expensive. They will offer some incentives as well. 

 

Tom: Okay. So it’s definitely worth Googling around and making sure you’re on top of this? 

 

Jordann: Absolutely. Yeah. And if you can stack rebates, there’s generally no rule against stacking rebates. So, if you can get a federal government rebate, a provincial government rebate and a power company rebate, you might be able to complete your HVAC upgrade for $0 (which feels like it should be illegal, but it’s not). 

 

Tom: Wow. No, this sounds great because, again, if you can take care of these programs and stay on top of them (if they exist), it seems way more useful. When an evaluator comes in, I assume different evaluators can kind of have different opinions. Would it be helpful to be there with them and point out some of the things you want to do? I’m not saying they’re going to break rules for you, but just to make sure, they catch it. For example, my attic. If it’s a certain R-rating and it could be higher, is it worth pointing that out so they don’t just say, “Oh, that’s fine.” 

 

Jordann: They would pick up on that—the example that you just used. They would definitely pick up on that. But I will say that no one knows your house as well as you do so they may miss some things. Say you’re missing insulation on the rim joists of your basement wall. That might be missed, so it’s always a good idea to carefully go through the report and make sure it covers everything that you know of. But odds are, it will cover everything you know and it’ll actually uncover a lot of things that you didn’t realize. For example, perhaps you didn’t realize that your toilet is not a low-flow toilet and you could actually save so much money in water by upgrading to a low-flow toilet—that kind of thing. That’s definitely something I know, but I don’t know the actual benefit of upgrading to a low-flow toilet and seeing the numbers would probably be pretty compelling. They’re typically very, very thorough. A lot of them will even do what’s called a “blower door” test where they test the air leakage from your home—how much air will be sucked into your home if they’re pushing all the air out through a door. It’s very comprehensive. 

 

Tom: Yeah, I would like that test because last winter I felt like I was leaking air everywhere.  

 

Jordann: Yeah, older homes. I have always wanted to get one of those tests done. And actually, now that these new grant programs and loan programs have been announced, I might actually pull the trigger and do some of the upgrades I’ve been putting off as well. 

 

Tom: So with the evaluation, there’s a cost to that, right? I think there’s a grant for that as well? 

 

Jordann: There is a cost to it. It’s not a lot. I think it’s a couple of hundred dollars. There’s definitely one available provincially. There may also be one available federally that essentially gets you the energy assessment for free. There are generally restrictions on that, usually related to what kind of heating system that you have. If you have an electric heating system in some provinces, it’s covered. In other provinces, if you have oil, an oil furnace, it’s not covered. You just need to check out the rules around that. But the actual cost of the evaluation is not exorbitant. 

 

Tom: Yeah. And I happen to have a number here that they do up to $600 towards the pre and post-evaluations. So yeah, if it’s a couple of hundred dollars or maybe up to $300 for each evaluation, then yeah, it is basically free. Again, do this properly so that you definitely get that money back. Is there anything you have to do before you have that evaluator come—an official application to start before any of this? Or is getting the evaluators sort of step one. 

 

Jordann: Getting the evaluator is step one. Depending on what grants you’re going for, there is generally an account that you can open. Through the federal grant program, there’s a portal that you can create, but you can’t really do anything within the portal without your evaluation. 

 

Tom: Okay. 

 

Jordann: And especially because the wait times can be quite long, that would definitely be the first step. Once you have that evaluation, then you can start prioritizing which upgrades you want to do and finding contractors to get quotes for those upgrades. 

 

Tom: When you say the wait times can be long on these evaluations, do you have a general idea? I know you’re not in it right now, but what kind of wait times do you think are out there? 

 

Jordann: I know that these programs are incredibly popular despite being very not well known. 

 

Tom: That’s probably why they don’t promote them more. They probably don’t have the capacity to. 

 

Jordann: I think they have more applications than they could deal with. The last time I called about an energy evaluation, the wait time was a couple of months. That was during COVID, though. All wait times are longer because of COVID, right? 

 

Tom: Yeah. With the evaluation, you don’t necessarily have to take that next step if you decide that the grants aren’t supporting in the right way or you don’t have the money to cover that. You might decide to not take a further step, but you could still get the evaluation done anyway. You might as well apply and see how your house is stacking up. 

 

Jordann: Yes, absolutely. Having your evaluation done is kind of like just getting a physical. It just gives you the lay of the land. This is the fact-finding mission where we find out everything that we’re going to find out. You don’t have to take action on it right away. That said, you do have to have a fairly recent evaluation in order to qualify for the grants and rebates. I think it’s a two year period depending on which province or federal program you’re looking at. So as long as you’ve had an evaluation within a few years of trying to go for these grants, you should be okay. If it’s been around the two year mark or a little bit longer, definitely call the organization you’re interested in and ask them. They’ll be able to let you know whether it’s recent enough or you’ll have to get it reevaluated, which is unfortunate. But I do understand because they want the most recent information, right? 

 

Tom: Yeah. I guess it could get pretty out of hand if they didn’t have some limit on it. You can’t come back ten years later and say, I’ve got this because, you know, things change. 

 

Jordann: Things change even regarding like the efficiency of the home. Insulation flattens and becomes less efficient, right? And over 10 years that will happen and that will change your EnerGuide rating for the worse. 

 

Tom: Yeah, that’s a great point. Once someone has the evaluation, what’s the next step? Is it booking contractors? Does it have to be certain contractors? What comes next with things like the grants and loans? 

 

Jordann: Once the evaluation is completed, you will get a list of everything that needs to be done and from there you will prioritize the renovations you want to do. Say you’ve got a list of 50 things. That’s too many things. Let’s prioritize the big items. I want to fix my installation and I want to upgrade my windows. Then you would start calling contractors and make sure that they’re eligible for the grant program that you’re looking at. For example, upgrading HVAC is a very popular choice because it’s very expensive and the grants and loans tend to be quite substantial. But the contractors themselves do need to meet some minimum requirements. So you can either ask them directly when you call them or most provincial or federal programs maintain a list of contractors that are eligible. So, make sure they’re eligible. Then you want to get one to three quotes, which again, with COVID, things are very busy so that can take a while. Contractors are extremely busy right now. But one to three quotes is always recommended because if you just get one and it’s extremely high, you won’t know any better because you don’t have the other two to compare it to. Once you have those quotes, a formal written quote of how much this is going to cost, that’s when you would start the application process for the grant or the loan. 

 

Tom: Okay. So you can apply for the grant and loan before they actually come and do the work? 

 

Jordann: You can because they will actually advance you a portion of the loan before the work even starts—up to 15 percent because most contractors will require a deposit to start the work. They’re really trying to take the financial load off the homeowner. They’re paying for your energy evaluation. They’ll give you money for the deposit. They’ll do that. And then once the work is complete, then they advance the rest of the money. 

 

Tom: Okay, that’s good to know, because I was thinking if the loan is up to $40,000 and somebody doesn’t have that money (and don’t have the access to other credit) even if they did have the access, they don’t want to pay the interest on it, I thought they might get stuck sort of floating that until some slow government program kicks in. 

 

Jordann: Yeah, that’s a very reasonable thing to assume. And I did read the fine print very carefully to see how that actually works. When it comes to rebate programs, again, that varies from province to province. Sometimes they’ll advance the money to the contractor directly. The contractor will put the application in for the rebate themselves and you never have to pay them. It just depends on which program you’re looking at specifically. But for the Canada Greener Homes loan, they’ll pay that deposit in advance. And I think it’s 10 days from when you complete your application to when you get the money in your account. 

 

Tom: That’s pretty good. I thought it would be much slower. 

 

Jordann: Well, that said, you do have to apply before the work starts because it is contingent on your personal credit. It’s an unsecured loan, so you need to make sure you actually qualify before you tell the contractor to go ahead and start their work. You’ll be qualified, then you’ll get your deposit. The contractor will do their work and then you’ll get the money to pay. 

 

Tom: I’m glad you brought that up. If you’re someone that has bad credit and you’re thinking, I can’t even get a credit line but I can get this government loan, that’s likely not the case, then?

 

Jordann: Unfortunately, that’s likely not the case. There are some specific requirements on their website. You do have to provide employment information and proof that you would be able to pay the loan back—most of the same requirements you would have to have to apply for an unsecured personal line of credit. If your credit is really terrible and your credit score is really low, maybe the rebate programs would be better because that’s just free money and there’s no loan, so there’s no requirement to have a good credit score and be approved for an actual loan. 

 

Tom: Yeah. And if someone has bad credit, on top of that, I think we can often assume that they might be tight on money. Even with the rebates, it’s probably still good to just kind of do the numbers. Like your example earlier, where you could get and HVAC system for free, basically. That’s kind of an easy choice. But you don’t necessarily want to spend a lot just because you get a partial rebate because you’re still out this money and it has to come from somewhere. 

 

Jordann: I totally agree. It’s important to run your numbers very carefully. And when you are running those numbers, it’s important to take into consideration how much those energy efficient rebates are actually going to lower your utility costs. If you have to take out a small loan and it adds $150 a month to your monthly bill, but you’re upgrading from a really inefficient furnace to a very efficient heat pump, and you’re going to save $250 a month on your heating bill then it’s worth it. That’s assuming that you can qualify for the loan in the first place. If you can’t qualify for the loan, then definitely stick with the rebates. But also, I would recommend looking into any local programs for low income or housing assistance style programs, because I know that there are several provincial programs and programs administered by local power companies and hydro companies that are specifically for individuals that are having a hard time keeping up with rising costs when it comes to their utilities. So it’s either relief programs, free upgrades. Often you can get all of this stuff for free. That’s definitely worth looking into as well if credit is a problem. 

 

Tom: Yeah, I like that you brought up the fact that this can lower your bills because I was kind of forgetting about that. 

 

Jordann: I know. We haven’t even talked about that part yet. 

 

Tom: In my head I’m thought, “Oh, free upgrades…” But yes, the whole point is that this can actually lower your bills too, and it’s good for the environment. But in my head I’m just thinking about free upgrades and that’s not what the whole point is. In my case, yes, I want to stop drafts and be more comfortable too. But all that does equal lower bills. If I’m feeling a draft, I’m probably pumping heat out of the house. 

 

Jordann: Yeah, it’s definitely a nice benefit. It just helps you insulate yourself a little bit from the increasing costs that we’re seeing on almost everything these days. Just to know that that’s one thing that is just going to be a little bit lower, adds to a lot of peace of mind for me, personally. 

 

Tom: One thing I saw on the on the front of the Greener Homes Initiative website was it says grants from $125 to $5,000. And then when I look in the eligible retrofits, I see things like heating can be up to $5,000 and installation can be up to $5,000. When it says $125 to $5,000, is that a total under the whole program or do they literally just mean these individual things? Do you know how this all kind of adds together? 

 

Jordann: Yeah, absolutely. When it comes to the grant programs, the amounts are based on the specific upgrade you choose. If you want to get a ground source heat pump, you can claim $5,000 for that ground source heat pump. If you also want to upgrade your windows and doors, you can claim up to $225 per rough opening window. So if you have six, that’s $225 times six plus the $5,000 you’re also claiming for the heat pump. It’s not a total amount, they just cap it by specific upgrade. It’s just an easy way for them to administer those grants where they just like check off boxes and say, “Here’s your total,” and away you go. Whereas the loan program is based on the contractor’s quote and not based on that prescribed amount. 

 

Tom: Okay. Just to be clear, I assume the loan program is after the rebates? When you say it’s based on their quote, that quote includes the rebates coming in. They’d only cover the rest of that through the loan. 

 

Jordann: Right now, the Canada Greener Homes loan is only available for people who are already going through the grant program. That is the idea, yeah. You go for the grants first and then if you have anything else that you didn’t get to or costs above and beyond, you can apply for the loan program. 

 

Tom: Part of me wanted to maximize this. I was starting to think, could I get the loan for the total, pay it and then collect a rebate, giving me sort of an interest-free loan just out in the open to pay back to them. But if it’s rebated first, you’re only really getting that loan amount for the remaining purchase. 

 

Jordann: That’s the way it’s set up right now. There are dates related to who’s eligible and what you have to do beforehand. As of June 17th, you have to already be taking part in the grant program. Because they’ve added dates, that makes me think maybe things will change in the future and there will be an opportunity to just apply for the loans on their own but I don’t want to speculate because who knows what’s going to happen. 

 

Tom: Speaking of dates—and we’ve talked about how this can take a while to go through, is there and end-date to any of this that’s been stated or is it just ongoing for now? 

 

Jordann: The frustrating aspect of Green Energy Rebate Programs is that they tend to pop up and disappear with very little notice. There was a case in Ontario a few years ago where there was a very generous grant program available for HVAC upgrades that was available for two months and then it was shuttered, which left a lot of homeowners frustrated because they’d already started the process. And some of them even had started the renovations and were having a hard time getting the grant money. There is no end date right now, but that doesn’t mean that it might not be terminated with very little notice. Not to say if you’re in the middle of the project that you’re not going to get your money, but if you are putting off starting, you may log in one day and see that it’s discontinued with no notice or no heads up or anything like that. So, if you’re putting it off or you think you’ll get to it next year or what have you, I would recommend not doing that. These programs come and go. 

 

Tom: That makes sense. Don’t wait forever on this. I’m personally going to sign up for the evaluation right away because I like that we can do that technically for free and not have any commitment. You’re just getting that done. And even if you didn’t act on that, why not know? When I paid for my home inspection, it was nice. I’m not super knowledgeable about how things around my house work so to have an inspection done and walk around with them, they were pointing out all sorts of things. It’s similar with the evaluation, why not know where the biggest bang for your buck is? If you’re thinking, I’ve got all these different things I might want to do around the house, like why not have them point out, “This one’s the biggest improvement where you are going to see those lower bills,” and maybe the other thing that technically you could be doing isn’t that big of a deal. 

 

Jordann: Yeah, absolutely. I’m going to get mine done this summer, hopefully, because I have known for a long time that the insulation in my attic space needs to be improved. I don’t know by how much and I don’t know what the best route is to do that. Now, with these programs, it seems like a really good time to do that, especially knowing that my local power company is imposing rate hikes. I’m going to be paying more for electricity. Adding some insulation will help offset that. So maybe now is the time for me to finally pull the trigger and make that happen. 

 

Tom: One more question about the loan. I didn’t look super deep for it but is it known—the repayment time? If you have a $40,000 loan, it’s going to matter how big those payments are. Interest-free or not, there’s still a payment. 

 

Jordann: The repayment term is 10 years and the interest rate is zero percent. So if you took out the full $40,000, that would be around $330 per month to repay over 10 years. I assume like most loans in Canada, you can repay early with no penalty. That’s pretty standard, but I would probably double check the fine print because if you want to pay it off early, although it’s zero percent interest, there’s not a lot of incentive to do that. You should be able to. 

 

Tom: I’m glad we walked through that because, again, the loan isn’t the grant so you want to make sure that even with it being interest-free, this is an additional payment. If it’s $300 or more a month, you still want to be able to afford to do that. 

 

Jordann: Yes. Ideally, the upgrades you would make would pay for that loan cost and then some and you’d be in money. That’s generally the math you tend to do when it comes to energy efficiency upgrades—will the renovation pay for itself? That’s sort of how you should look at it. And I would say if you’re going to spend $40,000 upgrading the energy efficiency of your home, you’re going to definitely save $300 per month. 

 

Tom: That’s interesting. When they do an evaluation, do they give you a monthly savings? Is that part of that whole EnerGuide thing? Does it give an estimate? 

 

Jordann: I guess that’s a good question. I’m not really sure what the answer of that is because I’ve never gone through the process myself. I know that it is very detailed, but I would imagine that the cost would be largely dependent on your local utility rates. If they’re equipped to calculate your energy usage based on your local rates, then they could give you a cost savings. But that’s where it gets a little bit tricky because depending on where you are in Canada, you might be paying vastly different rates for electricity, natural gas, propane, et cetera. Unless it’s a local individual that has that experience, I’m not sure if they would be able to provide you with that information. 

 

Tom: Yeah. Even if they gave an energy savings amount, I guess we could do the math ourselves then. 

 

Jordann: Yeah, that’s much more common because that is usually available through manufacturers. Like a toilet manufacturer who will say, “You’ll say, 40 percent of the water that you would use in this toilet if you up-grade to a low-flow.” That’s  like that’s really easy to calculate. It’s much less easy to calculate, “You’ll save X number of dollars,” because it depends on how much your water costs. And it depends on how many people live in your home, how many people are using that toilet, et cetera.  

 

Tom: Yeah, I like that. People might need to do a little bit of estimating and calculations on their own, but they can certainly look at that ahead of time. Like you said, if you’re going to make a $40,000 commitment, don’t just jump in. You might as well see that it’ll pay for itself in that same 10 year span. 

 

Jordann: Yes, absolutely. And most manufacturers do have that information available freely on their website, especially when it comes to HVAC products. All of those efficiency ratings are required to be reported to Energy Star, and you can look them all up on the Energy Star website. You don’t even need to rely on the manufacturer themselves. It’s all third party verified information on the Energy Star Canada website. So you can go and get the information there and do your own calculations. 

 

Tom: Thanks for walking us through all this because I think it’s something I’m definitely going to hop into right away—just to get that first step out of the way. And I think most people should. Can you let people know where they can find you online? 

 

Jordann: Yes, absolutely. You can find me on Twitter @jordannwrites. And I’m also on Instagram @JordanKaye and you can visit my website at jordannkaye.com. 

 

Tom: Okay. Thanks for being on the show. 

 

Jordann: Thanks so much for having me. 

 

Thank you, Jordann, for showing the ins and outs of the various government home energy rebates and loans, and for explaining the importance of finding out sooner than later if you’re considering any of these upgrades. You can find show notes for this episode at maplemoney.com/202. If you haven’t yet, head over to our YouTube channel and subscribe there as we’ll be getting back to releasing never-before-seen content soon. Either search for Maple Money or go to maplemoney.com/youtube and subscribe today. As always, thanks for listening. I really appreciate it and I look forward to seeing you back here next week.