Who Will Audit our Home?

So, it seems our ecoENERGY journey starts with an audit… not the tax kind (thank god!), a home audit by some qualified person/company that shows where our home sits “before” in terms of energy efficiency.

Then, we are told, another audit of our home will be required to see how it all looks after our eco renovations.

But not just anyone can conduct this audit – not if we want the government to rebate us half the $350 cost of the audit and report. (We won’t see that money til the second “after” audit is completed.)

The Research Team

My interpid husband, Doug, loves researching products and services, so he took on the auditor research.

The ole apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, so naturally he turned to his dad. Bob, 71, lives for the joy of discovering the ‘best value;’ he and Doug bond regularly over Consumer Report magazines and flyers.

Bob emailed Doug the link to this Home Energy Ontario government page.

Doug entered our postal code, and that took him to a Natural Resources Canada web page showing a list of 18 home auditors in our postal region. It wasn’t clear if these were simply the ones in our geographic area, or ones that the government endorsed. (I tried to link to this page showing the home auditors in the GTA, but couldn’t do it; you have to go enter your own postal code.)

We Choose…

So, my husband phoned several of the listed auditors to see about cost and availability, but also to see if they sell any eco products (insulation, windows and the like) or provide any eco reno services (reno). Doug wanted to be sure that we didn’t get a home auditor with a vested interest in selling us a new furnace or recommending a certain contractor. (My huband is so cynical.. I mean, wise!)

The only auditor who wasn’t dabbling in other products/services Toronto-based GreenTech Services – also the only listed auditor that calls itself “non-profit.”

…And We Wait

Selecting the auditor turned out to be the easy part. Getting someone from GreenTech to come to our home was quite a bit trickier.

First, the rep from GreenTech and my husband played phone tag for more than a month (apparently neither of them thought of email!) and then Doug was told of the huge waiting list of homeowners seeking a home audit.

So then we waited another month. My husband booked 2 hours off work to meet the auditor from GreenTech at our home.

Stayed tune for Doug’s report on how that went.