According to owner James Allen, Allterra’s is able to win customers because “our prices compete with the Big Solar Companies and homeowners like to go with the local business.” According to Allen, the goal of Allterra’s marketing strategy has been to demonstrate that Allterra is an independently owned local company that creates Green Jobs, spends money locally, and donates time and money to causes that benefit the community. Allterra supports many small independent businesses when buying supplies, hiring support services, and when hosting events. Additionally, Allterra participates in workshops and schools to teach students about solar, energy efficiency, rain catchment, grey water, pollution prevention, and other environmental science issues.

Initial indications suggest that Allterra will meet it’s 2012 projection of 100% growth in solar. Allen went on to say, “Solar is the fastest growing sector of the US economy and we are already experiencing the benefits. Based on our current position and market analysis, we anticipate a massive demand for solar next year.” Allterra is adding staff and expanding internal infrastructure to meet expected growth.

Allterra Environmental is proud to be one of the first approved contractors for the program in Santa Cruz County. In addition, we are the only contractor that is approved in Santa Cruz that designs and installs both solar and water efficiency systems. To be an approved contractor it was necessary that Allterra be BPI (Building Performance Institute) certified with training in Combustion Safety and Carbon Monoxide, licensed contractor with the Contractor State Licensing Board (CSLB), and insured to program standards.

The cornerstone for the program is Residential Home Energy Assessments which is a whole-house checkup for your home and finds areas where heat may be escaping and energy bills may be affected. Once the home is fully reviewed then aspects of solar and water efficiency can be explored. It has been found that while a homeowner may spend thousands on a solar system, the home may be wasting energy making the solar system useless. The new way to ensure total energy efficiency is through home energy assessments and Allterra is certified to do this. Check out the video below from CleanEdison on what its like to get a home energy assessment.

Sign up to be part of our waiting list and be one of the first homeowners to take advantage of this exciting new statewide program. Its filling up quick!

November 23, 2010 15:04
For many of us, celebrating winter and the holidays means food – hot, delicious, home-cooked food. And that means using those kitchen appliances!

We’ve posted some energy-saving ideas in the past including winter and summer. Here are some quick tips to help you save energy in your kitchen this holiday season:

• Limit pre-heating times: Use an oven thermometer to see when the oven is at temperature (most recipes tell you to turn on the oven first, which can be a long time before you need it if it’s a complex recipe)
• Keep your oven door closed, and resist the temptation to open it frequently as this drops the temperature and extends cooking time
• Use a meat thermometer (a digital one is great) to tell you when your roast is done: This reduces the need to open the oven and poke holes in your beautiful protein source
• Turn down your furnace on days when you’re cooking a lot and have guests over: Oven and body heat will help keep the temperature warmer in your home
• Use flat-bottomed pans on your electric stove: Warped pans don’t maintain contact with the surface, and therefore don’t conduct as much heat
• Use your slow cooker, toaster oven, microwave, or pressure cooker to take some of the (energy) load off of your stove.

You can also get a home energy assessment to find out how to improve your home’s energy efficiency – you can hire a professional or do it yourself.

Don’t forget – there’s still time to take advantage of federal tax credits for installing energy-efficient products in your home through December, 2010, and several states still have energy-efficient appliance rebates available.

Happy holiday cooking!

Andrea Spikes is a communicator at DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which assists EERE in providing technical content for many of its Web sites.

http://www.eereblogs.energy.gov/energysavers/post/How-to-Save-Energy-in-Your-Kitchen-over-the-Holidays.aspx

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130597086

John Poole/NPR A worker with Home Energy Loss Professionals, a Maryland company, retrofits the attic of a home.

The Home Energy Score allows a homeowner to compare her or his home’s energy consumption to that of other homes, similar to a vehicle’s mile-per-gallon rating. A home energy assessor will collect energy information during a brief home walk-through and then score that home on a scale of 1 to 10. A 10 would represent a home with excellent energy performance whereas a 1 would represent a home that needs extensive energy improvements or energy upgrades. The home energy assessor will provide the homeowner with a list of recommended energy improvements and the associated cost savings estimates as well as the Home Energy Score label. Read more about how the Home Energy Score works for homeowners.

Learn about the Home Energy Score:

• Testing Locations
• Methodology
• Related Links

You can easily conduct a do-it-yourself home energy assessment (also known as a home energy audit). With a simple but diligent walk-through, you can spot many problems in any type of house. When assessing your home, keep a checklist of areas you have inspected and problems you found. This list will help you prioritize your energy efficiency upgrades.

Locating Air Leaks

First, make a list of obvious air leaks (drafts). The potential energy savings from reducing drafts in a home may range from 5% to 30% per year, and the home is generally much more comfortable afterward. Check for indoor air leaks, such as gaps along the baseboard or edge of the flooring and at junctures of the walls and ceiling. Check to see if air can flow through these places:

• Electrical outlets
• Switch plates
• Window frames
• Baseboards
• Weather stripping around doors
• Fireplace dampers
• Attic hatches
• Wall- or window-mounted air conditioners.

Also look for gaps around pipes and wires, electrical outlets, foundation seals, and mail slots. Check to see if the caulking and weather stripping are applied properly, leaving no gaps or cracks, and are in good condition.

Inspect windows and doors for air leaks. See if you can rattle them, since movement means possible air leaks. If you can see daylight around a door or window frame, then the door or window leaks. You can usually seal these leaks by caulking or weather stripping them. Check the storm windows to see if they fit and are not broken. You may also wish to consider replacing your old windows and doors with newer, high-performance ones. If new factory-made doors or windows are too costly, you can install low-cost plastic sheets over the windows.

If you are having difficulty locating leaks, you may want to conduct a basic building pressurization test:

1. First, close all exterior doors, windows, and fireplace flues.
2. Turn off all combustion appliances such as gas burning furnaces and water heaters.
3. Then turn on all exhaust fans (generally located in the kitchen and bathrooms) or use a large window fan to suck the air out of the rooms.

This test increases infiltration through cracks and leaks, making them easier to detect. You can use incense sticks or your damp hand to locate these leaks. If you use incense sticks, moving air will cause the smoke to waver, and if you use your damp hand, any drafts will feel cool to your hand.

On the outside of your house, inspect all areas where two different building materials meet, including:

• All exterior corners
• Where siding and chimneys meet
• Areas where the foundation and the bottom of exterior brick or siding meet.

You should plug and caulk holes or penetrations for faucets, pipes, electric outlets, and wiring. Look for cracks and holes in the mortar, foundation, and siding, and sealthem with the appropriate material. Check the exterior caulking around doors and windows, and see whether exterior storm doors and primary doors seal tightly.

When sealing any home, you must always be aware of the danger of indoor air pollution and combustion appliance “backdrafts.” Backdrafting is when the various combustion appliances and exhaust fans in the home compete for air. An exhaust fan may pull the combustion gases back into the living space. This can obviously create a very dangerous and unhealthy situation in the home.

In homes where a fuel is burned (i.e., natural gas, fuel oil, propane, or wood) for heating, be certain the appliance has an adequate air supply. Generally, one square inch of vent opening is required for each 1,000 Btu of appliance input heat. When in doubt, contact your local utility company, energy professional, or ventilationcontractor.

Insulation

Heat loss through the ceiling and walls in your home could be very large if theinsulation levels are less than the recommended minimum. When your house was built, the builder likely installed the amount of insulation recommended at that time. Given today’s energy prices (and future prices that will probably be higher), the level of insulation might be inadequate, especially if you have an older home.

If the attic hatch is located above a conditioned space, check to see if it is at least as heavily insulated as the attic, is weather stripped, and closes tightly. In the attic, determine whether openings for items such as pipes, ductwork, and chimneys are sealed. Seal any gaps with an expanding foam caulk or some other permanent sealant.

While you are inspecting the attic, check to see if there is a vapor barrier under the attic insulation. The vapor barrier might be tarpaper, Kraft paper attached to fiberglass batts, or a plastic sheet. If there does not appear to be a vapor barrier, you might consider painting the interior ceilings with vapor barrier paint. This reduces the amount of water vapor that can pass through the ceiling. Large amounts of moisture can reduce the effectiveness of insulation and promote structural damage.

Make sure that the attic vents are not blocked by insulation. You also should seal any electrical boxes in the ceiling with flexible caulk (from the living room side or attic side) and cover the entire attic floor with at least the current recommended amount of insulation.

Checking a wall’s insulation level is more difficult. Select an exterior wall and turn off the circuit breaker or unscrew the fuse for any outlets in the wall. Be sure to test the outlets to make certain that they are not “hot.” Check the outlet by plugging in a functioning lamp or portable radio. Once you are sure your outlets are not getting any electricity, remove the cover plate from one of the outlets and gently probe into the wall with a thin, long stick or screwdriver. If you encounter a slight resistance, you have some insulation there. You could also make a small hole in a closet, behind a couch, or in some other unobtrusive place to see what, if anything, the wall cavity is filled with. Ideally, the wall cavity should be totally filled with some form of insulation material. Unfortunately, this method cannot tell you if the entire wall is insulated, or if the insulation has settled. Only a thermographic inspection can do this.

If your basement is unheated, determine whether there is insulation under the living area flooring. In most areas of the country, an R-value of 25 is the recommended minimum level of insulation. The insulation at the top of the foundation wall and first floor perimeter should have an R-value of 19 or greater. If the basement is heated, the foundation walls should be insulated to at least R-19. Your water heater, hot water pipes, and furnace ducts should all be insulated. For more information, see ourinsulation section.

Heating/Cooling Equipment

Inspect heating and cooling equipment annually, or as recommended by the manufacturer. If you have a forced-air furnace, check your filters and replace them as needed. Generally, you should change them about once every month or two, especially during periods of high usage. Have a professional check and clean your equipment once a year.

If the unit is more than 15 years old, you should consider replacing your system with one of the newer, energy-efficient units. A new unit would greatly reduce your energy consumption, especially if the existing equipment is in poor condition. Check your ductwork for dirt streaks, especially near seams. These indicate air leaks, and they should be sealed with a duct mastic. Insulate any ducts or pipes that travel through unheated spaces. An insulation R-Value of 6 is the recommended minimum.

Lighting

Energy for lighting accounts for about 10% of your electric bill. Examine the wattage size of the light bulbs in your house. You may have 100-watt (or larger) bulbs where 60 or 75 watts would do. You should also consider compact fluorescent lamps for areas where lights are on for hours at a time. Your electric utility may offer rebates or other incentives for purchasing energy-efficient lamps.

dhull@mercurynews.com

Since we bought our house in 2006, my husband Matt and I have had at least 5,000 “What Should We Fix on Our Fixer-Upper?” conversations.

Our small north Oakland bungalow was built in 1910, and we love it. But it definitely needs help. First we tackled the seismic work on the foundation — that was a no-brainer. Next came insulating the attic. Then we had a baby, and all of the other projects on our growing to-do list slid into a gaping black hole.

Still, the conversations continued. We finally decided to get a home energy audit in which a specialist in building science will examine your house from top to bottom — heating and cooling systems, appliances, insulation, air leaks, lighting.

Older and even some newer homes typically have single-pane windows, outdated heating and cooling systems or inadequate insulation. Other houses may suffer from poor indoor air quality, mold or uneven heating and cooling. An energy audit prioritizes what work should be done first, with a goal of helping you save on energy bills and make your home more comfortable.

Now is a good time for an audit. Some energy-efficient upgrades may be eligible for up to $1,500 in federal tax credits, which are set to expire Dec. 31. And though it has not actively marketed it, PG&E is quietly participating in a pilot program called Energy Upgrade California, which also offers rebates to homeowners who agree to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.

Several Bay Area companies, including Sandium Heating & Air in San Jose, SolarCity in Foster City and Energy Conservation Options in Oakland, are Energy Upgrade California contractors in PG&E territory. We hired Recurve, a San Francisco company that used to be called Sustainable Spaces. It has been around since 2004 and does both energy audits and green energy remodeling. A friend recommended them, and Recurve’s website is always up to date with information about available rebates and incentives. The audit cost $395, with $295 back if you end up hiring Recurve to do work on your house.

The first step was to give Recurve our recent PG&E bills, so the company could get an idea of our gas and electric usage. We don’t have a flat-screen TV or air conditioner, and our October PG&E bill was just $67.

The next step was the audit itself. Andrew Dunn, a polite 26-year-old from Georgia, arrived in a hybrid company car with bags of high-tech gear, from his laptop and iPhone to a digital tape measure, thermal imaging camera and fan for the “blower door” test that would measure the air flow in our house. The son of a builder who studied physics and engineering in college, he approached our house like a giant puzzle waiting to be solved.

Dunn immediately saw things about our house that had completely escaped my attention. He figured out that the hot water heater was 14 years old and that its location in the kitchen, near the stove, was dangerous. He asked how often we had it serviced — the answer is never. He mentioned that the floor furnace was probably pulling up damp air from the crawl space beneath the house.

He zeroed in on the fireplace in the dining room, which we never use — it was designed to burn coal, not wood. He asked us if we realized that the chimney didn’t have a flue. I felt like an idiot: When the heat was on, any warm air in our house was going right up the chimney. (Our son Jasper explained that we had to keep the chimney open for Santa Claus at Christmas.)

He measured the length and width of each room in the house with a digital tape measure and entered all of the data into his laptop; Recurve has developed software that models each house and evaluates its overall energy efficiency. He used the infrared camera to check the insulation in our walls. He ventured into the attic and climbed into the crawl space. He checked for carbon monoxide.

Jasper and I went out to a neighborhood park, and when we got home an hour later our front door was outfitted with a large red vinyl curtain that contained a powerful fan blowing air into the house. As you walked around inside, you could feel mini tornadoes of air currents.

“You’ve got a lot of leaks,” Dunn said. “The fireplace, the old cat door off of the laundry room, the plumbing under the kitchen sink. Sealing up all of these leaks would be incredibly cost-effective.”

Dunn stayed at our house for about four hours. A few weeks later, he came back with detailed spreadsheets. Recurve had analyzed our energy bills for an entire year and found that in most months we were spending more on gas than electricity, which surprised me. Our house had good insulation in the walls and attic, and our overall energy usage was low. The No. 1 issue was air sealing: We needed to seal all of the gaps and drafts, in places like the chimney, where warm air was leaking out and cold air could come in.

“You want to make your home like a thermos,” said Dunn. “If you sealed up all the leaks, then you’d really cut down on your heating needs.”

Recurve then laid out three options for doing work on our house. The first would cost us about $11,000, the second was about $13,000 and the third about $15,000 — in our minds “cheapest” “middle of the road” and “fancy.”

In each option, the top priority was sealing up the air leaks. The second-biggest recommendation was to replace the gas furnace and add duct work and registers to each room, and replace the hot water heater. Each option offered slightly different ways to go about it: Get a new furnace and a tankless hot water heater, or a hydronic air handler instead of a furnace.

We agonized for weeks — should we do this? Since our energy use is low, did making these energy-efficient improvements even make sense? We sent Dunn neurotic e-mails with detailed questions; he provided detailed answers.

In the end, we decided to go for it, but we’re still trying to decide among the three options. It’s exciting to think about becoming as energy-efficient as possible, and hopefully qualifying for a tax credit and PG&E rebate while we’re at it.

Jasper has learned a lot through the process, too. The other night he was working in his play kitchen. “I’m checking my kitchen,” he said. “I found some leaks.”

Contact Dana Hull at 408-920-2706. Follow her at Twitter.com/danahull.

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/nationalbreaking/ci_16459285

Here in Santa Cruz, our per capita water use has fluctuated over the last decade between 120 and 100 gpcd, and is among the lowest statewide. While we might deserve a good pat on the back to not using as much water as our dry neighbors in Southern California, we should also know that there is another place, another country that beats our figures for low water use – Australia.

Rainhogs collect rainwater run-off throughout Australia

Australia is the Earth’s driest inhabited continent and is at the forefront of a global crisis. Its adaptations and maladaptations to dwindling supplies of freshwater offer useful lessons to many parts of the world. While we in Santa Cruz our proud of our 100 gpcd conservation efforts, households in Australia use on average 35 gallons per day.

California’s water is not far from becoming similar to Australia’s. Scientists predict the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada could shrink by as much as 90 percent by century’s end. And the U.S.’s most populous state is no stranger to wildfires or the pressures of an agricultural economy—80 percent of the Golden State’s water is used for irrigation.

Check out Allterra’s water saving systems for your home or business. Its one thing to read about climate change trends, its another to act upon the tools you have today.

Monterey County Home Show

This Weekend, Oct 23-24th

Monterey County Fairgrounds

http://www.montereycountyhomeshow.com/cm/Home.html

House Talk Radio

AM 1240

http://www.housetalkradio.com/home.html