Page 35 - Flathead Beacon // 4.29.15

FLATHEADBEACON.COM BUSINESS MONTHLY APRIL 29, 2015 | 35
ENERGIZING THOUGHTS David Boppp
What is Your Demand?
Building Permits
Building permits issued in Kalispell and Whitefish in March
NORMALLY WHEN I WRITE this column I demand some- thing of you: build more ef- ficiently, upgrade your home, utilize Flathead Electric as a resource to make smarter decisions about energy. Today is different. Today I want to know what your demand is.
I can honestly say that before coming to work for an electric utility, if some- one asked me what my demand was I might have said something flippant like world peace or a big powder winter. Now I would say 12kW. I lost you, didn’t I? For Flathead Electric your demand is the largest amount of power that your home or business typically asks for during any 15-minute period in a month. Picture it this way – if you get up and turn on all the stuff you normally turn on we have to be able to provide enough power to you instantaneously so that it all works. The amount of power required to do this is your demand.
In other words, when you get up on a cold morning and turn up your heat, turn on the coffee pot, the family lines up for showers, the TV is turned on, lights are turned on and the stove is turned on to cook some breakfast, that is a big surge of power your home needs. Most likely between 12,000 and 30,000 watts for a house. The bigger the demand, the more expensive it is for us to supply it and get it supplied to us.
A single electrically heated home can be a big demand; a valley full is huge. We have to be able to transmit this power to you, but since we don’t generate your power, BPA (who provides us with your power) has to get it to us. The bigger the spike for our community as a whole the harder it is for BPA to accommodate us. What does this mean in the real world? Big spikes are big money. The bigger a spike, the more we have to pay to pro- vide it.
If it costs a lot for a big spike then obviously there is money to be saved if we can reduce the size of a spike. This is where you come in. You can help us con- trol spikes and therefore our costs and we want to pay you to do this. We need volunteers who will allow Flathead Elec- tric to control their electric water heater. I know, “Wait a minute you want to do
what to my house?!?” We want to be able to shut off your electric water heater for a few hours during our coldest times of the winter months.
I know what you are thinking: “No hot water! No way!” I would agree if this was true but it isn’t and this is why. Your water heater stores hot water and as you shower it is slowly used up. You can usually get a couple of showers before a tank goes cold. Typically, the heating elements will come on to heat the water back up immediately, but if you are going to work do you need hot water immedi- ately? No, you are at work. You need that hot water when you get home. We may shut off your water heater for up to three hours between 6 AM and 11 AM. When the spike is over, your water heaters will come back on, heat up, and voila; you have hot water before you get home.
With the capacity of most current water heaters it is very unlikely you will ever notice we turned it off. We have been running this as a pilot program for several years and during that time we received no complaints about lack of hot water. That is right. Zero complaints.
Is this ideal for everyone? No, of course not. If you take a shower after your teenage kids (who each take a 30 minute shower) you risk having a cold shower. If you have a very small hot water tank this could be a bad idea, but to avoid this we will only control electric water heaters that are 40 gallons or larger.
Now back to the good part. Flathead Electric will provide you a bill credit of $4 per month to participate. That is $48 per year or a dinner out for doing noth- ing and suffering no inconvenience. This program isn’t just free for participat- ing but it actually pays you each month. I would love to offer you more but each water heater only offers us a very small reduction, which is why we need over a 1,000 volunteers this year. Reaching our goal in this program will help Flathead Electric meet its mission of keeping your rates low. Help us help our community. Call today to sign up.
You can also find more information on the Peak Time Program at our web- site at www.flatheadelectric.com. If you would like to sign up, please contact Teri at 406-751-1834.
KALISPELL
Recipient: Ronald and Kathy Lebert; 192 Fourth Ave. WN Contractor: Roof Works Inc. For: Remodel
Value: $7,500
Recipient: Bighorn Develop- ment; 130 Battle Ridge Dr. Contractor: Bighorn Develop- ment
For: Single-family residence Value: $209,900
Recipient: Kyle Holoma; 143 Stillwater Ln.
Contractor: Owner
For: Addition
Value: $15,000
Recipient: 93 & Church LLC; 130 Lazy Creek Way Contractor: Silverbrook Invest- ments
For: Single-family residence Value: $210,000
Recipient: Daniel White; 130 Fifth Ave. W
Contractor: Owner
For: Remodel
Value: $10,000
Recipient: Bighorn Develop- ment; 220 Battle Ridge Dr. Contractor: Bighorn Develop- ment
For: Single-family residence Value: $170,000
Recipient: More Schreiner Investments; 2141 Third Ave. E Contractor: Advanced Roofing For: Remodel
Value: $16,000
Recipient: Trek Stephens; 327 S Main St.
Contractor: Stellar Integration For: Fire alarm
Value: $7,400
Recipient: Vanessa Ceravolo; 770 N Main St.
Contractor: Integrity Home Builders Inc.
For: Addition Value: $30,000
Recipient: Gary Ryan; 1045 Second Ave. W Contractor: Owner
For: Remodel
Value: $12,000
Recipient: John and Alison Howard; 22 Whitebark Ln. Contractor: Old Montana Building Co.
For: Single-family residence Value: $420,000
Recipient: Ron and Kathy Balas; 2034 Ruddy Duck Dr. Contractor: Camas Creek Contracting
For: Addition Value: $25,000
Recipient: Michael Stebbins; 315 Parkway Dr.
Contractor: Westcraft Homes For: Remodel
Value: $10,000
Recipient: Bridgeland Dev; 465 Northridge Dr.
Contractor: Westcraft Homes For: Single-family residence Value: $300,000
WHITEFISH
Recipient: Riverview Co LLC; 704 E 13th St.
Contractor: Kramer Ent.
For: Addition
Value: $10,000
Recipient: Alpine Enterprise; 638 W Second St. Contractor: Bridgewater Builders
For: Multi-family residence Value: $250,000
Recipient: Alpine Enterprise; 634 W Second St. Contractor: Bridgewater Builders
For: Multi-family residence Value: $195,000
Recipient: Alpine Enterprise; 632 W Second St. Contractor: Bridgewater Builders
For: Multi-family residence Value: $195,000
Recipient: Rick and Allison Magnuson; 2498 E Lakeshore Dr. Contractor: Martel Construction For: Addition
Value: $50,000
Recipient: Bridger and Stacy Kelch; 235 E 10th St. Contractor: Owner
For: Addition
Value: $41,120
Recipient: Jeff Beck; 728 Aspen Grove St.
Contractor: Haskill Millworks For: Single-family residence Value: $150,000
Recipient: Elizabeth Pitman; 384 Sawtooth Dr. Contractor: Big Mountain Builders
For: Single-family residence Value: $260,000
Recipient: Dan and Laurie Averill; 629 Nature Trail Contractor: Big Mountain Builders
For: Single-family residence Value: $475,000
Recipient: Grant Revocable Trust; 153 S Shooting Star Cir. Contractor: General One Inc For: Single-family residence Value: $690,593
Recipient: Charles Lyman; 2405 Carver Bay Rd. Contractor: Shreve Construc- tion
For: Single-family residence Value: $750,000
Recipient: Kim Tymko; 1722 W Lakeshore Dr.
Contractor: Stumptown Builders
For: Single-family residence Value: $557,005
Recipient: Andrew Belski; 646 Denver St.
Contractor: Owner
For: Single-family residence Value: $105,000
Recipient: Bevill Lmtd Partner- ship; 443 Park Ave. Contractor: TBD
For: Remodel
Value: $4,523
Recipient: Brett and Janice Pierce; 728 Columbia Ave. Contractor: Blackwell Enter- prises
For: Remodel Value: $46,000
Recipient: Alex and Jense Ayscue; 5017 Flatwater Dr. Contractor: North Valley Construction
For: Remodel Value: $18,000
Recipient: Andrew Strong; 435 Central Ave.
Contractor: North Country Builders
For: Remodel Value: $13,685
Recipient: Suzanne Mees; 724 W Second St.
Contractor: Rex Miller
For: Remodel
Value: $40,000
Recipient: O’Brien Properties LLC; 118 O’Brien Ave. Contractor: Right Angle Builders
For: Remodel Value: $75,000
“YOU CAN HELP US CONTROL SPIKES AND THEREFORE OUR COSTS AND WE WANT TO PAY YOU TO DO THIS.”
David Bopp is energy services representative with Flathead Electric Co-op