ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Many people assume that a new home is built to be energy efficient, comfortable and free of defects.
There is also the assumption a newly renovated building falls into the same category.
Unfortunately many people under estimate the performance of a building assuming that if it is built to building code it will be efficient.
Minimum code requirements don’t guarantee a comfortable, energy efficient, defect free structure.
How do you know a building's efficiency?
ENERGUIDE RATINGThis rating is used for Older homes under the EcoEnergy Program
It is used for other New Home Programs including:
- R-2000
- Energy Star
- Built Green
Most Energy programs use the ENERGUIDE RATING as a basis for their evaluation.
The EnerGuide 100-point Rating System scale is administered by National Resources Canada
A 20 rating represents a home with major air leakage, no insulation and extremely high energy consumption.
A rating of 100 represents a house that is airtight, well insulated, sufficiently ventilated and requires no purchased energy on an annual basis.
Most homes built to Minimum Code are around 70-72, while energy efficient homes start at 80.
Average New Homes Built in Alberta score 75.5
If you move from an ENERGUIDE 75 to ENERGUIDE 80, you cut your Natural Gas consumption by 25%
NRCan says "an increase of 1 Energuide point relates to about 5% savings on your energy bills"
Typical ENERGUIDE Ratings
Type of House Rating
Rating New House built to
minimum building
code standards 65-72
65-72 New house with
some energy-efficiency
improvements 73-79
73-79 Energy-efficient new house 80-90
80-90 House requiring little or
no purchased energy 91-100
91-100