Planning an effective home energy retrofit can seem confusing if you are not familiar with the process, technologies, and approaches used; and planning is incredibly important to ensure a home energy retrofit achieves maximum outcomes.  You need to select the right measures, do them in the right order, and have them installed properly. That is why through Better Homes Kingston, we offer a Home Energy Coach service, that is free to all participants.  The Energy Coach can help you along each step of your retrofit Journey, from booking your pre-retrofit home energy evaluation, all the way to the completion of your home retrofits and verification of their outcomes. 

See our Better Homes Kingston Program Page for a step-by-step guide to receiving a no-interest loan for your home energy improvements!

Get your home energy evaluation

A home energy evaluation will tell you how and where your home needs to be upgraded to save energy and become healthier and more comfortable for living. This is the place to start. A registered energy advisor will visit your home, ask you questions about your home and energy use, and then will provide you with a detailed report, including specific retrofit recommendations. 

Complete the application form for Better Homes Kingston Program and get access to the Energy Coach who will assist you throughout the process.

Choose your path

Your Energy Advisor will provide you with a report that includes recommendations to improve your home. If you are a participant in the Better Homes Kingston Program, you will get support from our Energy Coach to interpret the results of your home energy evaluation and create a step-by-step plan to maximize outcomes for your home energy retrofit options. This will include the right measures to select for your home and the order in which to implement them. From here, you can collect quotes for your retrofit work, utilizing our user-friendly Better Homes Kingston Portal. After collecting quotes and developing your plan with our Energy Coaches’ assistance, you submit a Funding Request, Sign a Property Owner Agreement, and once approved you can start your work.

At this stage you definitely want to consider: 

• Incentives
• Costs 
• Future Planning
• How to get the work done right 

Planning an effective energy retrofit can be confusing!  That’s why we have created a range of tools to ensure your planning goes well. 

Consider: 

• Energy Coach
• Five Steps to a Greener Home – Mini Guide
• NRCan ‘Plan Your Retrofit’ 

You will be eligible to get more detailed planning support for free through the Better Homes Kingston program, but if you have any questions about retrofit planning options before you apply, contact the Energy coach by emailing energycoach@sustainablekingston.com

Put your plan into action

You have a solid idea of what you want to achieve, and what the project will involve. Now you need to make it happen.  This will involve four major steps: 

• selecting and booking contractors – done through our Better Homes Kingston Portal
• applying for incentives and/or financing support – our Energy Coach will guide you through this
• purchasing the right equipment and materials 
• checking for quality at every stage to make sure your project is done right 

The Post-audit

Your retrofit is complete. The last step in completing your post-retrofit home evaluation is to test exactly how much your home has improved (in terms of energy consumption) since your original evaluation. This post-evaluation is required for eligibility for most incentives, and for the Better Homes Kingston Program. This will be conducted by the same registered energy advisor that conducted your pre-retrofit evaluation.

Once you have the results in hand, you can access your financing and rebate programs.

Living Post-retrofit

You have upgraded your home. Congrats!  All that is left is to make the most of the improvements you’ve made and to continue to plan for any future improvements that may take you closer to your net-zero ambitions.  

We’ve put together some post-retrofit tips to help you make this happen.