Utilities Offer Programs That Can Benefit Your Customers
Not only that — these utility-sponsored energy-efficiency programs can lower your energy bills, too
Posted on Oct 4 2011 by Michael Strong, LEED Associate, CGP
Seal your duct leaks! In many areas of the U.S., local utilities provide duct-sealing services at a subsidized rate. If you're lucky, the service may even be free.
In Texas, as in many other states, local electric utilities offer homeowners a variety of free services to help lower energy bills.
According to a website maintained by the Free Lighting Corporation, “The State of Texas has developed programs to assist qualified electric customers of investor-owned utilities in installing energy-saving improvements to help reduce consumption of energy. All electric or gas homes, low income/senior citizens, homeowners, rentals, and small businesses qualify. ... Texas has mandated the electric delivery companies provide relief. This service not only provides you with reduced utility expenses but also helps reduce carbon emissions into the environment.
"Qualified Homes May Receive at subsidized or NO COST:
- Weatherization measures to reduce the loss of cold/heated air
- Seal air leaks in A/C Ducts
- Compact Fluorescent Lights
- Showerheads, and
- Insulation.”
Having watched friends, customers, and family members get additional insulation, free CFLs, weatherstripping around their doors, sealing work at return-air chases, and sealing work on supply duct systems — all at no cost — I thought it was time to schedule an appointment for my home.
In all fairness, my delay was not related to procrastination, but rather to the word “qualified” in the program requirements. You see, if your home is undergoing remodeling, it does not qualify — and since I am a remodeler, my house has been in state of remodeling since I bought it seven years ago.
With the remodeling complete, I recently decided that it was test time for me!
Free duct sealing work and free CFLs
I gave them a call, and they said that the next time they were in my area they would schedule a time to come out to my home. It could be days or months, I was told.
But less than two weeks later, two seemingly qualified technicians showed up at my door, ready to go. Alas, I was not home at the time. But my wife let them in, and they spent the next couple of hours performing a blower-door testTest used to determine a home’s airtightness: a powerful fan is mounted in an exterior door opening and used to pressurize or depressurize the house. By measuring the force needed to maintain a certain pressure difference, a measure of the home’s airtightness can be determined. Operating the blower door also exaggerates air leakage and permits a weatherization contractor to find and seal those leakage areas. and duct blasterCalibrated air-flow measurement system developed to test the airtightness of forced-air duct systems. All outlets for the duct system, except for the one attached to the duct blaster, are sealed off and the system is either pressurized or depressurized; the work needed by the fan to maintain a given pressure difference provides a measure of duct leakage. test — both at no charge.
Once finished, they sealed my ducts and got my duct leakage down to 126 cfm (down from the pre-retrofit rate of 360 cfm). In addition, I received 10 free CFLs! Not bad, considering it was free. But I was still disappointed not to get my return-air chase sealed.
Helping your customers is good PR
So what’s the point of sharing this story with you?
First, to remind you to share information on programs like this with your clients and potential clients, because when you share information on good opportunities that will benefit them, with no direct benefit to you, you immediately have credibility in their eyes. It's just like good PR — you can’t beat that! And the money they save will free up dollars they can spend on remodeling services you offer.
Secondly, I would like to propose that despite the current fashion against government mandates, that some of them, however imperfect, work pretty well. After all, these are investor-owned utilities that are subsidizing these costs — and to the best of my knowledge, none of them have seen their share prices decline as a result of this government-imposed mandate.
So, as your business advisor / blogger, I hope you will redouble your efforts to see what government programs can help you, your family, your clients, and your business save money.
Image Credits:
- Fine Homebuilding
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1.
Tue, 10/04/2011 - 10:46
Tue, 10/04/2011 - 10:46
Great reminder
by Buildingwell .org
Utility rebates and programs are generally an excellent win-win for both the building owner and the utility. Not only does the building owner reduce their utility bills and wasted energy, but the utilities can benefit by deferred need for increased energy production. It's important though to determine what programs exist within your state. While some states have mandated such programs, others may not have any such program. In such cases, see what may be available at the federal level. It should certainly pay off.
2.
Wed, 10/05/2011 - 16:28
Wed, 10/05/2011 - 16:28
Where to find state rebates
by Michael Strong, LEED Associate, CGP
And as you may know Buildingwell, www.dsireusa.org is a great resource for a state by state listing of said programs. Established in 1995 and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, DSIRE is an ongoing project of the N.C. Solar Center and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council. It is regularly updated and has a very friendly interface.
3.
Wed, 10/05/2011 - 16:33
Wed, 10/05/2011 - 16:33
State Appliance Rebate Programs
by Michael Strong, LEED Associate, CGP
Oh and don't forget for specific appliance rebate programs on a state by state by state level which still have money... http://www.energysavers.gov/financial/70022.html
4.
Wed, 10/05/2011 - 18:59
Wed, 10/05/2011 - 18:59
The Other Side of the Coin
by Arjay West CEO Energy Savers America
With most things in life there are usually multiple viewpoints. The preceding comments represent one. As a home performance contractor I can say that it is a little disconcerting to hear that States and/or Utilities are providing our bread and butter services to potential customers free of charge. Sure, with 130 million existing homes in the US, there is enough work to go around, and it can be argued that the folks who take advantage of those services would not pay for them anyway. Further, it could be said that these efforts might actually increase business in the long run by raising consumer awareness of the benefits of energy audits and efficiency improvements, but I would ask how the traditional remodeling contractors would feel if states began to give away kitchen remodels or finished basements? But of course that is an absurd question, since there is no societal benefit to be gained from doing so, but it serves put another point of view in context.
I would argue that states and utilities would be better served by giving away these services only to the truly needy, while spending the balance of their energies and resources on making energy efficient loans programs such as PACE available to their residents. In so doing, they would empower the free market to do the job only it can do; foster a truly 'sustainable' market for these services, as opposed to one that is entirely dependent on giveaways.
5.
Fri, 10/07/2011 - 08:58
Fri, 10/07/2011 - 08:58
Free money huh? Common sense check anyone?
by Greg Hecker
No rebate/credit/incentive program is good for anybody! What kind of fool you would have to be to think it is win/win! Nothing is free people, here in Austin if you want a 1000$ rebate, it takes over 1100$ from it's customers to give it to you. This cost is applied to your KWH rate so while you may save 500KWH/year using the program, you will pay so much more per KWH that even though you use 500kwh less, your overall annual bill actually GOES UP! Who is this benefitting? The company that offered you the rebate made over 100$ for offering the rebate, there you go. Could you have just hired your own contractor of choice and been better off than using a rebate/credit/incentive program? HELL YES! My grandpa talks of days men were ashamed to go to the welfare line, now you can have a half million dollar home and have your hands out for public money and nobody thinks any less of ya? What are you idiots letting this country become? If you think anything is free you are an idiot, I don't want to be rude, but people really make it sound like this money for rebates comes from Austin Energy money trees behind their building! THE REBATE PROGRAMS ARE SCAMS DESIGNED TO INCREASE YOUR COST OF KWH WHILE MOST OF THE MONEY GOES TO WEALTHY HOMEOWNERS THAT CAN AFFORD THOUSANDS IN HOME UPGRADES....HELL THEY CAN AFFORD HOMES TO UPGRADE IN THE FIRST PLACE. While people here in Austin scraping by in an apartment helps pay your home energy welfare check. Great programs, great ideas.......NOT!
6.
Sat, 10/08/2011 - 08:30
Sat, 10/08/2011 - 08:30
Edited Sat, 10/08/2011 - 08:33.
This should be enough to keep Michael Strong from writing again!
by Greg Hecker
"After all, these are investor-owned utilities that are subsidizing these costs." Oh, when their profit stays the same, that means YOU subsidize the cost, the cost goes STRAIGHT to you the customer. "Not bad, considering it was free." duh......uh......duh..........sure, those guys didn't get paid did they? Must have been free, since you didn't write them a check right there huh? lol People that can't figure out nothing is free......just disgusting. They didn't even seal your return plenum! LOL. I am sure you can trust their post duct seal number too! I used to offer rebates as a company, until I did the math and also realized that the worst contractors in town, were the ones offering rebates through Austin Energy.
7.
Sun, 10/09/2011 - 15:50
Sun, 10/09/2011 - 15:50
Nothing is Free
by Michael Strong, LEED Associate, CGP
For real? Of course nothing is “free”. The point of the blog is not to state the obvious. Part of the point is to let folks know that if they can have this work done to their homes at no additional out of pocket cost, that they can then do something productive with the resulting savings. Like contributing to a big corporate PAC, buying donuts, or splurging on premium gas for their suv.
Why not suggest something positive? Lets try this. Step one kill the program. Next? Well, wait a minute; since this scam was designed to increase the cost of kwh now that we have killed it we get all that money back right? Will our electricity rates be rolled back? Yeah, right. Ok, but at any rate now that we have all the money back we were scammed out of what do we do? Bueler? Crap, there are still 100’s of thousands of older homes out there that need energy retrofitting and some combination of lack of desire and money means even fewer are being upgraded now that the scam has been killed.
Well, our electricity usage is now going up at a higher rate, so we need to build another power plant and we need bond money to do that and we need to raise property taxes to pay the bonds and guess who is paying for all this? Not people in apartments scrapping to get by because they don’t pay property taxes and their apartments are “all bills paid”. They are chillin in the ac while all the wealthy homeowners who can afford the upgrades pay the higher property taxes. And now the apartment renters are the ones cashing the home energy welfare checks because they don’t care what the rates are. And the world is back in balance.
Listen, I am not smart enough to know the answers to big problems like this but I am smart enough to know my utility bill payment each month is paying for the energy-retrofitting program I wrote about. And if I am paying for it, I want the service. And the more people that are paying for this service that actually get the benefits of the service, the better.
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