The EnerGuide evaluation that most Canadian rebate programmes are built on.
A home energy audit is not an inspection and it is not an estimate. It is a measured assessment of how a specific house loses energy, carried out by a registered energy advisor working under a licensed Service Organization, and it produces a file that government and utility programmes will accept as evidence.
The visit takes two to three hours for a typical detached home. We measure the building — every wall, window, door and ceiling assembly — record the mechanical systems and their efficiencies, run a blower door test to establish the actual air leakage rate rather than an assumed one, and photograph what matters. That goes into HOT2000, the federal modelling software, and comes back as an EnerGuide rating in gigajoules per year, a label, and a Renovation Upgrade Report listing the measures that would improve it and by how much.
The report is the useful part and it is the part people underestimate. It tells you which upgrade actually moves the number in your house, which is frequently not the one you were about to buy. Attic insulation beats a furnace more often than anybody selling furnaces would like.
After the work is finished we come back and do it again. The post-retrofit evaluation measures what actually changed, produces the second label, and is what most programmes pay against. Several of them require the same advisor for both visits.
An EnerGuide rating, a label, and a Renovation Upgrade Report listing measures and modelled savings.
Homeowners claiming a rebate or a loan that requires an evaluation, and anyone who wants to know what to fix first.
For homeowners — the rest of it
Common questions
How long does it take?
Two to three hours on site for a typical detached home; longer for a large or complex house. The report follows within a few working days.
Do I need to be there?
Someone needs to let the advisor in and give access to the attic hatch, the mechanical room and the electrical panel. You do not have to follow them around, though most people find it the most interesting part.
Will you tell me what to buy?
We will tell you what the model says each measure would save and what it would cost to find out. We do not sell insulation, heat pumps or windows, which is the point.