Willowside Project, Day 2

I caught up with John Doe while he was on the way to work this morning, apologized for not getting back to him last night, and checked in about Tuesday of next week, April 12th, for his test-in Audit.  The weather forecast is for a perfect day: cool and clear, which should allow distinctive IR photos of air infiltration pathways during the blower door test.

I stopped in at Harmony Farms, my favorite farm & garden store, on Hwy 116 this afternoon to talk to Ali Ghorbani, who is going to be doing John Doe's solar electric system design.  Since the Doe residence has a bit of tree interference and only an East Southeast facing roof for the panels, it's going to take a largish system to cover even 2/3 of the Doe's electric usage.  Even 2/3 of their bill will, however, drop them out of the upper tier rates on their electric bill and hopefully down in to the lowest baseline rate.  Just FYI, the approximate current PG&E rate structure is a baseline of 300kwh or so - more in the winter, less in the summer - at $.12/kwh, $.14 for 101%-130%, $.29 for 131%-200%, and $.40 for above 200%.  Those get to be some expensive Kwhs and lopping off those above the baseline is a worthwhile target.

Another voice is added

“Convincing millions of Americans to divert their time and resources into upgrading their homes to eliminate energy waste, avoid high utility bills, and help stimulate the economy is one of the great challenges facing energy efficiency programs around the country,” says Merrian Fuller of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBNL).


LBNL has a research and information dissemination program that has been doing some fantastic research into how to best get homeowners to buy into the deep energy reductions that are necessary for us to control our national energy policy.  Some of their more interesting findings - to me, anyway - are that the words 'audit' and 'retrofit' don't make homeowners weak in the knees like they do me.  They are better sold on comfort, protecting their home's structure and value, or that their entire community is coming together to do this work en masse.  And the best inducement is seeing their local community leaders have it done to their homes and then give voice publicly on how much better their home is.


And since I'm considering going door to door, covering an entire targeted neighborhood, I'm particularly interested in a report on how well that worked out for a few that have already done it.  Haven't got around to reading it yet but will. 


I'd like to see this on the front page of the newspaper, talked about by the morning commute radio personalities, and billboards beside the freeway.  This *must* cover deep reductions in the proper loading order, not just 'let's put solar on the roof'.  Solar companies that are cold calling everyone in town and trying to sell them a solar electric system without talking about what's more cost effective - efficiency improvements first - drive me nuts, and I hope this clarification is part of any and all or the advertising strategies that are getting near (Yah!).