National Cut Your Energy Costs Day: Jan 10
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The Homeowner's Handbook to Energy Efficiency
John Krigger
Saturn Resource, 2008
644 2008 KRIGG
Helps homeowners set realistic personal goals for reducing their energy consumption. These methods for making homes more energy efficient will also improve comfort, safety, durability, and resale value. The book guides readers through the process of assessing current energy usage, and predicting the benefits and estimating the costs of remodeling options.
Big bill for green power
Burbank will pay $17.8M next year for renewable energy it doesn't need.
Burbank Leader: 11.02.2012 by Alene Tchekmedyian
A state law that requires 20% of the city's average energy sales to come from renewable energy is projected to cost the city $17.8 million this fiscal year, officials reported on Tuesday.
The financial burden of complying with the state mandate — which ups the ante every few years — outraged Councilman David Gordon, particularly because Burbank was generating enough energy before the state bill was passed to meet its power needs. “Any renewables we bring in basically results in a situation where we back off our own generation in order to bring renewables in,” said Power Resources Manager Bruno Jeider.
The 20% average must be met for power output between 2011 and 2013.
This fiscal year, the city will pay $85 a megawatt for 303,579 megawatts of renewable energy, nearly three times as much as the $30 a megawatt it pays for its other energy resources, officials said. READ MORE !
California Renewable Energy Overview and Programs
California Energy Commission
Top 5 Home Winterization Tips For Energy Awareness Month
Earthtechling.com: 10.20.2012 by Beth Buczynski
Don’t be fooled by the bright sun and lingering warm breezes, winter is most definitely on its way toward North America. Even though it seems like just yesterday we were talking about how to stay cool without cranking the air conditioning, it’s already time to start keeping your home warm without creating a painful heating bill.
In honor of October being National Energy Awareness Month, we decided to round up five of the best home winterization tips we could find. Home energy upgrades can be costly, but we tried to narrow it down to actions that were easy, relatively cheap, and sensible for both homeowners and renters. Meet you after the jump!
1. Replace your HVAC filters once a month to maintain an adequate and clean air flow which can help reduce energy costs.
2. Use energy efficient light bulbs like CFLs or LEDs. Light bulbs meeting new standards can result in significant energy conservation of 25%-80%. Light your home with the same amount of light for less money. Upgrading 15 of the traditional, less energy efficient incandescent light bulbs in your home could save you about $50 per year. Can’t decide between CFLs and LEDs? This post can help.
3. Add caulking or weather stripping around windows and doors. Your home may have small openings around doors and windows that cause heat loss. Caulking and weather stripping can reduce energy waste and protect your home from moisture damage. Covering large windows with affordable insulating plastic can also be a way to trap the sunlight’s heat inside your home during the day, and prevent drafts at night.
4. Close doors and central air vents in rooms that don’t see a lot of use. This prevents you from paying to heat empty rooms, and redirects the air to the parts of your house that need to be the warmest.
5. Reverse the direction on your ceiling fans. During winter, the warm air generated by your heating system naturally rises to the ceiling while cooler air sinks. By switching the direction that your fan blades turn, that cooler air is drawn upwards, which forces the warmer air near the ceiling back down into the space. How does this save energy? According to the folks at Apartment Therapy, since thermostats are typically located at human level, keeping the warm air low where it’s needed means you can turn the temperature down a few notches and still stay warm.
BWP
Green Home House Call
A complimentary service for Burbank residents provides weatherization, energy, and water efficiency products and services for your home. A trained energy and water expert will install the products plus provide expert advice on how to make your home more efficient and environmentally friendly.
Smart frames to track utility costs for Burbank residents
The devices display water and power usage for Burbank Water &; Power customers.
Burbank Leader: 7.08.2012 by Kelly Corrigan
A small group of Burbank residents soon will be equipped with digital picture frames that display not just family snapshots, but also how much energy and water they are using — and how much money it's costing them.
The year-long project piloted by Burbank Water and Power follows the lead of the utility's counterpart in Glendale, which launched a similar project earlier this year
Officials hope awareness among customers of their personal energy and water consumption could spur more people to conserve, helping utilities meet statewide energy goals.
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Made by Burbank-based Ceiva Logic, the frames communicate with smart meters to display graphs showing how many gallons of water are used each day of the week. Energy can be tabulated on an hourly, daily or weekly basis. READ MORE !
Smart meters join Facebook
Burbank customers can compare their energy usage via the social networking site.
Burbank Leader: 4.03.2012 by Jason Wells
A Facebook application that allows smart-meter customers to gauge how much energy they're using compared to others went live Tuesday, Burbank officials announced.
Burbank Water and Power customers can connect their utility accounts to the Opower app via Facebook and see how they stack up to others in terms of energy consumption.
The app plays into what city officials have said is a key element of the smart meters — the ability of customers to track their consumption in near real time to better control costs.
Burbank Water and Power is one of the first utility companies to join the pilot program featuring Opower, which will allow roughly 4 million energy users from California to Chicago to create competitions and share insight. READ MORE !
