What's New in Vancouver

The rainy day blues isn’t getting Harald Yurk down – even with winter still in our midst he’s been taking advantage of the intermittent sun with his new solar hot water system. Back in September, when it was first installed, his natural gas bill was a whopping $4.57! "The system was producing most of the hot water we used," says Yurk. "It was a really great!"

Yurk, who is originally from Germany, chose to install a system based on two reasons: to reduce his carbon footprint and to take advantage of the incentives. As he lives in the city of Vancouver he also received the city’s $3000 incentive, for which the deadline to install has now been lifted.

The fall season is shaping up to be a shining success for solar hot water in BC. The Solar Community of Vancouver has increased their incentive offer to homeowners in the city with $4300 now available for solar hot water installations in both new and existing homes. This is up from $3500 for only new homes that has been available since the beginning of the year thanks to an increased commitment from Terasen Gas.

In order to take advantage of this substantial savings opportunity all you need is a SolarBC Registered Installer to carry out the work. These incentives are available to the first 30 applicants and systems must be installed by December 31, 2010. So if you’ve been thinking about installing a solar hot water system on your home there is no better time to do it than right now (please note, only homes with gas heated hot water are eligible).

There’s a solar revolution happening in BC as local governments around the province are passing resolutions to sign on to the new Solar Hot Water Regulation bylaw.

The regulation requires all new single family homes (where applicable) to be built to accommodate future installation of a solar hot water system for water heating. Communities signed on so far are:

Gregor Robertson is no stranger to sustainable living. As mayor of Vancouver he is working hard to establish the city internationally as the Green Capital but has been a green thinker for a long time, as the original co-founder of the organic juice company Happy Planet. So when it came to the decision to install solar hot water on his home in 2006 it was, as he puts it, just another "logical investment."