HRSP (with assessment)
ActiveGet $600 back on your energy assessments — then up to $7,700 for insulation
Audit required
Regional guide · updated August 23, 2026
The Ottawa home energy guide
Ottawa winters are the coldest of any large Ontario city, which changes the math: every envelope upgrade pays back faster here, and undersized or oversized heat pumps get found out in the first cold snap.
The housing stock, read like an auditor
Ottawa grew fastest in the 1960s–80s, so the dominant profile is the suburban split and two-storey with R-8 to R-12 walls, R-20 attics, and original ductwork — plus older stock in Centretown, the Glebe, and Vanier, and rural properties on oil or propane in the surrounding townships. Electric baseboard is common in 1970s builds, making Ottawa prime heat-pump conversion territory — with the caveat that units must be sized for genuine -25°C performance, not brochure numbers.
What audits find in Ottawa
- Attics at half the insulation the climate calls for — the region's most reliable payback
- Rim-joist leakage that makes split-level lower floors uncomfortable all winter
- Electric baseboard homes paying 40–60% more for heat than a cold-climate heat pump would
- Oil-heated rural homes with the fastest fuel-switch paybacks in the province
- Ice damming on low-slope additions from warm-air bypasses
Tests to ask for by name
- Blower door test — the leakage number that reorders your plan
- Infrared scan — finds the empty walls without opening them
- CSA F280 heat-loss calculation — before any heat pump quote
- Radon test — Health Canada recommends it for every home
Run the planner for the full test list matched to your house — it carries into your audit request automatically.
The rebate angle
Home Renovation Savings applies across Ottawa: the assessment path pays $600 toward your audits and up to $7,700 for insulation, and the no-assessment stream covers cold-climate heat pumps up to $12,000. For baseboard-heated homes, pairing the audit's CSA F280 heat-loss calculation with the heat pump rebate is the single highest-value move in the city.
HRSP (no assessment)
ActiveHeat pump and single-upgrade rebates without an assessment
No audit required
CMHC Eco Improvement
Active25% back on your CMHC mortgage insurance premium after energy renovations
No audit required
Registered advisors serving Ottawa
All 3 are NRCan-licensed service organizations — with direct links to their Google, HomeStars, and BBB reviews. Full directory view →
REAL (Rideau Environmental Action League)
Non-profitNRCan-licensed service organization
Lanark and Leeds–Grenville counties, between Ottawa and Kingston
The Energuy
CompanyNRCan-registered service organization
Province-wide Ontario coverage; also active in BC, AB, SK, MB and several US states
AmeriSpec Canada
FranchiseNRCan-licensed for EnerGuide since 2001
National home-inspection franchise; EnerGuide services vary by local franchise
Common Ottawa problems, diagnosed
Drafts and cold rooms →Heating bills feel too high →Ice dams and icicles →Thinking about a heat pump →
Local questions
Do heat pumps actually work in Ottawa winters?
Modern cold-climate units are rated to -25°C and beyond and heat Ottawa homes through almost every hour of the year — the failures you hear about are sizing failures. That's what the room-by-room heat-loss calculation prevents; get it before any quote.
What should rural Ottawa-area homeowners do first?
If you heat with oil or propane, the audit plus a heat-pump conversion usually beats every other investment — and the assessment documents the before/after that resale buyers increasingly ask for.
Plan it properly in Ottawa
Tell us about your home and we'll match you with a registered service organization — with the right tests flagged for your situation.
Email us what you’re planning and your postal code — we’ll reply with registered service organizations for your area and which rebates apply.
Email hello@audityourhome.com