As consumer advocates, one of our main goals is to educate consumers. Not educate in the boring way everyone remembers from grade school: times tables, rote memorization of inapplicable dates, and sharing is caring. No, our goal is to educate consumers in areas that directly affect their daily lives. And as to not overwhelm your senses with an onslaught of information, I present to you a light collection of links and stories--a potpourri if you will.

• Water heater rebates: The PUC announced that certain homeowners will qualify for rebates for installing solar water heaters. The rebates? Up to $1,875! The rebates are to help homeowners with the cost of expensive, but efficient, solar water heaters. The solar water heaters will help reduce energy consumption. 

• SDG&E's baseline allowance season change: As you may have read before, SDG&E charges its customers in tiers. The first tier is known as the baseline allowance and is the amount of energy SDG&E thinks that you should be using. Any additional energy used above the baseline allowance is charged at a higher rate. One of the factors that affects the baseline rate is the season. The Winter period occurs between November 1 and April 30, and the Summer period occurs between May 1 and October 31. The Summer period is now upon us, so be mindful of your energy use. For those gas users, the gas baseline drops significantly. 

• New Prepaid Service Provider: Sprint debuted its new prepaid mobile brand Common Cents Mobile (they really spent the marketing budget coming up with that clever name). The interesting twist on this brand is that the minutes round down. This means that if you use a fraction of a minute, say with a phone call that 5 minutes and 34 seconds, you will only be billed for 5 minutes. On competing carriers, you'd be charged for 6 minutes. However, for those heavy talkers and texters, this isn't the brand for you, as its target is infrequent phone users.

• And lastly, the UCAN quarterly newsletter went out this past weekend. Chock full of tips, stories, and general wholesome goodness, the newsletter is only available to UCAN members. So if you're feeling a bit left out, join now!