How going green at home pays you

By Jim Harris

With the launch of an energy program that pays homeowners for solar power, it’s the best time ever to make green energy choices

Ontario Power Authority’s (OPA) microFIT (Feed-in-Tariff) program pays 80.2 cents per kilowatt-hour for solar power over a 20-year contract and has been inundated with applications since its inception. Installing the largest system possible costs $70,000 and pays the homeowner $10,000 a year, which means the system pays for itself in seven years.

But before installing a solar photovoltaic (PV) system, homeowners should make sure even faster payback items are completed first. Energy efficiency is the cheapest means of power generation. The average Canadian homeowner can save $17,000 of energy over five years with an average of three and half year paybacks, claims Godo Stoyke’s in Carbon Busters’ Home Energy Hand Book.

The first step to becoming more efficient is to get an energy audit from an independent certified energy advisor. Three experienced Toronto auditors are GreenSaver, Enwise Power Solutions, and the Windfall Ecology Centre. An audit costs up to $360 and the provincial government will rebate half of this amount up to $150.

Energy advisors recommend energy efficient improvements for your home from least cost to more expensive options. Typical improvements include: draft proofing, increasing insulation in your attic and walls, replacing old appliances with new energy efficient ones, switching from incandescent to compact fluorescent light bulbs, and installing efficient windows. Once you’ve done this, your heating and air conditioning demands may be cut in half, so you could get a newer, smaller, more efficient furnace when it comes time to replace your old one.

In terms of appliances, you could be saving $800, $1,300, or $700 over the life of your refrigerator, washer and freezer respectively. And, as electricity rates rise in the future, these savings will increase.

Homeowners can get a rebate of up to $5,000 from the province of Ontario for energy efficiency improvements and Toronto residents can get another $1,000 under the Home Energy Assistance (HEAT) program.

Reaping the rewards of your newly retrofitted, energy efficient home, you’ll have some extra money to invest.

While an investment of $30,000 to $70,000 for solar power is sizeable, Tom Rand, the MaRS Discovery District’s Cleantech Advisor, makes the economic case: if the energy savings combined with what OPA pays you are greater than your debt servicing requirements, your investment is cash flow positive from day one. So, you’re making money while adding to the value of your property.

Assume you invest $20,000 to retrofit your home for energy efficiency and $30,000 to install solar PV. If you take out a $50,000 mortgage on your house at four and a half per cent interest for a fixed five-year term with a 38-year amortization period and monthly payments of $228, you’d make $248 a month from the OPA payments alone, and your energy savings would add to this figure.

There are community buying groups which streamline the process for home owners, while achieving lower pricing through bulk purchasing.  Toronto city councilor, Joe Mihevc and Earth Day Canada President, Jed Goldberg were both part of the West Toronto Initiative for Solar Energy (WISE) along with Ken Traynor. Together they went through the myriad choices the group had to agree upon: the solar PV supplier, the installer, and the contracts details. Following the experience, Traynor founded Toronto Renewable Energy Cooperative, which guides community groups through the process. There are now eight Toronto buying groups and another five throughout Ontario. For a list of groups see OurPower.ca.

If you do choose to try the microFIT program, you will have to wait three months to have your application processed. Some 13,500 microFit applications flooded into the OPA, far exceeded expectations, says Ben Chin, OPA Vice President of Communications. More than 99 per cent are for solar PV.

Of course, there are many other home power generation options, including solar hot water system, micro wind turbines, geothermal or air sourced heat pumps such as the Acadia, which can be installed with 70 per cent less capital cost than geothermal.

And to top it all off, you can buy 100 per cent green electricity from Bullfrog Power, which produces power only from wind, solar and low impact hydro.

Jim Harris is a bestselling author, National Post columnist and management consultant, jimh@jimharris.com.

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