ecobeco's
October 2009 Newsletter
ecoTips, News,
Deals, and More - And it's
Free!
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Hello,
Hello October! The cooler weather came out of
nowhere this week, and seemingly everyone I know has
caught a cold of some sort. Get your blankets
ready and read on. This is an exciting month that
includes the Green Festival, which is DC's largest green
event drawing 20,000+ to the DC convention center Oct
10-11.
- Events Update - Green Festival, Howard County 50+
Expo, and DC Energy Efficiency Expo.
- October's ecoTip - Managing Moisture Before Energy
Efficiency Improvements
- Product Highlights - ecobeco's Fall Clearance Sale
- Green Home Certification Will Launch During Green
Festival
- ecobeco's Home Energy Audits - A Great Value.
- Refer Your Friends, Get $$$
- Tax Incentives for Energy Efficiency.
- Montgomery County Residents get $250 of FREE
Energy-Efficiency Products.
- Store
Hours.
Enjoy! |
ecobeco Events
Update
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Visit www.ecobeco.com/events to get the latest on ecobeco's speaker series and to see
where we'll be speaking throughout the
community.
The
Green Festival - Saturday October 10 from 10am-7pm and
Sunday,
October 11 from 11am - 6pm, at the Washington
Convention Center.
ecobeco will have booth
928 at this year's Green
Festival, right next to the Green Home Pavilion.
Come and talk to our energy efficiency experts and learn
about a wide variety of energy efficiency
topics.
Presentation Schedule (repeats Saturday
and Sunday):
11:30 am Introduction to Home
Performance with ENERGY STAR Energy Audits
12:30 pm
It's Not Your Windows! Understanding Air Leaks and How
to Fix Them
1:30 pm Condominiums Can Be Energy
Efficient Too!
2:30 pm Realtors: Stand Out with
Green Home Certifications and ecoAssessments for Your
Clients
3:30 pm Weatherizing Your Home Is
Easy
4:30 pm Show Me the Money - Understanding
Government and Utility Incentives for Energy
Efficiency
Green Festival - Washington Convention
Center - 801 Mount
Vernon Place, NW Washington, DC 20001
Howard
County's 50 Plus Expo - Friday October 16 from 9am to
4pm at Wild Lake High School
ecobeco is
set to attend Howard County's
50 Plus Expo. Come and talk to one of our trained
energy efficiency experts to learn about energy audits
and how you can help the environment by making your home
safer, more comfortable and energy efficient.
Parking
will be available at The Mall in Columbia with shuttle
services to the Expo.
Admission is
Free.
50 Plus Expo - 5460 Trumpeter
Road, Columbia, MD
14th
Annual Energy Efficiency Expo - Saturday November 14
from 10am-4pm at the Washington Convention
Center
ecobeco is joining The Office of
the People's Counsel, the District of Columbia's
official consumer utility advocate, for its annual
"hands-on" Energy Efficiency Expo. Stop by to see how
you can make your homes more energy efficient and what
DC residents can do to save money on your energy
bills.
14th Annual Energy Efficiency Expo -
Washington Convention Center - 801 Mount
Vernon Place, NW Washington, DC 20001
Click Here to tell your friends about our
events!
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October's ecoTip -
Managing
Moisture
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Managing
moisture is a year-round issue. We all know that
humidity falls with temperatures, but don't fall for the
out-of-sight out-of-mind folly. It's natural that
we do most of our improvements in the fall and winter
when our heating bills are highest and our sense of
urgency the greatest. But we need to consider what
our home will be like in the spring/summer when we
decide which actions to take today. Your ecobeco
energy auditor can help.
The buildup of unwanted
moisture can be detrimental to your home in multiple
ways. Elevated moisture levels in a
home can promote the growth of mold and mildew -
troubling air pollutants that cause breathing issues,
allergies and other ailments. The picture on the right
shows an extremely moldy bathroom with no ventilation.
Not surprisingly, this family's children are
experiencing symptoms of asthma. Other indications
of excessive moisture include peeling paint and water
marks. Furthermore, excess moisture can damage the
structural integrity of a building, causing rot or
related decay issues.
On the other hand, moisture
is an important part of comfort. When humidity is
too low, our skin feels dry. The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggests
maintaining a relative humidity level between 30% to 50%
to maximize comfort while reducing mold risks.
ecobeco sells the Enviracaire
HealthCheck Monitor hygrometer that you can use at
home to measure relative humidity at home to help you
decide whether to run a humidifier or
dehumidifier.
There are two kinds of moisture
management to consider:
1) Keeping unwanted outside
moisture from entering the home - structural
improvements that seal exteriors and divert water away
from the home are critical. Air sealing also
reduces the movement of moisture into the home.
2) Finding and
addressing moisture issues inside the home -
think about places where moisture is created such as
bathrooms, sinks, kitchen, etc. - proper ventilation
(using dampers) can help ensure the expulsion of
moisture created through these sources. Humidifier
systems connected into the HVAC unit can regulate the
relative humidity in a controlled way during
winter. In summer, air is humid, so a dehumidifier
works with your air conditioner to regulate the relative
humidity levels inside the home.
Because safety
is our top priority, we suggest addressing moisture
concerns before proceding with structural energy
efficiency improvements. Air sealing an
excessively moist area can "lock in" moist air that can
degrade insulation and create a breeding ground for
mold. This is all part of ecobeco's WHOLE HOME
APPROACH to safety and efficiency.
Here are
some other things to consider as you prepare for
winter:
- Identify and address air leakage sources through a
whole home energy audit.
- Clean gutters of any leaves or debris.
- Fix broken downspouts and direct runoff away from
home at least 3 feet.
- Consider a rain barrel to capture your runoff and
use for a dry spell.
- Slope soil away from your home.
- Fix any holes in your roof, flashing or fascia.
- Install or fix poorly performing bathroom exhaust
fans in baths with high moisture levels.
- Properly insulate your home to prevent
condensation issues (but make sure to seal air leaks
first!).
- Make sure to have a sufficient vapor barrier in
enclosed crawlspaces. Good practice attaches
vapor barriers to the warm surface (closest to living
space).
- Have your sump pump inspected and maintained on a
regular basis.
- Test your home for mold and
mildew (sold by ecobeco).
Properly managing
moisture is a critical component of maintaining a safe,
comfortable and energy efficient home.
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Product
Highlights -- Fall Clearance
Sale
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With the
fall weatherization season here, ecobeco is gearing up
to fight the cold with some hot sales on a wide range of
our environmentally friendly products. Be sure to take
full advantage of these clearance prices on some of your
favorite eco-friendly and energy saving product lines as
we prepare for the winter season:
Sale applies to current inventory
only. No backorders.
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Green Home
Certification Will Launch During Green
Festival
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Have you
or someone you know tried to sell their home recently?
It's a tough market out there, and wouldn't it be nice
to get some recognition for the efforts you made to make
your home energy-efficient and eco-friendly?
Energy-efficient homes typically have lower operating
costs, are more comfortable, and have better indoor air
quality than a comparable unimproved home. Plus, a
recent survey showed that homes considered "green"
actually sell faster and for more dollars per square
foot than comparable homes without a "green"
certification.
Until now, the only way to get an
efficiency rating was to hire a RESNET-certified auditor
to get a Home Energy Rating Score (HERS). But that
score compares your home against a new 2006 home.
That hardly seems fair.
During Green
Festival, ecobeco will introduce a Green Home
Certification that certifies your home based on a
detailed list of attributes that reward
energy-efficiency, renewable energy, eco-friendly
materials, and more. We only certify items that
convey with the home at time of sale, so your buyers
know they are getting a better home than a comparable
home that has not had improvements.
REALTORS, learn about this new product at 2:30pm
at ecobeco's booth 928 during Green Festival when we
host a discussion of the product and walk through the
certification worksheet. We'll repeat the talk on
both days of the
festival.
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ecobeco's Home
Energy Audits - A Great
Value
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We did
some mystery shopping, and we realized that ecobeco's
Home Energy Audit outshines the competition in 7 major
ways. In addition to the standard blower door test and a
report with recommended retrofits:
- We use an infrared camera on every job to identify
sources of air leakage that are invisible to the eye
and/or behind walls and/or located in inaccessible
parts of the home.
- If you have gas, oil, or propane-powered HVAC or
water heater appliances, we test them for efficiency
and safety to ensure your home doesn't have dangerous
levels of carbon monoxide or combustion gases.
- We run every job through the Maryland Energy
Administration's BEACON software that models how much
energy you will save when you retrofit your home.
- We estimate the cost of each retrofit so you can
shop smart.
- We tell you about utility and tax incentives that
lower your costs of getting work done and show you
where to get the forms you need.
- We provide you with a payback period and return on
investment so you can compare this investment against
leaving your money in the bank.
- We come back to your home after the retrofits are
complete to validate that you got what you paid for by
re-running our blower door and combustion safety
tests.
If you or your friends are shopping
for Energy Auditing services, ask our competition how
much they charge to include all the things we do in
every audit, and you'll see that ecobeco provides the
best value in the area.
Customers in Maryland can
purchase audits starting at $349. Customers in DC
and Virginia can purchase audits starting at $449. These
differences in rates are due to auditor incentives
sponsored by the EmPower Maryland program that do not
exist in DC or VA. You can get more details on the
pricing and our surcharges for larger homes, for homes
needing combustion safety testing, and for long distance
travel by going to www.ecobeco.com/schedule.
Just sign up on-line for your preferred dates and we'll
be in touch with you.
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Refer Your
Friends, Get $$$
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We're
very excited to introduce our Friends & Family
Referral Program. Just go to http://www.ecobeco.com/friends.asp
and give us the Name, E-mail and Phone Number of your
friends who might want Energy Audits. We'll
contact them and if they purchase an Audit or
Combination package, you'll get a $25 electronic gift
card for the ecobeco product of your choice! Now
that's green!
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Tax Incentives
for Energy
Efficiency
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The
American Reinvestment and Recovery Act included
substantial spending on energy efficiency related
items. Part of the legislation includes an
increase in the tax deductions for purchases of
energy-efficient appliances, insulation and
windows.
Please click the links below to access
the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and
Efficiency (DSIRE). Then, consult your tax advisor
for more information about whether you qualify for these
incentives.
Taxpayers can deduct 30% of
total materials costs up to $1,500 for s pecific
energy-efficient product purchases made in 2009 and
2010.
Residential
Energy Efficiency Tax Credit
Taxpayers can
deduct 30% of the installed cost of solar PV, solar hot
water, wind, fuel cells, and geothermal heat pump with
no maximum limit.
Residential
Renewable Energy Tax Credit
The DSIRE
database also includes incentives specific to your state
and county, so be sure to check for those programs as
well by navigating back to the home page and then
clicking on your state.
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MONTGOMERY COUNTY
RESIDENTS GET $250 OF FREE ENERGY-EFFICIENCY
PRODUCTS
We'll show you how to claim
your Property Tax Credit!
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If you
are a Montgomery County Home Owner (you pay property
taxes), you can take advantage of the
Property Tax Credit for Energy Conservation
Devices. This credit refunds 100% of your spending
up to $250. CFLs, Low-Flow Showerheads,
Programmable Thermostats, and Smart Powerstrips are the
easiest and most essential items for any
energy-efficient home. And there are many more products
that qualify as well. Schedule your in-home visit
today and we'll help you determine exactly which
products you need today.
ecobeco will provide you
with the forms you need to fill out and will coach you
on how to fill them out to ensure a smooth claim
process.
There's no better time than now to
schedule your in-home ecoAssessment or Energy
Audit. The tax credit is limited to $250,000 of
total benefit for the entire county for fiscal year
2010, so make your purchase now and submit your
application as soon as possible to ensure your refund.
There is no income exclusion or residency
requirement for this credit.
Call us at
the store (240) 396-2141 x2 to learn
more.
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Store
Hours
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Our
regular hours are:
Monday
- Friday: 3pm - 7pm
Saturday: 10am -
2pm
We are also available by appointment, and
of course we are open during all of our special
events. |
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Thanks,
Brian, Reuven, Curt, Brooks,
Jonathan, Mike, and Daniela
(240)
396-2141
info@ecobeco.com
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