Terms of Service

Your privacy is a critical concern for SMECO (“Provider”). Read these terms and conditions (“Agreement”) thoroughly before accessing or using this website or any service or tool it contains, including, but not limited to, any information presented, calculators, calculations, descriptions, or any other material contained or to which a referral is made (collectively, the “Service”). All accessing of the Service is governed by this Agreement. If you (“User”) do not agree to this Agreement, you should immediately cease all accessing and usage of the Service.

This website is provided by SMECO (“Provider”) and contains Tools developed, supplied and maintained by Planet Ecosystems, Inc. and other organizations.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Provider and any of its service providers, including, but not limited to, Planet Ecosystems, Inc., reserve the right, at their sole discretion, at any time, to modify this Agreement in a manner consistent with applicable laws and regulations. Modifications shall become effective thirty days after being posted or dispatch of an email notifying you of such modifications. User’s continued accessing of this website and/or any use of any Tool it contains after notice of such amendments constitutes an acknowledgement and acceptance of Agreement and its modifications. It is highly recommended that the User check this Agreement for any changes prior to any accessing and/or usage of the Service.

1. Collection of Personal Information

“Personal information” includes, but is not limited to, your name, social security number, home address, telephone number, and energy usage.

The purpose of the Service is to make it easier for applicable utility consumers to get information about energy-efficiency-related programs and solutions, and then, if User specifically requests, to help connect them with contractors and/or vendors to conduct the work for the energy-efficiency-related improvements. Participation is voluntary. Therefore, if you submit information into the Service, including personal information, you agree and acknowledge that you are providing such information voluntarily, and that you are consenting to the disclosure of your personal information subject to the terms and conditions provided in this Agreement.

Each item of information you submit is entirely voluntary. This program is optional and designed to assist you with making energy efficiency improvements to your property.

The potential consequences of not providing all or any part of the requested information in the Service include, but are not limited to, an inability to provide you the best information, and an inability to properly connect you with contractors to facilitate your energy efficiency upgrade project.

The principal purposes for collecting this information (“Principal Purposes”) include but are not limited to:

1. Providing you with information about energy efficiency system upgrades, incentives, potential savings, and contractors;

2. connecting you directly with contractors to facilitate your energy efficiency upgrade project;

Participating in Provider programs and submittal of your personal information into the Service requires your voluntary consent to disclose your personal information for the Principle Purposes described above, at any time without limitation after you submit the information, except that your personal information will only be disclosed to those specific contractors which you expressly authorize by further specific consent unless compelled by a court of law.

2. License Grant

Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, Provider grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Service solely for your personal, non-commercial use.

3. Restrictions.

You may not (i) modify, copy or create derivative works based on the Service; (ii) frame or mirror any content forming part of the Service: (iii) reverse engineer or otherwise derive the software underlying the Service; (iv) interfere with, disrupt, alter, translate, or modify the Service or any part thereof, or create an undue burden on the Service or the networks or services connected to the Service, including without limitation, any external websites that are linked via the Service; (v) introduce software or automated agents or scripts to the Service so as to produce multiple accounts, generate automated searches, requests and queries, or to strip or mine data from the Service; (f) cover or obscure any page or part of the Service via HTML/CSS, scripting, or any other means; or (g) make the Service available to any third party as part of any time-sharing or service bureau arrangement.

4. Warranties

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Provider and any of its service providers, including, but not limited to, Planet Ecosystems, Inc., make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, regarding the use or the results of the Service and disclaim all warranties, whether express, implied or statutory, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. The Service is provided on an “as is” and on an “as available” basis. Certain states and/or jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so the exclusion set forth above may not apply to you.

5. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, neither Provider nor any of its service providers, including, but not limited to, Planet Ecosystems, Inc., or any of their respective officers, directors, shareholders, employees, affiliates, agents, sponsors, endorsers, advisors, licensors, or any other party including those involved in creating, producing, or distributing the Service and/or related material, will be held responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for incorrect information, typographical errors, accuracy, content, timeliness, completeness, legality, reliability, availability, quality, suitability or decency of any information, advice, content, material, service, product or merchandise contained anywhere on the Service or referred to by same.

Neither Provider nor any of its service providers shall be liable for any special, direct, indirect, consequential, or incidental damages, or damages for lost profits, loss of revenue, loss of goodwill or loss of use, arising out of or related to the Service or the information contained in it or referred to by it, whether such damages arise in contract, negligence, tort, under statute, in equity, at law, or otherwise, even if Provider and/or any of its service providers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation applies even if it causes any remedy to fail of its essential purpose. Among others, such damages may result or arise from (a) the use of and reliance on information provided the Service; (b) the inability to use the Service; (c) mistakes, omissions, interruptions, suspension, termination, deletion of files or email, errors, defects, viruses, delays in operation or transmission, or any failure of performance with respect to the Service, including without limitation those that result from acts of God, communications failure, theft, destruction, or unauthorized access to records, programs, or service; (d) merchandise, products, or services received through or advertised on the Service or affiliated properties and merchandise, products, or services received through or advertised or in any way presented on any links provided on the Service or on those affiliated properties; (e) information or advice received through or advertised on the Service or its affiliated properties, and information or advice received through or advertised on any links provided on the Service or on affiliated properties; and (f) any information, data, text, messages and other materials that User emails, posts, uploads, reproduces, transmits or otherwise distributes using the Service and/or related systems. Because some jurisdictions do not allow certain restrictions, exclusions or limitations of liability, in such jurisdictions liability is limited to the fullest extent permitted by law. If User is dissatisfied with any portion of the Service, or with any part of Agreement, User’s sole remedy is to discontinue use of the Service.

6. Indemnification

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, User agrees to indemnify and hold Provider and its service providers, including, but not limited to, Planet Ecosystems, Inc., their respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers and employees, harmless from any claim or demand, including all fines, suits, proceedings, claims, causes of action, demands, losses or liabilities of any kind or of any nature, and including reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs, made by any third party due to or arising out of User’s use of the Service, violation of this Agreement, or infringement by User, or other user of the Service using User’s facilities, of any intellectual property or any other right of any person or entity.

7. Third-Parties

The Service may include links to other websites on the Internet that are owned and operated by third parties. User acknowledges that Provider and its service providers, including, but not limited to, Planet Ecosystems, Inc., are not responsible for any content related to or product obtained from any third-party site, including, but not limited to, its correctness, accuracy, timeliness, completeness, legality, reliability, availability, quality, suitability or decency. The User should contact the administrator or webmaster for those third-party websites if User has any concerns regarding such links or the content located thereon. The User’s use of third-party websites is subject to the terms and conditions of each of those websites; Users are encouraged to review those terms and conditions. User acknowledges that any reliance on representations and warranties provided by any third party shall be at User’s own risk. In addition, Provider and its service providers make no warranties or representations whatsoever with regard to information obtained from third party data sources and used by the Service; User acknowledges that reliance on such information is at User’s own risk. Provider and its service providers make no warranties or representations as to the accuracy of the information supplied by or to any third parties.

8. Governing Law

This Agreement shall be construed and interpreted according to the substantive law of Maryland and all disputes will be resolved by the Maryland Public Service Board and in the state and federal courts located in Maryland. Provider and its service providers, including, but not limited to, Planet Ecosystems, Inc., make no representation that the Service is appropriate, legal or available for use in other locations. The User is responsible for compliance with any such laws. User may not use the Service in any way that violates state, federal, or international laws, regulations or other government requirements. The User further agrees not to use the Service to transmit any material that encourages conduct that could constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national, or international law or regulation.

9. Modifications and Interruptions

Provider and its service providers, including, but not limited to, Planet Ecosystems, Inc., reserve the right to modify or discontinue the Service, in whole or in part, at any time without notice to the User. Provider and its service providers shall not be liable to User or any third party should Provider and/or its service providers exercise their right to modify or discontinue the Service. User acknowledges and accepts that Provider and its service providers do not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted or secure access to the Service, and operation of the Service may be interfered with or adversely affected by numerous factors or circumstances outside its control.

10. Intellectual Property

The Service and all intellectual property rights in the Service, all content included or available on the Service, including, but not limited to, trademarks, calculations, algorithms, website design, Tool design, text, graphics, interfaces, and the selection and arrangements thereof (“Content”) and any of the Provider’s or its service providers’ proprietary technology, including software, hardware, products, processes, algorithms, user interfaces, know-how, technologies, designs and other tangible or intangible technical material or information made available to you or used by Provider in providing the Service (“Technology”) are the property of Provider and/or its service providers and/or third parties. Any use of such materials, including, but not limited to, reproduction for purposes other than those noted herein, modification, distribution, or replication, any form of data extraction or data mining, or other commercial exploitation of any kind, without prior written permission of an authorized officer of Provider and/or its service providers and/or third parties, as appropriate, is strictly prohibited. Except as expressly set forth herein, no express or implied license or right of any kind is granted to you regarding the Service, the Content or the Technology, or any part thereof, including any right to obtain possession of any source code, data or other technical material relating to the Technology. All rights not expressly granted to you are reserved to Provider.

11. Entity

You represent and warrant that you are an actual person, of eighteen years of age or older, that you possess the right to provide the information submitted, and that the information submitted is accurate, complete and truthful.

12. Privacy

Provider is sensitive to privacy issues with respect to the use of customer information provided over the Internet. Provider does not sell or rent personally-identifiable information and considers it confidential. In general, Users can visit Provider’s website without revealing any personal information. Provider’s web servers collect domain names of visitors. This information is aggregated to measure the number of visits, average time spent on the site, number of pages viewed, and methods by which the website was found. Provider uses this information to evaluate the use of the website and to continuously improve the content being provided.

This policy may be amended from time to time.

For site purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this website may employ industry-standard methods to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.

Unauthorized attempts to upload or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Infrastructure Protection Act.

13. Notices

You are responsible for updating your data to provide Provider with your most current email address. In the event that the last email address you have provided to Provider is not valid, or for any reason is not capable of delivering to you any notices required by this Agreement, Provider’s dispatch of the email containing such notice will nonetheless constitute effective notice of the changes described on the notice. Any notice provided to Provider pursuant to this Agreement should be sent to SMECO, Attn.: Energy and Technology Programs, P.O. Box 1937, Hughesville, MD 20637

14. General

This Agreement is the final, complete and exclusive agreement of the parties with respect to the subject matters hereof and supersede and merge all prior discussions between the parties with respect to such subject matters. Any waiver or failure to enforce any provision of this Agreement on one occasion will not be deemed a waiver of any other provision or of such provision on any other occasion. If any provision of this Agreement is, for any reason, held to be invalid or unenforceable, the other provisions of this Agreement will remain enforceable and the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed modified so that it is valid and enforceable to the maximum extent permitted by law. You acknowledge and agree that Planet Ecosystems is a third party beneficiary of this Agreement.