Home Energy Evaluation
The purpose of the Home Energy Evaluation is to determine the overall energy efficiency, or EnerGuide Rating of your home, and to offer professional advice on energy retrofits that can improve efficiency and reduce your operating costs.
Before you invest in upgrading your home, it is important to know what you’re working with, and which upgrades will offer the greatest return on your investment.
The Home Energy Evaluation is also required in order to access many of the rebates available to homeowners for energy upgrades.
All of our Energy Advisors are highly trained professionals who have extensive knowledge of energy efficient technologies and building practices, and are licensed under Natural Resources Canada to perform these evaluations.
A proper assessment takes 2.5 – 3.5 hours, depending on the size and complexity of your home.
Your Sustainable Housing Energy Advisor will:
Sit down with you and explain the on-site procedures- Assess the exterior envelope of the house. This is to determine:
- The total surface area of your walls, ceilings and basement floor. The surface areas are used in the calculation for total heat loss.
- The siding materials, and any rigid insulation that may be under your siding.
- Number and type of doors and windows, and which way they are facing. The orientation is an important factor in the overall heat loss calculation as South facing windows offer the benefit of solar gain.
- Above grade surface area of your basement walls.
Assess the type and thickness of your attic and/or cathedral ceiling or flat roof insulation. - Assess the type and thickness of your wall insulation.
- Assess the type and thickness of your basement wall and pony wall insulation.
- Assess the type and efficiency of your primary and supplemental heating systems.
- Assess the type and efficiency of your domestic hot water heating system.
Perform an air leakage test. Homeowners find this to be one of the most beneficial aspects of the service! It involves installing a large fan in one of your door openings, closing all other doors and windows, then turning on the fan to depressurize the house slightly. This will cause air to be drawn in through any leaky doors, windows, and various other areas where air can infiltrate your home. While the fan is running, your Energy Advisor will walk around the house with you to locate those air leaks, offer tips on how they can be sealed up, and leave you with a checklist of all leaks that were found. Furthermore, readings from the air leakage test equipment will be used to determine the Air Leakage Rate for your home, which is also used in the total heat loss calculation. The air leakage test is performed once again during the Post-Retrofit Evaluation in order to compare the Air Leakage Rates before and after the upgrades.
Before leaving your home, your Energy Advisor will sit down with you one more time to:
- Review our findings
- Recommend energy retrofits. This is an important step in the process. Your Sustainable Housing Energy Advisor is qualified to advise you on which energy retrofits will offer you the greatest energy reduction and return on your investment, offer information on how to plan upgrades, advise you on the latest insulating materials and heating technologies, and inform you of any rebates available for your energy retrofits.
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Sustainable housing is located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia and Oromocto, New Brunswick.
We provide energy evaluations and offer energy conservation consulting services in
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.
