REAL’s Home Energy Program Winding DownAs of the end of April 2026, REAL will no longer be offering home energy audits. Our long-time Registered Energy Advisor, Alan Leonard, is retiring, and since the elimination of most incentive programs, we have decided to discontinue offering the service. Home energy assessments are still a valuable tool in reducing your heating and cooling expenses, and reducing your greenhouse gas emissions. If you require a home energy assessment we suggest you contact Gabriel Nadeau, a Green Communities Canada (GCC) colleague in Kingston. He is willing to come to north for much of the area previously served by Alan: K7A, K7C, K7H, K0G, K6T, K6V and parts of KOH, KOE and KOA postal code regions. Gabriel is also qualified to do heat pump assessments. Gabriel Nadeau |
Are you:
- wanting to reduce your home’s carbon footprint?
- experiencing home performance problems?
- paying too much to heat or cool your home?
- replacing a furnace or windows?
Get a Home Energy Evaluation REAL’s Independent Home Energy Efficiency Expert
- Find out where your home is actually losing energy
- Learn what can you do to most effectively reduce your energy costs
- Solve problems with comfort, indoor air quality and house efficiency and durability issues
Improving the energy performance of your home will:
- Increase the comfort of your home
- Save money on heating and cooling bills
- Increase home value
- Take climate action by reducing your greenhouse gas emissions.
Why is it better to hire an independent expert to advise you rather than someone who wishes to sell you something?
We have no conflict of interest and would like the opportunity to help you make your home as healthy, comfortable and inexpensive to live in as possible. We provide unbiased solutions that are founded on building science and testing and an expert assessment of what is really needed to make you home more efficient. We diagnose problems based on the actual conditions in your home and our extensive experience solving all sorts of issues in houses dating from the 1800’s to the present.
Our mandate is to promote REAL environmental change in our community and making your house more energy efficient benefits us all.
We have a little summary flier you may like to pass on to someone.
The assessments described below are standalone, and can be also be used if you do not qualify for incentive grants but want to know how to make your house more efficient and deal with comfort or other issues with your home.
To arrange an appointment, contact Alan Leonard at [email protected] or (613) 864-3099.
Below are the services we offer. We are happy to discuss your home and how we can best help you in your specific situation. We will not sell you a service you don’t need and will always give you the best value for your money.
REAL Offers the following services:
- Full Home Energy Audit — 3+ hours onsite
- Post Renovation Energy Audit with updated EnerGuide rating label –
1+ hours onsite - Heat Pump Advisory Service
All fees tax-free! Very large or complicated houses may require an additional fee. A mileage charge may apply for some sites.
Full Home Energy Audit – 3+ hours onsite $500.
Note: Large or complicated houses may have an additional fee. A travel fee may be added for addresses over 80 km from Smiths Falls.
- Collect detailed information of house characteristics that affect energy use from basement to attic
- Assess levels of insulation
- Advise on lowering electricity use
- Determine efficiency of heating and A/C equipment
- Assess low or high humidity, condensation and ventilation issues
- Advise on ventilation and heat distribution
- Conduct Blower Door Test with air leakage investigation of house and advise on effective draft proofing and methods and materials
- Discuss my preliminary findings and recommendations onsite
- You also get a comprehensive written report, prepared and mailed or emailed within the week, including:
- Analysis of heat loss/gain, computer simulation model of building energy use
- Specific recommendations in order of priority for your house for efficiency improvements
- Expert and independent advice on how to increase the efficiency, comfort and durability of your home
- Recommendations that will get you the best return on your investment
- Information about grants, rebates, incentives
- EnerGuide for Houses efficiency rating label
- 1 year follow-up phone or email consultation with auditor
Post Renovation Audit – 1+ hours onsite $250
After completion of upgrades and renovations to your home we can return to assess the changes made and update the energy efficiency rating of the house. We will do another blower door/air leakage test, record all changes and update the performance model of the house. A new EnerGuide energy efficiency rating label will be issued which can be valuable if you wish to sell the house and prove the change in its efficiency. EnerGuide is a program run by Natural Resources Canada that provides independent, unbiased and official energy efficiency ratings that are recognized across Canada.
Many incentive grant programs including the Canada Greener Homes Loan require that you have an initial and post renovation audit to qualify for grants.
Heat Pump Advisory Service with an EnerGuide Audit – $550
We are able to offer this additional service combined with an EnerGuide audit for this low price because we have received some funding for the pilot program. The cost of the HP service will be higher in the future.
This new service mig
ht be right for you if you’re thinking about putting a heat pump in your home, and if you currently heat with a centrally-ducted furnace/air handler. Our energy advisor has recently completed specialized training that allows us to provide you with important information that can help you and your contractor select the best heat pump system for your home.
- CSA F280 Heat Loss/Heat Gain calculations, which are built on the results of the EnerGuide audit, and assist in determining the amount of heating and cooling your home needs to properly size a heat pump and optimize comfort
- Duct flow measurement using a specialized TrueFlow meter, which will help your contractor understand which heat pump systems will be compatible with your current ductwork.
- Electrical panel capacity assessment, to help you understand whether or not it is likely that an electrical panel upgrade will be required when switching to a heat pump.
What if you have already had an EnerGuide audit done?
If you already had an EnerGuide pre-retrofit audit done by REAL recently, haven’t had the post-retrofit audit done and you are considering installing a heat pump, then we can come back to do the heat pump/duct testing for just $100. If you have had a post-retrofit audit done then we can still do the heat pump/duct analysis but at a higher fee because we won’t have the pilot project funding. Call for more information and a price quote.
