Previously we described my disappointment that the ecoENERGY Residential Retrofit Program was being continued in its current form.
I am not disappointed that it is being extended.
I am disappointed that it is being extended in its current format.
My prior article on my disappointment of the ecoENERGY Retrofit Program extension focuses on three areas:
- Current program is too complex for the average household, including the exclusion of many energy saving devices
- Current program has become too complex to be managed and controlled by National Resources Canada
- Current program remains on a first come first serve funding approach
How, then, can the program be made more effective?
Increase Participation Levels Through Simplicity
What percentage of eligible Canadian households actually participated in the ecoENERGY Residential Retrofit program after the first three full years?
Possibly 30%? 25%? 20%
Would it surprise you that after 24 months of the program, only 2.8% of eligible Canadian households participated?
That is not my number. That is coming straight from the source, Natural Resources Canada.
Would it surprise you that after a full 36 months, or 3 years, of the program only 6.1% of eligible Canadian households participated?
Again, that is taken from numbers supplied to me by Natural Resources Canada (609,257 Houses with the first energy audit at the end of year 3 / 9,991,450 estimated program eligible houses in Canada).
I do not have the participation percentage at the end of year 4, March 31, 2011, because they were not supplied to me by Natural Resource Canada even after my repeated requests because I was told the number would not be accurate until a further 12 months had passed.
Increase the simplicity and participation levels will increase. This does not necessarily mean that the $400 million allocated in the new Federal budget will be exceeded; read on.
Increase Participation Levels Through More Inclusion
The current format has a laundry list of specific grants amounts for specific types of energy conservation and efficiency investments made by the household.
If it was not on the list, it was excluded; full stop, end of story.
For example, from my Energy Efficiency Evaluation Report:
- Improve the air tightness of your house by 10 percent to achieve an air change rate of 4.7 at a pressure of 50 Pa
- Please use words I will actually understand
- Why no grant if I improve the air tightness by 7% or 5% or 3%? Am I not doing my bit if I improve the air tightness by a lesser amount?
This only ads to the complexity.
If the eligible energy efficiency investments was made more general, it would be less complex and more simplified for the average household.
The more simple something is the greater the participation.
If someone wants to purchase exterior window screens to reduce their air conditioning costs in the summer, let them.
If someone wants to purchase a solar air heater to help reduce their winter heating bill, let them make that decision.
Mirror The Home Renovation Tax Credit Format
The Home Renovation Tax Credit was simple; it was easy.
All a house hold had to do was to keep its home renovation receipts and claim them on its income tax return.
Simple.
And the expenditure eligibility criteria was much more general, much less individual product specific.
This made it easy to administer by government officials and easy to participate by Canadians.
For example, eligible home renovation expenditures includes re-tiling of a floor in the home. It did not say that the tiles had to be 12 inches by 12 inches, or 24 inches by 24 inches, or that the tiles could or could not require the use of mortar to secure them (e.g. SnapStone floating tiles do not and yet the expenditure would have been eligible).
As well, unlike the ecoENERGY Retrofit program, there was no percentage requirement to be achieved. If one re-tiled the floor of a 5 foot by 5 foot room, they would receive the same percentage tax credit as would someone who re-tiled 5 rooms for a totalling 15 feet by 45 feet.
Simple.
The Home Renovation Tax Credit left it up to the household to determine expenditures relevant to their home.
Why cant households be treated with the same respect and determine, with the same minimal guidance as that provided for the Home Renovation Tax Credit program, what energy saving investments they wish to make?
Sure, have one home energy audit to get the household started.
A second one should not be necessary to receive financial support for a household trying to do the right thing.
Keep it simple.
Yes, there is a fourth word that is frequently added to that sentence immediately above.
It is from the K.I.S.S. principal.
And no, I am not referring to the rock n roll band.
Similar Posts:
- Financial Discussion of microFIT Solar PV Assessment
- Advantages of Energy Efficient Windows
- Green Homes Solaire by Michelle Kauffman, Bringing Healthy Living to the City
- Comparing MicroFIT Solar Panel Installation Vendors – Payment Terms
- Continuing Education for Electrical Contractors
