This bill was passed to empower people who own a home or building to be able pay for improvements to increase their energy efficiency and water efficiency. AB 811 provides a method to pay for the improvements by adding it to their property taxes and pay for the improvements over 20 years. This bill includes solar, insulation, windows, heating and air conditioning systems, lighting, water saving fixtures, etc. The idea is to provide a vehicle to bring buildings into the 21’st century as far as resource usage goes.

Net metering is a term used to describe how you get billed form the utility company when you have a solar electric system. With net metering you receive a yearly true-up bill which takes into account how much energy you produced and how much energy you used. Then bills you for the difference if you used more than you produced.