Final Energy Audit

After all of the changes we made to the house, we were ready for our post-retrofit energy audit.  We were definitely looking forward to finding out what rebates we would qualify for!

Here’s an overview of some of the energy upgrades we told you about earlier:

• Replaced our oil boiler and rads with a new 95% efficient forced air gas furnace.
• Added spray foam insulation to the exterior walls, which had no insulation before.
• Replaced a number of the old windows.
• Put in two new toilets – both from the City of Toronto’s approved list for the Residential Toilet Replacement Program.  Dave’s choice was the American Standard Champion 4 (eligible for a $60 rebate) and Jen’s choice was the Toto Aquia Dual Flush (eligible for a $75 rebate).

Some other things that we haven’t had a chance to blog about yet are our new hot water heater and heat recovery ventilator.

Hot Water Heater
When we got the house, there was an electric hot water tank.  We decided to switch to a tankless water heater.  The small size takes up a lot less space in our basement.  We’ve been really happy with it.

Heat Recovery Ventilator
We also decided to install a heat recovery ventilator (HRV).  An HRV takes stale air from indoors and exchanges it with fresh air from outside.  It transfers the heat from the stale air to the fresh air, reducing the amount of energy needed for the furnace to heat the air.  With all the air pipes, it’s a pretty bulky looking system.  We call it ‘the octopus.’

All of our HVAC and gas work was done by Domilco Ltd.

At the end of our post-retrofit audit, we got the good news… we are eligible for the maximum rebate amounts from the federal and provincial governments!  We also learned that the City of Toronto has a new program and we’ll be eligible for a rebate for our insulation.

It feels good to know that we were able to make our old house a little more energy efficient.

Warming Up

We have heat!  Our new high-efficiency gas furnace was connected today.  Since it’s starting to get pretty chilly outside, we are happy to finally have some warmth.

As you may remember, we removed the old boiler and oil tank.  We decided to change over to a forced air system, so we removed all the rads.

 

The new furnace is from KeepRite.  It has a 95% efficiency rating, which will qualify us for the highest grant amount through the government energy programs. 

The Four Month Mark

Yesterday marked four months since we took possession of our house.  In some ways it feels like yesterday and in other ways it feels like we’ve been working on it for years!  We were so excited on closing day.  Not sure we realized how exhausting the whole renovation process would be!

Although there are times that it feels like things are moving really slowly, we’ve definitely had some major accomplishments in the past couple of weeks. The furnace and ductwork were installed…

   

…and the electricians have been busy rewiring our house and installing the new electrical panel.  We’ve wired for an alarm system and Dave has started running wires for cable, phone and internet.

  

What’s next?  We have some small things to finish up before the building inspections.  Then on to the insulation and drywall stage.