Energy deregulation gives consumers choices when it comes to the companies that provide their home electricity. Suppliers can compete for your electricity dollars in a variety of ways, offering low prices, short and long-term contracts, fixed or variable rates, and a choice in how your energy is generated. The sheer volume of options can seem so complicated that you need to ask an electrician to help you tangle out the pros and cons of the available plans. One area in particular that can trip up consumers has to do with whether the source of their electricity is green or renewable. Read on to learn the difference.

Green Customers are Loyal Customers

Currently, 15 states plus Washington, D.C. have active electricity deregulation programs, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and these states are largely concentrated in the Northeast. Consumers who live in deregulated states are likely to be flooded with energy offers, often promising electricity that is derived from green or renewable sources. Purchasing this environmentally friendly power usually costs a bit more than electricity that comes from more traditional sources like coal, but some homeowners like to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to reducing carbon emissions.

Those customers who go green are valuable to the supplier because they are less likely to jump ship based on the availability of a cheaper energy source. "A customer on a renewable-energy product has actively decided what is important to them and has selected their supplier accordingly," Ritchie Hudson, Pennsylvania chairman of the Retail Energy Supply Association, said to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A Question of Semantics

However, while many suppliers and consumers treat green and renewable sources of electricity as synonymous, there is a distinction. Green energy is that which comes from specific sources that have the highest environmental benefit, including solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass and small hydroelectric sources, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Meanwhile, renewable energy “includes resources that rely on fuel sources that restore themselves over short periods of time and do not diminish,” which includes all the green options but also other sources such as large hydroelectric dams, which present certain environmental tradeoffs.

That means that if you really want to limit your impact on the Earth as much as possible, go green in lieu of simply choosing renewable energy. You can further refine your choices by asking about the specific source of the electricity, if you have a preference for solar, wind or another option.

Ask an Electrician About Your Options

Deregulated energy markets give you flexibility, but can also sow consumer confusion. If you need help deciphering the offerings of your state's electricity providers, ask an electrician who can walk you through your choices.

The controller keeps on monitoring the application requirement in a continuous control loop. It then commands the inverter to produce the required voltage and frequency to meet the application requirements. To do this, the controller, comprised of a microprocessor, takes the input signal from the sensor and compares this with a reference signal. It then generates the appropriate control signal for the inverter to vary its output power.

In a typical application, the controller will monitor process parameters such as pressure, flow rate, temperature or liquid level. For example, an oxygen sensor in a boiler provides a signal to adjust the speed of the fan and control the amount of oxygen in the boiler system.

Today’s drives, using microprocessors, semiconductor power switches, and SMDs are now smaller, compact, cheaper, more reliable and efficient. A typical drive will also include a filter to suppress harmonics generated when converting the DC to AC voltage.

For a professional electrician, Austin presents its own set of challenges. During summer months, electricians in Austin are often working outside without the AC many Texas residents enjoy. Extreme summer heat like the record summer temperatures we all saw in 2011 becomes compounded when working in an attic, where temperatures can quickly reach lethal levels. Fortunately, the extreme heat is almost behind us; although this year, it often seems as if Summer just doesn’t want to end. Fortunately, Austin is blessed with fairly mild winter months. There can be exceptions, however, as we saw earlier in the year. And when winter ice storms down trees and power lines, the electricians who are working to restore power are outside in the cold.

If temperature extremes aren’t enough, electricians have to deal with other hostile elements like wasp nests inside electrical boxes, and we’re not even going to discuss what might be living in the crawl spaces beneath homes, where electricians often go to work on wiring. Needless to say, electrical work is not for the weak or faint of heart. And besides toughness and courage, electricians need to be smart, because they’re working with lethal quantities of electrical current every day, and one wrong move can be the last thing an electrician ever does. Besides being tough and smart, the professional licensed electricians at Bryant Electric Service have the knowledge and skill to inspect your home or building for potential hazards, correctly install life-saving equipment like ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCI) and arc fault circuit interrupters (AFCI). They can also install automatic backup generators to keep your electricity running smoothly despite the brown outs, rolling blackouts, wildfires, and ice storms which have left many other Texans without power for hours, and sometimes for weeks.

The next time you need electrical work or a safety inspection, give Bryant Electric Service a call. We work hard to deliver the quality of service you expect, and we’re proud of our tough, smart, and highly skilled electricians.