Several articles on this site and others talk about how wasteful hot water recirculation pumps can be, both in terms of wasted electricity (running the pumps even when you’re on vacation or sound asleep) and wasted natural gas (reheating the Read more…
The company OhmConnect provides a “demand response” service to consumers in some parts of the country. I tried their service way back in 2014 and was unimpressed: seemed to me very few people would be willing to run around the Read more…
Last summer we had to do an emergency fridge replacement — our giant 25 year old SubZero gave up — and we struggled to find the right replacement. Availability was very low at that time due to the pandemic. But Read more…
How can you know if your existing home’s heating and cooling systems are efficient? New homes are often modeled in software before they are constructed, and in many states this model is required to result in a certain level of Read more…
It’s logical that household energy use will go up while we’re all spending more time at home. But how much more? Ohmconnect thinks it may be as much as $1.2B in increased utility bills for California residents. Ouch! Happily, there’s lots of low- Read more…
Lisa Schmidt from HEA talks about a free program to lower energy bills for Californians. HomeIntel focuses on “easy savings” with no purchases or $20-25 devices. Fyi, the California Energy Commission (CEC) supported HEA and volunteers to put together this Read more…
Lisa Schmidt from HEA talks about a free program to lower energy bills for PG&E customers in California. Californians end up saving on energy bills with help from professionals free of charge. Lisa’s program, HomeIntel, is one of the P4P Read more…
Lisa Schmidt from HEA talks about a free program to lower energy bills for PG&E customers in California. It’s called HomeIntel, part of something PG&E offers under something called “pay for performance” often called “P4P.” Pay-for-performance is part of an Read more…
This is part 3 of an interview with Bruce Mast, who runs Peninsula Climate Comfort, a pilot program to help California residents go from using natural gas appliances to using electric ones. This is often called beneficial electrification. The benefits Read more…
This is part 2 of our talks with Bruce Mast. To get the background on electrification and heat pump technology, review part 1. In this section, we talk about Bruce’s experience in the energy industry, including why and how he’s Read more…