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Home and Garden Show

The annual home and garden show was help in Phoenix this weekend.  As always, it was a good show, with a lot of excellent ideas for homeowners.  The number of sustainable living, solar energy and living green booths and displays was at an all time high.  It was so nice to see, people are really getting it.

The highlight of the show for me was a booth by Solaranda.  They are promoting an idea I have had in my head for some time now, combining two of my passions in life, aluminum awnings and alternative energy.  I own Shadebuilder.com and have dealt with aluminum lattice products for many years.  The combination of awnings and solar panels was obvious to me and I was so happy to see it is being done.

Solar electric booths were plentiful at the home and garden show, with panels on display, plenty of salespeople, and lots of brochures.  Sunpowercorp was there and so was skyrenewableenergy.com.  AzPower-Save.com had a booth and so did AesSolarNow.com and energyproaz.com.  They all had their facts and figures and were ready to explain exactly how you could buy their system and have all your money back in ten years or so.  Between the power company rebates and the tax incentives it truly is a good time to invest in solar.  These companies know that and are doing their best to get the word out.  Most of the salespeople were on the pushy side, wanting in the worst way to get your name on the list, but they were just trying to make a living, I know, it's tough out there.

SaltRiverEnergy.com was one of the few companies that dealt in more than just solar electricity.  They specialize in radiant barriers, solar gable fans, solar garage ventilation systems and complete solar systems.  AquaScienceAz.com was there to take care of all my water needs, from a new solar water heating system to a complete home water filtering system.  With over twenty five years service in the valley they are folks I would do business with.  Also with solar water was easyenergyweb.com with a solar thermal water heater, one of the best alternative energy investments you can make.  They claim that a family of four plants the equivalent of 240 trees annually by using a solar water heating system.  Sounds good to me.

Arizona Public Service had an excellent booth at the home and garden show, packed full of useful information and an extremely helpful and friendly staff.  The solar water heater brochure says that up to 15% of your energy bill comes from heating your water.  This could easily be done for free.  It's pretty much fact that solar water heaters pay for themselves within two years, usually one, so from then on you pay 15% less for electricity, every month.

Another APS pamphlet states that Arizona has at least 300 days of sun each year.  That's just one of the many reasons for using solar photovoltaic systems to power your home.  The Solar Makes Sense booklet has a lot of info but something important stands out to me, something not everyone knows.  In Arizona is is illegal for HOAs to prohibit or limit solar installations.  Solar is for everyone, not just a few.

The booklet "Green Choices from APS for Your Home" is a nice little overview about how you can go green and how they can help.  The first page is about saving 75% on your lighting expense by just switching to CFLs.  They go on to talk about their partnerships with recycle centers to make disposing of these bulbs easy for all of us.  The next page explains how much money they can help you with when you decide to upgrade your A/C unit to an Energy Star rated one, the ones that might be up to 50% more efficient than what you have now.  The rest of the booklet covers topics like duct test and repair, energy-efficient homes, the energy analyzer, green choice power rates, solar electricity, solar water heating, solar space heating and wind energy.

A non-profit business of interest to me was Stardust Building Supplies.  They recycle used building materials.  They take the stuff from your home, like cabinets and toilets, when you do a remodel.  They clean this stuff up and sell it for 50-80 percent off retail price.  They have two warehouse type locations in the Valley.  One of them is at 4240 W. Camelback Road in Phoenix and the other is 1720 W. Broadway Road in Mesa.  Recycling, or re-owning all this stuff is great, much better than hauling it to the landfills, but they are about more than that.  They offer a free deconstruction service, they come to your home and remove your donations, the stuff that usually just goes to the dump.  What a cool service, but there's more.  The Angels on Call service performs certain home repairs for homeowners that cannot afford to pay for these services.  They also have a service called computers for kids where kids in need can make use of your old computer equipment.  They folks at the home and garden show were polite and eager to share the goals and visions of this company.  Look them up at stardustbuilding.org.

One thing I observed at the home and garden show was the abundance of companies ready to come out and give you a home energy audit.  Although I truly believe in having one of these done, I do recommend you be careful about who you have do it.  It might even be wise to have several companies come out and see what each one is pitching.  For a truly objective evaluation consider one of the firms that charge for their service, and home energy audits is all they do.  It's a good idea to get one, but don't be sold until you are ready to buy.

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