Homeowner Workshops Explaining Incentives for Home Energy Upgrades Start Tuesday

Remember the federal stimulus funds to help homeowners save energy? They're available in Santa Clara County now.

A traveling homeowners workshop organized by a statewide program called "Energy Upgrade California," will be held in four locations in Santa Clara County beginning Tuesday, according to Bill Maxfield who is coordinating information about the effort.

Workshops will be held Tuesday in Los Gatos, Wednesday in Cupertino, Thursday in the Willow Glen neighborhood of San Jose and Nov. 8 in Los Altos.

Homeowners can learn about incentives of up to $1,000 for a basic upgrade, or $4,000 for an advanced upgrade.

The idea is to offer incentives to homeowners who complete specific energy-saving home improvements on a single-family residence, using a "whole house" approach.

This "whole house" program is an integrated approach to energy efficiency, based on “building science” principles, according to Maxfield. This means combining several related improvements at once to increase a home's overall energy efficiency and achieve greater savings.

Have you ever had that nagging feeling that house heat is escaping when you look at your winter heating bills? The program starts with an assessment of the home to identify where problems are and what solutions can be used.

Contractors participating in the program have been trained to do the work to meet the requirements (the program conducts workshops for contractors, too). A software program calculates energy savings and the amount of rebate.

Energy Upgrade California (www.EnergyUpgradeCA.org) is a collaboration among California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission the state's counties, cities, non-profit organizations, the state’s investor-owned utilities, and publicly owned utilities, according to PG&E's website, which participates in the program by administering the rebates. Funding for this effort comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (known as federal stimulus funds), California utility ratepayers, and private contributions.

All workshops are identical, said marketing coordinator Matthew Greenfield, so if the presentation date in one's home city is inconvenient, the same information will be presented in the other four.

Locations

Los Gatos:

Tuesday, November 1, 7:00pm

JCC Jewish Community Center of Silicon Valley

14855 Oka Road

Los Gatos, CA 95032

RSVP: http://euc-cupertino-eorg.eventbrite.com/

Cupertino:

Wednesday Nov 2, 7:00 PM

Community Hall

10350 Torre Ave

Cupertino, CA 95014

RSVP: http://euc-cupertino-eorg.eventbrite.com/

Willow Glen:

Thursday, November 3, 7:00pm

Willow Glen Community Center

2175 Lincoln Ave

San Jose, CA 95125

RSVP: http://sanjose-euc-eorg.eventbrite.com/

Los Altos:

Tuesday November 8, 7:00pm

Shoup Park, Garden House

400 University Ave.

Los Altos, CA 94023

RSVP: http://euc-losaltos-eorg.eventbrite.com/