Goldfinch Energy

I cannot recommend Goldfinch Energy highly enough!

From the moment I connected with Sarah, she was friendly, professional, and incredibly attentive to every detail of the process. Even though it has been 3 years since we worked together, Goldfinch Energy continued to provide me with exceptional service by ensuring I had all the receipts I needed to submit my rebate application. Sarah's dedication and commitment to her clients truly set her apart.

She assisted our family in transitioning our home to all-natural gas-free heating with a new furnace and hot water tank, as well as got our air ducts sealed. She supported us throughout the quoting process, liaising with various contractors and overseeing the project until completion.

This service is in additional to the Pre and Post Retrofit Audit that you need to do for the Greener Homes Rebate program, but it's 100% worth the money. I can honestly say that this project would have gotten stalled if I didn't have Goldfinch Energy pulling me along in the most supportive way.

Our experience with Sarah of Goldfinch Energy to do our energy audit has been an absolute pleasure. Sarah is professional and personable. Her engineering background certainly is invaluable in understanding the mechanics of the heating/cooling systems, etc. of our homes and gives assurance to the homeowner.

She was very thorough, talking us through the process and the whole rebate system. Our biggest concern was looking to switch from a gas furnace and water heater, which were both on last legs, to a heat pump and electric water heater. Considering the government rebates, this made environmental and financial sense. All other recommendations re heat source loss were welcome.

I believe that some of the initial cost of the audit will be rebated but it is definitely worth it regardless. This is a 3 hour process with a fan system set-up at the entrance to the house to find sources of heat loss. She checks every window, external door and walls, fireplaces and ductwork and produces a 21 page roadmap with her findings. This is a roadmap of the current issues of heat loss and detailed recommendations on first priorities; why it should be done, recommendations for how it should be done, potential cost and suggestions of products and companies.

A further audit is done months later after recommendations have been done, in order to qualify for the rebate. We improved by 11% just by getting the heat pump, electric water heater and doing some wall insulation in the basement. We can still do more, and more is obviously also more money. So, we will see.

Paper work to submit is done at that time. Wait time for rebates can be months I am told.

We also hired Sarah to support us with contractors, setting up appointments, deciding between options, etc. This is a separate fee.

As someone who is research oriented, surprisingly, I found this whole process absolutely pain free, and didn't need to do the due diligence that is my usual way. I totally trusted Sarah and her opinions, so decision-making was easy for me. Sarah also reduced her fee because I didn't need as much support.

My husband and I would absolutely recommend Sarah and her company.
Heather and Noel
Beaches Toronto

We did an energy audit and “cleantech light roadmap” with Sarah from Goldfinch Energy.

For the first hour and a bit, Sarah went about our place, testing for air leaks, checking windows, having a look at our heating and cooling systems to see where we could be more energy efficient. While she did this, we went for breakfast. When we came back, she shared her findings, recommendations, and the grants that could help with the costs.

This first energy audit portion was so helpful (!!) because the things we thought were issues were not. And some of the fixes we do need are less expensive. Without her diagnostics and knowledge, we would have spent so much money without actually solving the uncomfortable rooms in our home or improving our energy efficiency. (Yay for science and expertise and people like Sarah!)

The second part, the “cleantech lite roadmap”, is a custom plan to make our home less reliant on fossil fuels. While we’d love to do the full greening of our home all at once, that’s just not in the budget for us, so Sarah’s plan is in steps, a harm reduction approach we feel really good about because it’s doable. And when our water heater or HVAC system need replacing, we’ll already know what “cleantech” we want to make our house friendlier to the earth (and also, in time, less expensive).

It was a pleasure having Sarah to our home and she has been so helpful in answering our questions and helping us understand the different options. Highly recommend Goldfinch Energy!

Trish and Sarah were great and I very much recommend the "Hot & Cold" service to any homeowner who wants to have an understanding of how "tight" their house and where the "problem areas" are. Trish and Sarah started off by doing a blower door test and assessed the house for leaks both from the inside and outside. They immediately sealed all the addressable air leaks they found, which I thought was great because it doesn't leave the homeowner with a list of things to do afterwards. I was particularly glad that they found a large air leak going through a forgotten exhaust pipe for a central vacuum that was never installed.

Trish and Sarah have been invaluable in helping us as homeowners determine how we could be proactive about doing our part when it comes to "greening" our home. As we are concerned about climate change but not looking to do a new build or deep retrofit (which is where we've found most players in this space), they were great at meeting us where we were and helping us figure out what we *could* do. So far they have helped us in three areas: (1) producing a cleantech roadmap for our house, outlining projects we could undertake over the coming years and suggested sequencing, which was extremely helpful so we could know where to start and what interdependencies to be aware of, (2) conducting an energy audit so we have more detailed steps to increase our energy efficiency, and (3) assisting us in purchasing air source heat pumps to replace our gas furnace. We have enjoyed working with them because they are very knowledgeable about the space, give honest advice about what is and isn't worth it for our property, and are generally lovely people.

Sarah and Trish helped me answer the question "What can I do to address the challenges of climate change?" Their home energy audit provided me with practical, affordable steps on how to reduce my family's carbon footprint. It won't happen overnight but I now have a roadmap with some great short term and longer term options. It's a great partnership.