alliance@bchydro.com

www.bchydro.com/homerebates

betterhomesbc@gov.bc.ca

www.betterhomesbc.ca/

https://betterhomesbc.ca/rebates/income-qualified/

IQPcontractorsupport@clearesult.com

qualityinstalls@fortisbc.com

www.fortisbc.com/homerebates

Questions

Response

Better Homes rebate: U factor 1.22, would an ER rating of .34 or higher qualify?

We do not factor in ER rating for determining eligibility of the windows/doors. If the windows or doors have a metric U-factor of 1.22 or less and meets all program requirements, they would be eligible.

Why not extend to the City of Vancouver? The Vancouver Building By-law would rarely cover a window renovation by building permit, therefore the 1.22 would not be targeted for smaller renovations.

The rebates programs are meant to incentivize people to exceed the minimum building requirements to meet energy efficiency goals. The City of Vancouver's minimum requirements are higher than other municipalities in BC.

Follow-up to the question about the City of Vancouver's Building By-law question: The majority of the renovations that would be covered under these programs would not go through the building permit process and therefore not be covered by the energy performance process under the Vancouver Building By-law so why not extend this program into Vancouver to have these windows installed at this level?

The program requirements are designed to incentivize above the region's requirements. The City of Vancouver has increased their minimum requirements.

Our understanding is that the City of Vancouver expects these renovations to require permits and would therefore go through the municipality's requirements.

Are modified rough openings eligible for rebates? For example, switching from a 4040 window to a 4050 window?

The program will accept the rough opening being enlarged and a larger window being installed. If all other program requirements are met, they will be eligible for a rebate.

Once someone is eligible for the IQP grant, how long do they have to get the retrofit complete?

There is no end date to their eligibility code. As long as the program is in operation, and there have been no program changes that might impact their eligibility, they would remain eligible.

If there are any changes that would impact a homeowner, the program administrators would reach out to them.

Greener homes rebate: the loan up to 40,000, does 1.22 or ER .34 or higher, qualify for the loan, or do we need to go to the next tier up?

You will need to reference the Federal Greener Homes Program requirements and meet their requirements. The federal program is separate from the provincial rebates. Be sure to understand the different eligibility requirements and application processes and make sure your customers are aware.

Visit the program website for more information: https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy-efficiency/homes/canada-greener-homes-grant/23441.

Are you working on including condos and apartments? I think the impact would be much greater than just the homes included.

There are different challenges in being able to offer rebates to condos or apartments. In order to provide rebates to our customers, they must be cost effective in reducing energy usage. Condos/apartments have smaller energy footprint due to their smaller unit sizes, along with radiant heat from other units making it difficult to provide cost effective rebates. Another challenge is that some buildings have individually metered units while others are all paid through the Strata.

Please note, some buildings can fall under the commercial building offers. In these cases the Strata will need to check the requirements and see if their renovations would qualify.

Our invoices do not have information about each individual window/door but that info is on the quote (which we attach to the invoice). Is that sufficient?

If the information is on the quote and separate from the invoice, it would be acceptable however we would need the paid invoice to reference the quote for our operations team to verify the models were installed.

The quote should also include site address, customer name etc. alongside all window/door information.

With a complex of row houses if the whole complex is getting new windows do they have to apply individually?

Generally customers would apply for their rebates individually if they pay for the windows or doors themselves and are incurring the cost. In some cases in which the work was done in bulk through strata, with the strata incurring the costs we would be able to process bulk applications for the strata.

How do you address the cash flow issues that contractors' face? Contractors' would need to finance their window orders from manufacturers until final payment from the govt. Interest charges on this affect margins and thus pricing.

The Income Qualified Program suggests that the homeowners portion of the invoice/quote be required as the down payment. All other costs that are associated with the process, such as interest costs should be incorporated into the contractors retail pricing.