SHOWER HEADS AND FLUORESCENTS
One of PG&E’s latest incentive programs for energy conservation is the EUC rebate program. This is actually a Statewide program and is administered in our area by PG&E. It has two levels of participation. The advanced level has been the most popular by far. This is where a home assessment is done and a computer determines potential energy savings things you can do to your home and you can get up to $4,000 in rebates if you actually install the recommended items. The less well known part of the program is called the “Basic” path and it consists of a package of things that a homeowner must do to their home in order to receive a rebate. These are: add attic insulation, seal your HVAC ducts, air infiltration sealing, insulate the hot water pipes from the water heater to where they disappear into the wall, and make sure you have low flow shower heads, and one more thing, install a thermostatically controlled shower flow sensor valve. If you do all of these things, and have some safety testing done on the way out, PG&E will pay the first $1,000 of the cost to have these things done as a rebate. One drawback is you must need all of the items in order to qualify. So your home must have central heating and must have an attic that needs insulation. But it’s not a bad deal because if your house is medium size all that work can be done for well under $2,000 so you get more than half of it paid for. If it’s a small home it may be close to free. If you happen to live in the City of Ukiah and have central A/C you can double up on City rebates also. But the reason I bring all this up is the shower valve. Until I ran across this stipulation I had never heard of a “thermostatically controlled shower shut-off valve” and they are a really cool thing that I wish I had heard about before.
THERMOSTATICALLY CONTROLLED SHOWER VALVE
You see they are a little thing about an inch long and you take off the shower head and you put this valve on the shower pipe coming out of the wall, and then put the shower head back on. Now, when you turn the shower on, as soon as the water warms up to 95 degrees this valve shuts the water off. So you can be off doing the normal things you do while waiting for the water to get warm and you won’t be wasting all that water that got warm in 2 ½ minutes but ran for 15. When you are ready you just pull on a little cord and the hot water starts flowing and in you go. So far I’ve only seen one company making the thing, so It may be a proprietary item. They say it saves 2,700 gallons of water per year which costs about $75, and they cost between $20-$40 plus installation. They are called “Ladybug Shower Head Adaptor” and you can get them online. My wife went to a conference in Southern California and the hotel had these Ladybug controls. Most of the showers had waterproof placards explaining what they were and how they worked. A few of the rooms had their placards missing. And some of these folk went ahead and got in and soaped up while waiting for the water to warm up. But everyone else liked them.
MANDATES ARE COMING
Another thing I wanted to remind everyone about is the upcoming T-12 fluorescent lighting phase-out mandate. As of July 2012 (8 mos.) the T-12 fluorescent lamps can no longer be made or imported, or I would assume sold, in the U.S. There are still a heck of a lot of buildings out there with the old T-12 fluorescents lights in them. This doesn’t really apply to households as much as businesses. Both the City of Ukiah and PG&E have programs to help defray the cost to change to the newer, more efficient T-8 style. If you are not sure which you have, the number after the “T” corresponds to the bulb diameter in eights of an inch. So a T-12 lamp is 12/8 or 1 ½” in diameter while the newer T-8 is one inch. I just found that the EPA act of 2005 has been extended thru 2014 and the amount spent by businesses to upgrade their lighting, HVAC units, and/or building envelope (insulation) can receive accelerated depreciation. The entire cost can be depreciated at up to $1.80 per sq ft.
If you are a business owner and you have upgraded your heating or lighting or building envelope and you haven’t claimed this, or you are thinking of doing this kind of work, you can email me and I’ll send you a copy of the tax code. With the help from the utility companies and the tax benefits a lighting conversion can be done for very little net cost in the end. With the mandated loss of the T-12 lamps and ballasts your gonna have to convert at some point in time anyway.
One of PG&E’s latest incentive programs for energy conservation is the EUC rebate program. This is actually a Statewide program and is administered in our area by PG&E. It has two levels of participation. The advanced level has been the most popular by far. This is where a home assessment is done and a computer determines potential energy savings things you can do to your home and you can get up to $4,000 in rebates if you actually install the recommended items. The less well known part of the program is called the “Basic” path and it consists of a package of things that a homeowner must do to their home in order to receive a rebate. These are: add attic insulation, seal your HVAC ducts, air infiltration sealing, insulate the hot water pipes from the water heater to where they disappear into the wall, and make sure you have low flow shower heads, and one more thing, install a thermostatically controlled shower flow sensor valve. If you do all of these things, and have some safety testing done on the way out, PG&E will pay the first $1,000 of the cost to have these things done as a rebate. One drawback is you must need all of the items in order to qualify. So your home must have central heating and must have an attic that needs insulation. But it’s not a bad deal because if your house is medium size all that work can be done for well under $2,000 so you get more than half of it paid for. If it’s a small home it may be close to free. If you happen to live in the City of Ukiah and have central A/C you can double up on City rebates also. But the reason I bring all this up is the shower valve. Until I ran across this stipulation I had never heard of a “thermostatically controlled shower shut-off valve” and they are a really cool thing that I wish I had heard about before.
THERMOSTATICALLY CONTROLLED SHOWER VALVE
You see they are a little thing about an inch long and you take off the shower head and you put this valve on the shower pipe coming out of the wall, and then put the shower head back on. Now, when you turn the shower on, as soon as the water warms up to 95 degrees this valve shuts the water off. So you can be off doing the normal things you do while waiting for the water to get warm and you won’t be wasting all that water that got warm in 2 ½ minutes but ran for 15. When you are ready you just pull on a little cord and the hot water starts flowing and in you go. So far I’ve only seen one company making the thing, so It may be a proprietary item. They say it saves 2,700 gallons of water per year which costs about $75, and they cost between $20-$40 plus installation. They are called “Ladybug Shower Head Adaptor” and you can get them online. My wife went to a conference in Southern California and the hotel had these Ladybug controls. Most of the showers had waterproof placards explaining what they were and how they worked. A few of the rooms had their placards missing. And some of these folk went ahead and got in and soaped up while waiting for the water to warm up. But everyone else liked them.
MANDATES ARE COMING
Another thing I wanted to remind everyone about is the upcoming T-12 fluorescent lighting phase-out mandate. As of July 2012 (8 mos.) the T-12 fluorescent lamps can no longer be made or imported, or I would assume sold, in the U.S. There are still a heck of a lot of buildings out there with the old T-12 fluorescents lights in them. This doesn’t really apply to households as much as businesses. Both the City of Ukiah and PG&E have programs to help defray the cost to change to the newer, more efficient T-8 style. If you are not sure which you have, the number after the “T” corresponds to the bulb diameter in eights of an inch. So a T-12 lamp is 12/8 or 1 ½” in diameter while the newer T-8 is one inch. I just found that the EPA act of 2005 has been extended thru 2014 and the amount spent by businesses to upgrade their lighting, HVAC units, and/or building envelope (insulation) can receive accelerated depreciation. The entire cost can be depreciated at up to $1.80 per sq ft.
If you are a business owner and you have upgraded your heating or lighting or building envelope and you haven’t claimed this, or you are thinking of doing this kind of work, you can email me and I’ll send you a copy of the tax code. With the help from the utility companies and the tax benefits a lighting conversion can be done for very little net cost in the end. With the mandated loss of the T-12 lamps and ballasts your gonna have to convert at some point in time anyway.
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