Energy Audit
A Goldfinch Energy Audit is the first step towards a low-carbon home.
What is a Goldfinch Energy Audit?
An energy audit looks at the energy use in your home and helps you determine where your home is losing heat.
An energy audit with a Goldfinch energy advisor comes with extra perks and as a result costs a bit more. Our team will take the time to carefully measure your home and do our best to establish insulation levels. Insulation detection may involve removing outlet covers on external walls and, in cold weather, using thermal imaging. During the air leakage test, we look for drafts in your home and let you feel the leaky areas to get an idea of problem areas that could be fixed to improve comfort and efficiency.
We use measurements and data to inform our recommendations and we aim to provide a heat loss calculation that is as accurate as possible. Heat loss calculations can be helpful when sizing a heat pump.
We can help to diagnose hot and cold issues that may be stemming from issues with ductwork and we have experience with heat pumps, solar panels and green renovation approaches.
Our audits take a bit longer but our clients frequently tell us how much they appreciate the quality.
If your priority is to qualify for rebates with the shortest and/or lowest cost audit, you may be happier with an audit from a different organization that can offer that. If you need to rely on the data output from the audit to help inform your decisions, a Goldfinch audit is a great option.
What to Expect During an Energy Audit
Pre-Retrofit Audit
For most of the energy audit we will quietly take measurements and photos inside and outside of your home. We will try to establish insulation levels in walls and if you have an attic hatch, we will poke our head inside to measure the insulation in that part of the house. We will also take note of your windows and your existing mechanical equipment (heating, hot water and ventilation). During the air leakage test (using a blower door), we will block off a door to the outside and run a large fan to quantify the draftiness of the house. If you have a fireplace, it should be cleaned out in advance to avoid having ash blow around during the test. At this point, you may want to join us for an air leakage tour to feel drafts that could be closed up to improve comfort and efficiency. After we have a feel for your house, we will discuss our findings with you and sit down for a Roadmap discussion if applicable. The entire audit usually takes around 2.5 to 3 hours depending on the complexity of the house.
Post-Retrofit Audit
The post-retrofit audit is much shorter than the pre-retrofit audit. Its purpose is to document the changes that were made to the home. We will take photos and conduct another blower door test to compare the airtightness of the home to the results of the pre-retrofit test. The on-site part of this audit can usually be completed within an hour unless the home has undergone an addition or several upgrades have been made.
The Rebate and Loan Process
A Goldfinch Energy Audit:
is recommended if you already know the upgrades you would like to make and would like a high quality audit to help you qualify for rebates
includes NRCan’s standard reports that show your home’s energy use and the energy saving associated with possible upgrades that you can do to your home
is the first step to qualifying for rebates
If you’d like help developing an actionable plan for your home and/or sizing and selecting the right heat pump for your home you may be interested in our Cleantech Roadmap or Heat Pump Selection Service.
The energy audit program is administered by Natural Resources Canada and delivered by Service Organizations. The Goldfinch Team works with ER Energy Solutions as the Service Organization.
A energy audit is required to qualify for the current rebate program - which offers rebates of up to $10,600 to homeowners in Ontario.
Rates
When you make rebate-qualifying upgrades to your home, you receive a $600 rebate towards the costs of the audits.
Pre-Retrofit Energy Audit: $550
There may be a surcharge for:
homes over 3,000 square feet (above-grade)
travel outside the GTA
MURBs: If your home has more than one unit (or apartment) there’s an additional fee (depending on the number of apartments and whether they are connected through interior doors). The starting energy audit cost for a Multi-Unit Residential Building is $850.
Post-Retrofit Energy Audit: $300
Required in order to claim rebates
If you're doing an addition, a $100-$200 fee may be applied to the post-retrofit audit depending on the extra time required to remodel the home in the energy audit software program.