Starting July 30th, Maryland consumers can receive rebates on major household appliances purchased in four additional appliance categories, each related to cooling. The purpose of these incentives is to encourage residents to replace outdated, inefficient appliances in their homes with ENERGY STAR-rated equivalents, helping end users both save money and reduce strain on the electrical grid.

The expanded incentives program, which is still managed by your local utility, offers rebates on purchases or installations of central air conditioning units ($500), air source heat pumps ($500), room air conditioners ($25) and freezers ($100).  The appliance must be purchased/installed on or after July 30, 2010 to qualify.  The appliance must meet efficiency standards, which are described on your utility's website.

This expansion supplements existing incentives for the purchase of qualifying super-efficient clothes washers ($100), refrigerators ($50), and electric heat pump water heaters ($300).

Attention Pepco Customers:  You can combine the Maryland rebate with the Pepco HVAC Efficiency Program to save up to $800 on AC or Heat Pump replacements.

Program details, additional information and terms and conditions as well as rebate forms are available at http://energy.maryland.gov/appliancerebateprogram.asp.  From this site, customers of Allegheny Power, BGE, Delmarva, Pepco and SMECO can click on the link to their utility's website.

Over the past few years, we've done a lot of work trying to understand our customers' water use, and today we'll discuss showering.  By law, all shower heads currently sold can run a maximum of 2.5 gallons per minute (GPM). This limit not only cuts down on water used by shower heads, but also conserves the energy used to heat the water to a nice temperature.

When we think of a luxurious shower, we often think of "rain" format such as the picture to the left, or we think of multi-head showers.  Not surprisingly, these showers use tremendous amounts of water by aggregating shower heads... so the 2.5 GPM limit over two heads uses 5 GPM.  Over three heads it is 7.5 GPM.  But for those of you wondering whether you can have luxury while minimizing water use, the answer is absolutely YES!  New aerating technology is taking the environmental world by storm (and positions us well for future water price increases that seem inevitable). 

Shower head products such as the Evolve Roadrunner Shower Head or the 5-Star Resort Spa Shower Head, which pressurize the water that comes from the shower head, can help you achieve an ideal shower experience while conserving water and the energy used to heat your bath water. The Roadrunner, at 1.6 GPM, saves 40% of water use compared to the 2.5 GPM standard.  The 5-Star Resort, at 2.0GPM, saves 20% of water use.  Heating water costs about 2.5 cents per gallon (using a gas water heater), so over a 10 minute shower, the Roadrunner saves a whopping 9 gallons of water and 22.5 cents of heating costs.  If you include the cost of water and sewer, we're talking about approximately 25 cents per shower.

I, along with ecobeco's staff, have used both of these products.  The Roadrunner feels like a light, comfortable shower, while the 5-Star is virtually indistinguishable from a full 2.5 GPM shower, and the pressure is impressively intense.

So while these products don't feel the same as a multi-head shower, I certainly feel good for using more efficient shower heads that save money, save water, and help the environment - that's what I call luxurious!

ecobeco has been awarded the 2009 Contractor of the Year for Maryland Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® by Maryland Energy Administration. ecobeco provides $100 Energy Audits to Maryland Pepco home owners through their Home Energy Savings Program.  ecobeco also provides $140 Energy Audits to Maryland Allegheny Power home owners through their Watt Watchers program.  ecobeco also provides audits to Baltimore Gas & Electric customers through the BGE Smart Energy program.  Our success in all three programs contributed to this hard-earned honor.

"ecobeco's focus on customer service starts with our highly detailed Home Energy Audit that follows the strict Building Performance Institute and Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® standards.  Then, our Comprehensive Report prioritizes what customers should do, how much it will cost, and what their savings will be. Finally, we facilitate the process of selecting contractors to do the work at the house.  We take complicated stuff and make it easy for home owners to take action and solve their energy and comfort issues.  This award recognizes the hard work of ecobeco's team day in and day out and our commitment to quality," says ecobeco's Co-Founder and Vice President of Auditing Services Reuven Walder.

Attention Maryland Home Owners in the Pepco Service Territories

From Comprehensive Home Energy Audits priced at only $100, to rebates up to $1,200 for energy efficiency improvements, to appliance rebates, to HVAC service and equipment rebates, to free programmable thermostats, to CFL discounts, and more... Pepco brings one of the most aggressive energy efficiency programs to its Maryland customers.
 
ecobeco provides $100 Home Energy Audit to Pepco Maryland customers.  This is not a rebate program.  You pay us $100 at the time of the visit.

The goal of the Home Energy Savings Program is to get home owners like you to take action on energy conservation. That means fixing up your homes, changing out your light bulbs and shower heads, and more. Pepco is obligated by the EmPower Maryland law to reduce energy consumption in the State of Maryland, and to their credit, Pepco is taking their obligation very seriously. We're excited about the launch of this program and we hope you will take advantage of these programs now. By launching now, Pepco hopes that many of you will take action before the summer to reduce the electricity peak load for home cooling.

ecobeco is proud to announce that we were the first firm certified by Pepco to provide the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR Home Energy Audit.

Meanwhile, ecobeco has been working hard with our contractor partners to enhance and accelerate the amount of time it takes for you to receive your audit report and a firm proposal after your audit is complete. Our goal is to make it easier for you to say "YES" to energy efficiency improvements.

Sign up at http://www.ecobeco.com/about_schedule_pepcomd.asp to reserve your $100 energy audit.

Note: Customers who buy energy from Clean Currents or other alternatives are eligible to participate in the program.  If you 1) receive a bill from Pepco; and 2) Have either a heat pump or central air conditioning, then you qualify!
 
Visit Pepco's consumer site for more information at:

http://www.pepco.com/energy/conservation/meiin/

NOTE:  If you are an existing ecobeco audit customer in the Pepco territory, please give Brian Toll a call directly at 240 396 2141 x704 or email Brian to discuss how you can take advantage of the Pepco Home Energy Savings Program.

There are programs for many other home owners too.

1. Maryland BGE Customers - Through our partnership with Energy Services Group, ecobeco provides a full suite of solutions as part of the BGE Smart Energy program, which includes incentives for making your home more energy efficient.  Click here to view the incentives from this program, and click here to schedule your appointment with ecobeco.

2. Maryland Allegheny Power Customers - ecobeco is an authorized provider for the Watt Watchers Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program.  That means your audit costs only $140 if you agree to the installation of CFL bulbs, or $180 if you don't.  Our service area is limited to Frederick and south. Click here to make an appointment.  After your audit, customers with electric heating qualify for additional incentives for doing air sealing or insulation work.

3. Virgina Customers - The Energy Efficiency rebate is again fully subscribed.  At this point, the appliance rebate program (see below) is the only state program accepting new customers.  There are no incentives at this time for audits or retrofits.  Don't fret, our Comprehensive Energy Audit is still a great value, and provides you with the knowledge you need to make smart investments in your home.  Click here to make an appointment.

4. DC Customers - Similar to Virginia, except the District government provides free energy audits to home owners.  These audits provide a basic understanding of energy issues, but do not include IR camera scans, combustion safety testing, energy modeling, customized reporting, follow up time with your auditor, referrals to get the work done, a free second visit after the work is done, etc.  Currently, the free audit has a waitlist for several months and last we checked audits had been suspended.  DC residents can act now by making an appointment with ecobeco by clicking here.

Attention Maryland, DC and Virginia Residents!

The Department of Energy has launched the Appliance Rebate Program across the United States. Each state is implementing the program in a slightly different way (of course). As with other programs with fixed buckets of money, these are first come first served programs, and the duration of the program will simply depends on how long they have funds available to distribute, so be sure to act fast.

In Maryland, the programs are being run by each utility directly. Click HERE to go to the Maryland Energy Administration's Appliance Rebate Program Website to learn how to obtain your rebates or click HERE to look at a PDF of the press release. The rebate programs have started, and the benefits apply to purchases made on or after April 22, 2010. 

In DC, click HERE to view the District Department of the Environment web page and sign up to be notified when DDOE's appliance rebate program begins. This program is scheduled to start in late May.

In Virginia, click HERE to view the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy web page.  Rebates are eligible only on appliances purchased after April 28th, and are limited to one appliance per household.  The Virginia program has started, so reserve now!

We hope you enjoyed reading our newsletter.  We'd love to hear from you. 

Please feel free to forward this note.

 

Thanks,