How To Retrofit Your Home

There are lots of good reasons to increase your home's energy efficiency: you'll save money, take pressure off of Ontario's strained electrical grid, and lessen your contribution to the climate crisis, to name a few. But it can be hard to know where to start.

Thanks to some new federal government funding that has also been matched by the Province (well, to be fair, the "new" federal program is actually a relaunched version of one of the previous government's programs that the Conservatives canceled last year when it wasn't as cool to care about the environment, but let's ignore that for now), you can access up to $10,000 in grant money to help you perform energy audits and retrofits on your home.

This Sunday July 29, two local businesses who provide those services are hosting an information session at The Ralph Thornton Centre, 765 Queen Street East near Broadview from 10:30 a.m. until noon. Renewable energy company Village Technologies and home energy auditor The Energuy will attempt to answer your questions regarding rising energy prices, new technologies, accessing government grants, and more.

(Fortunately, The Energuy was not one of the home energy auditors who received a negative review in this Toronto Star investigation, which found significant discrepancies between the ratings and recommendations given by four different auditing companies. It's worth a read if you're considering audits, just so you're aware of what to look out for.)

Photo by Flo's Diner in the Torontoist Flickr Pool.