“Consumers would be eligible for between $1,000 and $1,500 for simple home upgrades such as insulation, duct sealing, water heaters, air conditioning units, windows, roofing and doors. Homeowners looking for more comprehensive energy retrofits would be eligible for a $3,000 rebate if the efficiency measures lead to a 20 percent energy savings.”

Obama Sets Aside $3.4 billion Stimulus to Jump Start “Power Grid 2.0″ in US
Inhabitat
In other presidential energy-related news, Inhabitat reports: “As part of the infamous American Reinvestment and Recovery Act — or Stimulus — Obama smartly set aside 3.4 billion dollars to invest in smart grid technology in 2010 and beyond. That block of funding was matched by industry money and private investment to total over $8 billion in funding for everything from installation of smart meters to funding for manufacturing processes.”

Home Improvement Retailers See Glints of Rebound
New York Times
“After more than a year of not spending money on their homes, consumers began refurbishing their kitchens and painting their living rooms in what appears to be the early stages of a comeback for the home improvement industry. Home Depot and Lowe’s, the nation’s largest home improvement retailers, posted better-than-expected earnings this week.”

But: “Home Depot’s professional business — merchandise typically bought by builders and contractors — was weak, though the rate of decline was not as bad as in previous months. The company’s worst-performing categories included lumber, hardware, electrical goods and other high-priced construction-related categories. Lowe’s, too, said sales to its commercial business customers were soft.”

Take Three: Will Congress Extend the Home Buyer Tax Credit?
WSJ.com Developments blog
“The National Association of Realtors and other industry groups are beginning to make the rounds on Capitol Hill to press their case, which goes something like this: We know you’ve extended the tax credit two times already, but the housing market is still fragile, the tax credit is working, and don’t forget: you’re up for re-election soon. In other words, do you really want to own the next leg down in home prices?”

Cnet’s Green Tech blog offers a good introduction:

Building the smart grid means adding computer and communications technology to the existing electricity grid. With an overlay of digital technology, the grid promises to operate more efficiently and reliably. It can also accommodate more solar and wind power, which are inconsistent sources of energy that can become more reliable with better controls. Much like computers and routers manage the flow of bits on the Internet, smart-grid technologies use information to optimize the flow of electricity.

So what exactly can a smart energy grid do for homeowners? Among other things:

• It can heal itself: Using sensors built into the system, pieces of the grid can communicate with each other, reporting problems and balance load distribution to remedy current problems or alleviate looming trouble.
• Encourage consumers to proactively monitor and reduce energy usage: If you’re able to see how much energy you’re using and which appliances or devices are using the most, you can easily make changes to save more or conserve energy.
• Enable “electricity markets”: Consumers can better control how much energy is used and even when it’s used, avoiding peaks in demand  times high demand
• Make alternative energy sources easier to use: As explained above, with a smarter, more flexible power grid, solar and wind generation become more reliable.

Some are leery of the benefits, though, and are concerned about the impact on consumers’ pocketbooks:

Consumer advocates have a different perspective. First, even with stimulus grants, consumers have to pay part of the cost of any smart meter rollout, but much of the benefit is in lower operating costs for utilities. More crucial, all consumers, including those who can’t or don’t want to be responsible for monitoring their electricity use, could be exposed to volatile prices. An elderly woman home alone on a summer day could see rates in her community triple or quadruple without being able to do much about it.

Exactly when and how smart grid technology will be implemented in homes across the country is, clearly, not yet known. But with consumers increasingly demanding efficiency-driven remodeling and renovation projects, one thing’s for sure: It’s only a matter of time.

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