Green retrofits in Ottawa, toward a net zero home or building

If you have plans to go net zero in the next few years, let us help you. Our team works with you to understand your energy needs, all while helping you conserve, utilize and generate energy to significantly reduce or completely eliminate your emissions.

It is a planned set of upgrades to an existing building that cuts its energy use and emissions, ideally to net zero. The City of Ottawa's Energy Evolution strategy, one of eight priorities in its Climate Change Master Plan, targets zero emissions Ottawa-wide by 2050 (City of Ottawa, read 2026-10-01).

Appendix F of that strategy sets the minimum the city needs from homes: 27% of dwellings retrofitted by 2030 and 98% of buildings by 2040, with heating savings averaging 70% and conservation coming before fuel switching (Energy Evolution project overviews, September 2020, read 2026-10-01).

These come from our about page, and they set the order of a retrofit plan.

Greatly reducing your carbon emissions is something that takes a lot of careful planning and consideration. To accomplish this, we must implement an array of changes to your home or building. Here's how we help you achieve net zero.

An EnerGuide evaluation is Natural Resources Canada's home energy rating. A registered energy advisor from an NRCan-registered service organization models the house and rates it in gigajoules per year. Lower is better, and NRCan tells owners to aim for zero. The report lists recommended upgrades. Only registered organizations and advisors can book and bill one, and they do not sell door to door (Natural Resources Canada, read 2026-10-01).

NRCan puts the average cost of the pre- and post-retrofit pair at $600 to $1,000 (NRCan service organization page, read 2026-10-01). Both main Ottawa routes to retrofit money start with it. The Better Homes Ottawa Loan requires one, and the Home Renovation Savings assessment route pays $600 toward the two once two upgrades are done, with the follow-up booked by 2026-11-30 under its November 2025 terms (Enbridge Gas and IESO, read 2026-10-01).

Solar and batteries do not need an evaluation for their own Ontario rebate. The report's load figures still make a good basis for sizing the array.

The Canadian Home Builders' Association runs the Net Zero Home Labelling Program, with a renovation label beside the new-home one. Its own count, updated 2026-09-03, shows how rare the renovated kind still is: 45 labelled renovations against 3,618 labelled houses (CHBA, read 2026-10-01).

We design, build and install the generation, storage, electrical and EV parts: rooftop solar, ground mounts and carports, lithium battery storage, the service upgrades they need, and EV charging. We plan from the building's whole energy plan, so the array is sized to the load left after the envelope and heating work.

We do not sell insulation, windows or heat pumps as standalone services. Those trades follow the energy advisor's report. Our about page describes what we build at the end of that chain: a renewable source with battery storage, tied into the building's heating and cooling and monitored by a central energy management system.

The federal retrofit news of 2026-06-29 is the Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program: free heat pumps, insulation and air sealing for low- to median-income homeowners and tenants. It runs in Manitoba, Quebec, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Ontario is not on Natural Resources Canada's list, and the Greener Homes Grant and Loan are closed (Natural Resources Canada, read 2026-10-01). Ontario's income-qualified route is Save on Energy's Energy Affordability Program, delivered in K postal codes by EnviroCentre.

Above those income limits, Ottawa owners have the Better Homes Ottawa Loan, up to the lesser of $125,000 or 10% of assessed value at 4.33% fixed over 20 years, repaid on the property tax bill and tied to the property (City of Ottawa, read 2026-10-01), and Home Renovation Savings. The program-by-program detail is on our energy incentives page.

Commercial, institutional and large multi-unit buildings fall under the City's Better Buildings Ottawa Strategy, approved by Council in October 2021, and Council has directed the development of energy disclosure and performance by-laws for them (City of Ottawa, read 2026-10-01).