Climate-Friendly Home Upgrades

Making your home more energy efficient will lower the emissions that contribute to climate change

To lessen the severity of climate change, we need to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapt to the changing climate as a community. One way we can do that is to make our homes climate friendly. A climate-friendly home is one that has been built or retrofitted to maximize energy efficiency and reduce energy demand, resulting in lower carbon emissions. Is yours? If not, there are several things you can do—from adding insulation and draft-proofing windows and doors, to upgrading heating/cooling systems and installing heat pumps, to switching to low-carbon sources of energy. These actions will increase efficiency and keep your home comfortable in the summer and cozy in the winter. And, making upgrades to your home can save you money—now and in the future.

Rebates and various supports are available to make your upgrades more affordable. Read on to learn how you can make a difference and save on your monthly heating and cooling bills.

The CleanBC Better Homes program offers a free energy coaching services that provides information and advice about energy-efficiency upgrades and eligible rebate programs in all stages of your building retrofits

Energy Coaches are available Monday-Friday, 9 am-5 pm (except statutory holidays). Energy Coaches can be reached by phone at 1-844-881-9790 (toll free) or online by completing the contact form on the CleanBC Better Homes website.

The following rebates and loans are available through the provincial and federal governments:

CleanBC Better Homes and Home Renovation Rebate Program

This rebate program is administrated by the Province of BC. Eligible residents may receive up to $6,000 for improving home energy efficiency through selected upgrades. Rebate amounts vary depending on the type of upgrades. For more information about the program, visit CleanBC Better Homes or consult an Energy Coach.

CleanBC Income Qualified Program

This program offers enhanced rebates to eligible residents who meet the income qualification requirements. Eligible residents may receive rebates for up to 60-95% of their home upgrade costs. For assistance with this program, contact an Income Qualified Program Energy Coach by email at [email protected] or by phone at 1-833-856-0333.

Canada Greener Home Loans

This program offers interest-free financing to help Canadians enhance home energy efficiency. The loan amount is based on the scale and the value of the proposed upgrades. For more information about the program, visit Canada Greener Homes.

What are climate-friendly home upgrades?

There are many ways to make your home more comfortable and climate friendly, ranging from simple behaviour changes to more significant upgrades, replacements and retrofits.

Behaviour changes—programming thermostats, turning down the heat at night or when you are out.
Minor upgrades—replacing or adding insulation, draft-proofing leaky doors and windows, switching to energy-efficient lighting, buying energy-efficient appliances.
Major upgrades—replacing doors and windows, updating inefficient heating and cooling systems, installing a heat pump.
Deep retrofits—reconfiguring interior and mechanical systems.

Making energy-efficiency retrofits not only lowers emissions, it has other health and economic benefits as well. For example:

Comfort—Creating an airtight, insulated building envelope and installing an energy-efficient cooling and heating system will keep your home comfortable all year round.
Health—Improving insulation and draft-proofing, and installing an energy-efficient ventilation system can help improve indoor air quality.
Energy efficiency—Upgrading and optimizing energy systems ensures they are properly sized to reduce system redundancy or overload.
Business and job opportunities—retrofitting helps support the local economy and create job opportunities.
Cost savings—Energy-efficiency upgrades can reduce home heating and cooling costs in the long term. Fuel switching from fossil fuel to electricity can save on carbon tax.

Simple behaviour changes can have an immediate payback. Turning off lights and turning down the thermostat when you’re sleeping or away from home can reduce your energy costs. Other upgrades, such as draft-proofing your home or installing a heat pump, will require you to spend money initially, but the payback will come over time in the form of lower energy bills. You may also be able to reduce the up-front costs of your energy-efficiency upgrades through provincial rebate and federal loan programs.

Switching your home heating from a gas furnace to an electric heat pump will eliminate the carbon tax charged on your home-heating fuels.

Heat pumps are currently one of the most energy-efficient systems available for space heating and cooling. Heat pumps use electricity to move heat from one place to another. In the winter, a heat pump transfers heat from the outside air to the indoors through a cycle of compression and expansion of a refrigerant. In the summer, it operates in reverse and transfers heat from inside your home to the outdoors, like an air conditioner. Many heat pumps have the added benefit of also dehumidifying, providing healthy air flow and filtering the air, which makes regulating indoor air quality more manageable during wildfire events.

Check out this video to learn about how a heat pump works.

Watch video: BCIT—Zero Energy Buildings for a Complex World

To learn more about installing a heat pump in your home, this Air-Source Heat Pump Retrofit bulletin provides guidance to homeowners and contractors on the City’s requirements.

Upgrading the energy efficiency of your home can be a complex process to navigate. The energy coaching services is a free service catering to homeowners, commercial building owners/managers. Energy Coaches are trained experts in energy efficiency and can help you understand how to make your home or building more energy efficient. They are there to answer your questions at every step of your upgrade process.

Did you know?

Emissions from buildings make up 39% of Burnaby’s total GHG emissions—the largest single source of emissions in the city.
Most of the energy consumed in our homes is used to power space and water heating systems. These systems account for 85% of all energy used and 77% of carbon emissions from buildings.
The majority of buildings in Burnaby are between 10 and 70 years old, and most were not originally constructed with energy efficiency in mind.