When Lena Manuel and her family heard from a family member about Efficiency New Brunswick’s Existing Home Energy Efficiency Upgrades Program, they knew that it was what they needed to improve both the comfort and efficiency of their older home. The program was designed to help homeowners make the right decisions for energy efficient upgrades and retrofit projects by providing expert advice and financial incentives.

“The cost of wood and oil just keeps going up,” said Lena. “And with the wood furnace, the fire would go out in the middle of the night so that it was always cold in the morning. Having a five-year-old running around the house in the morning, it was important to us that our house be warm.”

With more than 30 percent of the homes in the province having been built before 1960, the Manuels are not alone in their problem. They found that their home, built in 1946 was not as well insulated as a modern home, which made it less comfortable to live in and more costly to heat. However, they learned that homes, regardless of their age, can be made more energy efficient through specific, targeted energy efficiency upgrades.

The Manuel’s home renovations included:

• Upgrading their attic insulation by R-40
• Insulating their basement floor header to R-20
• Installing an air-to-air heat pump

The province is committed to improving the environment, and an important step that can be taken to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions is to reduce our energy consumption. By committing to a more efficient building

envelope for their home, and converting to an air-to-air heat pump, the Manuels have not only saved money on their heating bill, but they are consuming less energy and taking action on climate change.  They also recently decided to purchase some new ENERGY STAR appliances, and to change to compact fluorescent lighting, both of which use less energy.

The Manuels received a $10,000 loan through Efficiency NB’s Existing Homes Energy Efficiency Upgrades Program, with which they were able to increase the energy rating of their home by 37 points, and reduce their homes greenhouse gas emissions by 13.34 tonnes annually. That is roughly the same amount of greenhouse gas emitted by two pick-up trucks, each driven an average of 20,000 km annually.