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Solar Springing Up
Drive north of Wilshire on
Harvard, and look for the construction zone
surrounded by a bamboo fence. That's the Engleman
family home. Hidden from the street is one of Santa
Monica's newest solar installations: a 2 kW system of
Sunpower panels installed by Permacity, a preferred
provider for Solar Santa Monica.
As Tom Engelman explained, "We wanted to take a
small, post-war Santa Monica house and make it a
small Santa Monica 21st century house - keeping the
footprint the same but going green, wherever we
could." When the home is finished, the family will
enjoy natural lighting, Energy Star appliances, a
tankless water heater, and their native garden. (Also
hidden will be a pit for urban runoff mitigation, to meet
the requirement of the city for all new remodels.)
"We want people to visit," says Tom. "My children
expect to be docents."
TOU Update
On May 9, Governor Schwarzenegger announced that
he promised to "fix" the unexpected negative impact of
Time of Use (TOU) rates on heavy electricity users. As
of May 16th, the president of the public utilities
commission decided that new solar owners who were
previously on Domestic "tiered" rates will have the
option to go to TOU rates or stay with tiered rates. A
favorable vote is expected on June 7. We will keep
you updated on this topic.
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| Solar Santa Monica at Alt Build, May 18-19 |
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Susan Munves is interviewed by City TV at the
Solar
Santa Monica booth. Over 8,000 people attended the
conference. Professionals (including city
reps from around Southern California) visited the
booth on Friday, and hundreds of residents stopped
by on Saturday with questions, comments and to sign
up for an On-Site Energy Assessment of their own
property.
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| A Year's Worth of Bills |
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A year's electrical usage (blue bars) and
corresponding costs (red line) help arrive at the
optimal system size for this home.
The Solar Santa Monica team has scheduled and
performed 61 residential On-Site Energy
Assessments, with more taking place each week.
Some preliminary findings:
· We need copies of your bills to analyze
your energy usage! If you don't keep bills, you can go
online to get them at www.sce.com and at
www.socalgas.com. (Select the option for "Usage
History." Watch out that you don't inadvertently sign up
for on-line billing.)
· People generally underestimate how
much they run their furnace or their air conditioning.
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| Upcoming Seminars |
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As part of its effort to help residents "go green," Solar
Santa Monica is planning a series of educational
workshops, to be held Wednesday evenings at the
1212 5th Street office. The seminars will start in
June. Titles include:
· Remodeling? The best time to add
solar.
· How to hire a contractor so you get what
you had in mind.
· Green Roofs in Santa Monica
· Redecorating in Green (Not the color, of
course!)
Know someone who would like to attend? Be sure
they get on our mailing list. Click the box below to
forward this newsletter.
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| Financing your solar installation |
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If you're ready to install a solar system, and aren't
ready to pay cash, what are your options? Solar Santa
Monica is investigating special financing for our
project. An RFP has been issued to over 30 potential
financiers, with their responses due at the end of May.
In the meanwhile, if you would like to review the
basics of equity financing vs. non-secured financing,
click here
to request "Financing Your Solar Systerm," which
describes different options with typical interest rates
and terms.
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| Introducing our new Green Building Advisor |
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Solar Santa Monica welcomes a new member to its
team. Brenden McEneaney, the Green Building
Program Advisor for the City of Santa Monica, comes
to SSM with a background in Environmental
Engineering and knowledge of green building
materials and strategies. Brenden will be providing
support to the SSM program while working to
incorporate and promote SSM in the City's existing
Green Building Program. If you have any questions
about how to do green building and what City
initiatives are available through this program, please
contact Brenden at 310.458.8549 or
Brenden.McEneaney@smgov.net.
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| Find out more! |
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Need a questionnaire? Interested in a briefing on
Solar Santa Monica for
your group? Call EcoMotion's Virginia Nicols
at (949) 450-7153 or send her an email to
discuss.
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| City of Santa Monica, Environmental Programs Division |
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