Verengo Solar Plus Partners with uRefer to Offer Cash for Solar Referrals

ORANGE, CA –June 7, 2010 – Verengo Solar Plus, the largest residential solar installer in Southern California, announced today a new referral program to offer cash for solar referrals in partnership with the referral company uRefer.  The program launches today as part of a comprehensive approach by Verengo Solar Plus to encourage more Californians to go solar and spread awareness that solar power is not only affordable but provides excellent returns on investment.

Using a new referral system developed by the lead-generating company uRefer, Verengo Solar Plus’ customers, partners and affiliates can now earn $300 cash for every successful referral provided. In turn, Verengo is also offering referred prospects $300 cash for becoming a new customer.  To participate in the referral program, please visit: http://www.referverengo.com/

“The reason we have been growing so rapidly at Verengo Solar Plus is that our customers are eager to share their positive experiences with our company via word-of-mouth referrals,” said Verengo Solar Plus CEO Randy Bishop.  “With nearly half of our business coming from referrals, we are now able to identify and reward the people currently making referrals by utilizing the uRefer system to offer cash to our growing network of Verengo Solar Plus brand advocates.”

By automating the referral process, uRefer will help streamline and enhance Verengo’s ability to increase, respond to and manage their referrals.

“We are very excited to be working with Verengo Solar Plus,” said Dick Beedon, uRefer Founder & Chairman. “People already love and are excited about their product. The uRefer system will give them the technology to capture that excitement and create a powerful reward system for the growing network of Verengo Solar Plus customers.”

For more information, please visit http://www.referverengo.com/

About Verengo Solar Plus!

Verengo Solar Plus is the largest residential solar installer in Southern California. Staying true to its motto of "do good and do well," Verengo Solar Plus has installed solar systems that will save its customers $34 million in energy costs and reduce carbon emissions as much as planting 41,340 acres of trees, or taking more than 16,500 cars off the road for a year. Last quarter, the energy systems Verengo Solar Plus installed were equivalent to planting enough trees to cover the entire island of Manhattan. For more information on Verengo Solar Plus, please visit http://www.goverengo.com./

About uRefer

Referrals are the best leads and the advocates who make those referrals are an organization’s greatest asset.  uRefer’s mission is to transform more of our client’s customers and partners into advocates, creating a powerful “commission only” sales network that consistently refers high quality leads.

Our innovative software platform consists of: The tools to engage and enlist advocates; technology that makes it easy for those advocates to reach out to their own personal and corporate networks; incentive programs to grow the organization’s advocate network; and systems that manage the entire process.  For more information on uRefer, please visit http://www.urefer.com/.

Press Contacts

Amanda Crater

Verengo Solar Plus

510-684-0954

cratercom@gmail.com

Molly McFarland

uRefer ™

(734) 585-5684

mmcfarland@urefer.com

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Verengo Solar Plus President Discusses Solar Power, Solar Costs in CNN Local Interview

Press Release Source: Verengo Solar Plus On Thursday June 3, 2010, 1:46 pm EDT

ORANGE, CA--(Marketwire - 06/03/10) - Going solar in Southern California has never been easier or more affordable, said Verengo Solar Plus President Ken Button in a television interview that airs May 31 through June 6, 2010 on Charter Cable's CNN HLN channel. Based in the city of Orange, Verengo Solar Plus is the largest residential solar installer in Southern California.

"There's a common misperception that solar is expensive, but those are the old days," Button said in the five-minute segment with host Brad Pomerance. "What's really changed is that solar is really compelling on the numbers now -- with the subsidies, with lower prices, it really saves people money."

Thanks to leasing options, with a very small upfront payment around $1,000 and sometimes as low as zero, homeowners can start saving money immediately, Button said. Homeowners can also purchase a system and earn an attractive return, typically around 20% per year, on the investment. Typical payback periods for solar systems today are approximately six to eight years, although with leases the paybacks can be as soon as 1-2 years.

The solar industry is also a source of new jobs, particularly at Verengo Solar Plus. In addition to helping thousands of homeowners save money on their electric bills, the company has added 100 new jobs in the past year.

"One of the really great, gratifying things about being in solar is that we have been able to hire a lot of people at a time when it's really tough out there," Button said. To view the full uncut version of the CNN local interview, visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/VerengoSolarPlus.

About Verengo Solar Plus
Verengo Solar Plus is the largest residential solar installer in Southern California. Staying true to its motto of "do good and do well," Verengo Solar Plus has installed solar systems that will save its customers $34 million in energy costs and reduce carbon emissions as much as planting 41,340 acres of trees, or taking more than 16,500 cars off the road for a year. Last quarter, the energy systems Verengo Solar Plus installed were equivalent to planting enough trees to cover the entire island of Manhattan. For more information on Verengo Solar Plus, please visit www.goverengo.com.

To connect with Verengo on social media, please visit:
http://twitter.com/verengosolar
http://www.facebook.com/verengosolar
http://www.youtube.com/verengosolarplus

Contact: 
Amanda Crater 
(510) 684-0954

How to Use Time of Use programs and Solar Power to Reduce Your Energy Bill

Time of use (TOU) plans are special billing programs offered by utility companies and are great for people who have installed solar and are not using a lot of electricity during peak hours. A TOU plan doesn’t change your rates based on how much energy you use, but rather based on WHEN you use that electricity. You get charged more for peak hours, and less for off-peak.

What are peak hours?

There is a higher rate during peak hours, when the demand on the grid is highest, and a lower rate during the evening and weekends. The definition for them, however, differs by utility company.  For Southern California Edison peak hours are between Mon-Fri 10am-6pm and for the LADWP are between Mon-Fri 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.

 

How does of a time of use energy program work for solar? 

During the day, especially during the longer days of summer, your solar panels generally produce more electricity than your house needs. So you send the extra energy back to the grid and get a credit for each extra kwh that you send back. At night, when the sun isn’t shining and your solar panels aren’t producing, you pull your electricity from the grid, and you use up your credits. This is basically net metering.

Utility buys your energy

Because the utility needs your electricity most during the day, your utility company is willing to  “pay up” for your extra electricity when you switch to a TOU plan. They will pay you the higher “peak rate” which can be as much as 2x your regular rate for your electricity.  So you build up dollar credits based on peak rates, rather than credits based on kilowatt hours.

  

Nightime rates

Here’s where it gets good. At night, when the sun isn’t shining and you buy some or all of that power back, you buy it back at the cheaper night time rate. In other words, you buy low, and sell high!  Instead of getting 1 kwh back for every extra 1 kwh you produce, you can get up to 2:1.  It’s like getting 30% extra production out of your solar system!  That’s Time of Use. 

Los Angeles Time of Use programs with the LADWP
The Department of Water and Power's (DWP) Residential Time-of-Use Program offers electricity to customers at three different rates. The prices are based on the time of day when the electricity is actually used, unlike the standard rate when the price for electricity is always the same.

All residential customers have the option to switch to TOU pricing, which requires a special meter that tracks the time of day the customer uses energy. Residential customers whose monthly energy use exceeds 3,000 kWh are now required to use TOU pricing, which encourages energy conservation and can help lower a customer’s bill.

To learn more about LADWP’s program, visit their TOU page here or download their PDF here.

Southern California Edison Time of Use programs

Southern California Edison (SCE) offers Time of Use programs to existing customers only.  TOU with SCE is different than LADWP because it has only two pricing “Levels”.

 


In addition SCE splits charges into two categories:

• Energy Charges per kWh consumed that vary by season and time of day.
• Basic Charge that covers a portion of costs for services such as meter reading and customer billing.

To learn more about SCE’s program, visit their TOU page here.


Plan time of use into your solar design

Properly factoring in TOU into your initial solar panel design can decrease your system size because of the extra savings. So you want to make sure you have just enough solar power to get your bill close to a zero, but not lower than that.