St. Albert homeowners can now get thousands of dollars in grants from the city to make their homes use less energy.
The City of St. Albert launched the Home Energy Efficiency Grant (HEEG) program Dec. 20. Approved as part of the 2022 budget, the program aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from St. Albert homes by offering grants for energy efficiency improvements. The city is paying the energy efficiency firm Summerhill $10,000 a year to run the program.
The program is a simplified version of Edmonton’s Home Energy Retrofit Accelerator (HERA) program and is meant to work with St. Albert’s Clean Energy Improvement Program (CEIP), said acting City of St. Albert environment manager Meghan Myers. Whereas CEIP lets people finance energy efficiency improvements over time through their taxes, HEEG provides cash to offset the costs of those improvements.
Myers said this program will offer $40,000 in grants a year for three years on a first-come, first-served basis. The grants are open to anyone 18 or older who owns home in St. Albert. Those homes must be low-rise residential properties or units up to 600 meters square in multi-unit residential buildings up to three stories tall. Eligible homes must be occupied year-round and at least six months old.
To get a grant, Myers said homeowners must get an EnerGuide audit of their home done on or after April 1, 2020, and complete an enrolment form. Once their enrolment is accepted, homeowners can install eligible upgrades, apply for grants, and get their money.
Grants on tap
The program offers grants for insulation, air sealing, windows, water heating, and space heating. Applicants can get up to $600 for insulating an outside wall, for example, or $400 for improving air tightness. There are also grants for drain water heat recovery units ($150 each), heat pump water heaters ($350 each), and smart thermostats ($25 each).
Each grant comes with different requirements. Owners can get $35 to replace a window, for example, but the window must be triple-pane and Energy-Star certified. They also have to provide proof of purchase and photos of the installed windows and their Energy Star labels.
Myers said the grants cannot cover more than half the cost of an upgrade, but can be combined with other grants such as the Canada Greener Homes Initiative. Total grants cannot exceed the cost of the upgrades. Applicants must complete their upgrades within six months of becoming enrolled with the program or before the program ends on Dec. 31, 2025, whichever comes first.
The HEEG program is not as generous or expansive as Edmonton’s HERA initiative. HERA offers $50 per window and up to $2,500 per home for wall insulation, for example, and covers additional items such as ground-source heat pumps and renovating to net-zero energy use. Myers said St. Albert didn’t have the budget available to match Edmonton’s grants.
Leigh Bond of Boundless Renewables Consulting in St. Albert said the HEEG program should get people more interested in energy efficiency upgrades, adding that he planned to apply for the grants himself. He criticized the program’s grants for tankless water heaters and high efficiency furnaces, though, as those items burned natural gas and created greenhouse gas emissions.
“It makes no sense to promote natural gas equipment at the expense of not pushing heat pumps (for space heating),” Bond said, as heat pumps can provide zero-emission heat.
Myers guessed that this year’s funding would probably be snatched up in about six months. She encouraged homeowners to use the grants to save energy and make their homes more comfortable.
Visit stalbert.ca/heeg or call 587-764-1217 for details.
