California’s Quantum Leap in Building Standards Last May, the California Energy Commission (CEC) announced a ground-breaking update to the state’s building energy efficiency standards. Starting January 1, 2020, all new buildings in California must have solar. The standards (according to Title 24, Part 6, Building Energy Efficiency Standards) also contain a number of energy efficiency [...]
Q and A With Ray This Q & A pertains to California's Quantum Leap in Building Standards. The questions answered here come from inquiries into concepts, technologies and standard specific rhetoric found in our article on California's rooftop solar mandate. What are heat pump water heaters? A heat pump water heater is an electric household water [...]
If you are curious about the details of your property or a property you are interested in buying, you can look up the property on Nevada County’s GIS on the county’s website. The county has a transparent, open access database with detailed information on property structures, local service districts (i.e. local provider of water, utilities, [...]
Last year the Nevada County Building Department changed its approach to building code enforcement to increase compliance. Rather than inspect properties when a complaint was made, which was the previous policy, now county officials are inspecting properties based on awareness of information about possible code violations. This new approach has significantly increased the scope of [...]
Do you have friends or family members who aren’t convinced that renewable energy is a win-win for human health and the economy? Share with them some scientific evidence to credibly explain the benefits of renewable energy and distinguish fact from fiction. All too often, the oil and gas industry’s marketing tactics and slanted journalism are [...]
This spring, Energy Savings Solutions, a free public workshop series taught by industry experts, will provide practical information on building-scale energy efficiency to complement the Grass Valley Energy Action Plan. The goal of the series is to educate and inspire community members to take action to reduce their energy consumption while saving money and benefiting [...]
KNCO Interview: A Discussion of Energy Efficiency, Sustainability, and Economics of Solar On Monday, February 4, 2019, "Taking Care of Business," a radio show on KNCO, interviewed Penn Martin, the solar designer at SEG Solar. Robin Davies, the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, is the host of the show. The topics of [...]
Over the past year, SEG Inc has collaborated with Sacramento Habitat for Humanity by assisting with the installation of solar electric systems on their homes. Last week, our Operations Manager, Brian Gardner, was invited to attend Habitat for Humanity’s annual Hammy Awards Night Dinner. It was a celebration in recognition of all the accomplishments of [...]
When everyone is using power at the same time, it is very expensive to produce that power. Investor-owned utilities pass this expense onto ratepayers in the form of Time-of-Use (TOU) rate schedules. Mandated by the California Public Utilities Commission, TOU rates encourage consumers to change their behavior to save both energy and money, which translates [...]
Nevada County’s Habitat For Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope.
