This national public review runs from August 12, 2025 to October 3, 2025.
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) invites home labelling partners and stakeholders to participate in the public review of proposed voluntary Guidelines for Virtual Energy Assessments and Virtual Home Labelling. These Guidelines are intended to align virtual home labelling initiatives within Canada’s broader approach to home labelling, and to encourage consistent labelling outcomes for households.
The Guidelines offer recommendations for five aspects of virtual home labelling programming:
- A set of common assumptions, including climate data, household occupancy and operating conditions for asset-based assessments that increase consistency and comparability between labels.
- A set of minimum inputs that should be used when conducting assessments, and outputs that should be reported alongside that label.
- A modelling test suite and testing procedures that should be completed to demonstrate that vendors produce consistent results.
- A consistent method for computing energy consumption, utility cost and emissions estimates.
- A common format for providing information on home energy efficiency, operating costs and emissions, as part of virtual home labels.
The content of the Guidelines was developed with input from eleven provincial and municipal governments, and nine virtual home labelling companies. NRCan is publishing the Guidelines to support home labelling partners as they develop and deploy virtual home labelling initiatives across Canada.
This public review will close at 11:59 pm PST on October 3, 2025, after which comments will no longer be accepted. The result of this public review will be a collection of comments on the draft Guidelines. NRCan staff will review each submission to assess its merit and relevance. NRCan staff will also consult with labelling partners to determine whether the draft Guidelines should be adapted or revised based on the submissions received during this public review period.
Steps for submitting comments on the draft Guidelines
Step 1: Read the recommendations for effective comments.
Step 2: Review the draft Guidelines for Virtual Energy Assessments and Virtual Home Labelling below.
Step 3: Send public review comments by email to homelabelling-etiquetageresidentiel@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca, with the subject VHL Guidelines: Comments.
Disclaimer
You will be identified by name, region and affiliation (if provided) when you submit a comment. All submissions are recorded to support home labelling initiatives. NRCan staff may share this information with partners and stakeholders to support further development of the Guidelines.
The draft guidelines can be downloaded at the following link:
Proposed Guidelines for Virtual Energy Assessments and Virtual Home Labelling (PDF – 1 MB)
Recommendations for providing effective comments
- NRCan seeks comments on the feasibility, relevance, and consequences associated with the proposed Guidelines. Public review participants are encouraged to point out errors and omissions in the proposed Guidelines. NRCan welcomes all views on the proposed Guidelines, including those that support and those that oppose its recommendations.
- Comments should directly relate to the Guideline’s recommendations for virtual energy assessments and virtual home labelling contained in the Guidelines. Comments related to broader home labelling activities (including the EnerGuide rating system and HOT2000) will not be considered at this time.
- Comments that do not support the proposed Guidelines (or recommendations forming part of the proposed Guidelines) should provide rationale. This information will help NRCan staff assess the relevance of a comment.
- Comments may include supporting information. Participants may attach documents or provide links to relevant material by email.
- By submitting a public review comment, participants consent to NRCan storing that information (including name, region and affiliation) in federal records. NRCan may also share that information with home labelling stakeholders for the purposes of assessing a comment’s relevance and merit.