Lightspark compares your home to every other single-family dwelling in your municipality. This way, you can see how your property stacks up.
Using artificial intelligence and property-level data, we compare your home to every other single-family dwelling in your municipality. This calculation includes several metrics. For instance, if you have a newer home, it may have thicker windows with better insulation compared to older properties nearby. Additionally, the cost of heating your home is likely to be lower than comparable dwellings if your home is smaller. Perhaps your home has energy-efficient fixtures like LEDs or a modern heat hump, while your neighbors haven’t invested in efficiency.
Lightspark collects exhaustive data about each dwelling and the myriad factors that impact its Lightspark Score. These factors will play a direct role in how much energy you use to heat, cool, and power your home.
We estimate fuel costs for your dwelling based on electricity usage, and the amount of fuel you use to heat your home, and the water you use for showers, doing the dishes, etc. In Canada, it’s common for homes to generate heat using natural gas and electricity—generated from anything from hydroelectricity to oil and gas, to nuclear power. However, there are a few homes in the country that are heated by furnace oil, propane, and wood. Each of these is, generally, more expensive than electricity or natural gas. All of these factors will impact how we calculate your dwelling’s fuel cost.
Our estimates also include all applicable fees and taxes charged by electricity and fuel providers in your area. The final cost generated represents how much the homeowner can expect to pay per month, calculated as an average over a year. As such, there may be some variation from one month to the next. For example: Most homeowners heat their homes more during the winter and, as such, pay more during the colder months than during the summer.
Lightspark’s Home Comparison functionality also lets you see the features that other, similar houses in your region have that improve their overall Lightspark score. This feature allows you to better understand current trends in energy efficiency in your municipality and gives you some ideas about what steps you could take to make your dwelling consume less energy and emit less carbon.
