Rebates, Grants & Other Support

Step 1: Get an energy coach from CleanBC Better Homes

CleanBC Better Homes is BC’s online hub for homeowners and businesses to access information, rebates and support to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in new and existing homes and buildings. CleanBC Better Homes is funded by the Province of British Columbia and the Government of Canada under the Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund. CleanBC Better Homes rebates are administered by BC Hydro, FortisBC and BC Housing.

The Energy Coach is a free coaching service for homeowners and commercial building owners and managers in B.C. Energy Coaches are trained energy efficiency specialists who provide building-science based information about the options and opportunities to improve the energy efficiency of your home or building. They are available to answer your questions at all stages of your energy improvement project. Energy Coach services are available for homeowners and selected coaching support is available for commercial building owners or managers.

Navigating the Grant & Rebate Labyrinth

If you’re contemplating deep energy retrofit, know that fuel switching rebates are especially attractive as of December 2020.

Can I urge you to go to the city of Victoria to explore top up offers that make it especially enticing to remove your oil tank and switch to an electric heat pump pronto. The city has partnered with the province of BC and the CRD to offer increased heat pump incentives through the CleanBC Better Homes Program with thousands of dollars in available rebates. Visit BetterHomesBC.ca to apply for rebates. These include

• Up to $6000 for a new heat pump (CleanBC)

• $1000 for the electric service upgrade rebate (CleanBC)

• $2000 heat pump top up - limited funds remaining (Victoria)

• Additional $500 electrical panel upgrade top-up -f necessary (Victoria)

• Group purchase rebate of up to $500 (see CRD’s Building Energy retrofits page)

Window rebates can add up to $2000 but require much paperwork. (We spent more than forty hours trying to supply the info to qualify. ah the thrill when the check for $2700 arrived in the mail. Insulation can get you up to $5500. High efficiency heaters yield about $1000. We might earn $12,200 in rebates. Nothing to sneeze at. This does not include other bonuses or historic house grants for which we might possibly be eligible. Your best bang for the buck in terms of rebate, energy bill and carbon footprint reduction is to remove your oil tank then switch to an electrical heat pump using cassettes on the wall. Better to go all electric than switch from oil to natural gas. You are still in fossil fuel territory. If you’d like to stop a pipeline -here is you chance. Dumb but as of this writing solar installations do not merit rebates. BC Hydro will have to pay US for the excess power we generate right from the sun. Sweet! In year one we ought to save $1200 in energy costs.

Caveat emptor: there are deadlines for filing for rebates, so pay close attention. In general you have 6 months between buying something and filing for the rebate. Special appreciation goes to to John Ho ( Community Energy Specialist for the City of Victoria), and Chandra Horth (Energy and GHG Client Services Representative at City Green Solutions) for guiding us through the twists and turns of renovating without losing the opportunity for rebates. And thanks to Taylor McCarthy, at Frontera who had to pull together lots of backup paperwork so we could file for rebates. Thanks to Steve Unger at Viridian for get us set up for net metering with BC Hydro.

If you have a heritage house, see the Victoria Heritage Foundation to see if you can qualify for a grant to renovate your exterior.