I am considering adding energy audits to my HI business in Guelph, Ontario and would appreciate any input the members might have regarding the best companies, quality of courses, number of inspections to be expected, equipment suppliers etc.
Thank You
John Arnott
Welcome Home Inspection Services
www.welcomehomeinspections.ca
(1) You’ll probably have to work under an existing NRCAN “licensed service provider” and not be able work directly for yourself…therefore your revenue will be not what you may be expecting.
(2) Investment in a blower door is $3-4000.
(3) Required auditor training will run about $1200.
(4) The program is now about 6-7 years old and beginning to trail off in consumer interest (at least locally from talking to one service provider). IMO, the best time to enter was 3-4 years ago.
(5) Like home inspection, there may be too many vying for the same $$$. Here there has been a fairly high turnover of auditors in some instances.
Give it a real hard look and do a market survey/evaluation. There were threads here last January/February that may help you.
I looked into this last summer, here in Alberta. I’m sure most of the info will be the same.
The retrofit rebate program is the only one you would look into. http://www.mei.gov.on.ca/en/energy/conservation/homeenergyon/
The program will only last until March 2011 at this point in time.
Wasn’t worth it IMO.
If you can make it to our meeting on Jan 11 in Burlington there will be a few inspectors that are providing the eco energy audits, we will have a brief discussion about the future of this program and you can talk to other inspectors and ask them specifics about how you should proceed.
Again, this is a free meeting with alot of educational value for all inspectors!
http://www.phpio.ca/regional.php
Allan
Thanks Brian and Fritz,
I did not know the retrofit program was ending in 2011. I agree that this will reduce the market for audits.
In Ontario there is still talk of making an energy audit part of every real estate transaction. Athough passed in principle this legislation is not yet written in stone. I think it is already being watered down.
Thanks for you input.
Regards
John Arnott
Welcome Home Inspection Services
www.welcomehomeinspections.ca
The program is ran by the Government and dealing with them and their rules will drive you nuts. I tried and just sold all my equiptment. I am now independent again which is why I wanted to be a Home Inspector in the first place. Wish I could re-coop the Approx $8000, Oh well, live and learn.
I’m surprised at this response. I used to be a very active poster on this board… but since I added energy audits to my list of services I haven’t had two minutes time to be on here I’m so busy.
Frankly the information I read in this thread is inaccurate. The program is not old hat or tired or wore out. In fact it is going strong. By July this year it will be a requirement for all homes sold in ontario (unless the purchaser waives their right to the audit in writing). Further, yes the program ends March 31, 2011 (more than enough time to get your money back and a lot more) but the next program (phase 3) starts April 1, 2011 and runs for five more years.
I am VERY busy in this industry now and would be more than interested in talking to inspectors interested in getting into the business. Send me an email or call anytime.
To bad PHPIO does not supply information about how the meeting went .
Roy Cooke
Sean,
Do you have any evidence to support the above statement??
NRcan has not released (to my knowledge) any information indicating the ecoEnergy program will continue. They do not know themselves what is going to happen. Furthermore, to say the program will run for 5 more years, nobody can count on that. NRcan axed the ecoenergy program a few years back with no warning to consumers or auditors. It’s a gov’t program, anything can happen and there certainly are no guarantees.
That isn’t true either. A few years ago they ran out of money… audits still took place but customers had to wait a long time for their money.
Further… They do know and have announced publically the new third phase which has a start date of April 1, 2011 and ends March 31, 2016 (same as our current program had a start and end date) as well as a budget (why they paused the first program).
If you are a NRCan certified auditor you can check the quick notes or ask your service provider for the announcement that was set to the service providers. If I didn’t have a million and one emails I would certainly supply a specific date and quote from it. But I’m not mistaken or making it up. I did not get this knowledge second hand I read it directly from NRCan themselves.
Hi Sean would you care to find and post an email from NRCan that you received in regards to continuation of the ECO energy program, or point out the Quick Note or Admin Note supporting this announcement. I have all Quick Notes from day one of this program, and not me, nor my SO manager could find anything yet about continuation of the program, let alone public announcement.
I have nothing either. Would love to see a copy. Nothing on NRCan’s site either.