Southern California Edison (SCE)
1(800) 736-4777
Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Process:

Home Assessment Fact Sheet for Customers

Assessment Agencies and Assessors

When you apply for SCE’s Energy Savings Assistance Program (ESAP), SCE sends an Assessment Agency to evaluate your home for services. The Agency works for SCE under contract.

Assessment means “gathering information.” An assessor from the Agency visits your home:

• To check that your income makes you eligible for services
• To check that your home needs the services and that it is feasible for SCE to provide them, and
• To give you information about energy costs and energy efficiency.

How Does Assessment Work?

There are three parts to the Assessment process:

1. Income Qualification: You have to prove that your annual household income makes you eligible for the Program. You can do this by giving the assessor copies of income documents covering each person in your household. Income documents can include paycheck stubs, W-2 forms and bank statements, among other things. If your total household income is under the top limit, the assessor then goes on to Pre-Screening.
2. Pre-Screening: The assessor has to look at some of the appliances in your home, and you may have to answer a few basic questions. The answers tell the assessor whether to go on and see if it is feasible to provide any services. “Feasible “ means “can be done effectively.”
3. Feasibility Evaluation: The assessor walks around your home and looks more carefully at it, both inside and outside. It has to be feasible to install the services, or SCE cannot provide them. For example: if a replacement refrigerator won’t fit into the space in an eligible customer’s kitchen, it’s not feasible for SCE to install it.

Eligibility:

Most qualified ESAP customers are also eligible for a 20% discount on their SCE bill through the CARE Program.

To be eligible for ESAP services, you must:

• Be an SCE customer served on a residential electric meter
• Own your home, or if you rent, have the homeowner’s written permission (on a signed Owner’s Waiver form) before you can receive the services.
• Have a total annual household income that meets California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) requirements.
• Meet ESAP eligibility requirements for each service, and
• Not have received ESAP services during the previous (10) years. (Exception: if you only received some of the services, you may still be eligible for the others).

Services:

ESAP Services include:

• Replacing ordinary (incandescent) light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulb (CFLs)
  Install new outdoor light fixtures with CFLs
• Replacing old refrigerators with newer, energy-efficient ones
• Weathering a home, and, in some climate zones approved by the CPUC, replacing existing, working room (wall/window) air conditioners with newer ones, or installing evaporative coolers to be used instead of air conditioners.

Assessors collect information, but they do not decide if you are eligible, or which services, if any, you may receive. SCE validates the information collected to determine your program and service eligibility (certain restrictions apply).

Notification:

SCE will send a notification letter to you within 45 days from the date the assessor visited your home, whether you qualify or not.

This program is offered on a first-come, first-served basis and is effective until funding is expended or the program is discontinued by the California Public Utilities Commission. The program is funded by California utility costumers and administered by Southern California Edison, under the auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission.