Yes, the Greener Homes Grant offers $5000 for energy efficiency upgrades to your home. These can include window upgrades, insulation upgrades, furnace or hot water tank replacements or solar. We highly recommend solar for this rebate as it offers the best economics and creates the most savings with the least initial investment.
What is Greener Homes Initiative?
The Greener Homes Initiative is a program put forward by Energy Canada in order to increase home efficiencies and create jobs while fighting climate change. The program offers grants up to $5000 plus $600 to cover the cost of the required Energuide evaluations for your home. Although we can help you through the grant process with any electric furnace or heat pump installations and electric hot water heaters, this article will mostly focus on its use to offset solar upfront investment. Contact us for information on other acceptable grant uses.
Am I eligible?
If you own your home in Alberta you are most likely eligible for the full $5000 when used towards solar. Your home must be at least 6 months old to qualify and must be your primary residence.
Follow the link below to see if you are eligible for the program!
What is the process?
Now that you know you are eligible lets get in to the specifics!
The first thing you will want to do is apply for the Greener Homes Program at Energy Canada. During the process we highly recommend selecting EnerSolution Inc as your home audit company, although you are free to pick any energy auditor that you prefer:
Once your application is complete you will be on to the waiting list! Now is the time to get quotes for your solar installation. If you prefer the an in-person consultation and quote with our solar experts, book a consultation below! If you would just like a quote for now, fill in the form on our home page and we will send a quote your way!
Now that you have your quote, you will just need your pre-retrofit Energuide audit completed by your energy Canada certified auditor and then submit both documents and wait for approval. We are typically seeing between 2-4 weeks return for approvals currently.
Once approved our team of experts will set up a time and date that works for you to install the system! Most systems can be installed in 2-3 days start to finish, but some can take up to 2 weeks. We will communicate to you the amount of time you can expect for your installation.
After installation you will need a post-retrofit Energuide audit completed by your energy Canada certified auditor. Then you will just need to submit your receipts and get your (up to) $5600 grant!
Are any loans available?
Boy howdy are there ever! The Greener Homes Initiative includes an option for a 10 year zero interest loan of up to $40,000. Alternatively many municipalities now qualify for the Clean Energy Improvement Program (CEIP) which offers low interest rates on up to 20 years of financing which is backed by your home instead of you. If you sell the property, the new owner will assume repayment as it is paid with property taxes.
We will do a deep-dive on financing options in a future blog post so stay tuned!
Conclusion
There has never been a better time to get started on your solar project. Whether you use us for your project or another installer, we hope this information has helped you along the way. Let us know if you have any questions in the comments section below, or reach out on the social medias.
Cheers! ~ Spencer
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