Today I am discussing Home Energy Audits and how it can benefit both buyers and sellers when renovating a home.  If you would like more info on this you can contact me 902-488-0012 or email andrew@halifaxrealestateguy.com

Related Video Blog Posts

- Halifax Real Estate Guy’s top 5 seller tips

- Canada’s first Envirohome of 2009

Below is a list of a few highlights of the program

- 15 per cent tax credit of up to $1,350 for eligible renovations to home or cottage

- The credit can be applied to projects like a new kitchen or bathroom,  a new furnace, water heater, or a resurfaced driveway. Items like new furniture, appliances or home electronics would not be covered

- The total cost has to be in excess of $1,000 and the credit tops out after $10,000 — the 15 per cent credit is applied to the amount between the $1,000 minimum and $10,000 ceiling, hence $1,350. It’s a non-refundable credit, which means it will reduce your taxes owing, but you don’t get the cash if you have a positive balance.

- The federal goverment estimates as many as 4.6 million homeowners will take advantage of this new program

- Homeowners can also do some double-dipping, as the renovation credit can be claimed on projects that also qualify for ecoEnergy Retrofit grants. Under that program, Nova Scotians can qualify for a federal grant of up to $5,000, and a matching provincial grant of up to $1,500 for renovations that make your home more energy efficient.

- Last week’s budget also included some tax relief for first-time homebuyers. This includes a credit of up to $750 to cover closing costs, such as legal fees, title insurance and deed transfer taxes. This credit covers 15 per cent of eligible closing costs, up to a maximum of $5,000.

- As well, the amount first-time buyers can withdraw from their RRSPs for a down payment has been increased from $20,000 to $25,000, the first major change to the RRSP homebuyers plan since it was introduced in 1992.

Information Taken From Chronicle Herald

This is great news for homeowners and first time home buyers.  This will add a much needed boost to the ecomomy.   If You would like more info on this program do not hesitate to contact me at 902-488-0012 or email me

Related Articles

- Great News For Halifax Home Buyers

- Goverment Announces Money For Green Projects

Andrew Perkins

Your Halifax Real Estate Expert

I was browsing through The Coast weekly Halifax newspaper and noticed this project that Greater Homes is constructing on the Northwest Arm Drive.  Looks like a great investment and place to live.

Located in a desirable area of Halifax, The Waterton is Halifax’s first condominium project to use geothermal. The Waterton condo project uses the breakout geothermal heating system that extracts stored heat energy from the crust of the earth.  Geothermal takes the guess work out of your energy costs by using renewable energy.

It is great to see projects like this in Halifax.  I think in the coming years we will be seeing more and more green projects come to fruition.  The green shift is starting to happen and I feel in the coming years it is going to accelerate at crazy pace.  We have waited to long to shift our focus and our environment is paying dearly for our neglect.

If you would like more information on this condo project or any other condos in Halifax  contact me by email or call 902-488-0012.  I would be more than happy to help you out.

Related Articles

- Goverment announces money for Green Projects

- Green Real Estate

Andrew Perkins

Your Halifax Real Estate Expert

HALIFAX – Residential windmills and carbon-capturing concrete are two of 21 environmental projects to win government grant money.
Mark Parent, provincial environment minister, made the announcement at the Power of Green conference in Halifax yesterday. “In terms of greenhouse gases, (these projects are) equivalent to taking over 10,000 cars off the road permanently, forever,” Parent explained to reporters after his speech at the Cunard Centre.
These were the winners picked by EcoNova Scotia for clean air and climate change. Applications were placed under two grant-giving programs for environmental technologies and municipal projects.
This group of winners —the third announcement so far for EcoNova Scotia — cost $2.6 million. Parent said that money will leverage into over $8 million with what the projects will bring in. He said he has especially high hopes for the Carbon Sense Solutions project, which captures carbon emissions in concrete. “I dream of the day — because we make concrete in Nova Scotia — instead of importing asphalt from elsewhere, we can build our own concrete roads and we capture carbon at the same time.”
But for some companies, investing in green solutions might take a backseat because of the grim global economic outlook.  Some people will be cautious, Parent said, but there are ‘real opportunities’ in the green economy. “We’ve seen a freeze in capital and lending so these programs (like EcoNova Scotia) will be more important for businesses to find the necessary capital to do innovative projects,” he said.
Shawna Eason, energy officer with Cumberland County, got $10,000 from EcoNova Scotia to conduct an energy audit of county properties. “It’s looking at where they’re losing money, but also emissions because anywhere electricity is being used where we can reduce it is going to save them money and is going to save the emissions,” she said.

Taken From The Chronicle Herald

It is great to see initiative being taken in a Green Economy.  Over the years I am sure we will see more projects coming on board.   If you are in the market for a new house, as a member of Clean Nova Scotia I offer my clients a free energy audit which could save you thousands of dollars for both renovation costs and energy savings.  If you are looking to buy or sell Halifax Real Estate contact me at 488-0012.

Related Articles

- Green Real Estate

- Go Green and Save

Andrew Perkins

Your Halifax Real Estate Expert

VANCOUVER — British Columbia is escalating its war on greenhouse gases, examining a measure that will require some new buildings to be carbon neutral as early as 2016 – and every new building to have no carbon footprint by 2020.

The proposal is tucked inside the report from the B.C. Climate Action Team released last week, a document that the government commissioned but is not obliged to accept. But the move to carbon-neutral housing would cause a revolution in how housing stock will be built. In its purest form, it would see housing constructed with built-in power supplies – either solar panels, wind turbines or geothermal sources.

New designs that limit energy requirements, such as shaded windows, and energy-efficient appliances are part of the equation. The proposal to the province also urges the government to build some flexibility into the carbon-neutral requirement by allowing communities to build green energy sources to power individual residences.

In any case, the goal remains the same: to wean households off fossil fuels for home heating and prevent a mass shift to wasteful baseboard units that use power from the electricity grid. Instead, locally produced, renewable energy will provide that power.

“That’s a huge shift. Huge,” a senior government official said.

It could also be an expensive shift. The official estimates that building a carbon-neutral house will cost anywhere from 5 per cent to 20 per cent more than conventional models. With the average house price in Greater Vancouver hovering around $556,000, the added expense could top $100,000.

But environmental advocates say the cost of carbon-neutral housing can be made less painful in several ways. The first is simple economy of scale: If all new construction has to have the new technology, the cost for each household will tumble. Also, the expense for designing an energy-efficient home from scratch is likely to be less than that of retrofitting existing homes.

And home buyers will be able to spread the extra costs over decades, since it will be part of their mortgage payments. Last, the investments will reduce energy costs.

Years before those policies will come into force, one Victoria housing development is already meeting, even beating, those requirements.

The Dockside Green development is billed as “carbon positive,” meaning that it will, on balance, reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, largely by selling the clean energy it generates to other parts of Victoria.

Joe Van Belleghem of Windmill West Development Ltd., which is building Dockside Green along with VanCity credit union, said the extra costs of his project (under 2 per cent on a $700-million total) have been largely offset by reduced marketing expenses, and the time saved by having the support of the community.

Energy savings will give Dockside Green a fiscal advantage, said Mr. Van Belleghem, who is part of the climate committee issuing recommendations to the provincial government.

The project (which has no air conditioning), employs passive design techniques such as double-glazed windows and blinds to prevent interior air from heating up. Hallways have LED lights, and heat is drawn out of air and water to minimize electricity use. Much of that technology can be used on individual residences, he said.

“You could definitely build a carbon-neutral house today.”

However, he said it is not likely that an individual homeowner would be able to duplicate a key feature of the project, an energy-efficient, biomass-fuelled generator costing $7.5-million. It’s that generator that allows Dockside Green to boast carbon-positive status.

Ian Bruce, climate-change specialist with the David Suzuki Foundation in Vancouver, lauded the new proposal, but noted that it will not be of great assistance in cutting greenhouse gases before 2020. “It’s a longer-term policy.”

A lighter shade of green

A committee of environmental experts is urging British Columbia to require that all new residences be greenhouse-gas neutral starting in 2020. One development in Victoria, Dockside Green, says it is already beating that target: Its mix of design innovations, and efficient energy systems means the six-hectare development of residences, businesses and light industry will save more greenhouse gases than it produces.

SMOKE-FREE POWER STATION

The biomass heat-generation plant is fuelled with waste wood. Instead of burning the wood, a thermochemical process is used to create a synthetic gas, which is then burned to power a boiler. The system produces hot water for buildings.

Additional natural-gas boilers provide backup and some peak-level support to the main system

EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS

Additional heat will be provided by a sewage heat-recovery system. The heat exchange unit could either tap directly into the municipal trunk line or be located within Dockside Green’s wastewater-treatment plant.

SAVING RESOURCES

Every appliance will be highly energy efficient. Through the use of water-efficient appliances and high-performance fixtures, the potable water consumption is expected to be 65 per cent less than traditional developments.

HEAT EXCHANGE

Heat-recovery ventilation systems pump filtered air directly into each condo suite. Most importantly, they recover heat from the exhausted air to help warm the incoming fresh air.

DESIGN AND MATERIALS

Exterior blinds on west- and south-facing windows will help keep buildings cool. The wood-frame town homes use wood harvested from forests flooded by reservoirs. Concrete for the development includes fly ash (a byproduct of coal-fired power generation and cement production). With fly ash, less cement is needed, less CO_ is emitted and the concrete is stronger.

WASTEWATER-TREATMENT PROCESS

The water enters a collection tank (A) where inorganic solids are removed. In the bioreactor (B), bacteria consume the biodegradable waste. The bioreactor consists of two zones, one with air (aerobic) and one without (anoxic); each zone includes different types of bacteria. The heart of the system is a membrane (C) that physically traps any impurities in the water. The next step is an ultraviolet light or ozone generator (D) that prevents bacterial growth in the treated water. Finally, the treated water is stored in a tank (E) until needed.

1. Wood waste is bottom-fed into the gasifier

2. Combustion air, steam and/or oxygen are introduced into the base of the fuel pile.

3. At 815 to 980 degrees the wood undergoes gaseous decomposition, creating gas and non-combustible ash.

4. The synthetic gas is burned in the oxidizer.

5. The hot flue gas is directed into a hot-water boiler.

6. Flue gas from the boiler is cleaned of particulates by an electrostatic precipitator before being released.

RICHARD PALMER/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

SOURCES: DOCKSIDE GREEN ANNUAL SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2007

WWW.DOCKSIDEGREEN.COM, NEXTERRA ENERGY CORP.

Source – The Globe and Mail

It would be great to see more projects like those take place in Nova Scotia.  Brule point in Tatamagoughe is ahead of the curve. They are building homes that will be green and run geo thermal heating units which is by far the best way to heat and cool your home. This is just the start of the Green shift that is happening in the Real Estate Industry. As Real Estate Professionals, we need to be up to date on the latest trends and intiatives in Green Real Estate and educate our clients on how to become Green Friendly. To do my part, I offer my clients an Energuide Energy Audit when they purchase a new home. This can save them thousands of dollars on renovations and heating costs. Let’s face it the cost of oil is not going down anytime soon. So if you have a question about Green Real Estate contact me.  I would be happy to answer those for you. In the meantime, if you are looking to buy or sell Halifax Real Estate, call me 488-0012.

Andrew Perkins

Your Halifax Real Estate Expert

Member of National Association of Green Realtors and Brokers

So your thinking of selling your home and would like to do a few renovations before you put it on the market or you just bought a new home and would like to do renovations to make it your own.

It’s good to keep abreast of grants that are now available for homeowners who want to go green.

Both the provincial and federal governments have new programs designed to encourage energy reduction. By staying up-to-date on the latest programs, you can save money.

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is offering a new residential energy efficiency assessment service to owners of single family homes, including detached, semi-detached and low-rise multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs) that are no more than three storeys high.

Under the ecoENERGY Retrofit program, property owners can qualify for federal grants by improving the energy efficiency of their homes and reducing their home’s impact on the environment.

NRCan-certified energy advisors conduct a detailed on-site assessment of the home’s energy use from the attic down to the basement. They provide a personalized report, including a checklist of recommended retrofits to improve the energy efficiency of your home and, in some cases, to reduce water consumption. The report also shows the grant amounts for each eligible upgrade that you can receive by carrying out these energy-saving improvements. The maximum grant you can receive for a home is $6500.

A high efficiency furnace and many of the other retrofits eligible for rebates come with a higher price tag, but environmentally conscious homeowners believe the energy cost savings – and reduced greenhouse gas emissions – are well worth it. Also, from a resale perspective, many potential home buyers will view “greener” homes as a desirable feature.

If you are thinking about buying, selling or doing renovations you have to check these programs out, not only will it save you money, it will up your resale value as well. For more information contact me ,

Andrew Perkins

Your Halifax Real Estate Expert