ecoENERGY Retrofit program closes early, LiveSmart BC still open.

The LiveSmart BC Efficiency Incentive program will remain open to new participants until March 31, 2013. The federal ecoENERGY Retrofit - Homes program is closed to new registrations as of January 28th, having reached its goal of 250,000 registered homeowners. This will give all federally registered homeowners the opportunity to apply for and receive a federal grant for their eligible retrofit upgrades. Participants that have a registration number but have not yet had an energy assessment are still able to book an energy assessment.

British Columbians who have not already accessed incentives from either the LiveSmart BC Efficiency Incentive program or the federal ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes program are still eligible to access the existing LiveSmart BC incentives. The first step to access LiveSmart BC incentives is to book a home energy efficiency evaluation by a certified energy advisor. No federal registration number is required to book an energy efficiency evaluation for homeowners who are only accessing the LiveSmart BC incentives.

To help ensure that federal ecoENERGY program participants have the opportunity to complete their required post-retrofit evaluation and apply for a grant, the deadline to complete a post-retrofit evaluation has been extended to June 30, 2012. To be eligible for these federal ecoENERGY incentives, all upgrades must still be completed by March 31, 2012. Upgrades completed after March 31, 2012 remain eligible for LiveSmart BC incentives.

LiveSmart BC program participants must have their follow-up assessment within 18 months of their pre-retrofit assessment or before March 31, 2013, whichever comes first. Program participants can only have one follow-up evaluation. If a homeowner chooses to have a follow-up evaluation before June 30, 2012 to be eligible for the federal ecoENERGY incentives, that evaluation will be also be for the LiveSmart BC program. Participants will not be able to do further work later and access additional incentives from the LiveSmart BC program.