Energy Freedom Is the Goal, and Stopping Energy Waste Is the Missing Piece
By Bret Biggart
For nearly 15 years, my professional life has revolved around Freedom Solar Power. At some point, I realized the most important word in my company’s name isn’t “solar”; it’s “Freedom.”
Freedom starts with independence — being truly in control of your energy, free from high bills and safe from blackouts. It’s also a matter of supply and demand.
For a generation, Freedom Solar has worked to deliver power for the people by focusing on the supply side: our solar panels supply homes with electricity, and our batteries allow people to supply their homes and businesses with power when the sun sets.
Starting this year, we’ll focus on the demand side as well.
In May, we launched Freedom HVAC — starting in Central Texas but quickly expanding everywhere we operate. Freedom HVAC will deliver the same consumer focus and service to the energy customers use as Freedom Solar delivers to the energy they generate.
We created Freedom HVAC to solve a basic problem: energy waste. Heating and cooling make up 40-50% of a home’s electricity use. But poor ventilation and inefficient HVAC units can waste the substantial electricity that was needed to cool and heat that air in the first place.
There are countless stories to demonstrate this problem. Take this one: mine.
A few years back, I bought a house in Austin that I loved and still love. The best part was that it was an older historic home. The worst part was … it was an older historic home. That meant, among other things, old ductwork and equipment — and that meant high electric bills.
I worked through all the solar and storage options I could, but they only went so far when cooled air was flying out leaky ducts. I recently found out I was losing nearly half of my air-conditioned air through holes in my ductwork. I was cooling the neighborhood!
So for me, real Energy Freedom means more than the electricity I generate; it also means the electricity I use. That’s true for just about everyone.
I deeply believe our company can do more than just help people generate and store their own electricity. We also can help them need less of it by fixing leaky ducts and installing more efficient HVAC equipment.
With this new service, we’re taking a complete-customer approach to electricity. That’s the direction all energy utilities and companies need to go. We all need to be in the business of helping consumers save as much money as they can, protecting themselves and their families from outages, and really taking control of the energy they depend on.
In other words, we can’t just focus on the energy people use — we have to help them control energy’s role in their lives.
HVAC is the missing piece that makes it all possible. It ensures people who buy or create energy can really use it, not just throw it away.