Posts Tagged ‘home upgrades’

February 1st, 2010 marks the end of the Home Renovation Tax Credit (HRTC). The program had an extremely successful run and provided those individuals with a one-year temporary 15% income tax credit up to $1,350 on eligible home renovation expenditures.

So you may be asking yourself, now that the HRTC is over what incentives do I have to renovate my home? For those of you who are interested in having upgrades done, their still is hope. The Federal ecoENERGY retrofit grants are available and you can save your money by undertaking renovations before the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) takes effect!

Under the ecoENERGY Retrofit program, homeowners can qualify for 25% more in federal grants by improving the energy efficiency of their homes, and reducing their home’s impact on the environment. The maximum grant you can receive for a single family home is $5,000.

The HST is fast approaching with a scheduled date of July 1st, 2010. This means that starting July the BC Government will be combining GST and PST into one harmonized tax and your home upgrades will cost you 7% more for the PST that was not charged previously.

For more details check out our Offers and Incentives page, visit our showrooms or call 604.697.5700 for any questions you may have related to the HRTC, the HST or any other home upgrade questions you may have.

With “Going Green” being the latest trend in home improvement, many people want to take part but often do not know where to start. Having an ecoEnergy audit preformed on your house can be a great first step and help provide a clear step-by-step plan to upgrading your home in an energy-efficient manner.

An ecoEnergy audit is preformed by an outside organization’s certified energy adviser and the assessment will evaluate the energy efficiency of your home. The focus of the initial audit will be on windows, doors, the heating system and insulation and typically takes around two hours and costs around $150 per visit. A “blower door” test is completed in order to determine if there are any air leaks, a major contributor to heat loss.

Once the assessment is finished the certified energy adviser will present you with a report which will provide you with an analysis of the amount of energy you are using, where and will provide solutions to better allocate your “energy dollars” to improve the energy efficiency of your home. Accompanying the report will also be a rating of you home of how it compares to others with respect to energy efficiency.

By implementing the recommended upgrades it will allow you to reduce cold drafts of your home, identify moisture problems, improve your home’s ventilation, reduce overall energy use and save money on your energy bills.

These audits are done by organizations that are unaffiliated with Homeworks therefore, will give you a completely objective measure of your home. After, you have completed your upgrades you call the certified energy advisers back to assess the improvement of energy efficiency in your home. Having these tests done will typically qualify you for ecoEnergy federal grants and other incentives.

If you are interested in improving the energy efficiency of your home, book a free in-home consultation, visit our showrooms or call 604.697.5700.

After an extremely successful run, LiveSmart BC has been completed. The program has reached its three-year target of 40,000 initial energy assessments in only 15 months and 11,000 homeowners have completed efficiency upgrades! We are proud to say that Homeworks was able to be a part of this program.

To clear up any confusion you may have, anyone having their initial ecoENERGY “D” assessment done before August 16th, 2009 are still eligible for LiveSmart BC grants in the program. Also, for homeowners who have completed their energy efficient upgrades, and have their ecoENERGY “E” assessments completed within 18 months, you still qualify for the LiveSmart BC rebates and incentives.

For those of you who are interested in having upgrades done, their still is hope! The Federal ecoENERGY retrofit grants and the Home Renovation Tax Credit are still available! For more details, check out the Offers and Incentives page on our website.

LiveSmart BC was run with extreme success, demonstrating that the citizens of BC are people who care for the environment and will continue to do so in the future.

For any questions regarding LiveSmart, you can visit their website: www.livesmartbc.ca