What’s an EnerGuide rating & why is it important?
The EnerGuide rating demonstrates the energy performance of your home. It is an estimate of the net amount of energy your house consumes in a year.
What is an EnerGuide rating?
The rating is an evaluation of your home’s energy consumption in gigajoules per year. The lower the number on your EnerGuide scale, the better the energy performance of your home. The best energy performance is 0 GJ/year, this is considered a Net Zero home. The label is broken down into energy consumed by source: oil, electricity, and natural gas, and shows the homeowner where most energy is consumed through heating, cooling, ventilation, water, and electrical components. It also includes the performance of your home in comparison to the industry’s benchmark home. Lastly, it includes the amount of greenhouse gas emissions your home releases–showing the impact your home has on the environment. The better your EnerGuide rating is, the more comfortable, healthy, energy efficient and valuable your home is.
How is it calculated?
The rating is calculated and evaluated by a breakdown of your rated annual energy consumption, and details about your homes building envelope and mechanical components. All Landmark Homes include high performance heating, cooling and ventilation features, tankless water heater, WaterSense® plumbing fixtures, Energy Star® rated appliances and windows, and a tight precision-built envelope that contributes to an above average superior EnerGuide rating.
How much is one gigajoule of energy?
The average household uses 100 gigajoules of energy per year. To put into perspective how much 1 gigajoule of energy is in everyday life happenings: 1 gigajoule of energy is equivalent to surfing the web for 5,500 hours, vacuuming your home for 230 hours, running a typical refrigerator for 30 weeks, toasting 3000 bagels, watching an entire national hockey league season (all 1230 games) on TV, or washing over 100 loads of laundry.
Key points to understanding your rating and the scale:
• Aim towards zero on the rating scale. The lower the number, the better energy performance of the home.
• Best energy performance indicates high performing homes, with a rating of zero gigajoules per year meaning it produces as much energy as it consumes. Generally, these homes would be highly energy-efficient, AKA a Net Zero Home.
• An annual gigajoule rating (GJ/year) allows you to see your score as a unit of energy consumption, similar to how you would see a consumption rating of kilowatts per hour for appliances, litres per 100 kilometres for vehicles, or calories for food.
• A typical new house is the reference point against which to compare your rating. It is a version of your house as if built to typical new construction standards for energy performance.
The benefits of owning a Landmark Home!
There are many benefits! Monthly and yearly savings are a huge bonus, but there’s more! Landmark Homes are built to perform at least 15-20% better than the average build. Additionally, this rating qualifies you for a CMHC mortgage loan insurance rebate. The rebate pays you up to 20% back on your mortgage loan insurance. For example, this is $2200 in savings on a $400,000 home with a 5% down payment.
If you opt in for your EnerGuide Rating and BuiltGreen® certification, the 3rd party certification is valuable and recognized throughout the housing industry. Additionally, homes with a BuiltGreen® certification are 10% more likely to sell compared to homes without. Learn more about BuiltGreen® Certification here!
On top of earning the CHBA rebate, all the energy efficient features in a Landmark Home ensure short- and long-term savings. Learn more about all the high performance features we include for comfort, health and money savings in our Energy Efficiency Blog!
Note: EnerGuide labels and BuiltGreen® certification is not standard, please ask our sales specialists for all the details!
Resources:
https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy-efficiency/energuide-canada/energuide-rating-system-version-15/18392