Free support for home energy upgrades is coming to Whistler and Squamish as both communities launch Retrofit Assist, a free service that guides homeowners to transition to an electric home heating system, such as a heat pump.
The Retrofit Assist service has been specifically designed to make it easy for homeowners to replace their oil and gas home furnace with an electric heat pump.
The Retrofit Assist service will guide homeowners in making a plan, connecting to an Energy Advisor and contractors while explaining the details of financing, rebates and incentives. The first phase of the program will focus on home heating and cooling as it is one of the most impactful ways to address pollution from buildings. Beyond meeting local climate goals, heat pumps offer homeowners other benefits as they act like air conditioners in the hot summer months.
They are the most energy-efficient heating and cooling systems currently available, and have filtration to ensure healthy indoor air.
“The District of Squamish is proud to participate alongside the Resort Municipality of Whistler and Community Energy Association to assist and support homeowners in the Retrofit Assist Program. Most people want to do their part to lower their carbon footprint, but it can be a challenging process. We want to make it as easy as possible for homeowners to make the switch to low-emission energy systems,” said Mayor Karen Elliott.
“We have made big commitments to bold climate action by 2030 and home retrofits are a big part of our Community Climate Action Plan. We hope to see this pilot program find a permanent place in our community and grow over time to include more measures to help lower individual carbon-footprints.”
Whistler and Squamish are launching this program as part of a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and eliminate inefficient, carbon-intensive heating in the communities, the district said in a press release.
The program was made possible with funding from the Real Estate Foundation of BC, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and BC Hydro and is facilitated by the Community Energy Association.
