Cut Your Home Carbon

History

Cut Your Home Carbon started out in 2021, when the founders Tim Short and Richard Laszlo started getting an increasing number of requests from friends and family to help them understand heat pumps, solar and other technologies to help them cut their carbon emissions and improve thermal comfort.

Over time, we designed a simple and easy, hassle free process where we help homeowners make the best decisions they can to upgrade their home energy equipment. We take all the doubt and uncertainty out of the home energy upgrade process by sharing our knowledge and passion to help homeowners cut their carbon.

What services do you offer?

We offer free, online, no obligation home energy consultations to help answer homeowner questions about heat pumps and other HVAC and energy equipment. During these consultations we answer any homeowner questions and help them understand the pros and cons of equipment and lay out the options that make sense for them given their priorities and constraints.

If the homeowners are interested, we also make introductions to our network of energy contract professionals, which can include energy advisors that can do an audit and qualify homeowners for rebates. These are experienced contractors that are comfortable working with a range of equipment, and are happy to promote heat pumps to help homeowners cut their home carbon.

We then follow up with homeowners after we connect them with contractors to see how the home site visit went and if they have any further questions to help them understand the contractor quote.

Tell us about your team

Tim and Richard are both experienced energy professionals that have worked in the space for 20+ years each and walk the walk when it comes to low carbon energy equipment.

Tim is a low carbon enthusiast and early technology adopter that has multiple solar systems (microfit, net metering and solar thermal), a ducted heat pump and heat pump water heater, along with an EV.

Richard has ductless heat pumps throughout his home and a tankless water heater that help keep emissions and utility bills low, and is a certified energy manager and energy auditor.

What are your organization’s strengths and focus areas?

Our strengths are our ability to listen carefully to the homeowner priorities and help them understand their options without judgment or pushing them to a particular solution. Our focus is to help homeowners make the best decision they can to upgrade their energy equipment.

We also have a strong network of contractors that we have fostered over the last 4 years, making sure to continually evaluate those we refer to make sure they are acting professionally and installing good equipment the right way.

How do you interact with homeowners?

We typically interact with homeowners via email or through our website consultation form, and then via an online video call that lasts between 20 minutes and 1 hour. We then follow up via email and phone to ensure that the process is moving and that the homeowner is happy with outcomes.

Is your company’s staff certified by NRCan to perform EnerGuide audits?

No.

Has your company’s staff completed the HRAI Residential Heat Loss and Heat Gain Calculations course for sizing heat pumps?

Richard is a certified by the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) as a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) and Certified Energy Advisor (CEA).

Do you have any commercial/financial relationship with contractors or equipment suppliers?

Yes. If a contractor visits a home that we have referred them to and confirms a sale, then we get a referral fee / commission on that sale. What our contractors have told us is that this fee essentially replaces some of the sales commission that they would pay to other staff, so the homeowner doesn't pay more than they otherwise would, it's just that we are getting the fee instead of someone else.