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The price of residential electricity has historically trended upwards despite routine promises of future innovation resulting in lower energy prices. Based on the linear trend, electricity in 25 years will cost about 50% more than it does today. At a 3% annual increase, typical of expected inflation rates, electricity would more than double in the next 25 years. In other words, a $150 electricity bill today will be over $300 in 25 years! What if I told you that you could prepay for 25 years of electricity at well under the current price of about 11.5 cents per kilowatt-hour? Wouldn’t that be a smart financialRead More →

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Last Thursday FPL took applications for the remaining 2012 solar rebate funds. As expected, funding ran out quickly… as in under two minutes! My employer had quite a few rebate applicants lined up for solar electric systems. I decided before the rebate website went live that I wouldn’t post the results or my reaction in a knee-jerk manner. While I was angry and disappointed, I wasn’t surprised. Now that the dust has settled, I can respond effectively. We did secure rebates for some of our customers, but any process that rewards rebate applicants for being able to type fast is just silly. I have criticizedRead More →

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FPL has announced that the remaining 2012 solar rebate funding will be released on May 3, 2012 for solar photovoltaic (electric) and solar water heating systems. If you want any chance of getting in on the best solar rebate in Florida history, you need to act NOW. Call your favorite solar contractor and they will walk you through the application process. Because the rebates are highly competitive and the amount available will be very limited, it is likely that the funding will run out in the first 10 minutes. The online application process requires advance planning and detailed information about the system you intend toRead More →

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Utility electric rates in Southwest Florida vary quite a bit depending on how much electricity you consume. I created a spreadsheet to calculate what your utility electric rate would be with different utilities depending on the amount of energy consumed. What you will find is that the effective rate for LCEC is higher for typical residential customers because of the higher fixed customer charge. Another interesting fact is that LCEC netmetered customers with solar electric generation pay more that regular LCEC customers until they consume at least 1,342 kilowatt hours (net). Again, this is because of a higher customer charge. The rates are current asRead More →

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It’s a common question. “How many solar panels do I need to power my ### square foot house?” The answer is not so simple. In fact, I can’t even give you a rule of thumb. Some industries can tell people a reasonable range for sizing equipment, and often building codes dictate sizing of appliances. For example, an A/C company might tell you that on average you need one ton of air conditioning for every 600 square feet of living area for a Southwest Florida home. A plumber might tell you that you need a minimum 50 gallon water heater for a 3 bedroom, 2 bathRead More →

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Today I had an FPL representative at my home to test my duct work. I was really just expecting them to pressurize my ducts and place some little blue stickies next to all the leaks found in the attic. I was quite wrong, and very pleased with what actually transpired. The specialist that arrived (on time) was very professional. She set up the equipment to create negative pressure in the whole house and asked me what I knew about the duct system and the home. She took pressure drop readings at every register and return in the home. I volunteered to walk around and writeRead More →

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The Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) reported that Florida dropped from #8 in 2010 to #17 in 2011 for the amount of solar electricity capacity installed. In addition, total installations decreased by 60% from 35 megawatts to 14 megawatts. Why the big decrease? It’s my contention that the FPL rebate program is stifling the market. That’s right – a rebate intended to encourage solar energy installation had the opposite effect! The interesting thing is that solar prices have never been lower, even without a rebate involved. The perception about solar needing rebates to be successful is an outdated notion. Getting this message out is onRead More →

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For those of you who don’t know, the largest utility in Southwest Florida, FPL, is giving away money – lots of money! If you ever had an interest in solar panels, NOW is the time to act. There is money available for solar electric systems and solar water heating systems, and combined with record low prices on solar panels, this is an amazing opportunity. The program is a huge success, but I want to talk about how FPL can improve the Solar Rebate Program, especially the rebate for solar electric panels. FPL is offering $2 per watt of installed system rating with a residential limitRead More →

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I recently set up a Wattvision meter on my Fort Myers, FL home to evaluate its effectiveness. I have to say, I love it! It definitely clues you in to how much energy you are using, when you are using it, and what appliances cost to operate. The device pays for itself by identifying power hogs. For example, I cut down the time my pool lights come on each night because they were consuming 600 watts! On the other hand, I decided to run my fountain longer each day because it uses next to no energy. The charts on the Wattvision website are excellent. YouRead More →

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FPL is in full swing installing Smart Meters around Southwest Florida.I had mine installed last week, but the communications network is a work in progress, so there’s no benefit to me yet. Despite all of the complaints and fears about Smart Meters, I believe the benefits will be great, allowing a granular look at your energy consumption down to your hourly usage, all available from FPL’s website. It’s not as good as some of the energy monitors on the market that can give you a per-second look at your consumption, or even monitor individual appliances or circuits, but it will provide significant insight into yourRead More →

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I’m at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Broadway Apartments affordable housing project where we have 40 solar water heating systems installed. This is the largest polymer solar collector water heating project in Florida! Solar water heating will reduce the electric bills for residents of the two-building multi-tenant property. The goal of the project is to provide affordable housing that features low utility bills in a LEED Platinum facility. The solar water heating systems were one part of the LEED criteria that allowed the Broadway Apartments to achieve Platinum status. The Southwest Florida Affordable Housing Choice Foundation reports that previous residents are already asking forRead More →

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I guess I’ll weigh in on the highly publicized FPL rate increase request that would add about $7 to each residential account’s monthly bill starting in 2013. FPL representatives say that the increase will pay for increased costs of doing business and a new “efficient” natural gas fired plant. The increase amounts to $695 million per year. Expected savings from the new plant – $600 million over it’s LIFETIME! Does something seem very wrong here? The problem with a public utility is that they are entitled to make a net profit, but that guaranteed profit is a percentage of costs. Costs increase, profits increase. ThereRead More →

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Don’t panic! It’s not here yet! Time-of-use metering allows a utility company to charge you different rates based on the time of day. This billing approach is popular in places like California and the Northeast US where there are large peaks in electricity demand. Utilities deliver power by producing a “baseline” amount of power that corresponds with the lowest amount of total expected power demand for their customers at the lowest possible cost. It costs more to meet power needs that are above this baseline amount of power because production costs are higher to meet the peaks. Total demand changes based on the time ofRead More →

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You may have heard about the wonderful Florida Power & Light (FPL) utility solar rebate program that provides $1,000 for solar water heating systems and up to $20,000 for solar electric systems. This program can significantly reduce the total cost of ownership for a solar energy system. However, leased systems do not qualify. Solar leasing has become popular, particularly in other states where Federal, state and utility incentives can be directed to the leasing company. Solar leasing typically benefits the leasing company more than the homeowner, but it can be a way for just about anyone with good credit to get into solar energy withoutRead More →