Energy Conservation Projects

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the weekend warriors home improvement. [00:00:06] Speaker B: Show, built by bar lumber. When it comes to big or small projects around the home, Tony and Cory have got the know how and the. [00:00:13] Speaker A: Answers to make your life just a bit easier. Here they are, your weekend warriors, Tony and Cory. [00:00:29] Speaker B: Tony, we've been talking about energy conservation now for the last several weeks. There's a lot of things, a lot of topics, but I thought we could kind of take all that information and culminate it together and talk about some projects, some actual projects that you can do around your house. Some of these we've mentioned on this show already, but some of them we haven't. And I thought we could just put it all together into one big show. So we've split this up. We're going to talk about energy conservation projects, and I've split it up into budget projects and more substantial projects, things that are probably going to cost you a little bit more money. So the very first thing on the list, Tony, is to seal air leaks. [00:01:21] Speaker A: Insulating and air sealing is something that we talk about on the show all the time. [00:01:27] Speaker B: We did a show, a whole show about it. [00:01:29] Speaker A: Yeah, we done a whole show about it. But this is definitely a project, and we're going to touch on each one of these and go through them very quickly because it's something that we talk about a lot. But this is a project that a homeowner can do by themselves. It does not have to cost a lot of money, but it is something that everyone can do. First thing you have to do is detect it. You have to determine that there is a leak, and then you have to determine how it's happening. Then you will determine how to fix it. And then you fix it. [00:01:59] Speaker B: Right. [00:02:00] Speaker A: First, there's a lot of understanding. Where are you looking to find an air leak? In the home? Yeah. [00:02:08] Speaker B: Could be coming from your top or bottom plate, out of your plugs and switches, your outlets. Air will flow inside of an interior wall through bottom plates with holes drilled in down to your crawl space and come out of there. It'll come through around doors, around windows, and sometimes not necessarily through the window, but around the perimeter where the window is installed. There's not proper air stops put in place. And what I mean by that is if you can feel cold air coming in around the perimeter of your window, easiest thing to do, cut the caulking, score it, pop the trim off and look. If you've got old yellow or pink insulation stuck in between the window frame and the wood frame, you can peel all that out of there. It's probably black by now because it has done one thing, and that's filter out dirt. It doesn't stop air. It filters air. So you can peel that out of there and use a window and door, spray foam, squirt that in there, and that will absolutely seal up air gaps. That makes a huge difference on a home that has not done it. Even newer homes, I've seen homes, the last house that I helped a friend with, his house was built in the. They use that old insulation trick where they just stuff it in, and I tell you, it just does not work. Next one on the list is to use draft stoppers. That's a very inexpensive trick. If you've got an older door or a door between, say, your basement and your home. Or I'm going to preface this with, if you've got baseboard heating or non forced air heating or radiant heating. Radiant heating, you can close off sections of your house. If you have a furnace that runs it with an air handler that moves air through your home, you do not want to do this because it will shorten the lifespan of your furnace. There's lots of research you can do about it online, but it is a fact if you close off areas of your home by sealing them off, you're starving the air handler and making it work harder. We actually used to say that we gave that tip out on the show probably ten years ago, and we got yelled at by an HVAC guy. And sure enough, we were wrong. We were wrong partially because we just said to do it. But what he said is, if you have radiant heat that's not moving air, you can do it for sure, but block off areas of your house. But, like, from a basement situation to your main house, and air is coming in, you can use those draft stoppers. They work pretty well. [00:05:15] Speaker A: Okay. Insulating your windows. Obviously, we have walls that are insulated with r value insulation of like a 21, probably, and then you get a little bit of r value from your studs. And so you cut a hole in that and put a window in there that gives you r zero. [00:05:36] Speaker B: You get a U value. [00:05:37] Speaker A: You get a U value, but it's a different kind of a thing. That's going to be the place in a wall where it's the coldest. It's going to be around the window. The glass and the frame of the window just can't insulate like a wall insulates. So when you're near that window during cold or hot weather, extreme weather outside, you can feel that aura of that in that area. So you can block it to that area, trap it there by using like blackout drapes or heavy drapes of some kind. Also, you can get a sheet of plastic that sort of shrinks over the window that traps that heat or cold right in that space. Put drapes over top of that and it will hold it there. The window is still kind of leaky, but it's not allowing it to come into the house and create a draught in the house. You sort of are blocking it in that spot. [00:06:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I grew up using that stuff, that film, old drafty windows. You put that film over it, you run the blow dryer over it, and it gets really taut. [00:06:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:39] Speaker B: And you're basically trapping an air gap and you're trapping that air in there, which creates an insulation value. And they work great. They work absolutely great. And they're fairly inexpensive. So good tip. [00:06:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:54] Speaker B: Next one on the list is to install door sweeps or adjust them. Your weather stripping around your doors is so important. If you can close your door and see daylight around it anywhere, that means cold air is coming in. And all you need to do is either replace the weather stripping, which you can buy for most doors. They even make aftermarket stuff that nails on or screws on, glues on. There's like foam. But if you have a newer style door with an adjustable threshold, sometimes over time, that door sweep gets worn down, which is normal, and next thing you know, you can see a little bit of air gap at the bottom of your door. Well, a lot of newer style doors have an adjustable sill. So then you pop these little caps off and you can use a Phillips head screwdriver and give it a few turns and it will raise that threshold up to the bottom of your sweep again, making it almost brand new. Yeah, that's a free project. [00:08:04] Speaker A: It really, and there's a little tip you can find on our YouTube channel at WW home show. You can find a video on there where we've shown you a little tip how to test, to make sure that it's not too tight and not too loose. [00:08:20] Speaker B: That's right. So check that out using a dollar bill. [00:08:23] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. Or in some cases $100 bill. Hey, adjust your thermostat settings. Obviously, we're doing this anyways. When it gets colder and colder, colder, we turn the thermostat up. And when it gets hotter outside, we turn it down. Down. Consider the possibility of getting a programmable thermostat to automate your temperature adjustments so that you're not having to do such a thing. Corey, sets his a little bit cooler than his mind thinks he wants it to be in the summer and a little bit warmer than he thinks he wants to cool it to. In the opposite. Whatever. I was just warm it to. [00:09:07] Speaker B: You mean. [00:09:08] Speaker A: Yeah. So instead of. If he's thinking 70 degrees is perfect, maybe he sets it at 68 or 67 and then the opposite direction, of course, in the other. So just set that and then have it go to where it comes on before your home and gives it some time to get up to the temperature you want it at. And then it turns off a little earlier and it gives it time to do the whole thing. So you got the whole big sweep there. I know I said that wrong, but it's okay. [00:09:39] Speaker B: I think people understand what you're talking about. I do want to say one thing, though, because I have talked to people that the furnace is running and running and running and running and running and running. And they say, turn it up, I'm freezing. But it's running, right. If you've set your temperature at 70 and it's 65 degrees, because your house is leaky as all get out. [00:10:02] Speaker A: Right. [00:10:02] Speaker B: Turning it to 90 is not going to make it warmer. It's just going to make the furnace run longer. Longer. [00:10:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:08] Speaker B: All that does is it's a switch that says we've hit our temp turn off. So I've seen this before where people will walk over to thermostat because they're cold and turn it up to 80 or turn it up to 90, and it's insanity. And then those people go home for the day, at work especially, and the next thing you know, it's 85 degrees in there. So that's just not how thermostats work. They turn off when they hit the temperature that you tell them to. [00:10:41] Speaker A: And if it doesn't hit, then it just keeps running. [00:10:43] Speaker B: Keeps going. [00:10:44] Speaker A: But it doesn't run harder or faster or slower. [00:10:47] Speaker B: Right. [00:10:47] Speaker A: It just runs. [00:10:48] Speaker B: Right. And if it's running, no magic setting on your furnace that says burn hotter. [00:10:52] Speaker A: Yeah, that's funny. [00:10:54] Speaker B: Turbo mode. [00:10:55] Speaker A: I think that people think that there's a guy with a shovel and coal, coal. And when they turn it up higher, he shovels faster. [00:11:02] Speaker B: Like an Oompa loompa down there. [00:11:03] Speaker A: Like, more coal, more coal, more coal. [00:11:05] Speaker B: Throwing it in. That's funny. All right, next one on the list is. We've talked about this a million times, but switch to led bulbs. [00:11:11] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:11:12] Speaker B: You don't necessarily have to run out and buy a whole pile of LED bulbs. I mean, they have come down way in price. But as you're replacing your old ones, switch them over. And we actually have a whole show about LeD bulbs that you can go find on our podcast. We talk about the Kelvin rating and different things to consider when buying LeD bulbs. And I think it's super important because I drive through my neighborhood and I see these people with these bright blue bulbs on the front of their house and I think it looks terrible. [00:11:38] Speaker A: I'm still learning about LeD bulbs now. I have changed out all the bulbs in my house. There is no incandescent bulbs left in my house, no CFL bulbs, nothing except led. That's all that's there. And yet, I just learned something new. Do you remember that video that was on my phone the other day of my light going like strobing like that? [00:12:01] Speaker B: No. [00:12:01] Speaker A: It was blinking. I would say every half a second, probably. [00:12:06] Speaker B: Oh, really? Blinking? [00:12:07] Speaker A: Yeah. And all it is is just a pendant light that hangs from the ceiling over my kitchen sink. [00:12:14] Speaker B: I don't think you showed me this. [00:12:15] Speaker A: I have a video of it. I'll show it to you. Anyways, my wife turned on the switch and the light came on and it was this on, off. [00:12:23] Speaker B: Right? [00:12:24] Speaker A: On, off. And she said, is this supposed to do this? Obviously, she knew it wasn't supposed to do that. She was being funny and I didn't know what was going on. It's not a dimmer switch, it's just a regular switch. But I took that led bulb out and I put a new led bulb in, and guess what? It was no longer doing that. So I can only deduce that that bulb was coming to the end of its life. [00:12:52] Speaker B: Well, I actually have a little bit of insight into that situation. Sometimes what happens? So led bulbs do emit a little bit of heat. The electronics in them do give off a little bit of heat. They're way more efficient than incandescent, but they still do give off heat. And when you have a bulb, sometimes there's manufacturing problems within the bulbs because they all have these little microchips in them, right? [00:13:20] Speaker A: They're smart, right? [00:13:22] Speaker B: Well, not smart necessarily, but yes, but they have to take your 120 volts coming in from the light switch, and then they have to regulate that power to a certain voltage to get the light emitting diode to do what it needs to do. [00:13:41] Speaker A: Okay. [00:13:41] Speaker B: It's all very technical, but sometimes what happens is you'll have a connection between the power and it might break on the board, but when it's cool, when it's light off, it's touching. [00:13:58] Speaker A: Okay. [00:13:58] Speaker B: And then when you turn the bulb on. Then it heats up a tiny bit and it expands, and then it pops off the board, turning off the power. [00:14:07] Speaker A: Okay. [00:14:08] Speaker B: And then when the power goes out, the little wire comes down after it cools off, remakes, reconnection, turns back on. This is actually a common thing in LEd bulbs. [00:14:20] Speaker A: Very interesting. [00:14:21] Speaker B: Yeah. It's either a manufacturing problem and you can't fix it. Oh, yeah. That's just. Yeah, it's probably a bad. Yeah, Tony just showed me the flashing. It's very. It's very interesting. [00:14:34] Speaker A: Very interesting. Anyways, crisis averted. I pulled the old bulb out, put a new bulb in it, and here's the thing. I don't find myself changing led bulbs very often. [00:14:44] Speaker B: I don't either. [00:14:46] Speaker A: It's a very seldom or a rarity, honestly, so far. So, anyways, that was a new one for me. I thought that was pretty cool. [00:14:54] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I look around my house. I mean, if I had to guess, I probably have at least 30 or 40 LeD bulbs in my home, and I cannot remember. I mean, it's been at least six years since I've changed a bulb, at least. [00:15:13] Speaker A: It's crazy. The next one up here, Corey, is to unplug electronics. I know that we've talked about this a lot. As we get more and more smart appliances and electronics, they have a tendency to be drawing power from the home even when you're not using them. [00:15:32] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:15:32] Speaker A: A smart TV or other devices that are similar to that, your computer, of course, they're doing things. They're doing functions while you're not there. If you really want them to not be drawing power while you're not there, then you need to unplug them. [00:15:54] Speaker B: Yeah, they call it phantom energy. It draws energy even though it's not doing anything. And like you said, with these smart TVs, they have a feature that it's called a fast on, which means it kind of never turns off. It only turns off the display. So it goes into power saving mode. [00:16:15] Speaker A: But it's still using power. [00:16:18] Speaker B: Yeah. The processors inside there are still running so that when you hit that power button, it's automatically on. Because if you've ever plugged a smart TV in from brand new and you just plug it in, takes a bit to come on. Right. It's probably 20, 30 seconds for it to pop up and allow you to use it. So people don't want to wait that long. So sometimes there are settings on your TV that you can turn that off and that quick on, I should say. So check it out. The other thing you can do is put stuff on a. What's the word? I'm thinking of? [00:16:56] Speaker A: Power strip. [00:16:57] Speaker B: A power strip. Thank you. That you can easily turn it off. And I don't mind doing that. [00:17:02] Speaker A: Multiple devices at one time, even with one switch. [00:17:05] Speaker B: Absolutely. If you've got an area or something in your house where you've got a lot of things plugged in that are drawing power and you don't necessarily need them to turn it off. [00:17:13] Speaker A: The next one on the list, Corey says, insulate your water heater. If you've replaced your water heater in the last 20 years, it's probably insulated. [00:17:24] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think, what if you have. [00:17:26] Speaker A: A water heater that's not insulated? [00:17:29] Speaker B: What I meant here. [00:17:30] Speaker A: Probably need to replace. [00:17:33] Speaker B: Like, just a tank. An old tank. [00:17:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Really old tank. You touch it and it's hot. [00:17:39] Speaker B: In certain parts of the country, it gets a lot colder than it does here. [00:17:43] Speaker A: Okay. A blanket, than you're thinking. [00:17:44] Speaker B: Yeah. It's like a thermal blanket you put around. [00:17:46] Speaker A: It's added. Yeah. Okay. Additional insulation. When I saw insulate your water heater, I was like, I don't know who's using a water heater that's not insulated, but I hear what you're saying. An additional blanket. They have the same thing for grills that you use outside, like a smoker. When you live in a place where it's very cold, it can inhibit your ability to grill in a timely fashion. And so they put a blanket on it to keep the heat inside the smoker. [00:18:14] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:18:14] Speaker A: Yeah. That's smart. That's a good idea. [00:18:16] Speaker B: It's like a blankie. [00:18:16] Speaker A: Where would you get something like that? [00:18:18] Speaker B: Like the water heater store. [00:18:20] Speaker A: George Morland sure got it. [00:18:22] Speaker B: He's the water heater. [00:18:24] Speaker A: Water heater store. Clean your refrigerator coils. How many times have to tell you, Corey, clean your refrigerator coils. Corey doesn't clean his refrigerator coils. He just buys a new refrigerator every three years. I've never known anyone to own as many refrigerators as you've had, not because of any other reason other than you've had really bad refrigerator luck. [00:18:48] Speaker B: When you buy lg, you got to buy a new one. [00:18:54] Speaker A: Anyways. Corey has had bad luck with refrigerators, but you can extend the life of your refrigerator by cleaning the coils. Those coils sort of have a way of attracting lint and dog hair. And everything that's floating across the floor in your house that has not already been swept up has made its way to your refrigerator, where it's drawing in cool air to cool the coils, and it's bringing everything that's on the floor with it. And it gets very, very dirty in there. And that can inhibit the refrigerator's ability to cool off and ultimately shortening its lifespan. [00:19:33] Speaker B: Absolutely. And the same could be said for your HVAC systems. And I'm talking about your condenser outside. Is that what it. Yeah, the condenser is inside. [00:19:50] Speaker A: The compressor is outside? [00:19:51] Speaker B: The compressor is outside. So the compressor has a big fan, and it cools, or removes the heat, actually, from the lines that are pumping the refrigerant through there. But if you don't keep that clean, it's not working at optimal efficiency. [00:20:08] Speaker A: Right. [00:20:09] Speaker B: Same thing with your furnace. Your furnace on the inside has components, and if you don't get it regularly maintenanced, then it's not working at optimal efficiency. You're shortening its lifespan, but you're using more energy. Same thing for filters, your furnace filters. Depending on your system, you may have to replace those monthly. Monthly. [00:20:32] Speaker A: Wow. [00:20:32] Speaker B: If you've got those thin, really thin, three quarter inch to one inch thick filters, if you look on the packages, it says how long they last. And it's usually about a month when you're using it. Right. Not during the summer, necessarily. [00:20:47] Speaker A: Yeah. I noticed that your furnace filter looks like a bed mattress. [00:20:53] Speaker B: Mine is huge. It's huge. [00:20:55] Speaker A: It's enormous. [00:20:56] Speaker B: They're four inches thick, and it's like 24 x 24. They're massive. But the thing about those is those do last a lot longer. I pay a lot more for them, but they do last up to six months. [00:21:10] Speaker A: They hold a lot more debris, correct? [00:21:13] Speaker B: Yeah. The older, the smaller, thinner ones, they don't last nearly as long. And you really got to maintain those. So if you think to yourself, oh, man, I can't remember the last time I replaced my furnace filter. It's time to do it. [00:21:25] Speaker A: The next one on the list is to plant shade trees. I'm wondering, is that like, those slim shade trees? [00:21:33] Speaker B: Slim, shady trees? [00:21:34] Speaker A: Slim shade trees. It's kind of funny that it says plant shade trees, because unless you're planting a fully grown tree, which is a major undertaking. Well, you're going to have to think of this ahead of time. [00:21:48] Speaker B: Well, this is the budget project. [00:21:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:50] Speaker B: This is exactly what I'm talking about. [00:21:51] Speaker A: When you're planting small trees that will eventually grow into being shade trees, that's thinking ahead. [00:21:58] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:21:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:59] Speaker B: That's exactly what you're doing. You're planting trees so they grow shade your house during the summer. You want to put them on the south side, where the sun's coming up. [00:22:07] Speaker A: Pounding your house very carefully not to block your view of the hillside, whatever you half a million dollars for. [00:22:15] Speaker B: But, yeah, shade trees can help reduce the temperature inside your house in the summer significantly. [00:22:21] Speaker A: Yeah. It seems like you should be able to get a tree that has a canopy that's up high, maybe like a ten or 20 foot canopy that can still be blocking the sun. That is not. I mean, the sun's not so low that you would need to have. [00:22:40] Speaker B: Not in the summer. [00:22:41] Speaker A: Yeah. So this is what I'm saying. And that's when you really want to block. The sun is in the summer, right? [00:22:46] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:22:47] Speaker A: In the wintertime, you want to let it in. [00:22:49] Speaker B: That's right. [00:22:49] Speaker A: So, yeah, you could be thinking about a tree that maybe has a tall canopy so that you can see past the trunks of the trees to see your view that you might have while shading the sun from a much higher place. [00:23:03] Speaker B: It also depends on how you maintain the tree and prune it. [00:23:09] Speaker A: Yes. Especially if you planted it young. [00:23:12] Speaker B: Young. That's right. [00:23:13] Speaker A: As a baby. [00:23:14] Speaker B: Last one on the list, Tony, I'm going to let you read it. [00:23:16] Speaker A: Sapling. The last one on the list is. [00:23:22] Speaker B: The cheapest of them all. [00:23:24] Speaker A: If you are cold and you are wanting to conserve energy, then buy gum. Buy, golly. Put on a sweater. Fine. Find a blanket and put on a sweater. Cuddle up with your favorite Blankie. [00:23:40] Speaker B: I mean, this one is one of those obvious ones for us older folk. [00:23:45] Speaker A: Find a loved one and snuggle, because. [00:23:48] Speaker B: That is all I heard from my dad growing up. Yeah, put on a sweater. [00:23:52] Speaker A: Yeah. My dad would just say, get a blanket. Get a blanket. [00:23:55] Speaker B: I'm cold. [00:23:56] Speaker A: Get a blanket. [00:23:57] Speaker B: Yeah, get a blanket. Yeah. [00:23:59] Speaker A: That's for sure. [00:24:01] Speaker B: That's why the snuggie was invented. Do you remember the snuggie? [00:24:04] Speaker A: I do remember that. [00:24:06] Speaker B: The blanket with the hood. [00:24:07] Speaker A: Right. I own one of those. [00:24:09] Speaker B: Do you do? [00:24:09] Speaker A: Yeah, it's got Spiderman on it. [00:24:10] Speaker B: Hilarious. [00:24:12] Speaker A: It was a gift. Of course. I didn't go out and buy myself a snuggie. [00:24:17] Speaker B: Don't lie. [00:24:18] Speaker A: More substantial projects. Yes. [00:24:21] Speaker B: Let's talk about. We've got a little list here of projects that will help you conserve energy, but they're going to be significantly more money. [00:24:30] Speaker A: More money than putting on a sweater. [00:24:32] Speaker B: That's absolutely correct, yes. [00:24:33] Speaker A: Okay, so that's why that one was in the previous list. [00:24:37] Speaker B: We've moved on. These are more substantial. [00:24:39] Speaker A: All right, number one, upgrade to energy efficient windows. This, of course, is a major undertaking if you're replacing all of the windows in your home and you're upgrading to something that is more energy efficient, like energy star rated or even better, this could also turn into reciting your house. If you're changing out all the windows, this is a time to evaluate the likelihood that your siding will need to be replaced, because this will be the time to do that. [00:25:10] Speaker B: Yeah, 100%. Next one on the list is to insulate the attic. [00:25:16] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:25:17] Speaker B: I'm going to give you a tip. I know we have a whole show on insulating, but if you're going to insulate, do it in the winter, at least in your attic. Insulate the attic. Do it in the wintertime. So if you've ever gone up there in the summer, you will die within five minutes. And so hot. [00:25:36] Speaker A: Only thing worse than being in the attic in the summer is being in there with fiberglass insulation. [00:25:43] Speaker B: It's miserable. [00:25:44] Speaker A: It's not a good situation. Those two don't mix. I've also done it. It's not good. [00:25:48] Speaker B: Terrible. [00:25:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:50] Speaker B: So do it in the wintertime. [00:25:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Insulation project to do can definitely save you money in the long run. Cost you money today, save you money tomorrow, and comfortability. [00:26:00] Speaker B: Next one on the list is to upgrade your HVAC system. If you've got an old, old system and it's not efficient or you don't. [00:26:07] Speaker A: Have one at all and you want to get one. Yeah. I mean, my home, of course, was built with space heaters. Yeah. [00:26:13] Speaker B: You don't have an actual HVAC? [00:26:16] Speaker A: No, I do not have a central heating system or a furnace of any kind. Each of my rooms are heated with space heaters, which is not a terrible way to go, but it's very much different from coming home and having the house efficiently heated and not having to mess with something to make it happen all the time. I am forever turning on or turning off the heat in a room or two rooms that we're going to be spending time in and then walking from a warm room to a cold room and coming back to a warm room. [00:26:49] Speaker B: Yeah, you got to think ahead. [00:26:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:50] Speaker B: You're like, oh, I'm going to go watch TV later. I'm going to go turn on the heater in there. [00:26:54] Speaker A: Absolutely. That's exactly what happens. I'm going to go turn the heat on in the family room. We're going to be in there later. That's right. This is my life. [00:27:02] Speaker B: Crazy. [00:27:03] Speaker A: Yeah. And honestly, I don't hate it. It's a very cost effective way to go, but it's a different way yeah. [00:27:14] Speaker B: I mean, they've got to make thermostats for those things, I imagine. [00:27:17] Speaker A: Well, they certainly do make thermostats for them, but it doesn't make sense, in my opinion. It doesn't make sense for that kind of a heater to be running all the time just so that you're not turning it on or turning it off. It's easier to just turn it off. [00:27:32] Speaker B: Got you. [00:27:33] Speaker A: But it heats up quickly. I mean, right away. [00:27:35] Speaker B: Bam. [00:27:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:36] Speaker B: Really good. Next one on the list is to install a solar water heater. If you've never seen a solar water heater, they go up on a roof. They look like solar panels, but they run water through them so that you can harness the sun's energy to heat the water instead of harnessing it to generate electricity. [00:27:56] Speaker A: That's very interesting. [00:27:58] Speaker B: Yes. For some people, it would make sense. Not for everyone, for me, not necessarily. We just don't get a ton of sun here in the valley Pacific Northwest, but certain areas of the country. Absolutely interesting. Very interesting. [00:28:14] Speaker A: Switching to solar panels, something again that you know a lot about. Of course, you have solar power on your home, and we've talked about that a lot on the show. But switching to solar panels certainly does replace the need to spend money on energy, but that there's a cost that comes with the panels. And so a lot of times it's a trade off. You're making the choice to spend the money that you would be spending on energy to spend it on solar panels that are providing you energy. But again, eventually the solar panels will be paid off. The energy bill will not ever be paid off. You'll always need to pay that. So working towards an end to your means, there's something about that that's just like the difference between paying rent in an apartment and paying mortgage in your house. You know that you're paying the same money to live, except this one's going towards something and this one's going towards someone else. [00:29:18] Speaker B: Similar to that analogy, it's the same as electricity prices going up. Electricity prices go up over time. So in 20 years, when they've gone up another 30 or 40% or whatever, they're going to go up. Same thing with rent. If you buy your house and you own it, you don't have to worry about paying rent. [00:29:36] Speaker A: You don't have to worry about whether the price values of the houses are going up or going down because you own your house. [00:29:40] Speaker B: So if you put solar on your roof over the years, as electricity goes. [00:29:46] Speaker A: Up, you own your power. [00:29:47] Speaker B: Right? Your usage stays the same. And your power bill, you'll continue to save money. More money. [00:29:54] Speaker A: That makes sense. Energy efficient appliances. We've just talked about energy efficient appliances, of course, and there's a lot of those. We talked about toilet. There's dishwasher, refrigerator, washer and dryer range, you name it. If it requires power or water, there's a way to do it efficiently and a way to do it not so efficiently. And if your appliances are getting old, then they're not as energy efficient as they could be. [00:30:24] Speaker B: Right. [00:30:25] Speaker A: So maybe it's time to take a look at upgrading to a more energy efficient appliance. [00:30:31] Speaker B: Yes, sir. Upgrade your water heater. We kind of talked about this, but sometimes, and you need to talk to probably a professional, a plumber in this situation, because I actually looked at doing this when I remodeled my bathrooms. I wanted to get a tankless water heater put in, and it didn't make sense in my situation because of how they pipe the water back to my bathroom. It just wouldn't have made sense, and it wouldn't have saved me a ton of money. What it would have done is made our showers an hour, because you just stay in there forever with just hot water. Right. [00:31:12] Speaker A: Right. [00:31:13] Speaker B: So my plumber actually talked to me out of it. I said, I want a tankless. He said, no. [00:31:18] Speaker A: He talked you out of it? [00:31:19] Speaker B: He talked me out of it. He said, it's not going to save you any money. You're better off getting. I don't remember what we got. A 50 or 60 gallon or 80 gallon. I don't even remember. But we put the new one in and we have all the hot water that we could ever want, even with two kids, and it was way less expensive. But in some situations, especially when you're building a new home, that's probably a time to consider getting the tankless. So you're not constantly heating water. It's on demand. You get it when you want it. [00:31:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. If you've got a family of four or five, at some point it becomes difficult. Right. [00:32:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Teenage daughter shower, shower, shower, shower, shower, shower, shower, shower, shower. With no regard anyone else that needs the shower. [00:32:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:12] Speaker B: That can get difficult. [00:32:15] Speaker A: All right, well, we're to our last one, our last sort of project that you could do that could make you more efficient or more. [00:32:29] Speaker B: Save you more money. [00:32:31] Speaker A: Save you more money. Yeah. More green. [00:32:34] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, at the cost of costing a lot of money, because this is one of my favorite topics. I love technology, but smart home automation, one of the nice parts about it is that you can control your lighting, you can control your heating to such an extent that you're going to save electricity, and right down to dimming lights, down to such a low level that you're not burning hardly anything. It really makes sense in a lot of situations to use smart home technology, and they even make smart plugs, for instance. So I had this problem, I'm just going to throw this out there and you guys can do with it what you will. But I had this problem with my router. I had a Wifi router that would constantly not work. You'd go to connect, it would drop, it wouldn't turn on. It was all this stuff, right? And I was reading, like, I kept having to go in and turn it off, unplug it, plug it back in, do all the stuff right. And I was reading this guy on the Internet said, put a smart switch on it. I did that. I plugged it into a smart switch and then I programmed the smart switch every night at like 330 in the morning. It would turn off for a minute and turn back on every night. And I never had a problem with that router again because it rebooted basically every day. [00:34:06] Speaker A: Very interesting. [00:34:07] Speaker B: Yeah, it's pretty smart. [00:34:08] Speaker A: You had to tell the smart switch to do that. [00:34:11] Speaker B: Yeah, you just program it. I mean, you could buy a dumb one. You could buy just a rotary dial. [00:34:17] Speaker A: Sure. [00:34:17] Speaker B: Right. [00:34:17] Speaker A: A timer. [00:34:18] Speaker B: Timer. That works as well. I actually started with that, but then I switched to a smart switch that you plug into an outlet and then you plug whatever you want into that. For instance, if you have lamps, like if you have a lamp in a room and you want it on a smart switch, you can use those. They work great. They're pretty inexpensive and you can just push it. Like, for instance, all of my Christmas lights in our house, all of them, I have on smart plugs so I can tell Siri to turn on Christmas and she'll turn on the light display, she'll turn on the Christmas tree, she'll turn on the garlands, all the know and I can separate them out. I have it all on that so I don't have to walk around my house remembering to turn everything off at the end of the night or whatever. I can program her to turn it on at a certain time. Turn off at a certain time. That's awesome. [00:35:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that. [00:35:11] Speaker B: So anyway, it's a good energy saving tip. [00:35:15] Speaker A: Tip, absolutely. [00:35:17] Speaker B: So anyway, that's it. That's all we've got, energy saving projects, if you can think of any that we missed. Maybe shoot us an email. We're [email protected]. If you like this episode, make sure you hit subscribe. Share it with your friends and family. Leave us a review. If you think we're bumbling idiots, then don't. But if you like what we say, leave us a review. We've been doing the show a long time. We were on the radio and recently over the last year, we've converted to podcast only. Yeah, so if you got a topic you want us to talk about, or if you got questions, shoot us that email. Weekendwarriors at par that's parr.com. Follow us on all of our socials. We're at ww home show. We also film a lot of videos on YouTube, but we're also at par lumber. And go check that out. We've got a bunch of videos that we've been doing on the par lumber YouTube channel. So thanks so much for listening. [00:36:16] Speaker A: We'll catch you next time. Have a great week. Bye.