That’s a mouthful, but in short a fellow named Paul came to our house today and spent a little over two hours going through our house. We are signed up for the Canadian government’s Greener Homes Grant with the intent of putting some solar panels on the roof, and the first step towards being able to qualify for the grant is the evaluation.
He did a bunch of observing and measuring outside before coming inside and measuring all the windows, observing the furnace, water heater etc., and then setting up a fan in the front door to create negative pressure in the house to find leaks.
When he took me around for the leak discovery, there were a handful of things that I can do really easily (caulk, weather stripping, foam gaskets) and some that would require some more time and money (replacing windows, doors). He also had some recommendations for high-efficiency water heating and… solar. We will get the report in a little bit, but for the moment, we can move on to the solar installation. I got in touch with Green Light Energy today, and we will hear back from them.
The hardest part of the morning was keeping track of Murphy. Tammy stayed home and taught so that she could keep him with her. Originally she was going to be at her desk in the master bedroom, but when it was clear that Paul was going to need to get into the attic, she moved to Ian’s room instead. When the door had to be open, she put Murphy in the little carry case. He was meowing a fair bit, and managed to escape! He actually unzipped the case from the inside and hid under the bed. We have no idea how he did it.
After we do renos, Paul (or other) will be back and follow up to see that we improved our efficiency.
Now you will find out how effficient your house is.