FEBRUARY 28, 2011

Carefree Earth Day Expo Offers Free Workshops to Educate Residents on How to Reduce Electric Bills with Energy Efficiency, Free Solar Power and Building Design

Residents will learn how to utilize APS solar rebate and state/federal tax credits that will pay for a large percentage energy efficiency, solar hot water heaters and solar power installations

Carefree, Cave Creek, North Phoenix, North Scottsdale and Anthem residents are invited to attend FREE Energy Efficiency and Solar Installation and Design workshops that will begin at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 16, 2011 at the Carefree Council Chambers located at 100 Easy Street, Carefree, Arizona 85377. The Carefree Earth Day Expo will educate customers on the easiest and most cost-effective ways to reduce or zero out their electricity bill for the next 25 years.

Customers will learn how to take advantage of more than $92.5 million worth of APS incentive programs that were approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission to make energy efficiency and solar energy upgrades as affordable as possible. Those who attend the workshops will learn how to sign up for these incentives to fund large portions of their projects.

Once residents have learned how to make smart purchase decisions via the workshops they can then shop for the best deals at the adjacent Town Center Gardens where more than 30 vendors will be exhibiting green products and services, energy efficient retrofits, solar hot water heaters, solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays, and green building design firms. To get accurate quotes residents are encourage to bring copies of their electric bills and let exhibitors give them a rough calculation of how much free electricity their roof might produce and how much money they can be saved on electric bills by installing energy efficient and solar powered products.

The 9:00 a.m. workshop will cover what energy efficiency retrofits work best, how solar technology works, what rooftops are best, how much space is needed, how much it costs, what the return-on-investment is, and how to sign up for APS solar rebates and federal/state tax credits.

The 11:00 workshop will cover how architect’s design sustainable residential projects, with information on general design, new products, green materials and certifications, construction quirks and most importantly, putting it all together.

Workshop Speakers will include:
• Home Energy Audits Greg Field, Phoenix Green Team http://phoenixgreenteam.com/
• Energy Efficiency Brandon Lehman, EcoSun http://www.ecosunsystems.com/
• Solar Hot Water Heaters Peter Reed, Pacific West Solar http://www.pacificwestsolar.com/ • Solar Power Arrays Clint Taylor, Arizona Solar Concepts http://www.azsolarconcepts.com • Green Building Design Erik Koss (AIA, NCARB, LEED A.P.) KOSS design+build http://www.kossdb.com/

Have questions? Each workshop will be followed by an extensive question and answer session that will answer as many questions as possible about home energy audits, energy efficiency, solar lighting, solar hot water heaters, solar power systems and professional green building designs.