well yeah thank you all so much for having us tonight we're really pleased to be here I'm Matthew Douglas May I'm a community program coordinator with the Center for Energy and environment where we work with communities and City governments to help start and Implement different energy programs good and I'm Dave Olson I'm H the Commercial Business Development repres representative for Center for Energy environment I work in our commercial team uh specifically uh commercial programs One-Stop and Associated lighting HVAC kind of stuff like that so business side yeah so I think today we'll just give an overview of the different programs and things that CE does that can help communities achieve their energy goals um and I kind of actually wanted to start by asking you all as a commission um if you have any goals or the city too any goals around energy we're working with the the Council to I don't say relaunch but refocus what the should be doing and ensure that we have appr there are no current stated goals around energy use we are a green step City I don't know if that's one of Step if it's not well it's one that should be done in the future I think it might have it probably is based off how many solar panels we have on our we we we get even further definitely cool yeah especially getting the community involved either residents or business business owners in the community as well aside from just City buildings and yeah I mean it would be great to receive recommendations from you all on how cities could um improve or whatever Co and I think from a larger perspective it's kind of a complimentary thing right so we have like Home Improvement assist Assistance programs for people who trying to update or line sewers or do Vari of things and so we we're connected with you all through this too to do the energy stuff and so it's really more that kind of just wraparound Services when it comes to just Home Maintenance and upgrades and and and kind of that longterm value ad is kind of how we see this as a complimentary program for some of the stuff we're already doing yes personally my biggest concern in this city is um regarding the larger buildings that may seem to be upgraded so that would be a buildings yeah definitely cool yeah this is super helpful I think we'll we'll touch on some things throughout and if you have any questions um shout them out so yeah I don't mind being interrupted cool you'll be here a while then interrup yeah that's great um so cool so some quick background on Ce we're uh nonprofit of about 200 employees um we've grown a ton in the last 10 years or so um we were founded in 1985 and Energy Efficiency has kind of been our main focus the whole time um and our mission is that the Center for Energy and environment promotes Energy Efficiency to strengthen the economy while improving the environment we provide practical Energy solutions for homes businesses and communities that's kind of the overall Vision we bring and then these are the values that we try to bring to all the work we do so is a nonprofit where does most of your funding come from great question so um each of our programs are funded differently um a lot of our programs are funded through the utilities so Excel Energy and Center Point yeah aren't they like mandated to pay you guys if someone wants a home energy add it and then in the the whole homeowner pays a just Bank amount as well yeah which is now subsidized to new tax bill it had so I well if you know this I don't mean to interrupt no go for it um the state of Minnesota years and years and years ago because uh the commercial team the onetop team uh has has been around since the year 2000 uh in terms of lighting rebates and stuff like that we've added other programs to onetop since then the conservation Improvement fund so CIP dollars is um something that the state passed so all utilities all investor owned utilities or all utilities had to pay into a fund um a certain amount of gross profit made out of the Min their Minnesota territory because Excel has Colorado and centerp point has different states um but that fund has to go into conservation Improvement and they have to spend out of that fund yearly a certain amount towards energy effic efficient um improvements okay whether that's businesses homeowners um and so a lot of those dollars everybody who gets um a bill you pay a couple cents off of your bill every month into a a general fund that is managed by the state um to an extent the puck Public Utilities Commission and so between Puck and collaboration with the utilities we've managed to gain and and build programs through these you know contracts we sign together in terms of spending it back into the community by bringing savings and would you say that your organization is funded enough like do you have what you need in order to do what you want to be doing I think in some ways yes and some ways noag yeah yeah and I think we'll we'll you'll kind of get the full picture our next slide kind of touches on how how wide C has certainly grown uh I've been here six years Matthew's at four and a half or four yeah and uh we had less than or around 80 six years ago and we're now at we've expanded quite a lot okay um plenty of different uh departments and branches of what C does so that's where we're like well some departments certainly do have enough in some departments are going to continue to have to like research uh our department certainly Works Federal for federal dollars so we're looking for a department of energy loan or grants to research into further things and then the state of Minnesota has card yeah card grants which will also um feed into our research and so you have we have specific goals in that research and so they're paid out of that but profit on grants is isn't to sustain the rest of the company we have to certainly find revenue streams up some side yeah so if that's all confusing you can no Matthew might be able to say it even better than me revenue from different s I'm thinking about revenue from different sources yeah and we yeah and then comparing it to other sectors of the economy we are nonprofit but it's we're also kind of unique in our nonprofit as well I run into plenty of um nonprofits and my uh I do I do a lot of Chamber of Commerce Outreach work and so they're all they're constantly looking for funding sources or um foundational money sort of stuff like that and CE doesn't really do that uh yeah at this point in time yeah we're not against it yeah cool so yeah so we um we have a pretty big or wide array of programs and things that we do so um we have a number of programs to help homes communities and businesses save energy um our research Department as Dave mentioned does a lot of different research projects um air source heat pumps is a big one but kind of what are those new technologies that are going to help us save more energy and lower consumption um our Consulting department help works with building owners entire communities to achieve longterm Energy savings kind of setting goals and helping stay on track to meet those uh our policy team is active at the legislature helping pass new um new legislation that's pragmatic and based in the public interest um this two years ago we passed the Eco act which was an update to the SIP policy that Dave mentioned so now electrification can be part of those that utility funded um spending whereas in the past you weren't actually weren't allowed to have fuel switching be a part of that yeah so that's a good switch Yeah that's just one example um of a big win and then our lending Department um we actually work with the city of Crystal on the home improvement loan um but also energ or insulation loans solar loans lots of tools to help it make it more possible for residents and businesses to make these improvements on your on your policy side are you what type of nonprofit are you isn't isn't like a 501c3 can't do advocacy can't do direct lobbying no um we we we Lobby B like we have no we're not whatever okay yeah yeah I don't know the exact designation but we're not and I think the I telling people five C3 but that's uh good to know sometimes they split so there's like it's the same it's like a different technically a different organization fine prous was all under the same house or yeah the the funding that we get for our policy work is um like not it's yeah we're able to do lobbying because of that 5504 or whatever it is it is okay um yeah so that's so those are kind of our our main departments um and then some of the ways that we help cities take advantage of different energy opportunities are making uh Energy Efficiency easier for residents and businesses so helping stand up programs or just helping people become aware of existing programs and resources that are available to make it easier you don't have to reinvent the wheel um help with engaging utilities to take advantage of all the resources that come from them through sip um sometimes it's hard to navigate sometimes setting up that utility partnership can be really beneficial uh and then also help adopting local policies if well the local government wants to push the needle and Implement a new program we can help with that yeah the recommendations that would great okay cool awesome great is all of that be for service um a lot of it is and but some of it is not so all um we can talk about that as we dive into the programs um so kind of the the way we're gonna talk about what CE does for the rest of the time is through these five categories so we have um our community energy Consulting team which I'm on um Partners in energy our Lending Center and then our residential and Commercial programs which are going into buildings making those improvements happen um we'll talk about all those now so Community energy Consulting um is an initiative we have to help communities of all sizes pursue energy efficient low carbon strategies tailored to their own environmental and economic goals uh and so this is kind of higher level planning support implementation support help with engaging residents businesses getting the community involved um some of what that planning looks like is energy action planning so helping a city set goals to meet uh technical studies for example we worked with the City of Minneapolis last year to do an analysis on how much it would cost to weatherize and Electrify all one to for unit homes in the city and that those numbers are able to inform City policy budgets things like that um and then yeah other types of planning as well we also do a lot of implementation of policies and then the programs that come out of those so um a couple examples are building energy benchmarking programs that's a require the PO those policies require the largest buildings in a city to report their energy use to the city so that then you can identify the low performers and help them save energy because that's where the biggest opportunities are um so there's five or six cities across the Metro that have a policy like that that we help um help start and then I work on implementing the city of St Paul's benchmarking program for example so is benchmarking that kind of benchmarking more intended for cities with a large commercial presence or could those buildings also be apartments or things that great question yeah so um multif family is definitely on the table usually the cut off is a square footage threshold so like 50,000 square feet and larger which is usually like a grocery store or bigger um so large apartment buildings are definitely part of that yeah um but it is a lot of offices department stores things like that in that implementation of energy benchmarking I think um I'm on the more business side of of engaging with customers than cities and uh business owners certainly get a little they're like hold on I have to report my energy and so it's more like we certainly want to bring people along with a carrot versus a stick and I think that's our approach with uh building energy benchmarking implementation stuff I mean you also take a look at schools yeah public schools are already required to Benchmark through the state so they're kind of doing it but um they like for example in St Paul they share their data with the city to kind of add to the data set and you know also help them track their energy use and improve over time so we get at our place in my house we get a um a report from I don't know if it's just the gas company or Excel does one me I get one from Excel how comp exactly yeah so it's it's a similar principle comp neighbor yeah we're kind of like here's the miles per gallon of your building can we help make you here's a couple ways to improve and smiles because I had a home energy audit and have been making improvements on my home we've been able to see the changes over time which is actually really NE you can also see like swap out all appliances for new on yeah yeah it's like really cool and having a history of your energy use is the way you can't track thatment so um yeah some other examples of implementation work we do is uh energy code support time of sale energy disclosure um which means that the sale every time you sell a home um there is a an inspection that happens in in some cities not all and part of that inspection report would be an energy performance report um and then we do a lot of behavior change campaigns too so I'm out tbling at events calling people up you know door knocking all kinds of things to help folks um get involved in different programs so yeah um and we so we do a lot of engagement on that front and that can take a couple different forms one is engaging internal City staff say a city wants to div develop a new policy like a benchmarking policy for example um we can help facilitate the process of getting all the city staff and council members decision makers at the table to work together through workshops and facilitation processes to create a policy that feels good to everyone and is um G to you know benefit the community yeah yeah we found it's best to bring everyone to the table from the beginning yeah you know make sure everyone knows what's up yeah exactly no surprises at the council meeting yeah um we engage community members at events um all kinds of ways and then engaging businesses and then utilities how do we align the resources with the the needs of the constituents um another exciting program we're working on is Electrify everything Minnesota um and this is an initiative to provide electrification resources to Residents in partnering cities so as you have probably experienced the Journey of electrifying your home can be pretty complicated and overwhelming and um there's tons of incentives and rebates coming down the pipeline figuring out which contractors to work with um what even like which project should you start with there's all kinds of questions so um we're working with cities to get that education out to the community and also kind of be a hub for information and support you also work with I'm thinking about landlords residential property landlords you sometimes homes aren't updated up maybe because they're renting it out so living in it and getting folks like that to make large investment in efficiency it's probably a hard sell yeah there's there's that split incentive sometimes if the tenants paying the energy bill the landlord owns the home and the the systems um we all of our resources in education here would apply to a one to four unit so single family to a quadplex um and Outreach to rent to rental properties can certainly be part of that um this initiative specifically is more for who's interested now how do we get people started in this but um later next year and end of 2025 as more rebates and incentives are available I think the kind of the market will rot in a lot there um but yeah we host workshops um where folks can come with their questions learn the full scope of electrifying do a lot of public Outreach tabling and events um we have Electrify advisors who you can call and ask for which contractor should I get a bid from I got three bids which one like how do I make sense of the differences um and then also incentive navigation D you also include like in older areas upgrading the service from the PO because I mean I know in my house we had to do that we were like the lowest possible yeah so upgrading your your electrical panel yeah that's certainly part of it so Excel owns up to your meter at the point of the meter where a transition over your ownership so yeah we to get new lines run and did they bury them this time or God the end of the line well I mean they would if you paid for yes more than happy to right yeah I lose power every time it gets windy I was gonna say and aren't you like one of the last I'm the end of the line and the last house on that GD oh wow so when something goes through the last priority we we are know very well where the one Transformer is and we flag down trucks to restore power to those Eight houses um and the the Excel cuts the branches every 10 years 15 years trim but they grow much faster than that they should be cut much much faster yeah before before we upgrade or transition any more gas appliances to electrical appliances we actually need to do something with the power line thingy and we need a new electric box yeah yeah that's cost me $1,800 know that's pretty good I think there's a program with Excel where you can um call as well and say hey I we need trimming so if you want to addit more they do oh okay they still wait they still wait that's fine my this year that's like one of the yeah when they're in town our phones blow up because they'll trim it they leave he backyards they'll Pile in the front yard and forget about it they think they'll top the tree I mean there it's just this we know when they're here that so I a yeah yeah that hot of my phone been getting workout Sentry Link that one's been pretty no yeah I had to I had to dump them I had them for three months and um the service was either fantastic or non-existent um they sent several Texs out the last Tex I sent out informed me that if I knew how to Cable ethernet should so yeah it's it's GNA be um but yeah so there are tons of questions things to navigate around electrification um so it's been exciting to work on this in the recent years um and then EXL Energy's Partners in energy program is um another program that we partner with EXL energy to offer and this is a free Consulting service to cities um to build in energy action team is what they call it a group of stakeholders that create an energy action plan setting um goals Focus areas and strategies for engaging the community in achieving energy goals that is you know a certain amount of energy savings achieved per year or this many more people participating in renewable energy um and then after that plan has created their are 18 months of implementation support where um they provide marketing uh Outreach strategy um help with getting the word out to businesses residents we even targeting like the multif family sector for example or renters um really like whoever you want to reach with opportunities and resources to save energy this actually sounds great because it's it sounds like it's a free resource and we're such a small municipality with such a small tax Bas that we it's hard to justify additional expenditures beyond what we're already doing and even some of the things we're already doing um so yeah that's quite cranky about yeah yeah which happens anyway so this is program through Excel yeah so so Excel Energy funds this process um the really the main is one of the implementors yeah the the only implementor yeah oh yeah sorry Ines yes only impl so they so they would po so you would essentially be paid by Excel come in and work with the city then yep so there's umel is mandated to pay you to do that um it's a it's an agreement between the our nonprofit Andel get out of it yeah that's a great question so they they lose they reduce their profitability by writing off donation to see um no it's it's not donation based contract based and we win it every trianal yeah so what so what they get out of it um they're actually really Excel is really excited about this because um when it helps understand the community's needs better um it's also a great way to get more participation in the energy saving programs which is a winwin um and then being able to better serve their communities another reason so PR I know EXL breaks but they're at 50 50% local oh they like to reduce the carbon so is this something that have you ever so I don't know either of you directly been involved this the community but something that a community might tackle in tandem with like a climate action plan like a water planning obviously this doesn't this just tackles energy right yeah this is Just Energy um New Brighton actually just did a energy action plan and a climate action plan at the same time okay where the the energy action plan that came from this process was the energy section of their climate action plan were you invol the climate action plan too or do you not um just just the energy action plan yeah that yeah one of our community advisers um yeah Community energy facilitator facilitators so then they they like embed in a sustainability commission or maybe whatever cities want to call that that and they're a resource for all of that kind of stuff and then they stick with like you stick with one or a couple of the facilitators through the whole process so yeah if you're interested in more information I'd recommend emailing and um the partners and energy team can follow up um but more appropriate for City staff to email or concern citizens um probably City staff um that's where the coordination would happen but this seems like something that could be really interesting yeah and it can help kind of give a road map of like what strategies are we going to work on what do we want to prioritize how where does people power need it and where it can it help so great you my part my half I suppose if he split it up so home energy Squad which um Matthew actually used to when he first joined that's the team he was on um but I get to talk about it a little bit because it's under the programs I'm commercial but I know a fair amount about residential I I run into a lot of people asking me about it so um the home energy Squad is is a contract with Excel and Centerpoint that uh they are providing uh funds for and then we're delivering it on their behalf um a lot of different cities have buy Downs so they're going to say hey we're going to set aside funds that any Resident uh you know it's a $100 to have us come out but cities will sometimes defay that cost so then we're only charging their residents you know 50 bucks 80 bucks whatever it may be but there is a $70 rebate with a new tax go right oh so City could pay the rest of the 30 it would be free for them is that in Minnesota or is that the yeah that's the the IRA I think it's like we're trying to like figure out that that's the federal then it's feral yes but you're you're correct there forgy oh sorry yeah lot things that yeah it's exciting we've done a lot a research into that climate Heth it was climate and healthare and that's in the bill climate right and there's there's a lot of new avenues for the Energy Efficiency and and we're definitely paying attention to that and when that stuff is kind of getting more widespread we've had presentations about the IRA and um the a couple other what's I don't remember the other yeah infrastructure B I oh okay yes so um we're we're trying to stay on top of that and advise people as much as possible but we're not necess we haven't seen that um in action yet where we're like we're not doing or did you get the taxes don't happen until spring so it would be you claim those savings or what the re the tax credits are available um but a big part of the IRA is the rebate programs and those are not available those imped sorry I was thinking rebate I was like hold on that's some so I always focus on the rebate side because that's where I come from in my world so I was like those aren't Implement ready to be implemented yet but um yeah so City buy Downs the inhome visits include installation of materials IR camera blower door test safety checks and then energy advisors uh can continue to help with next steps they provide a nice uh bundled together report of like hey this is our findings this is where we think you can increase stuff um I'm imagining window panes are next we've started on our research team moving into triple pain and and its impact and um I mean that's early I should say are we I know that we're hiring for uh Market transformation teams and and seeing what's next so I could see that um once that much like air source heat pumps once we've incubated it long enough we launch it as a program or part of another program so is renal goodi Anderson gonna have another line for their canvasing SP about I'm assuming uh I know that uh we'll certainly be looking to to partner with um any contractors and and manufacturers to make people more aware of those benefits I canvas for them in college so I still remember the like yeah doing like your windows single pain it just leaks out energy but these double paint blah blah blah window paint materials how long do it generally take from you know research to impation um I'd say three years I think like Robbie had the air source heat pump working like the research being done I want to say two years I think it totally depends yeah definitely depends it definitely depends on the technology and the of whatever grants we may receive to do that research so um I should say that's only one my one experiences our cold climate air source heat search so um we were also able to grab uh Kelsey a crystal homeowner gave us some feedback I thought it was important to highlight we're active in Crystal and are able to help homeowners even now so as you were able to tell us live and I have benefited immensely from I I did it sorry I did it as well ultimately I it wasn't very beneficial because I learned that the house the the only recommendation was your house is too sealed and I needed to install air exchanger that was that was the only that was the only recommendation but what about your your water heater and they they were very efficient they're very I meanes yeah that wasn't your or no the the the major appliance are new okay um and the windows are all new as well that's the windows that helps definitely yeah was like you put the blow really surprised 1950 nothing happened do some cities like have I don't say but now I know introductory or new homeowner like a discount or something so someone buys a house energy done right a lot of Realtors partner with HS to give a free home energy Squad visit as like a welcome president so here's your list yeah seems like something you someone's excited about their first house and we get a lot of first time home buyers yep that's very true um just by the nature of the house and Stu right so it seems like it would make sense that here's your 10 year plan of what you're and since I do uh Business Development I'm at a uh you know five different chambers for CE and a few different associations I run into a lot of people who they're like oh I want my realtor office swapped over so I help them on the commercial side but then they're also like oh yeah I mean you guys run HS and I should I need to get a contact to you guys I want to make sure I can work out you know whatever that contract is so they buy it down for homeowners that buy from them sort of things so um just a couple stats for Crystal home energy Squad visits over the past three years 2021 we are at 41 or 40 and then he's got small so 38 I think and then 31 so far this year um sorry so I don't know what H is home energy Squad sorry and then I can't read on the left uh so that's going to be the yeah number of visits and then our our years so 2020 we did 40 home visits in Crystal uh 2022 had 38 or so okay maybe 39 they got small for me and then we're at 31 current year but we'll continue to do visits up until December there's are you know so I'm assuming that will also get close track like the percentage of housing stock in a specific given city that you visited oh for what's interesting I was just looking at some of the home energy B so Golden Valley and Robinsville have done and they do it's interesting some of the stuff they pull on the homes in the city the makeup is you guys when you go to the home do you kind of cross reference that with what you're encountering the the age of the home is a very important like data point in a home energy audit so and it's public knowledge the general age of different neighborhoods but I mean like of however many homes there are in so like could you drill down into that and see what the was of the things oh gotcha of the 31 you've done 20 of them are 1960s and 10 or 70s or whatever right um I think that we certainly have that data but I don't think we're necessary releasing that in a report at all just because of our contract has personally pii information and we AB I don't know how much that Pi but anyway right I but I'm not sure how much we're we one home that was a 1980 home and they identified that I think if anything we we may do it well do do you know I I think we certainly like could do that analysis I just don't know if we have as that would be useful if the city could Target homes that were built during a specific time period should this that'd be a great question for our energy action plan uh if you guys were to adopt that or work with Partners in energy you did there yes they don't call me business development rep like you deal enough um another thing that we offer is the home energy Hub so this is a a website we uh put you know tidbits letters newsletters type things just more resources for homeowners on what uh to do and how to be more efficient um I think we have this in your oh wait we do have this in here twice that's the better slide where it has improve health learn innovate what's what's down the line from everything that uh is coming out for home energy and a good resource for any homeowner uh The Lending Center has uh residential commercial um Partnerships with with different entities on the residential side uh we already have a relationship with Crystal but yeah Home Improvement uh energy improvements solar and then even down payment assistance for uh um first-time home buyers so these are all programs that CE run or delivers on behalf of the city of Crystal and then commercially um there's if if you run through the One-Stop efficient program uh onstop efficiency stop it we our name is too long sometimes but uh that provides other um you know comparable rates to help businesses make their energy action plan if they want to do lights we can make it work so that they continue paying their same amount of energy bill but it's since you're going to see a a decrease that you just maintain your payments and it helps I was explaining this system you're talking about solar uh that could work with solar as well but I was specifically talking commercial yes but yeah like a solar loan may be able to you just you don't necessarily see any like it's not an additional payment they will work so that you can actually pay your energy bill right and then a certain amount comes to CE to pay part of that loan you had taken out right yes so it looks it feels like you're not paying a loan it feels like you're just continuing to pay your electricity bill yes but you're actually paying off your solar panels and eventually you don't have to pay that anymore exactly but would the payment for that come due when you saw if you sold the house that's a question question for Lending and I can certainly give you uh our lending contact uh I don't know exactly how that would work but um probably I assume they do a l yeah right theyd have to clear that before you I mean but Jim is our our Lending Center Director and he uh he spearheads all those relationships so whoever here at the city has worked with them they they should know Jim and they can ask them plenty of this I don't know answer to that so on the commercial side do you is it a different relationship if you're working with say a large national chain let say a tget or Cub thinking of the build the large commercial building in our area versus a small locally owned commercial building so a lot of that uh and it'll come up in another slide when we get to uh the commercial programs but um the One-Stop efficiency program is going to only be able to work with customers under 400 KW usage okay so that's on the shoulder month so you're like September Octobers and your like May and aprils so that's where they take a snapshot of your usage and that shows the true electrical use without heating or cooling your building yeah and so that will determine if they're allowed to work uh be put through the OneStop program which is just another rebate program that Excel pays us to deliver alongside like their their custom prescriptive rebate program that uh all their commercial customers can into so the national chains are going to have an account manager at the Excel level interfacing with that company directly um we're kind of helping uh focus on that small to mediumsized business own okay that needs that little extra help or that extra care of in-person consultant so uh lending doesn't do anything that isn't ran through One Stop on the commercial side uh so they're not necessarily going to be working with large conglomerates uh we Min administer programs uh at The Lending Center with the Department of Commerce the Housing Finance Agency utilities and 17 Metro cities which crystal is one of those um we also have a new homes program that is a cons consultation with Builders developers Architects and homeowners uh it's building the house from the ground up with uh efficiency in mind uh definitely making sure that new Residential Properties are are hitting goal that um Minnesota has and other National codes you have a question do you guys partner all with um passive house do you know passive house yeah so the um the new homes program will they do inspections to say like for example does is does this home meet passive house requirements to get those certifications so oh wait is it listed on there yeah yes we're right at the B nope it's fine we certify single multif family new homes for all of these rating systems um EPA home energy rating system the residential energy code um Department of energy do we have energy requirements for new building new homes in than your noral building code okay okay so that's the new homes uh Phil Anderson is still running that I believe so again not exactly my uh department but I know who to connect you with if you have any further questions on it but this is kind of my uh bread and butter the commercial programs the One-Stop efficiency shop we do free energy Consulting for businesses cities County buildings anybody that fits in our overarching you know 400kw ceiling we'd certainly love to come out count your light bulbs make recommendations I'm curious how do you work with say I'm just thinking like uh the strip mall it's a 36th in Douglas um do you work with the landlord or the individ the individual shops are renting from an overarch so with a situation like that um it would be almost like a twofold approach um a lot of those businesses have it depends on how the home or I mean sorry the business owner the building owner kind of separates that out some building owners keep the uh Utilities in their and then they just charge their tenants per square footage of whatever that is um some building owners say look you have to your it's every every Suite is separately metered and they have to sign up as uh you know the tenant and they're uh signed up with Excel as that so whatever that name on the record is is who we would like to you know involve into the decision making so a lot of times I'll run into um businesses where I'm doing door knocking they're like yeah I pay I pay this bill but um you know I'm not going to make any any Chang they can't make any of the huge improvements or right although some people we do offer were were like hey look if you have a long-term Lee signed up a five or a 10 year um you could be cash positive with a lot of the lighting updates within like two and a half years three years so even if you're like look you know what I'm I'm locked in I'm here for another 10 years we can get homeown or business owners are going to see those benefits because they're the one paying their energy bill and they're going to see that decre fix cost we also have an HVAC program the lighting is a little lot more mature it's been running since 2000 but um we've been running an HVAC program since 2020 um and so that's just getting off the ground it's building the rebates are not as robust as it would be for lighting upgrades and HVAC is harder to get into because people notice bad lighting and it's it's a lot more of a visual and people want their businesses cold when they want them cold and hot when they want them hot and it's harder to say look if you can run this more efficiently you can extend the lifetime of that equipment you can make sure that you're not at you can almost plan your maintenance or you know when something is going to die you can plan when to swap it out versus oh no it's it's just it's been running incorectly for five years and it just CED out on hot of state of the year and I have to drop a bunch of cash to to cool my business because it could be refrigerators could be any any number of tenants in that building uh may have Mission critical um cooling or heating needs so um right now uh so it's it's detailed recommendations estimated project costs rebates savings all that kind of stuff uh comes in a nice uh packet um we also have rebates up to the end of the year at 75% um that's kind of going to be wrapping up here in December we're definitely uh we our Pro program year end is a couple weeks before actual December 31st because uh we submit everything to Excel for payment processing and they're they're going to take a few weeks to go through and and actually cut the check to business owners and other people like that so um those rebates will probably go back down to about 60% in the new year um there's a current bonus running that's bumping it from 60 to 7% so it's harder for a city to take advantage of the 75% right now I just wanted to call that out that it's on a limited time offer and there may be another summer bonus that we run next year um but I don't know what that may be and we have no plans of it yet so uh there's convenient and attractive financing options uh like I said with lending and then uh along with our HVAC program that we run where there's rtu Consulting that we're able to give we also have free smart thermostats it's AC rewards for businesses that Excel runs and we Implement that program by however many uh thermostats you have in your building we will uh put an equal B3 in and help set it up and get you know everything talking with each other correctly so that um it's just signing up for that program involves letting Excel if there's an event to be called where they need to manage the load in the summer um they may say hey we're going to cycle your equipment so that we can manage the load and not have to buy at exorbitant prices on the hottest daily year um so they will I think they do cool you down like hey it's going to be a couple so they cool you below what you're setting is so then they're like hey we're shutting it off for a couple hours and then as it rises and then it triggers when it goes up to like a certain amount they're like okay well we're gonna turn that back on I know that this last summer there's for AC rewards for businesses that program called No events I know commercial buildings also have saber switches and I think think there's more events called for the sa switch program versus AC rewards this is so so like that way this way with all the equipment talking to one another then it's not like pulling on the electrical um grid like as much right exactly well it's really trying to prevent demand from exceeding Supply right yes that's what the program yeah does but what it provides to the business owner is the ability to do setbacks or hey you know what somebody forgot to turn down the thermostat for the weekend because you know what they were cold on Friday so they put it up at 78 and because everybody I know everybody who has their little coolers or their heaters under their desk or uh their blankets and and by having an ability to have like a facility manager be able to check that and just be like you know what I only need it at like 65 for three days and then somebody's going to come in at 7 on on Monday you can certainly have a setback set so that you know what we're going to bring it up to 10 starting at six so by seven it's exactly that so does like do the business owners have to do like some sort of subscription in order to get the like or in order to keep that smart thermostat running subscription okay so yes signing up for the AC Rewards program it's a free installation provided by CE it's a free smart thermostat and then it's um $25 bill credit annually per thermostat in the building team messages yeah nope that's us so and if you if you ignore events called because you can certainly opt out of them because it will come to like Hey we're going to call an event you're on the list of uh businesses we're calling an event for you can opt out of that certainly um but if you opt out of that too many times in a calendar year over so many years they will you take you take you out of that program but again La this last summer nobody no event was called for the AC awards for businesses I can't say the same for the commercial saver switch program and other you know HVAC programs that's that Excel runs I'm curious how much like privacy Invasion these companies are doing what not no no different that your credit your cell phone and that's not good either that's true yeah but uh no we we definitely think it provides the most flexibility for business owners um and as a business owner it I kind of comes with like it's not private homeownership so I know that Excel certainly has private home ownership uh plan or you know sa switches that go on homes and um also opt-in programs for stuff like that but I think they businesses are kind of have a different idea of what you know privacy but I think you really hit one of the core issues right is all these efficiency things require data and and so how do you navigate that two things like I mean our water meters right like we're paying those meters pretty regularly we know when people are using water care do they not I don't know so you know when she takes shower theoretically well no we would know when the water you it is you infer what is going yeah yeah but that could be you know running the dishwasher running a load of laundry I mean the energy or the water usage in that case is NE not necessarily pinpointed right um and I utilities are going to be able to drill down to that level of granularity but that doesn't mean they're necessarily going to release that to anybody it it certainly would be more of an aggregate form oh I'm aware of how the data collection actually works and how like you can't actually go like oh oh they're showering um uh it's it's just part of an ongoing conversation I'm proud of as a tacky yeah it's it's an important thing to think about absolutely absolutely um so the oneop efficiency shop uh is that's the things we do we certainly work with other cities um to do uh business blitzes uh minona has an energy action plan through the uh Partners in energy and one of those things was making sure that business owners are aware of all the programs available to them so we set aside a day got our lighting Consultants out in the field and we had a set number of addresses we would go out and business blitz so is there a specific kind or flavor of business that has more more opportunity to be more efficient I'm thinking like Warehouse versus a small flower shop yes um I mean where's the biggest bang for your buck the biggest bang for your buck is going to be like aart buildings with common areas and and stairwells we can't do in unit any like because that's individually meter that's considered residential but commercial long run times so common areas and stairwells are 247 if you you know take away the the fluorescent lighting which maybe 32 watts and go down to I mean 15 is even really quite a lot of like we're looking at nine and a half Watts 10 watts like that's kind of The Sweet Spot now but if you even knock it down 15 the One-Stop efficiency shop will give you dollars per watt saved versus uh um excel's Regular programs which would be prescriptive and custom they're just giving you a flat fee you can take out whatever flent you have plug in they don't care if you say it's a LED bulb I mean that you have to show receipts but they're like I don't care what Lage that's at here's five bucks for that bulb where C the program re1 we run which is paid for by XL Energy is to focus on on that small to mediumsized business and push efficiency so we're going to want to say look this is the best bang for your buck by you don't need you know three 32 W buls in there and then you know the fixture usage will go down by so much money and will'll pay you per we track that in our system and provide much more robust rebates than Excel about you don't need that Lio making all that heat we're not baby chickens yeah yes LEDs definitely do not put off heat like fluoresence do definitely and which is where the inefficiency com exactly and actually it's become an issue for you know because um traffic lights have been swapped over to LEDs but there's not heat being emitted from them so they've almost iced over or frosted over in some cities it's very infrequent very infrequent uh but it was funny to hear about that where it was like well in the past it was like it just kind of was a problem that took care of it itself and now there's some do the light and then you have like you can put a cone on it basically so that doesn't happen uh is it over the top like that no that's the shield no it's literally like this is the bulb it literally Mak a gnome hat you put on the front but it's clear okay oh so there's no way to accumulate it just kind of like we did that part of that whole recession deal Valley we saw 50% 56% cost settings cool energy although it's weird there's some weird things you realize like the most efficient one is the red light because it's on the longest and so it's just some weird yeah like the original there's like two waves one was like all the Reds the other one was like yellow and greens and so we so some had some and some had the other you could just see like the the ones that got everything like you saw more but that red was where the fastest interes so since 2000 the the beginning of the lighting program uh this is how we've helped Minnesota businesses 20,000 businesses and nonprofits have upgraded their lighting earned rebates 110 million plus in rebates awarded and the smart thermostat installation program has only been uh you know around since 2020 but we've already uh installed 2800 plus um I have some specific Crystal numbers so 21 smart stats we could certainly see that growing it's just a of making sure businesses are aware of those this year or total uh that's total since the start of uh the HVAC program yep and that's uh just commercial this is all commercial this is not homeowner I I noticed you point these are all commercial stats right commercial program you did there is there is residential definitely and there's plenty of Resident I used to work six years ago I did rebates for Excel and I worked on the the residential rebate team so I didn't even touch any commercial rebates but I processed your water heaters your air your furnaces your everything and and that was across all their territory so I knew they have different programs and different levels in Colorado versus Minnesota versus Wisconsin versus North and South Dakota Texas all their different areas had different state defined um Public Utility Commission defined rebate level so I knew all those programs to approve them and then I moved over and now I just deal commercial so Commercial Lighting and HVAC is my is my bank this is 21 smart thermostats since 202 commerci in commercial building in commercial building since 2020 I should say not 202 I'm curious in the difference between the 103 businesses and the 151 lighting projects so assuming that some businesses have more than one location or right so the 103 business school and County that's the buildings we've helped but businesses sometimes are like you know what I'm going to do the warehouse now and we're going to phase out we're going to have another project either they wait to get that check back from Excel and that feeds into their next project yeah to see what really helps so some are like hey we just need to do our office areas um that's our immediate need we'll do Warehouse next year or budgetary constraints certainly um lots of schools phase out they're like hey we're going to do this Wing in the building or however they want to do that because you know there's only really three months you can go in and do wide widespread changes to not disrupt the students and anything so a lot of our contractors are like yeah phases work just fine it's just a matter of us tracking those so okay um 103 businesses school and County buildings helped since 2000 and then 151 lobing projects resulting in uh 28,000 plus dollars in rebates since we only have that dollar amount tracked since 2017 it's certainly a much more um since 2000 we just don't have our statistics before that correct so that's just our our impact on crystal without any um real um partnership with the city or like a a full uh concentrate effort to get your business Community involved and turned on and engaged this all looks great you guys have a sense of the reason why worldwide so like we're talking about acting locally but thinking globally right we're still actually emitting more greenhouse gases year-over-year worldwide oh that's a way very complicated this is great and but this is here I don't know if you guys have a s yeah how what what's going on if we're doing this and saving all this corporations they're the ones doing most of the greenhouse gases and like doing things like you know destroying Plastic Products that they made because they don't want anyone else to get them fishing back on top okay but yeah I'm just saying well they're not answering yeah I guess what so I love the like to you too or act locally think globally yeah I think like for one one example is this might be like a relatively small percentage of the businesses in Crystal or a relatively small percentage do you have a sense that Crystal today compared to Crystal say five years ago are we as a city emitting viewer greenhouse gases something we can find out or our energy yeah so we actually do do a full Baseline energy analysis as part of that I just saw the Rob quite comprehensive data analysis yeah absolutely cool so how many total business school and County buildings are there in the school school County there's a number more than two well it's more than 103 yes yes I don't think that uh Crystal has certainly not experienced a saturation in the market for lighting and and HVAC upgrades especially provided by onetop I think there's uh definitely an appetite in Crystal um we could see this other cities we've partnered with we have seen almost double uh the impact in in since partnering with cities even on the home energy Squad uh it's a doubling of visits um just may even if we only work at a promotion a partnership level and it's that's just having us help with uh newsletters or marketing emails or socials whatever that may include um we think that we can definitely have an impact on a city's um energy usage and the reduction of that so how often should a homeowner have the home energy out of done because it's not a one and down because technology changes yeah your systems wear out I was only planning to do one yeah so you're you're able to get a new energy audit every three years you can't have the home energy Squad back within that time um but if you like your installation was evaluated five years ago and you didn't do anything it's you you'd get the same results today yeah but if somebody had made all the improvements but technology has improved so a decade later like let's see what else I can do or is that kind of something that maybe would be more appropriate one of the other programs like the Electrify everything program because it's like the home energy audit is very focused on like a lot of the actual like built features of the home how much insulation is your attic what's the installation in your walls how is good how well sealed is your house and whereas like oh there's this new thing with heat pumps or same thing with that or hot water heater you know tank was water heater or something that's probably more something along those lines it doesn't require somebody out and put it a blower door on your front door or something yeah yeah another thing if you get a home energy Squad visit um you're able to call the energy advisors who can help with like say you got a home energy Squad visit 10 years ago now your furnace is finally like at the end of its life you can give him a call and say like hey I'm ready for quotes like help me out yes that's very helpful so it's not like you're just dropped off um absolutely yeah but you know I'm with you like there's always new things to be looking out for and usually it's like when your equipment life is ending that's like when you're like okay to absolutely and that's something that uh the residential program maintains a list of contractors that um do good quality work and we we're not necessarily in the business of picking favorites are trying to steer you towards the one well at least on the commercial side I'm I'm not an installer I'm not not going to be climbing on ladders and rewiring fixtures I'm here to help uh just make recommendations at be an energy consultant to the business owner or homeowner and say look if you'd like help we'll work with who uh you know I can give you five um lighting cons lighting electricians lighting companies um they'll they'll give you quotes and and they'll do it the way we say we should you should do it which is going to earn best bang for your buck and the most effic energy efficient way and that's what we're going to definitely push people towards because that's where the most money went um so home energy Squad certainly has insulation contractors that they work with and they're empowered to even like hey if you're interested while we're out here will quote this and any one of these five instulation companies will come out and honor our quote from the home energy Squad I look at him because he was in it and so I I know I just need to double check yes that is he glares at you exactly where he's like but on the commercial side uh I'll work with anybody uh any electrician you're comfortable with anybody you want to bring in um my father has has uh uh a business that he's renting in Fridley and he self-installed his lights um and that is just a matter of hey you know what it took me 50 labor hours this is my cost uh my holistic look it's not just an hourly wage just kind of like whatever that total employee compensation is and then uh Excel just wants to see that hey you know what this is what their labor cost is so I I actually work I can I do Amazon receipts Home Dep receipts if you buy something energy efficient I want to give you rebate on it um that's commercial I should say not yeah that's good to clarify yeah yeah um yeah that's that's the end of our presentation