Condo energy audit or monthly energy review: what an Ontario condo board should ask for

A condominium corporation is a building owner with an unusual governance structure: a volunteer board, a management company under contract, and several hundred owners who see the utility line in the budget every year. Energy decisions are made in board meetings, on the basis of whatever the manager or a consultant brings to the table.

Two things get brought to the table. One is an energy audit, a one-time study with a list of recommended measures. The other is an ongoing monthly review of the building's utility data. Boards are often offered the first and rarely the second, and they are not the same thing. This article explains the difference, what each costs in board attention, and when each is the right ask.

What a condo board is responsible for

Under Ontario's Condominium Act, 1998, every corporation must maintain a reserve fund. The Condominium Authority of Ontario describes it as an account that condominium corporations maintain solely for major repairs and replacements of common elements and assets, and explains that corporations must conduct periodic reserve fund studies, with updated studies on an alternating basis at least every three years, and that the board must review the study within 120 days of receiving it and propose a plan for future funding.

Utility costs, by contrast, are an operating expense: the common-element electricity, gas and water bills that every owner pays for through the common expense fees. In a bulk-metered building that includes every suite's consumption. The board has a fiduciary interest in both: the reserve fund pays for the boiler or the chiller when it is replaced, and the operating budget pays for the energy it uses every month until then.

Larger buildings have a reporting duty as well. In Toronto, the City's Energy and Water Reporting by-law applies to buildings of 50,000 square feet and larger, with buildings of 10,000 to 49,999 square feet phased in for 2027; the provincial program is described in Ontario's guide to energy and water reporting. Both use ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and both require twelve months of complete consumption data per year. The EWRB reporting article covers the details.

What an energy audit gives a board

An audit is a study. An engineer or auditor visits, reviews a year or two of bills, inspects the mechanical systems, lighting and envelope, and produces a report with recommended measures, each with an estimated cost and estimated savings. It is the right tool when the board is deciding what to do: which capital measures to fund, in what order, and whether the reserve fund study's replacement schedule should be brought forward for equipment that is both old and inefficient.

Its limits are the ones described in energy audit vs ongoing energy monitoring: the savings are estimates, the report is a snapshot, and nothing in it tells the board six months later whether the measures it funded are delivering, or whether something else has started to go wrong.

What a monthly energy review gives a board

A review is a process. Each month the building's bills and, where the utility offers it, meter data are captured, validated and turned into a short report: what was used, what it cost, how that compares with last year after weather is accounted for, whether any bill or meter looks wrong, and what, if anything, the manager or the superintendent should look at. The monthly energy review report article walks through the sections.

For a board this changes the conversation in three ways:

• The utility line in the budget has a story. A variance is explained as weather, price or consumption, with the evidence attached, rather than debated.
• Problems are found in weeks, not at year end. A water leak, a boiler running through a warm month, a duplicate bill or an estimated read is flagged the month it happens.
• Capital decisions have a baseline. When the board does fund a measure from the audit, the review measures the result against a weather-adjusted baseline, so the next reserve fund discussion has verified numbers.

It also covers the reporting duty. Because the monthly data is validated and assigned to reporting months, the annual Portfolio Manager filing is an export, and the board receives an annual benchmark report it can circulate to owners.

Which one to ask for, and when

1. No data, no history. Start with the review. Twelve months of validated data is the foundation for everything else, including a better audit.
2. An audit is being proposed. Ask that the auditor use the validated data from the review as the baseline, so the estimated savings can be verified later.
3. Measures have been funded. The review's measurement and verification section shows whether they delivered. See weather normalization, CUSUM and RETScreen M&V.
4. A building over 50,000 square feet in Toronto, or covered by the provincial program. The review keeps the annual filing current all year.
5. Owners are asking about costs. The annual benchmark report gives the board a document to share.

What it asks of the board and the manager

Very little, which is the point. The manager provides access to the utility accounts, either by forwarding bill PDFs or by authorizing Green Button Connect My Data where the utility offers it; the energy data management article explains both routes. The board receives the report each month and the benchmark report each year. There is no software for the board to learn and no engineer to hire. The service is described on the about page, and the subscription is priced per meter, which for a bulk-metered condominium usually means a handful of meters.

FAQ

Does the review replace the reserve fund study?

No. The reserve fund study is a statutory requirement about the repair and replacement of common elements. The review is about the operating cost of running them. The two inform each other: the review's data helps the study's engineer see which equipment is underperforming.

Our building is suite-metered. Is there anything to review?

Yes. The corporation still pays for common-area lighting, corridor ventilation, elevators, heating and cooling plant, domestic hot water, and the garage. Those meters are typically the larger share of a high-rise building's energy and are entirely within the board's control.

Can the review be presented to owners?

The annual benchmark report is written for that purpose. It shows the building's intensities against its own history and the portfolio or peer averages, in plain language, with the sources listed. Request a review and we will show an example.