Geo-exchange gets boost from Ottawa
My Clean Break column this past week was about a new federal rebate for people who install ground-source heat pump or “geo-exchange” systems on their properties to reduce natural gas and electricity use — indeed, to lower overall energy use by as much as 50 per cent. The rebate is valued at $3,500, roughly 15 per cent of the cost of a system (including installation). Quite good, and impressive considering this is coming out of our Conservative federal government. My column takes a look at the rebate, but then discusses the need for the MLS.ca real estate listings to allowing searches of resale homes that have renewable energy systems and/or high-efficiency ratings. It seems to me there will come a time, perhaps not too far off, when people will actively seek out such homes and pay a premium for them, or, on the flip side, ask for a discount on homes that are deemed energy inefficient and in need of a major retrofit.
Another story this week looks at how the conservation programs of Ontario’s biggest local electrical utilities seem to be working — so far.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
April 9th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
I’m involved in a green residential development pilot project in New Brunswick, and right now, before the review authorities have even accepted our proposal we have people phoning the municipality seeking lots in the project. I’ve had people contact me here in Ontario saying they want to know how they can learn more about it, toward becoming residents -one such person was from outside NB! With this kind of word-of-mouth, its questionable whether we will even need MLS listing.
April 20th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
You are quite right about MLS needing to allow for efficiency ratings / searches based on such in the system. I actually sent them a few emails YEARS ago pleading them to do so!
Being able to keyword search would be good enough for me. At least then i could search for “stream” (for looking into micro hydro potential) or “solar” or “energy star”….
I strongly believe that changing the search criteria in MLS could offer a catalyst for change in the housing market.
Another thing I would love to see…
Just as cars have MPG stickers on the windows, I should be able to see how my house is going to perform. Show me a combined energy rating. Something I can understand. Maybe total KJ’s per average year… or a dollar figure. Make big and poorly built homes seem like the fuel inefficient Hummers of the market.