Guía de Evaluación del Módulo Formación empresarial

The fourth determinant of adoption, change agents programs, will be explored in this section; namely, the role of the government grant(s) in the adoption of GSHP systems. As identified in the previous section, the government grant(s) were a significant driver for adoption among households in the study sample. A total of 13 household decision-making units adopted a GSHP system in the presence of a financial incentive. Seven households received a federal grant through Natural Resources Canada's ecoENERGY retrofit program (a federal government program), valued at $4,375, and a matching provincial grant from the Ontario Government, for a total of $8,750. Both of these grants were available together to homeowners for retrofitting their house with a GSHP system from April 2007 to March 31, 2010, when the Ontario Government eliminated their matching grant. Five households received just the federal grant through the ecoENERGY retrofit program, valued at $4,375, from April 2010 until the program closed on March 31, 2012. The final household that received a grant, installed their system in July 2006 and received $1,500 from a source that they could not remember. The four household decision- making units in the study sample that did not receive a government grant, installed their system after March 31, 2012.

Only five of the 13 household decision-making units that received the government grant(s) reported that they would still have purchased a GSHP system without the presence of a financial incentive. Three of these households received just the federal grant, while one

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received $1,500 from a source that could not be recalled. Household 3, who received the federal grant, claimed that they would still have purchased their GSHP system without the grant, as "...getting $4,375 back on a $25,000 investment was nice, but it was not enough to make or break our decision... we would still have made the purchase as it would result in cost savings in the long-term." Household 13, who received both the federal and matching provincial grant, had also recently inherited money from a family friend, so the government grants were of less

significance to them, as they wanted to do something positive with the money. When asked if they would still have purchased a GSHP system without the presence of the government grant(s), they stated "...yes, we would have. It would have made the payback period a little longer, but it still made so much sense for us. Plus, we just received a bunch of money and wanted to invest it into something positive."

The remaining eight household decision-making units that received the government grant(s) stated that they would not have purchased a GSHP system without the presence of a financial incentive. Of this eight, seven households received both the federal and matching provincial grants, while one household received just the federal grant. Household 17, who received both grants, claimed that "The grants were highly influential. I don't think without the grants that I would have had the courage to spend the full capital outlay on a heating and cooling system... I would have probably chosen the short-term solution, being a new high efficiency electric furnace... the grants were a huge catalyst." Moreover, household 6, who received just the federal grant, claimed that they would not have purchased a GSHP system without the financial incentive. When asked if they would have purchased a GSHP system without the presence of the government grant, household 6 claimed "No, and I can pretty safely say that... it would have increased the payback period by four or five years, and we would have just kept with the propane system as it was still running fine."

Household decision-making units were also asked if they thought that the government should always have some form of a financial incentive available to homeowners for installing a GSHP system. Fifteen household decision making-units responded with a "yes," while the remaining two stated that they were "unsure." A range of different responses was collected, including different suggestions and viewpoints regarding what form of a financial incentive the

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government should have available. The following examples will help elucidate the different perspectives:

 Household 6 asserted that they "...think a smart government should put in policy to help move away from fossil fuel dependency, and a rebate program is a good way to do this because people feel good about getting money back for doing something that is

environmentally friendly."

 Household 4 stated that "...the government could make an incentive at the other end, such as reducing the upfront cost of the actual system, by making the equipment more

affordable."

 Household 15 stated that they "...would really like to see the government introduce tax breaks for people who install a geothermal system."

 Household 9 felt that before reintroducing some form of a financial incentive available to homeowners for installing a GSHP system, "...the government should massage the numbers and find out how much money they should devote to this type of program, based on an environmental cost-benefit analysis... maybe a grant of $1,000 would be a better use of taxpayers' dollars."

The above range of responses illustrates the diversity of opinions and viewpoints regarding the form of a financial incentive that the government should have available for installing GSHP systems.