December 2011

Source:  EcoOutfitters.net
Reporter:  Dawn Allcot

Third in a series of four posts on Smart Meters and Solar by EcoOutfitters featuring Scott Gordon, Vice President of  Residential Sales for HelioPower.

There’s a lot of false information out there about smart meters. Some groups claim microwave radiation from smart meters can cause cancer and other diseases, which is inconclusive but probably untrue. Other people say smart meters don’t work with solar power. But, in fact, solar customers may be the only people (besides the electric company) to truly benefit from these cleverly named digital electric meters. (If you’ve gotten this far and are wondering what a smart meter is, click here to learn more.)

Smart meters provide electric companies with information about your electric use: not just how much electricity you use, but when and how you use it too.

Smart meters are paving the way for states like California to introduce a billing model based on time-of-use. Simply: you’ll pay more for electricity you use during the day — and even more if it’s during the day and during the summer. But if you have a solar PV array installed, you’re not paying for electricity at all on sunny days. Net metering, which is the ability to sell back unused kilowatt hours on your electric bill to earn energy credits for times when your solar PV array is not harnessing the sun’s irradiance for clean, renewable energy, is one of the main attractions to a grid-connected solar array. It becomes even more desirable in a time-of-use world. Since solar panels work best during peak electric use hours, time-of-use billing gives solar customers the ultimate “buy low, sell high,” scenario.

“It’s energy-hedging,” says Scott Gordon of HelioPower, a leading California-based solar installer that has recently launched initiatives to educate consumers on the dangers and benefits of smart meters through videos, written content, webinars and in-person presentations.

Gordon explains, “In a time-of-use world, I get credit at the higher day rate, and I use those credits to offset my night power, which can be one-third to one-half cheaper, or even less.”

Net metering laws in many states mandate that electric companies buy back electric from solar customers based on dollars and cents, not kilowatt hours. If your state uses smart meters and has time-of-use billing options, find out exactly how you’ll be selling back the electric and the peak and off-peak rates. (Read more in HelioPower’s 10 Things About Smart Meters and Solar.)

More Power with Smaller Solar Arrays
If you are conservative about your daytime energy use, you can offset your entire electric bill. “What’s nice about this is now you can buy a significantly smaller system so you’re paying even less and saving even more,” Gordon says.

And if you want to turn on the air conditioner on hot summer days, run your home computer, or maybe even watch some TV, you have the freedom to do it. It takes a lot to make an average-sized array spin forward. Even if you don’t earn as many energy credits, you’ll still be paying lower, off-peak rates for the electricity you buy at night. It’s a gamble that you can only win!

Source:  EcoOutfitters.net
Reporter:  Dawn Allcot

Second in a series of four posts on Smart Meters and Solar featuring Scott Gordon, Vice President of  Residential Sales for HelioPower.

If you began reading this blog post with another question in mind, you’re not alone. Rather than wondering if a smart meter will work with a solar PV array, you might instead be wondering: “What is a smart meter?” When you dig deeper, you’ll come to find that smart meters are really only smart for the electric company.

Smart Meter Myths and Misconceptions
When states first rolled out smart meters, there were a lot of myths, misconceptions, and glitches. We’ll address two of those misconceptions in this blog post.

First of all — no, the microwave radiation emitted by smart meters probably won’t fry your brains, give you cancer, or cause other horrible health problems. Any evidence of the danger of EMF (ElectroMagnetic Frequency) radiation is inclusive, but a smart meter emits no more — and probably less — radiation than your smartphone. And it’s not like you’re going to spend hours sitting in front of your smart meter soaking up EMF waves.

Solar Arrays and Smart Meter Glitches
So, smart meters are probably as safe as any other technology we use today in terms of EMF radiation. But will they work with your solar array? When the technology was first introduced, smart meters did not always work with solar panels.

Smart meters are basically computers, and they hadn’t been programmed to know what to do when electricity was fed back into the grid. Instead of “spinning” (of course, there’s no dial to actually spin) backward to give users energy credits, they kept going forward — twice as fast.

This led to disturbing moments as new solar homeowners promised lower electric bills got bills double the usual amount instead. That glitch, however, was fixed quickly with new programming, but not before rumors about smart meters’ incompatibility with solar arrays spread, further fueling people’s dislike of the devices.

Be aware: If you use solar energy, the smart meter issued to you should have a sticker reading “net” — this means the meter has been programmed to run backward and credit you in kilowatt hours for the electricity you feed back into the system.

With the new programming in “net” smart meters, not only do the smart meters work fine with a solar installation, but a solar PV array helps you make sure your meter is working smartly for you.

Stay tuned as we show you how to leverage time-of-use billing with a smart meter and a solar installation.

Who is it Really Smart For?

Source:  EcoOutfitters.net
Reporter:  Dawn Allcot

First in a series of four posts on Smart Meters and Solar featuring Scott Gordon, Vice President of  Residential Sales for HelioPower.

If you’ve heard a lot about “smart meters” lately, here’s the deal… A smart meter is a digital device that replaces your analog (dial) electric meter. A technician doesn’t need to come to your house to read your meter: the information about how much electric you’ve used is reported directly back to the electric company for billing. A smart meter also permits the electric company to activate or deactivate service without dispatching a technician, which saves time and money (for the electric company, of course).

A smart meter also tells the electric company when you’re using power, for how long, and exactly how you’re using it. Every appliance or electrical device, from your refrigerator to your cell phone charger to your laptop, gives off a different power signature that permits the electric company to identify it.

This can be handy when it comes to detecting crimes — everything from running a meth lab out of your basement to running a business web server without proper permits. It could also, theoretically, be used for marketing purposes. Imagine a world where your electric company, just like your bank and Facebook, gathers information about your daily habits to sell to its marketing partners who can then bombard you with sales messages.

We’re not there yet, but Scott Gordon, CEO of leading California-based solar installer, HelioPower, mentions three ways smart meters affect us: our privacy, our freedom, and our finances.

Based on the examples above, it’s easy to see how smart meters can infringe on our privacy. Let’s look at the last two, which are very closely linked.

Time-of-Use Billing and Your Freedom to Use Electricity

With information about when people use electricity, utilities can move to a form of billing called “time-of-use.” In this scenario, you would pay more (between two to four times more) for electricity purchased during daytime hours, and less at night and on weekends. Even higher peak rates could apply during the summer, which utility companies say will help prevent brown-outs by limiting use.

This could mean a shift in lifestyle, as people opt to do laundry and run dishwashers and pool filters at night instead of during the day. But for appliances like your air conditioner, picture this: on a hot summer day, the only choice you’ll have is to live in uncomfortable, possibly dangerous, conditions, or pay more for your electric. Gordon provides a graphic example: “Imagine somebody living in Palm Springs, and they’re 79 years old, and it’s 123 degrees outside. Now they’re deciding whether they’re going to turn their AC on or they’re going to eat.”

Should You Say No to Smart Meters?
“When I give presentations and ask people who smart meters are smart for,” Gordon continues, “they get it right away. The utility companies.”

Provided you are given a choice, refusing a smart meter is the “smart” decision to protect your privacy, your freedom and your wallet. Find out 10 Things About Smart Meters and Solar for more tips from HelioPower on how to legally beat the system.

Source:  GetSolar.com
Thursday, December 8th 2011 2:01 PM

There are a lot of ways for electricity bills to run high in a place like southern California. With high temperatures year round and blistering summers, almost every home features at least some kind of air conditioning. Many homes also have pools that must be filtered. This only adds on top of all the televisions, computers and countless other consumer electronics that ring up the kilowatt-hours each month. Sam Spagnolo of Rancho Cucamonga, east of Los Angeles, paid for all of these with the added expense of having grandchildren who were all to happy to make use of them.

"My electric bills were averaging over $400 per month," Sam explained to California solar installer HelioPower when he first visited them about the possibility of adding a rooftop solar installation.

Four hundred dollars per month is fairly high for California, where the average bill was $82.85 per month in 2009, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, but this includes the entire state, even the far cooler climes in the north. By comparison, nearby Arizona paid an average of $116.09 per month, despite seeing average electricity rates more than 25 percent lower. At California's excessive electricity prices, the sunny state could have been paying monthly bills of more than $156 on average.

Indeed, the state as a whole saw the second-lowest average monthly electricity usage in the entire country at 562 kilowatt-hours, behind only Maine. Tennessee, the state with the highest monthly usage in the country, would have faced average electricity bills of more than $205 per month at California's rates, though much of this disparity can be attributed to California's efforts at energy efficiency.

Nevertheless, the National Weather Service illustrates how much warmer it can get in the southern reaches of the state. Meanwhile, the state's tenth-highest residential electricity rates make clear how much of an impact this difference could have on residents bills.

After a long talk with a representative from HelioPower, Sam was certainly interested in the potential savings a residential solar installation could offer him under these circumstances. But at the end of the day, he decided he simply could not afford it.

"Quite frankly, although I could clearly see the returns, I wasn’t ready to make that big a commitment by buying a system," Sam told them.

That problem quickly solved itself, however, when California-based SunRun struck an agreement to work with HelioPower. SunRun's residential solar financing program offers homeowners the opportunity to add a solar installation and to cut down on their electricity bills simply by paying a fixed monthly bill or fixed rate for the electricity produced by the system.

Solar power purchase agreements arrangements can generally be made with little money down, and sometimes none at all. In Sam's case it cost only $1,000 and work started on his roof within only a few weeks of having HelioPower put through paperwork for the various permits and federal and state solar incentives.

Now, a 33-panel photovoltaic solar installation sits on the back roof of Sam's house. At 230 watts each, the solar panels combine for a peak

Solar in Rancho Cucamonga at Sam Spagnola's residence

capacity of 7.59 kilowatts and can produce more than 11,100 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's PVWATT Calculator. That represents more than one-and-a-half times the average Californian's annual energy needs. At California's average electricity price of 14.74 cents per kilowatt-hour, that amounts to more than $1,600 per year. Between a good first month that saw Sam's solar system produce enough to give him a $300 credit from his electricity company and a $500 rebate from the City of Rancho Cucamonga, it took only two months for Sam to earn back the $1,000 he paid in up-front costs, and he only expects to save more over the years.

Source:  Murrieta Patch
Writer:  Maggie Avants

For every new residential solar installation contract through Jan. 31, HelioPower will donate to Power to the People, a nonprofit bringing solar lighting to Nicaragua.

A Murrieta-based solar power company is teaming up with a nonprofit to bring solar power to those without lights in Nicaragua.

Photo by James Richard-Kao

This week, HelioPower and Power to the People launched “Help for the Holidays," a joint campaign to help households in California and Nicaragua secure affordable solar energy.

There are a number of moving parts, according to Glenna Wiseman, vice president of marketing for HelioPower.

"We want to help homeowners in California go solar with no installation cost and $500 cash back. They can also enter a $150 gift card giveaway," Wiseman said. "And we want to help families in Nicaragua have lighting through an established nonprofit."

The cash-back program and gift-card giveaway are being sponsored by Canadian Solar Inc., the panel manufacturer for HelioPower.

“We are very happy to sponsor a worthy program with industry-leading partners to bring clean energy to people around the world,” said Alan King, general manager of Canadian Solar USA, in a news release.

“Helping California consumers save money during the holiday season while also providing an important daily resource to people who otherwise might not have it is an ideal example of the power and reach of solar energy," King said.

For every home solar system installed through the campaign, which ends Jan. 31, 2012, HelioPower will donate to Power to the People's Solar Lighting program, Wiseman said.

"So many people around the world have no lights to see by at night," said Jenean Smith, executive director, Power to the People, and marketing director for Trojan Battery, in a news release.

"We're excited to work with HelioPower as we launch our Solar Lighting program in order to bring affordable solar lights to families in Nicaragua this winter," Smith said.

"It is difficult for us to imagine living without electricity when so much of our daily lives depend on it. Yet people in other parts of the world live without this resource."

HelioPower selected the $150 gift card amount because that is how much the average homeowner pays each month for electricity, Wiseman said, adding that anyone–even those who don't have a home–can enter to win.

The gift-card giveaway contest ends Dec. 21 and 10 winners will be announced Dec. 22.

"…We are very pleased that the campaign empowers California homeowners to assist families in Nicaragua in lighting their homes affordably as well," said Scott Gordon, vice president of residential sales for HelioPower.

To learn more about the "Help for the Holidays" campaign, click here.

Housing Authority of San Bernardino Marks Completion of Solar Power Installation Built by HelioPower to Benefit Low-Income Families with Free Solar Energy

Southern California Edison (SCE) awarded its first and largest Multifamily Affordable Solar Housing (MASH) Track 2 Grant of $1,840,000 to The Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino (HACSB) yesterday at a “70 & Solar” celebration.  The presentation took place at the Maplewood Homes affordable housing community, home to over 1100 residents.  The event focused attention on the innovative “green” project which incorporates solar retrofits atop 100 of the community’s rooftops, green job training and creation as well as ongoing solar production monitoring and green outreach.

65 residents, community members, and representatives of SCE, HACSB, San Bernardino city council members and HelioPower, the solar

Southern California Edison awarded its first and largest MASH Track 2 Grant ($1,840,000) to the Housing Authority of San Bernardino for the Maplewood Homes solar power system installed by HelioPower. From left to right: Maurice Camp (Project Manager, HACSB), Susan Benner (President/CEO, HACSB), Gustav Joslin (Chief Operating Officer, HACSB), Aileen Lagbao (SCE MASH Administrator), John Bogardt (Project Manager, HACSB), and Tom Millhoff (VP Business Development, HelioPower). Source: HACSB.

installation firm on the project, all gathered in the community center to applaud the completion of the “green” project and HACSB’s 70^th anniversary.  The celebration included the presentation of a $1,840,000 solar program rebate check by SCE to Susan Benner, HACSB’s President/CEO.

“We extend a warm welcome to the Housing Authority into the solar community,” said Aileen Lagbao, Program Manager, MASH & Solar Thermal for Southern California Edison, as she presented the grant check.

“The MASH Track 2 award has provided employment for our residents and local businesses.  Families at the site have also been learning about conservation measures including the benefits of solar power and conserving energy,” said Benner.

100% of the clean energy generated from the solar power system will benefit residents at this affordable housing community.  An average family at Maplewood Homes spends $572 annually on electricity. Community-wide the average cost saving from the solar power generated energy will be $166 per unit per year, or about 30%.

HACSCB worked with HelioPower in the development of the grant proposal, engineering and construction of the solar power system and development and delivery of the educational, training and Internet components of the program.  A solar and energy efficiency seminar was presented to residents as part of the program by Tom Millhoff, Vice President of Business Development at HelioPower.

“This is part of a larger more comprehensive strategy the Housing Authority is developing for energy management.  It’s our intention to reduce energy and water use across our housing portfolio, which today includes over 3,000 units of affordable, market rate and senior housing,” explained Benner.

This project is the first of many solar installations that the Housing Authority is pursuing to show its’ commitment to implementing green initiatives not only to increase sustainability and save energy, but also to provide employment opportunities for its residents in the growing green-building industry.  HelioPower hired two residents and one community member giving them the opportunity to learn a new trade and gain solar industry expertise.

The California Solar Initiative MASH Track 2 funds supported the installation of a 302 kilowatt (kW) DC solar photovoltaic facility at Maplewood Homes. The 100 solar power systems were engineered and installed by HelioPower.

The MASH Track 2 funds supported the installation of a 302 kilowatt (kW) DC solar photovoltaic facility on 98 residential homes and 2 community buildings at Maplewood Homes.  85% of the clean energy production will go to residents and 15% will be channeled through common area energy savings to help fund on-site employment.  The solar facility will offset over 1500 kilowatt hours (kWh) per unit annually.

Maplewood Homes is an affordable housing community located at 1738 West 9^th Street, San Bernardino, CA.  It was built in the late ‘40’s and has undergone several renovations.

“I lived here on 10^th street and played here as a child. The transformation at this community is marvelous,” said San Bernardino Councilmember, Rikke Van Johnson in his event presentation.  “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

HelioPower ‘s Tom Millhoff said, “HACSB’s demonstrated outstanding initiative, creativity and financial savvy in developing this solar project in conjunction with a major energy efficiency retrofit and property upgrades at the affordable housing community of Maplewood Homes.  The result is substantially improved living environment for residents, reduced living expenses, and a shining legacy that sets the ‘green standard’ for other Housing Authorities.”