City to spend $849 million for conservation
 

Impressive.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/livinggr...servation.html

Good. Definitely a huge jump in the right direction.

i thought for a second that the headline referred to the preservation of decrepit old structures and crumbling fish markets.

nice to see that i didn't have to break out the flaming red/fire-consumed smiley on this thread.

The City isn't spending the money, the local electric supplier is. It's getting that cash by increasing rates.

Then, the conservation programs provide rebates to homeowners and business owners that want to install solar panels or make their buildings more energy-efficient by updating lighting, insulation or cooling and heating systems.

Will that be just a 50%, or a 100% rebate? We'll just have to wait for details to be published.

Meanwhile, imho, if the conservation program works as intended, it'll save the utility the costs of building one new coal power electric generating plant.

From my experience, rebate programs don't work as well as many believe. The poor homeowners and small business owners don't have the capital to fund these improvements first, then wait who knows how long to get whatever the rebate is.

I would believe conservation efforts would work if we could ever get women to trash their 1800+ watt hairdryers. Women are like Charlton Heston and his rifles, you will only be able to take them prying their stone cold fingers off.

Am I sounding a little harsh? You bet. A once a day use of that 1800 watt hairdryer for just 15 minutes consumes 450 watts. That's the equivalent savings of replacing ten 60 watt light bulbs with 14 watt compact fluorescent light bulbs for one hour, or replacing one light bulb over 10 hours.

That once a day use of that 1800 watt hairdryer wastes more electricity than any other electriical appliance in most homes. Then reflect what is wasted in homes with more than one female.

You want energy conservation, prove it to me by trashing your hair dryers first!