California, here we come!

Thanks to a consortium of funders led by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Pecan Street is expanding its home energy research network to California.

Through collaborations with the Energy Resources Group at UC Berkeley, The Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University, and the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, these new research networks will help answer critical questions about transforming our energy systems.

Pecan Street is already recruiting participants in Fremont, Oakland, and Berkeley to take part in the energy research network. Single-family, owner-occupied homes with WiFi Internet are eligible to participate.

We will also recruit participants in Watts, where millions of dollars have already been committed to help revitalize the community with climate-friendly and affordable development. Our research will help document and quantify the climate benefits of these efforts. (Details about eligibility for participation in Watts is being developed.)

Participation in Pecan Street’s research is voluntary, confidential, secure and free.

Participation involves an electrician installing a home energy monitoring system in each home. In addition to providing critical data for researchers working to make our energy systems cleaner, more resilient and more affordable, participants also get access to their own detailed home energy data through our secure portal.

Please visit our Participant Resources page to read about other volunteers’ experience participating with Pecan Street, read our Privacy Policy, and watch a few brief videos about our work. You can also contact Rachel Jenkins at 512-782-9213 or rjenkins@pecanstreet.org if you have questions.

If you’re ready to sign up, please read and sign our electronic participation agreement.

Pecan Street’s research network includes nearly 1,000 homes, the majority of which have been participating with Pecan Street for over five years. Most homes in Pecan Street’s volunteer research network are in Texas.

“Expanding to different climates with different energy profiles will allow us to tackle new research questions and to move forward with aggressive clean energy goals,” says Pecan Street CEO Suzanne Russo.

Watch a 2012 story from PBS News Hour, below.

About Pecan Street Inc.
Pecan Street is a non-profit energy and water research organization based in Austin, TX. Our network of volunteer research participants is the first of its kind on the planet and has become an international model for how to develop and operate real-world energy and resource research. Our commercialization lab is an affordable, world-class proving ground for major corporations and startups alike. And our database, the largest source of disaggregated customer energy data, is used by university researchers and industry-leading companies around the world.