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This may be of general interest but for those in Canada of genuine benefit.
I was told about this scheme by Union Gas in Ontario where to qualified customers you get...
Free Home Energy Assessment
Free Insulation
Free Water Saving Items
Free Programmable Thermostat
Depending on how many people live in your home there is an upper level for earnings and as long as you are below that all this is free. Thus you don't need to apply for a grant... they actually do the work at no cost to you.
I applied as I found I was just under the upper limit for a single person home. The only problem I had was that when asked if I had Nob & Tube electrical wiring in my home I had to admit that I did. That being the case I had to have it disabled and then get the company to certify they had done the work and send them a copy of the report which I did.
I might add here that I actually have more Nob & Tube wiring than I had thought and this apparently is common in older homes. It ended up costing me $700 to get everything sorted but in some ways I was happy about that. Apparently there is code that a special box needs to be fitted for every Nob & Tube circuit which acts the same way as a breaker works with normal electrical circuits. I didn't have these but now do. I also learned that all the electric points on the upper floor were still Nob & Tube whereas I thought it was only in the attic. So I am now feeling safer knowing about about this.
I might add that when I first got my home I got a contractor to do various repairs before I moved in and one of the tasks was to check the wiring and to sort out any problems they discovered. I was informed there was just a bit of Nob & Tube in the attic so nothing to worry about. So if I had known about this I would have got the work done regardless after all this can be a cause of fires.
Anyway... having done that I emailed then to confirm it had all been done and within two weeks an inspector came to visit and he brought some installation to wrap around water pipes and a new shower head. He also had new tap heads for the sinks but as I already had new taps installed they weren't needed.
He discovered I have no installation in the walls, basement and only some in the attic and doing an air test discovered I was definitely losing heat out of the house. While he said he couldn't guarantee I would get the free installation he was certain i would as the savings I should get would be significant. In fact he even said in the winter my heating bill should be halved. Overall this means the house will be warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.
I will be contacted within the next four weeks or so to be told what they are doing so now just waiting to hear from them.
I might add that they will simply come and do the insulation at no cost to me under this scheme. The old scheme that was in place offered you a grant of up to $6,000 but you needed to get the work done first and pay for it before you could apply for the grant and it would be around 3 months before you got your grant money back.
The inspector told me I will get full insulation in the basement, which is apparently some backing board to be attached to the walls then 4 inches of insulation and another backing board on the other side. Then all the outside walls will be insulated. He thinks that this will involve removing the siding from the house and then they will inject the insulation into the walls and then put back the siding. Then they will also insulate the attic. From what I understand they will also check my programmable thermostat to check it is working ok and if not they will replace it.
All in all that's around $6,000 of work and all for free.
You can learn more about this at http://www.uniongas.com/helpinghomes where there is also a video giving you some tips on how to keep your home warmer.
So hope some of you will get some direct benefit from this scheme if you live in Canada.
Alastair
I was told about this scheme by Union Gas in Ontario where to qualified customers you get...
Free Home Energy Assessment
Free Insulation
Free Water Saving Items
Free Programmable Thermostat
Depending on how many people live in your home there is an upper level for earnings and as long as you are below that all this is free. Thus you don't need to apply for a grant... they actually do the work at no cost to you.
I applied as I found I was just under the upper limit for a single person home. The only problem I had was that when asked if I had Nob & Tube electrical wiring in my home I had to admit that I did. That being the case I had to have it disabled and then get the company to certify they had done the work and send them a copy of the report which I did.
I might add here that I actually have more Nob & Tube wiring than I had thought and this apparently is common in older homes. It ended up costing me $700 to get everything sorted but in some ways I was happy about that. Apparently there is code that a special box needs to be fitted for every Nob & Tube circuit which acts the same way as a breaker works with normal electrical circuits. I didn't have these but now do. I also learned that all the electric points on the upper floor were still Nob & Tube whereas I thought it was only in the attic. So I am now feeling safer knowing about about this.
I might add that when I first got my home I got a contractor to do various repairs before I moved in and one of the tasks was to check the wiring and to sort out any problems they discovered. I was informed there was just a bit of Nob & Tube in the attic so nothing to worry about. So if I had known about this I would have got the work done regardless after all this can be a cause of fires.
Anyway... having done that I emailed then to confirm it had all been done and within two weeks an inspector came to visit and he brought some installation to wrap around water pipes and a new shower head. He also had new tap heads for the sinks but as I already had new taps installed they weren't needed.
He discovered I have no installation in the walls, basement and only some in the attic and doing an air test discovered I was definitely losing heat out of the house. While he said he couldn't guarantee I would get the free installation he was certain i would as the savings I should get would be significant. In fact he even said in the winter my heating bill should be halved. Overall this means the house will be warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.
I will be contacted within the next four weeks or so to be told what they are doing so now just waiting to hear from them.
I might add that they will simply come and do the insulation at no cost to me under this scheme. The old scheme that was in place offered you a grant of up to $6,000 but you needed to get the work done first and pay for it before you could apply for the grant and it would be around 3 months before you got your grant money back.
The inspector told me I will get full insulation in the basement, which is apparently some backing board to be attached to the walls then 4 inches of insulation and another backing board on the other side. Then all the outside walls will be insulated. He thinks that this will involve removing the siding from the house and then they will inject the insulation into the walls and then put back the siding. Then they will also insulate the attic. From what I understand they will also check my programmable thermostat to check it is working ok and if not they will replace it.
All in all that's around $6,000 of work and all for free.
You can learn more about this at http://www.uniongas.com/helpinghomes where there is also a video giving you some tips on how to keep your home warmer.
So hope some of you will get some direct benefit from this scheme if you live in Canada.
Alastair