Your source for breaking news in the heating industry.
PROVIDENCE – A National Grid program that provides rebates to
residential customers installing high efficiency heating equipment has
run out of money and will be suspended, the company said Monday. The utility said it suspended its Residential High Efficiency
Heating, Water Heating Equipment, Thermostat, and Controls Program in
Rhode Island as of April 19. However, National Grid said that it will
process and pay customer-completed rebate applications received by the
program’s rebate processing vendor by midnight April 30. (more)
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Replacing the 20-year-old heating and cooling systems in their Slingerlands home had been on their minds for a while, but it was a National Grid rebate program that gave Chris and John Kindschi the push they needed to move forward. "We started thinking about it a year ago, but we never did anything about it," said John, a 63-year-old retired city firefighter for Austin, Texas. "Then, we saw the rebates and tax credits and we decided 'Now's the time.'"They arranged to buy a new high-efficiency gas furnace and a central air conditioning unit from Rotterdam Heating and Air Conditioning. They scheduled the installation for late last month, just under the wire for a March 31 deadline Chris had noted in some of the rebate information documents. "We didn't have to do it right then, but we decided to do it because of the rebates," she said.The Kindschis spent about $6,000 ...
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WALTHAM —National Grid customers in
Massachusetts would see their gas bills rise by an average of $5 to $15
a month under a new rate plan that the British utility company has
filed with state regulators.If the company’s proposal is approved by the state Department
of Public Utilities, the typical residential heating bill would rise by
$64 to $175 a year or, on average, roughly $5 to $15 per month, the
company said. National Grid residential customers typically pay between
$1,400 to $1,600 a year for natural gas, or an average of $116 to $133
per month. (more)
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Calling it “excessive and
ill-timed,” Attorney General Martha Coakley served notice yesterday that
she plans to oppose National Grid’s proposal to raise natural-gas rates
by 4.3 percent to 11.2 percent for its 850,000 customers in
Massachusetts. The rate increases - which would average $64 to $175 a year for
customers, depending on where they live - are needed to help pay for
ongoing maintenance of the region’s gas-line infrastructure, said
National Grid. (more)
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The U.S. government, criticized for lax scrutiny of Energy Star products, has announced it will further tighten its certification rules. Prior to using the Energy Star label, the U.S. stamp of approval for energy efficiency, companies will now have to submit complete lab reports and results about their products to the Environmental Protection Agency, according to the announcement Wednesday. EPA will no longer rely on an automated approval process. (more)
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MILWAUKEE — Manufacturer A.O. Smith Corp. said Tuesday that it has
signed an agreement to market solar water heating equipment made by an
Israeli company.A manufacturer of water heaters and electric
motors, A.O. Smith has exclusive marketing and distribution rights in
the United States and Canada for solar collectors made by Chromagen.Chromagen
makes solar products for household use at two factories in Israel.The
companies will also work on the development of new solar products.Shares
of A.O. Smith rose 65 cents to $56.38 in late trading.(source)
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POULTNEY, Vt. (AP) - Green Mountain College in
Poultney is going to inaugurate a new biomass generating facility that
will produce 20 percent of the electricity used by the Vermont school
and 85 percent of its heat. The $5.8 million facility is expected
to burn 4,400 tons of wood chips a year, displacing 200,000 gallons of
heating oil. (more)
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April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese turbines powered by west Texas winds are sparking a debate over whether “Buy American” rules should be imposed on renewable-energy investments backed by the U.S. government. A-Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd., based in Shenyang, China, will supply turbines to a joint venture planning to build a $1.5 billion wind farm using equipment made in China. The group, which includes two U.S. partners, says it may seek financial aid from the Obama administration because the project will create at least 1,000 American jobs. Lawmakers led by U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, say such assistance amounts to subsidizing green jobs outside the country. They want to slap made-in-America requirements on renewable-energy initiatives aided by the U.S., like those already faced by highway and water-treatment projects helped by President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan. (more)
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Congressman Steve Cohen of Tennessee and Senator Bernie Sanders of
Vermont introduced a bill to, respectively, the US House (HR 4597) and
the Senate (S 2993) in February, 2010, that seeks a new program of
rebates for small-scale solar systems. Based on Cailfornia’s 2006 “Million Solar Roofs” initiative, the
proposed 10 Million Solar Roofs and 10 Million Gallons of Solar Water
Heating Act would seek millions of solar systems to be installed on
rooftops of homes and businesses over the next decade. (more)
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AUGUSTA - Maine is preparing to spend $180 million over the next
three years on a far-reaching plan to help residents and businesses use
less energy. The plan would greatly expand efficiency programs, in line
with meeting a 20-year legislative goal of weatherizing every home and
half of the businesses in the state. That law also aims to cut
consumption of electricity and natural gas by nearly one-third over the
next decade, and use of heating oil by 20 percent. Officials are calling
it the most ambitious energy-saving goal in the nation. (more)
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