We are constantly bombarded by power companies to conserve and be energy conscious but they fail to realize the people are not the problem. Power companies should be attacking home builders that are cheating on energy efficient products being installed in homes. The building contracts and zoning laws have restrictions and requirements but they know that the state will not enforce or inspect any builders to follow the laws and requirements. Builders and contractors install substandard and less efficient products, (water heaters, refridgerators, windows, insulation, air conditioners, furnaces, etc.), to boost their profit margin. A home buyer cannot put any trust in builders and contractors to be honest and obey their building contracts. Home buyers should not be held liable for violating zoning and building codes, it is the cities job to inspect and verify, they are getting paid to do it. The homeowner gets stuck with inefficient products and nothing is done to the builders and contractors. Power companies whinnig about the consumers has gone far enough, go after the real culprits, the cities, builders, and contractors.

It's interesting to see the news here singing the praises of this technology, while at the same time they harshly criticize systems like iProvo that are trying to implement changes like this. Did you all know that iProvo has technology to do this? Do you think qwest or comcast would have done it? Think again...

In addition to local Rocky Mountain Power having hundreds of MW's of dispatchable "peak demand" programs, utilites are targeting builders and their sub-contractors- HVAC, insulation, windows etc.

Rocky Mountain Power and Questar locally have separate “Energy Star New Homes" programs that pay incentives to implement measures that result in more energy efficient homes. These programs are operated by their respective demand-side management groups and are paid for from the verified value of future energy savings and reduced infrastructure requirements.

Other utilities are considering these kinds of programs all around the country. Utilities that aren’t, need to.

The majority of building contractors and Utah building officials/inspectors and the State of Utah Energy Office (J Huntsman's office) has done little to improve on this front other than at best offer lip service/window dressing. They need to become more engaged, educated and take responsibility for "their respective areas of lacking" in order to contribute in a more substantive way.

Hats off to RMP/Questar – it’s a move in the right direction - they can’t solve however the challenges we face alone.

Can you help? Refuse to buy a home from contractors that are not offering "verified" energy efficient HVAC systems, lights, appliances, etc.

Perhaps the D. News could do a little local comprehensive reporting on the subject.

There are dozens of utilites up and down the state that I believe would be more than happy to talk with you.

How about starting out by asking them;

1. What kinds of programs do you curently have? 2. What are you planning?
3. If you don't have any EE or smart gird programs, why not?

Then call the governors office and PSC and ask them what they're doing/not doing and why?

Call Utah Clean Energy and get their view on what's happening and ask them if they think more can or should be done? Is Smart Grid technolgy part of the solution or are there other things we should be doing first?

?'s, ?'s, ?'s.

Do you need some more story ideas?? Give me a call :)