ecobeco's June 2009 Newsletter
ecoTips, News, Deals, and More - And it's Free!
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Greetings!
This month's newsletter includes some exciting announcements from ecobeco and some great savings for you! - ecobeco Launches New, Better Service Pricing. Home Energy Audits start at $299.
- Refer your friends and we'll thank you with some Green $$$
- ecobeco People: Expansion to Baltimore, Welcome Mike Ingram, Congrats Reuven
- Events Update - Scott Sklar on June 17th.
- Featured Products that Reduce Water usage:
- Low-Flow Showerheads
- Faucet Aerators
- Aquanotion Dual Flush Toilet
- 99 Cent CFLs and Dimmable CFLs
- June's ecoTip - Reusable Water Bottles Save Energy and the Environment
- Tax Incentives for Energy Efficiency
- Montgomery County Residents get $250 of FREE Energy-Efficiency Products
- Store Hours
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ecobeco Launches New, Better Service Pricing - Home Energy Audits start at $299
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With the addition of 2 new auditors, ecobeco is ready to ramp up our efforts to help home owners retrofit their homes to be energy efficient. We've improved the quality and timeliness of our reporting. On June 1st, we revamped the pricing for our Energy Audits with an exciting $299 starting price that delivers the best value in the entire DC/NoVA/Baltimore area! You can get more details on the pricing and our surcharges for larger homes and homes needing combustion safety testing by going to www.ecobeco.com/schedule. Just sign up on-line for your preferred dates and we'll be in touch with you.
Our ecoAssessment price is now $149 for a 2-hour visit that provides the best practices on saving energy and creating a more sustainable and eco-friendly household. You can get a combination of ecoAssessment and Whole Home Energy Audit starting at $398, which is a $50 savings from the stand-alone prices.
Prices are valid for audits completed by July 31, 2009.
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Refer Your Friends, And You'll Get Some Green $$$
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We're very excited to introduce our Friends & Family Referral Program. Just go to www.ecobeco.com/friends and give us the Name, E-mail and Phone Number of your friends who might want Energy Audits. We'll contact them and if they purchase an Audit or Combination package, you'll get a $25 electronic gift card for the ecobeco product of your choice! Now that's green!
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ecobeco People: Expansion to Baltimore, and Welcome Mike Ingram, Congrats to Reuven
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With the certification of Baltimore-based Greg Vaillancourt after his multi-month mentorship with Reuven Walder and his breezing through the Maryland Home Performance with ENERGY STAR testing, we're proud to announce our expansion into Baltimore. ecobeco now serves the Washington, DC Metro area, Northern Virginia, and the Baltimore Metro area. Congratulations also to Curt Christenson, who also aced his tests, and will focus on Montgomery County and Northern Virginia.
Mike Ingram joins ecobeco as our newest ecoAdvocate. Mike lives in Arlington, VA and has been working in residential construction for over 25 years. A committed environmentalist, he recently received his Green Advantage certification for green buildings. Going forward, Mike will help support our customers by ensuring that you are getting the products and professional services you need in a timely and professional manner. His goal is to make it easy for you to go green!
Congratulations to Reuven Walder who has become a Mentor with the Maryland Home Performance with Energy Star program where he teaches new auditors how to conduct themselves during the in-home visit with customers. And another shout-out to Reuven for his full-body (with blower door) photo in the Washington Business Journal.
Last, and certainly least, I somehow managed to self-install airtight recessed can baffle trims in my kitchen without electrocuting myself or losing any fingers. Hoorah for small victories!
Has it been a while since we said hello? Click here for an introduction to ecobeco's staff.
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ecobeco Events
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Visit www.ecobeco.com/events to get the latest on ecobeco's speaker series and to see where we'll be speaking throughout the community.
PLEASE RSVP by replying to this newsletter or by clicking here to email us.
Wednesday June 17, 2009, 7pm-8pm at the ecobeco store - How Clean Energy Creates Jobs and Makes the US Safer hosted by Scott Sklar from The Stella Group.
The clean portfolio of energy efficiency and renewable energy can meet
US requirements for reduction of energy imports and emissions,
increase of power reliability and quality, and increase US jobs and
national security. Scott Sklar, a member of the National Advisory
Council for Environmental Policy & Technology (NACEPT) of US
Environmental Protection Agency and the Arlington (Va.) Environment and
Energy Conservation Commission, will review the technologies and recent
global studies.
Click Here to tell your friends about our speaker series!
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Products for Using Less Water
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NOTE: Click on any photo to go directly to the ecobeco store
Water water everywhere. Help me get away from all this water! Don't look any further than ecobeco. We have the perfect products to reduce your water needs.
 ecobeco sells four products that are related to reducing your water use. First, we sell two showerheads. The Alsons Showerhead, pictured to the left, has a variable speed lever that reduces the flow of water by 25% in the economy mode (1.85 Gallons Per Minute). My wife and I use this at home and we love it. For true conservationists, the Evolve Roadrunner features their showerstart technology in combination with a 1.59 Gallon Per Minute stream. Pictured on the right, this showerhead will save you up to $235 per year in hot water heating costs. If you want to keep your showerhead but reduce water, consider Evolve's Ladybug Adapter with ShowerStart technology that can save you up to $75 per year by reducing your natural tendency to wait out warming showers.
 Second, ecobeco sells faucet aerators. If you're faucet can fill the sink in 10 seconds, you're using too much water! These aerators reduce water use while creating steady and solid streams. The one on the left even has a swivel and on/off tab. If your sink is over 20 years old, make sure you have an aerator that takes you down to between 1.5 and 2.5 gallons per minute.
Third, our Aquanotion toilet conversion kit transforms your single-flush toilet into a dual flush toilet (short flush for #1, long flush for #2). You'll want someone handy to install it, but it lets you extend the life of your toilet for a reasonable price while helping reduce your water consumption (some older toilets use as much as 5 gallons per flush while 2009 new toilets use only 1.28 gallons per flush!)
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CFLs for 99 cents and Dimmable CFLs!
Your incandescent lights are heating your home! Make the switch now!
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As it warms up, it's time to stop using your incandescent lights as heat sources. You know you do. Everyone does in the winter. But in the spring and summer, the extra heat from standard incandescent bulbs causes your air conditioner to run longer than it should, and that costs you money! So replace those bulbs today with CFL bulbs that emit much less heat (less than 1/4 the heat of an incandescent).
ecobeco is happy to announce our participation in PEPCO's Change a Light Bulb Campaign. You may have seen us mentioned in PEPCO's February bill insert. PEPCO has provided ecobeco with subsidized compact fluorescent (CFL) light bulbs.
A 60Watt replacement is only 99 cents.
A 100Watt replacement is only $1.99.
Limit 25 bulbs per household.
These bulbs are rated to 8,000 hours (if you use the bulb 3 hours per day every single day, they can last up to 8 years!), which means they should last 8 times longer than a standard incandescent bulb, and they use only 1/4 of the wattage. The math on these make changing to CFLs a no-brainer, and because you change them less frequently, you can spend more time having fun!
ecobeco also carries a large selection of Greenlite bulbs. This brand features CFLs with warranties as long as 9 years. They come in standard spiral shapes, reflectors (such as what is in your recessed lights), candelabra, and even outdoor lighting. We even have R30 and R40 dimmable bulbs for your recessed lights.
Visit us on-line or call us at the store (240) 396-2141 x2 to learn more.
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June's ecoTip - Reusable Water Bottles Save Energy and the Environment
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We last featured our high fashion metal water bottles
from EarthLust in o ur April newsletter. But with so much rain lately, we have water on our minds. If you look at the complete production and distribution life cycle of bottled water, it is 2,000 times more energy-intensive than
delivering an equivalent volume of tap water, with the manufacturing of plastic bottles as
the largest component. Think about the number of trucks carting around water from place to place and how much fuel and carbon that creates! And don't even get us started on water imported from foreign countries! Researchers at the Pacific Institute wrote, "Given an annual consumption of 33 billion liters of bottled water in
the US, we estimate that the annual consumption of bottled water in the
US in 2007 required an energy input equivalent to between 32 and 54
million barrels of oil."
 Get rid of your plastic
bottles and replace them with a reusable stainless s teel
bottle. Or give these as gifts to raise the environmental awareness of your friends and family. Use water filtration such as Multipure that typically provides you
with better water than most bottled water
companies. EarthLust bottles come in 20 oz and 1
liter sizes and are appropriate for any cold
beverage. We even carry an insulated model. Note: Earthlust bottles are not dishwasher
safe.
Read more about Reusable Water Bottles by clicking here for the ecobeco blog.
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Tax Incentives for Energy Efficiency
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The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act included substantial spending on energy efficiency related items. Part of the legislation includes an increase in the tax deductions for purchases of energy-efficient appliances, insulation and windows.
Please click the links provided and consult your tax advisor for more information.
Taxpayers can take up to $1,500 of deductions for s pecific energy-efficient product purchases made in 2009 and 2010.
Residential Energy Efficiency Tax Credit
Taxpayers can take 30% of the installed cost of solar PV, solar hot water, wind, fuel cells, and geothermal heat pump with no maximum limit.
Residential Renewable Energy Tax Credit
The DSIRE database also includes incentives specific to your state and county, so be sure to check for those programs as well by navigating back to the home page and then clicking on your state.
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MONTGOMERY COUNTY RESIDENTS GET $250 OF FREE ENERGY-EFFICIENCY PRODUCTS
We'll show you how to claim your Property Tax Credit!
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If you are a Montgomery County Home Owner (you pay property taxes), you can take advantage of the Property Tax Credit for Energy Conservation Devices. This credit refunds 100% of your spending up to $250. CFLs, Low-Flow Showerheads, Programmable Thermostats, and Smart Powerstrips are the easiest and most essential items for any energy-efficient home. And there are many more products that qualify as well. Schedule your in-home visit today and we'll help you determine exactly which products you need today.
ecobeco will provide you with the forms you need to fill out and will coach you on how to fill them out to ensure a smooth claim process.
There's no better time than now to schedule your in-home ecoAssessment or Energy Audit. The tax credit is limited to $250,000 of total benefit for the entire county for fiscal year 2009, so make your purchase now and submit your application as soon as possible to ensure your refund. There is no income exclusion or residency requirement for this credit.
Call us at the store (240) 396-2141 x2 to learn more.
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Store Hours
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In order to spend more time with customers, we are shortening the hours of our showroom to the following:
Monday - Friday: 3pm - 7pm
Saturday: 10am - 2pm
We are also available by appointment, and of course we are open during all of our special events. |
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Thanks,
Brian, Reuven, Curt, Elena, Jonathan, Mike, and Greg
(240) 396-2141
info@ecobeco.com
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