Hope this helps people.

I managed to couple of things in my house before February to apply for the credit.

1. High efficiency furnace - Carrer dual stage with DC Motor. Will help reduce my heating expense by atleast $50 a month. After rebate it costed me around $1.8K. Worth it investment. None of the furncane installed by the contracter are good enough. They are high efficiency but no where good enough.

2. Attic Insulation - Costed me $750. After I saw what the guy did I could have done it myself. But you need 2 people to do it + should have seen it before how it is done. Now I keep my temp atleast 1.5c lower in the night as it is much warmer upstairs then before. This will be the biggest saver as heating cost will be lower. Cost me $0 as Govt will refund me $750 back. Eventhough my house is only 5 yrs old the insluation was pretty basic and needed re-work.

People should look in taking benefit of the Credit which the govt is giving.
Dont forget to get the audit done first or you cannot claim any money.

Thanks akscanada. Very useful information. I was looking into doing attic insulation as its always very cold upstairs. Since my daughter is just a month old, we are worried about the lack of heat on the bedrooms. For now, we close the living room and kitchen vents at night as suggested by builder. This increased the airflow and also keeps the room warm.

Can you please let me know how to proceed with the audit? Also, do you have a link on the attic insulation as the energy start site say that the govt only covers 30% and doesnt include installation charges? Thanks.
Regards

MCS

Edit: I live in a 1.5 year old townhouse with 3 floors. - corner lot unit.

Hi AKS !
What made you think that the furnace installed by the cntrctr is not good ? What features / advantages you were looking that you did not find ! MAY BE you did not understand correctly .. If you give more details , I will try to shed more light on it.
AG

P.S: DC motors make you eligible for max grants but are difficult to trouble shoot and are very expensive ( after warranty expires )

Quote:

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Originally posted by akscanada

Hope this helps people.

I managed to couple of things in my house before February to apply for the credit.

1. High efficiency furnace - Carrer dual stage with DC Motor. Will help reduce my heating expense by atleast $50 a month. After rebate it costed me around $1.8K. Worth it investment. None of the furncane installed by the contracter are good enough. They are high efficiency but no where good enough.

.

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Growing Old Is Mandatory ..Growing UP is Optional

I think here you are talking about energy auditor. Is there any desi energy auditor available in GTA?

Here are the answers.

1. Auditor - There is no Desi / Non- Desi Auditor. These are Govt Approved companies who charge a fixed price and there is no bargain on it.

You book the visit, the auditor comes in and looks at various things in your house. Your Air-Con, furnace, insulation, Heater, Windows etc. Then recomends on what you have in your house. On how in-effecient the things is in your house are and based on that your rebate is calculated. For example if you have R-20 Attic Insulation and if you bring it upto R-50 you give $750 as rebate. You cannot get more than that but yes less if you get R-40. Usually when you do Attic Insulation the contracter will put R-50. But he will charge you based on how sq foot is your house. You can do the Attic Insulation on your own and pocket the difference. The Auditor does not check the receipt for Attic Insulation. But will measure how much you have so you need to have R-50 to get the max rebate. My contractor charged me $750 eventhough it was coming aroung $810. We used to fell cold all the time eventhough the heating was at a good enough temp. Downstairs was quite warm but upstairs was bad. Now we keep the temp 1.5c lower and still feel more warmer upstairs.

You choose what you want to do. Then you do all the items which you decided.
Do not call the auditor after you do 1 item and decide to do another later. You can claim the rebate only once in 13Months. Once you have finished everthing you want to do, you call the same auditor again. He checks what all you have done and authorises the credit which comes in mail in 6 Weeks. Also you take the same receipts and file it in your taxes.

1st Visit : Around $350.0 Can't remember the exact amount.
2nd Visit : $157.50

You get $150 back from the govt.
I used this company : Amerispec Inspection Services 1-800-463-9457

2. What made me change my Furnace. The Contractor installed a standard cheap Furnance called KeepRight which is less than 89% Efficiency. Not more than 5 Yrs old. No complain.
The new one i got is %94.1 efficient. It is dual stage which means when it maintaining the temperature and not raising the temperature it's flame are 80% of the max which is the second saving. Third it has a DC Motor to run the fan which is a huge saving as compared to the AC Motor which is what in the standard cheap furnaces. The motor runs the fan which is used to circulate the air / heat in home. You can keep the fan running rather using heat to maintain the temperature. All these features made me change the furnace, It comes with a 10 Warranty from Career. My old ond had no warranty. If the starter goes which is the most common problem in a furnance you are looking at aroung $700 expense. The new one costed $4095 and the Govt is giving back $1500. Dont forget the rebate when filling taxes. For around $2000 is a ultimate investment for your house.

If money is tight I would recommend doing the Attic than the furnance becuase you lose all your heat from the attic. Even a High Efficiency furnance will not give the same effect as doing the attic. Yes changing the Furnance is the best. Since the govt was giving the rebate and I also save on heating when using the new furnance it was worth it to do both.

Remember you cannot claim for any improvement done after february. So be careful. Do all the math before you make a decision. You need to pay for everthing before you get the rebates. Hence you need cash but a worth it deal at the end.

Hope that helps.

Thank you.

Quote:

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Originally posted by akscanada

Here are the answers.

1. Auditor - There is no Desi / Non- Desi Auditor. These are Govt Approved companies who charge a fixed price and there is no bargain on it.

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