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Comment by Jennifer Rupnow on January 30, 2012 at 12:36pm

You are invited to the following event:
Free Building Performance Contractor Webinar:
Sharpen Your Sales & Marketing Skills

 

Click register to receive the webinar participation link. When: Friday February 17, 2012 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. For more info contact: Noelle Bell Copley (831) 515-1333 -or- nbell@ecoact.org

This training will help you generate more leads for your business and convert more assessments into upgrade jobs. Course topics will include: Home performance market trends and strategies for driving homeowner demand for energy upgrade projects Exploration of the sales cycle, staffing and operational issues and building customer relationships & a referral loop The webinar will be taught by Bill Brittan, of California Green Channel www.cagreenchannel.com and David Siddiqui of Energy Upgrade California. Improve your sales and marketing skills today!   Read More

Comment by Jennifer Rupnow on January 30, 2012 at 12:34pm

PG&E EUC Contractors:  GOT QUESTIONS & Don't know where to turn?

For general questions, EUC enrollment information, tracking status of rebate checks contact EGIA at (866) 970-7348 or enrollment@builditgreenutility.org

For technical questions and specific job-related questions contact BIG at (510) 590-3360 x 606 or (888) 404-7336 or email jobs@builditgreenutility.org or info@builditgreenutility.org

 

Comment by Jennifer Rupnow on November 12, 2011 at 5:54pm

  Homeowner Workshop: Energy Savings and Rebates 11/14/11 7:15PM 2011-11-14 19:15:00   2011-11-14 20:45:00

Fig Garden Library 3071 West Bullard Avenue Fresno ,  CA | View map

Attention Homeowners: Get up to $4,000* in energy-upgrade incentives. Don’t miss the window.    

Attend

San Mateo Homeowner Workshop: Energy Savings and Rebates 11/15/11 7PM 2011-11-15 19:00:00 2011-11-15 20:30:00

San Mateo City Council Chambers 330 West 20th Avenue San Mateo ,  CA | View map

Attention Homeowners: Get up to $8,000* in energy-upgrade incentives. Don’t miss the window.    

Attend

Comment by Jennifer Rupnow on November 12, 2011 at 4:35pm

UPCOMING WEBINARS:

Dense Pack for Insulation & Air Sealing of California Homes (Parts 1 & 2) - Jim Fitzgerald

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Part 1, Monday, Nov. 14, 2011 - 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (Pacific Time)

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Part 2, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011 - 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (Pacific Time)


Intro to the Thousand Home Challenge Webinar

GET MORE INFORMATION HERE

Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011 - 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m. (Pacific Time)

This webinar series is part of the Thousand Home Challenge (THC), an initiative led by Affordable Comfort, Inc. (ACI) to demonstrate deep energy reductions in existing North American homes. For more information, visit www.ThousandHomeChallenge.org.

Description: Dense Pack for Insulation & Air Sealing of Northern California Homes (Parts 1 & 2)

In California's mild climate zones it is possible to achieve deep energy reductions in many homes without a gut rehab or re-skinning the exterior. One element of a high performing building is a continuous air barrier, often installed from the exterior. When this is not an option, air leakage reduction is usually accomplished by 1) sealing accessible penetrations and joints, 2) duct sealing or eliminating ductwork outside of the conditioned space, and 3) dense pack insulation of empty cavities and key framing joints. Infrared inspection with a blower door is used to assess continuity of the thermal boundary. First used in Canada and the US cold climate zones, dense pack is now a priority in hot climate weatherization in the Southeastern states, and in the marine climate of the Pacific Northwest. Recent results show that new high performance blown fiberglass can achieve higher R-value and airflow reduction with lower pressures and less risk than previous methods. In wood frame buildings, heat and air often move through framing spaces in indirect and surprising pathways. Recent laboratory measurements verify that properly dense packed insulation can drop cavity airflow substantially. Dense pack cavity fill insulation is not an air barrier, but it does limit unintended airflow, improve R-value and comfort, and reduce heating and cooling energy use. Part 1 of this webinar will address the skills and techniques needed to start using dense pack for basic wall insulation. Topics will include setup, verifying equipment performance, accessing cavities, and reviewing on-the-job techniques to ensure that the optimum results are being achieved. Part 2 will review examples of applications and address targeting problem areas with strategic dense pack. By attending this two-part webinar, participants will be able to: 1. Identify house types and common features where air leakage reductions from dense pack insulation are likely to be particularly effective 2. Recognize the importance of and be able to describe the on-site/on-the-job process to ensure uniform insulation density 3. Identify two ways to ensure that they have achieved complete coverage, filling all cavities 4. Describe considerations for selecting points of access for closed wall cavities 5. Be able to list features and conditions where dense pack should not be performed 6. Better differentiate between a job well done and partially complete work Registration is FREE. REGISTER NOW FOR PART 1 and PART 2

Presenter Bio: Jim Fitzgerald, Minnesota's Center for Energy and the Environment

Jim Fitzgerald is widely known throughout North America for training weatherization contractors and crews, he started his career as an insulation contractor in Minneapolis, where he developed techniques for dense pack cavity-fill insulation of existing homes. With the help of Gary Nelson (The Energy Conservatory), and using infrared and blower door diagnostics, Jim's comprehensive approach to dense packing consistently yields insulation continuity and significant air leakage reductions. Jim recently helped develop BPI's criteria for Air Leakage Control Installer certifications, and is now a member of BPI's working group to draft standards for thermal insulation used as an air retarder. He also provides field audits for ABAA (Air Barrier Association of America) in new commercial work. In the past he has conducted hundreds of stucco moisture investigations.

Comment by Steve Blase on November 1, 2011 at 10:31am

Classic Residential Inc, Thanks for your response regarding EUC.   As more Solar companies are considering offering whole house solutions with their solar programs, some are trying to determine if EUC will complement their plans.  It’s sad to hear that coming from the utility down south. 

Comment by Classic Residential, Inc. on October 31, 2011 at 12:32pm

Steve,  as a contractor actively performing jobs under the advanced package program EnergyUpgradeCA is difficult to work with.  Property owners receive lower rebates from EUC on completed jobs than anticipated after test-in QAQC review.  Things like conditioned space sqft and appliance kWh/y have changed from test-in to QAQC test-out.  Working with home investor customers and occupied homes the amount of time it takes to go through the program is impractical.  Mostly due to the inability of the contractor to be onsite while QAQC inspections are taking place.  The whole process is unreasonable having gone through the appeal process to dispute QAQC findings and getting a response back that 'contractor' only gets one chance to dispute findings even when new information on customers' property has been submitted to further dispute QAQC findings.

In my experience this program is ineffective at the expense of the contractor and customers.  However is does benefit the Utility company, contracted QAQC inspector, and contracted EUC trainer.

If QAQC findings show contractor deficiencies then QAQC inspectors need to beef up their contract to inspect more EUC jobs.

If QAQC findings show contractor deficiencies then EUC trainers need to beef up their contract to train and re-train contractors doing EUC jobs.

If QAQC findings show contractor deficiencies then the utility company pays less in rebates and leaves customers who will not have work done.  Essentially, leaving them to collect more in rates than if the work was performed.

I do not know what the Public Utilities Commission or California Energy Commission was thinking when they put utility companies in charge of this program.  There is a conflict of interest where the utility is told to give rebates towards activities that lowers their profits.  Just look at what SDGE is trying to do with Solar customers:

Solar users feel burned by new rates

SDG&E’s proposed rate restructuring would cost homeowners who generate power

Owners of rooftop solar installations are bracing for substantially higher monthly electricity bills under a proposal by San Diego’s utility monopoly to overhaul the way it charges customers of all kinds.

San Diego Gas & Electric asked regulators this month for permission to bill customers separately for use of its distribution grid.

The effect on nonsolar customers would be negligible, but unbundling grid use from the cost of electricity would fundamentally change the energy-saving equation for homeowners and businesses with rooftop solar installations.

How much solar customers would pay remains unclear — bills will depend greatly on each ratepayer’s use on the grid.

The proposed “network use charge” is pegged to the ebb and flow of electricity for those who generate excess power by day only to draw from the grid when the sun doesn’t shine.

The utility has framed its request to the California Public Utilities Commission as an issue of equity and fairness. As more solar is adopted, SDG&E says, traditional customers are footing more of the bill for infrastructure and public purpose programs, which subsidize low-income customers and pay for energy efficiency and utility research and development.

“We have to have a rate structure that is sustainable and can accommodate those (solar) customers,” said J.C. Thomas, manager of government and regulatory affairs at SDG&E.

Feeling betrayed

Many of the 14,500 ratepayers who generate their own power feel they’ve been betrayed, as they calculate a longer payoff time on their solar investments.

Patricia and Gil Field, a substitute teacher and a retired Navy contracting officer, installed solar panels in 2009 on their Carmel Valley home, using a combination of inheritance money, a loan from their Quaker meeting group and discounts based on a state rebate and federal tax incentives.

“They’re changing the rules and charging an excessive rate to undercut people who have made environmentally sound commitments,” Patricia Field said of the SDG&E proposal.

Analysts say SDG&E’s application has the attention of California’s two other investor-owned utilities, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric, which could seek to replicate it.

Solar customers remain a tiny fraction of SDG&E’s 1.4 million customers. But that market segment is growing at a frantic pace and represents mostly heavy energy users — once the most profitable of utility customers.

“For the really forward-looking utilities, there is the writing on the wall that they’re really not in the business of being the primary energy source for these people,” said Ted Ko, associate executive director of the nonprofit Clean Coalition in San Francisco. “This proposal by SDG&E is kind of a first attempt at … the compensation model for people who are going to be generating their own energy.”

Net-metering incentive

Perhaps more than any other incentive, one simple equation has helped turn rooftop solar panels into a mainstream reality in San Diego County.

Under “net metering,” utility customers who generate one kilowatt hour of energy can buy one less kilowatt hour from the utility.

The solar payoff also has been sweetened by California’s steeply tiered rate structure, a legacy of the energy crisis a decade ago that saw rolling blackouts amid electricity market manipulation.

To comply with state law, California’s utilities charge heavy users of electricity nearly twice the rate per kilowatt hour to encourage conservation and assure cheap energy to cover the most basic needs.

As more solar is adopted, at a current rate of 200 customers a month, the number of customers paying upper-tier rates has declined, according to SDG&E.

Top-tier customers, the company says, in effect are already paying $34 a year to offset costs for solar customers.

“We don’t think it’s fair that just because you can put solar on your roof that your neighbor should pay for it,” SDG&E spokeswoman Stephanie Donovan said.

Navy vet: ‘It’s a bad trend’

Despite assurances from SDG&E that grid-use charges won’t eliminate the benefits of net metering, clean-energy contractors fear for their future under the proposal, according to Andrew McAllister, director of programs at the ratepayer-funded California Center for Sustainable Energy.

“Decreasing the effectiveness of the incentives embedded in net metering is going to have a chilling effect on the marketplace” for small-scale solar, McAllister said.

Retired Navy pilot Rusty Chang, 55, of Chula Vista had anticipated that lower monthly utility bills would pay for his rooftop solar installation over eight years. Now he knows it could take longer to produce real savings.

“I have no idea how long. That’s the problem,” Chang said. “It would definitely push back the time. If that’s the trend SDG&E wants to follow, it’s a bad trend.”

The rate redesign is already being challenged before regulators.

The San Diego-based Utility Consumers’ Action Network says it amounts to an obscured surcharge against self-generating electricity customers, and would circumvent state law that provides for rate stability and predictability.

Initial hearings on the application are scheduled for December. SDG&E hopes to win approval by mid-2012 and roll out the new billing structure in 2013. New charges would be phased in by 2015.

The utility bill restructuring is part of SDG&E’s larger general rate case proposal to raise gas and electric rates by $1.1 billion over the next four years.

SDG&E says the new network-use charge would be offset by lower electricity rates. A $3 monthly basic service fee also would be implemented.

People with electric vehicles would be eligible for relief from grid-use charges to encourage charging during predawn hours when the demand for electricity is lowest.

Comment by Steve Blase on October 30, 2011 at 5:22pm

I sure would like to hear what contractors that are actively performing jobs under the basic or advance package program think of EnergyUpgradeCA?  Was EUC easy to work with?  Or not? 
Did the property owner receive the rebate from EUC on completed jobs in practical amount of time?  Was the whole process reasonable? 

Comment by Jennifer Rupnow on September 20, 2011 at 12:00pm

CHF CONTRACTOR TRAINING TODAY

For a limited time, eligible homeowners can get a 0-3% fixed interest rate loan to make energy efficiency home improvements through the CHF Residential Energy Retrofit Program. Additional grants up to $1,950 per home are also available. No minimum credit score; no appraisal on the home*. There's never been a better and more affordable time to energy upgrade.

Note: We encourage only Class B Contractors that already have a BPI certified analyst on staff to attend, as this is a requirement to be a CHF Approved Contractor.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011— 5:00-8:00 PM

• 

Comment by Jennifer Rupnow on September 20, 2011 at 11:53am

BUILD IT GREEN PARTICIPATION WORKSHOP TODAY: 

Find Out How Energy Upgrade California Can Help You Build Your Business!

---

Tuesday, September 20, 2011 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/588072481

Comment by Sean Feurtado on September 13, 2011 at 11:56am

Energy Pro 5 Webinar tomorrow.  Courtesy of Build It Green.  

http://www.builditgreen.org/en/cev/414

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