The City of Kelowna has followed the footsteps of other BC Municipalities and adopted the Home Energy Navigator Program to meet future climate targets and help locals retrofit their homes.
The program launched locally in April and provides support to homeowners looking to retrofit their homes to “increase comfort, reduce noise, reduce utility bills, or just generally make your home better,” reads the program’s website.
“If we’re going to meet some of our climate targets, we need to reduce energy and emissions from the building sector,” said Chris Ray, City of Kelowna climate action and environment manager.
“And looking ahead to some of our climate targets, the majority of those emissions are going to come from buildings that are already built, existing buildings and particularly older ones.”
From the City’s perspective, the Home Energy Navigator Program is a way to support homeowners in the residential sector by reducing some of the complexities that come with retrofitting homes.
After filling out a form, homeowners are contacted to get a sense of the situation and given a personal consultation.
“I would encourage people, even if it’s not really on their radar, to enter the program, give our energy expert a call and worst case, it’s not for you and there’s no commitment beyond that,” added Ray.
If interested, the program would be along the entire way of the project – helping individuals plan and connect with contractors and access different rebates.
“Everyone’s gonna have a different journey,” explained Ray.
The pilot program hopes to work with 50 different homes by the end of the year and more information can be found online at this link.
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