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 [...]
Many Californians are concerned about rising electricity costs given limited choices in an underserved energy marketplace. Over 60% of California residents are served by only three of the state’s six investor-owned utilities (IOUs). [1] In the service areas of the three largest IOUs (Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & [...]
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 [...]
This potential change in Net Energy Metering in 2019 could significantly impact the value of renewable energy on the grid for future solar customers.
