Every Watt Matters to Participate in Statewide Energy Conference

Every Watt Matters builds partnerships that motivate people to focus on conservation of energy at the grassroots level and contribute their mite to the protection of the environment. It provides business tools, training and counsel to help cities and communities promote and establish collaborative energy efficiency initiatives, in addition to assisting contractors enter into the field. It will participate in the Energy Upgrade California Conference being held Jan. 10 and 11, at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, 506 S. Grand Ave., in Los Angeles.

Energy Upgrade California is a statewide program between California counties, cities, nonprofits, and utilities that offers up to $4,500 in rebates and incentives to homeowners who make their homes more energy efficient. At the conference, Every Watt Matters hopes to drive home the message of job growth through energy savings.

This two-day summit sponsored by the Los Angeles County, Southern California Edison (News - Alert), Sempra Utilities, The Gas Co., and SDG&E, will provide training and information on the improvement of energy efficiency of a home. ACI, a nonprofit organization, will coordinate the conference and will focus on imparting information, education and best practices in the home performance industry.

Energy efficiency experts in the aforesaid industry will present and demonstrate at this statewide utility rebate and incentive program being rolled out in Los Angeles County.

Devon Hartman, president of Every Watt Matters is expected to deliver one of the first breakout sessions of the conference in a presentation titled, “Home Performance 101.” EWM advisor Rick Chitwood, reputed for his expertise in home performance and Net Zero energy homes, will present a number of workshops throughout the conference.

The City of Claremont, Calif., now has a city-wide energy efficiency initiative called CHERP, Claremont Home Energy Efficiency Project, created by Hartman and an engaged group of local volunteers. The CHERP goal is to retrofit 1,300 Claremont homes by the end of 2012.

Hartman, formerly a founding partner of Hartman-Baldwin Design and Build Inc., an award-winning Claremont-based architecture and construction firm, recently joined Every Watt Matters so that he could draw attention to the impact that energy savings would have not only on a local scale, but also on a national and global scale.

A long-time expert in energy efficiency and a well-known public speaker on the energy consumption and conservation, Hartman said, “The building performance industry is seeing significant job gains, which are expected to continue to climb exponentially once Energy Upgrade California is launched. We are seeing business startups that began last year now employing several people. This is just the beginning.”

He further added that the industry was seeing significant job gains as people learned about the benefits of making their homes more energy efficient.

The company's first contractor client, Home Performance Matters, started doing business in Claremont last spring and now employs nine people who are performing home energy audits and retrofits throughout the Southland. 

Chitwood has designed models for Every Watt Matters that enables contractors to ensure that their clients benefit from energy savings. He is also a partner in Green Train-to-Jobs, a sister company that provides exclusive training to Every Watt Matters and its clients.

On June 16, 2010, Every Watt Matters announced that it would build Building Performance Institute's first and only Southland-area Gold Star accredited contractor. The Gold Star rating is the highest BPI accreditation possible for a Building Performance Contractor.