Energy Savings at the 2010 Ottawa Home and Garden Show

28 March 2010 •

What a great time spent at the 2010 Ottawa Home and Garden Show at Landsdowne Park. After several hours of visiting many booths discussing very interesting and new products available for today's homeowners, I walked away with wonderful resources, materials and a neck warmer from The Perfect Pillow Company.

This was my first time visiting the show, and it was clear there was a main message and many exhibitors from all across Canada discussing the same issue: the government's plan on the future of solar energy, efficient energy products, services and solutions. It was remarkable how many companies were representing topics such as solar panels, energy audits, geothermal options by getting energy from the ground up and most interesting, land lease options to operate the solar system on your south facing piece of 50x50 land. It was very interesting to me, as a Real Estate Agent how many of these representatives wanted to speak to me about how to convey to my clients how important this home energy audit would benefit them. At first I was a little embarassed at how little I knew on this topic. But apparently, this is all new information, so I feel its important to share it with you now:

The Ontario government recently funded an initiative, The Ontario Home Energy Savings Program, which promises to lower your energy bills and have you earn up to $10,000 in provincial and federal rebates by renovating your home with energy-efficient retrofits. It seems rather simple, first you need to complete a home energy audit with an energy advisor. By entering your postal code on the OHESP website you can view a list of license home evaluators in your area. The government of Ontario will even pay you back up to $150 for this pre-retrofit audit.

This audit will detail your home's energy leaks, and a plan to help you reduce your energy bills. Along with this Energy Efficiency Evaluation Report, your report will include your home's current EnerGuide rating and show you how efficient it could be with energy-saving improvements. Once you have made some or all of the upgrades suggested in your report within 18 months, you can book your post-retrofit audit with your Energy Advisor. With this updated report and your home's new EnerGuide rating that shows how much you have improved your home, you can apply to the Governments of Ontario and Canada for each energy efficient upgrade, up to $5,000. The more energy-saving upgrades made, the more money you stand to get back, up to a total of $10,000.

It could be as easy as adding a new furnace or caulking around your windows. If your interested and to help you get started, there is a great resource and step by step guide about this initiative that I can send you by simply emailing me through my contact section.

In the next few days, I will be adding many new companies to my website resource section from the show along with a new heading called Energy Advisors & Resources. It will provide you with further information about companies in Ottawa working towards this important cause.

Thanks to all the exhibitors, it was a great show! I agree its a good idea to begin evaluating ourselves and how we are investing in our future energy savings, let's be honest folks, Earth hour just doesn't cut it!