Building Retrofit Strategy

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Climate Smart, Future Ready

PROJECT UPDATE:

Thank you to everyone who provided input! A Technical Report was presented to Council on May 1st. The Building Retrofit Strategy will be presented to Council on July 14th.

To help our homes and buildings be climate-ready, the City of Colwood is developing a Building Retrofit Strategy.

We spend most of our time inside buildings – at home, work, school, running errands and spending time with friends and family. Many of these buildings produce more energy and create more greenhouse gas emissions than they need to, which contributes to climate change and increases energy bills. Many of these same buildings are also at risk of the impacts of climate change, including extreme heat, wildfires and wildfire smoke, and flooding.

To achieve Colwood’s climate goals of reducing community-wide emissions, building our climate resilience, and ensuring safe and comfortable homes for everyone, we need to increase the rate of building retrofits across the city. This means improving and updating our homes and buildings to become more energy-efficient and climate-friendly.

What are building retrofits?

Building retrofits are activities that help reduce how much energy a building uses and carbon it produces, while increasing its resilience to the impacts of climate change. This includes updating mechanical systems like space and water heating systems, as well as building envelope improvements (such as adding insulation, upgrading windows and doors, and air sealing).

How are building retrofits beneficial?

Aside from reducing emissions, building retrofits can help reduce energy bills, improve our comfort, safeguard our health, and generally improve access to high quality homes and buildings.

What is the Building Retrofit Strategy?

To support the adoption of building retrofits, the City of Colwood is developing a Building Retrofit Strategy. Its purpose is to increase building retrofits in Colwood to help meet targets in reducing emissions while increasing energy efficiency and improving climate resilience (being able to handle and recover from the effects of climate change). The City hopes to speed up this change in a way that benefits as many Colwood residents as possible.

What types of buildings will the strategy look at? The strategy will explore retrofit opportunities for:

  • Residential (for example, houses, apartments)
  • Commercial (for example, office buildings, retail stores)
  • Industrial (for example, buildings for warehousing, manufacturing)

Climate Smart, Future Ready

PROJECT UPDATE:

Thank you to everyone who provided input! A Technical Report was presented to Council on May 1st. The Building Retrofit Strategy will be presented to Council on July 14th.

To help our homes and buildings be climate-ready, the City of Colwood is developing a Building Retrofit Strategy.

We spend most of our time inside buildings – at home, work, school, running errands and spending time with friends and family. Many of these buildings produce more energy and create more greenhouse gas emissions than they need to, which contributes to climate change and increases energy bills. Many of these same buildings are also at risk of the impacts of climate change, including extreme heat, wildfires and wildfire smoke, and flooding.

To achieve Colwood’s climate goals of reducing community-wide emissions, building our climate resilience, and ensuring safe and comfortable homes for everyone, we need to increase the rate of building retrofits across the city. This means improving and updating our homes and buildings to become more energy-efficient and climate-friendly.

What are building retrofits?

Building retrofits are activities that help reduce how much energy a building uses and carbon it produces, while increasing its resilience to the impacts of climate change. This includes updating mechanical systems like space and water heating systems, as well as building envelope improvements (such as adding insulation, upgrading windows and doors, and air sealing).

How are building retrofits beneficial?

Aside from reducing emissions, building retrofits can help reduce energy bills, improve our comfort, safeguard our health, and generally improve access to high quality homes and buildings.

What is the Building Retrofit Strategy?

To support the adoption of building retrofits, the City of Colwood is developing a Building Retrofit Strategy. Its purpose is to increase building retrofits in Colwood to help meet targets in reducing emissions while increasing energy efficiency and improving climate resilience (being able to handle and recover from the effects of climate change). The City hopes to speed up this change in a way that benefits as many Colwood residents as possible.

What types of buildings will the strategy look at? The strategy will explore retrofit opportunities for:

  • Residential (for example, houses, apartments)
  • Commercial (for example, office buildings, retail stores)
  • Industrial (for example, buildings for warehousing, manufacturing)

Your Retrofit Stories

We want to hear your home and/or building retrofit stories. Share them here! 

Got a story of success to inspire others?

  • What was the main goal of your home retrofit project?
  • What benefits have you observed since completing the retrofit?
  • What advice would you give to others considering a home retrofit?

What challenges do you face with retrofits?

  • What has prevented you from doing a retrofit?
  • What questions do you have to get started?
  • Do you have any specific challenges you need help with for your retrofit?
  • Have you received help or support for your retrofit that has made a difference for you?
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  • Share Small Strata success story on Facebook Share Small Strata success story on Twitter Share Small Strata success story on Linkedin Email Small Strata success story link

    Small Strata success story

    by StephanD, over 1 year ago

    We are a 5 unit strata in the Latoria area of Colwood. Our retrofit involved a lot of open communication and sharing information among neighbors, compromise and eventually deciding on what worked for each member.


    In order to kick off the process all of our unit holders independently applied for the Canada Greener Homes grant so that we had the option to do any retrofits. We all applied and got in just as the program closed. Next we agreed that the strata would pay for the Energuide audit for each unit with the understanding that the information would be useful... Continue reading

    We are a 5 unit strata in the Latoria area of Colwood. Our retrofit involved a lot of open communication and sharing information among neighbors, compromise and eventually deciding on what worked for each member.


    In order to kick off the process all of our unit holders independently applied for the Canada Greener Homes grant so that we had the option to do any retrofits. We all applied and got in just as the program closed. Next we agreed that the strata would pay for the Energuide audit for each unit with the understanding that the information would be useful to our strata’s common area reserve fund study regardless if a unit holder chose to do any retrofits. Next, the President of the Strata looked at several providers of Heat Pumps and Solar Panel companies to do assessments on multiple units to get a ballpark idea of the up front costs and long-term savings. In the end, 2 of the 5 unit holders decided that they wanted heat pumps for their units while the remaining decided it was not the right time for them. Unfortunately we also decided not to do solar at this time, not because it was not compelling - it was! In fact, the payback time for our whole roof installation was about 7-9 years and would have offset more than 50% of our energy needs. What prevented us from all going forward and doing this and taking advantage of loans and grants was the age of our roof. At 13 years old, it is literally in the middle of its life and so we were concerned that putting panels up now rather than waiting for a few more years would incur additional costs of removing and then reinstalling the panels. The lesson here is that ALL new and newish stratas should look seriously at installing solar. I’m looking at you townhomes of Royal Bay!


    With this information, we embarked on creating a Strata By Law and a process by which these two unit holders could get their heat pumps installed in a professional manner that affected the building and its common areas and neighbors in the least impactful manner. This included considerations about the specifications of the units, selection of vendors, drawings and designs, noise, ownership, maintenance requirements and a variety of other considerations to protect the strata and the individual owners. Finally, a thorough review of vendors was undertaken where 7 companies were asked to quote on the work. The entire process did take several months, involved a lot of communication and compromise and was completed in the first week of June in time for the summer season. While this summer was not too hot compared to the last few years, the cooling of the heat pumps was so pleasant in the warmest, most humid days and nights. Also, the initial concerns about noise from some of the members were proven to be a non-issue with the modern heat pumps that were selected. I for one am really looking forward to using the heat pump in the cooler, damp winter months instead of the very expensive and inefficient radiators that we previously used. One final note, we did utilize the knowledge of the CRD’s Home Energy Navigator program and this proved invaluable in the process especially with verifying some of the information about heat pump installation specifications.


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    Getting a Heat Pump

    by Anasai42, over 1 year ago

    Our townhome is relatively new, is very well insulated, has many energy efficient appliances/windows etc., but it did not have air conditioning. When we moved in during the spring a couple of years ago, we had no idea how hot it would get that summer. It was terrible. On top of minor things like not being able to sleep at night because it was too hot, our elderly dog who had been struggling with heart issues passed away despite our best efforts to keep him cool. We had inquired about getting a heatpump in the spring but our strata had... Continue reading

    Our townhome is relatively new, is very well insulated, has many energy efficient appliances/windows etc., but it did not have air conditioning. When we moved in during the spring a couple of years ago, we had no idea how hot it would get that summer. It was terrible. On top of minor things like not being able to sleep at night because it was too hot, our elderly dog who had been struggling with heart issues passed away despite our best efforts to keep him cool. We had inquired about getting a heatpump in the spring but our strata had said we were not allowed to have one. However, after that summer, enough residents got together and convinced/voted to allow heat pumps for those that wanted them. At the strata meeting, we had reps who could help with getting the Greener homes grant to help offset costs, Patriot Electric, and Mercury Refrigeration. Many of us signed up then and there. We had someone come out and do an energy test on home for the grant, and then, soon after, everything was installed. The installation was really easy and we now have a compltely comfortable home to be in year round. We received about 5k back from the grant to help with the costs. Additionally, we opted to continue to do what is right for the environment and our health by getting the gas oven out and replacing it with electric. Our gas bill is now on average just $20 a month. We are definitely happy with the changes we made.

Page last updated: 12 Jun 2025, 01:49 PM