Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Welcome to the Buzz, a podcast by Boone Electra Cooperative. The Buzz is a monthly message to our community celebrating what it means to be a member owner of your local electric cooperative, Boone Electric Cooperative, your co op, our community.
[00:00:25] Speaker C: Welcome back to the Buzz. I'm Zach Smith, communications specialist at Boone Electric Cooperative and today we are returning to our seven part series on the cooperative principles with principle number five, education, training and information.
So while the foundation blocks of the cooperative business model are almost 200 years old, the electric utility industry is constantly changing. There's a lot of education, training and information that goes along with the territory. Line workers are constantly undergoing training with new equipment as well as revisiting the basics of the trade in order to keep their skills sharp in the field. Even Boone Electric cooperatives directors take part in various certification programs so that they can bring up to date knowledge and best practices to the boardroom. But some of the most vital information and education that Boone Electric offers is actually to our members. So joining me today are Boone Electric Cooperative's member service technicians, Wes Fuel and Chuck Nichols, who do just that. Fellas, welcome to the show.
[00:01:18] Speaker D: Hey Zach.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:01:20] Speaker C: So when I have to explain the difference between an electric cooperative and any other kind of utility to people, I think that what you guys do is maybe the best example because everything you do is designed to help save members money in some way, right?
[00:01:35] Speaker D: Correct. So we go into homes and try to get them to use less energy than they already are using. I know there's kind of a myth that electric companies want to make as much money as possible on the energy. That's not really the case with co ops. We try to reduce your energy as much as possible.
[00:01:56] Speaker C: Yeah, it seems counterintuitive. Wait, you guys work for the electric company? Don't you want me to use more electricity so I spend more money?
[00:02:02] Speaker D: Right.
[00:02:03] Speaker C: But yeah, that's one of the. I've said it many times on here. I think one of the best ways that I ever heard it described was somebody at a different co op said, I don't know of another industry where the people at the company try to get you to use less of their product. But there's a lot that goes into that with saving money, saving energy conservation and things like that. But that's where it all starts. I mean, I think a lot of people, they jump to worrying about, oh, you know, do I need a brand new H vac system or I need to replace a water heater or whatever the case might be. But before people start dropping huge amounts of money on those Kinds of major renovations. They can really start with what they have. And that's kind of where you guys start.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: Typically, we'll get to a house, we'll, you know, we want to look at the attic, see what kind of insulation they have up there, figure out the R value on the insulation. Then, like, when we get into the house, we look at areas that may have leakage, like under the sinks, electrical bypasses, plumbing bypasses, crawl spaces, you know, stuff like that, and try to help them or educate them on sealing up the house better.
[00:03:10] Speaker C: And when you say leaks, you mean air loss, basically, right? Correct. The idea being that your system may be fine, but if you're losing all of your hot air in the winter or your cold air in the summer, that stuff's just going straight out of that. You're exactly using all that energy to build it, and it's going straight out of the house. It's not really doing you any good. Right. We're kind of in that time of year where people aren't thinking about their energy bills as much because we're not freezing cold in the middle of the winter. We're not in the suffocating dog days of August yet. So people got their windows open, maybe the ceiling fans on. We. But that first huge shocking bill of the summer hasn't arrived yet. But now is the time to be thinking about energy efficiency and what improvements you might want to make. Right. Because by the time you get that first bill, we're already in it, and it's too late to. Not too late to do anything. I mean, there's always time. But if you want to stave that off, you want to get it done before it happens.
[00:04:04] Speaker D: So, I mean, typically now there's a time where your energy bills will be lower. So hopefully that gives you a chance to maybe put some of your income toward improving your attic insulation or air loss, air leakage, and doing it right now. You know, the attic's not smoldering hot. It's not freezing cold. It's easy to climb up there and kind of do some work in order to bring that up to an R50, which is good efficiency. And then maybe seal some of those doors and windows and stuff like that. Caulking and sealing. I remember a time in grade school where we had a class project, and we built out of the old foam Fibergette glass insulation, we built boxes, and we put, like, an ice cube in there, and one box was completely open. One box was just a box with a top on it, and the next box was actually Sealed with like duct tape. And the one with actually sealed and covered all the cracks, the ice lasted so much longer. And it's the same way with your home to seal those air leakage escape routes and then to add that attic insulation. It just keeps the cool air in longer and the warm air in longer. So. So it's not escaping out to the open.
[00:05:22] Speaker C: One of the things that you guys do on those energy efficiency reviews when you evaluate a member's home, which is all for free, by the way, for Boone Electric Cooperative members. Walk me through that process and I know you've mentioned a couple of them, but what are the common areas and things that you're looking for when you go into those homes or the things that you're see where it's a pretty common thing that people usually need to at least look at or think about and it turns out to be a relatively easy fix.
[00:05:49] Speaker A: So one of the things that we run into fairly often is space heaters in the wintertime. Actually, I went to a house recently and they had four of them just to make the member aware of the usage of those per space heater. So that's one that stands out. You know, when we get there, it can be a lot of things. You know, they may have a sump pump in the crawl space that the float stuck open or they don't, you know, they're not aware of it. You know, a water heater, you know, the pressure relief valve that's not as common, you know, can be stuck open. So at the end of the day when we show up, you know, it's a benefit to them, but also to us for their bill just to walk around and see what all they've got going on in their home.
[00:06:28] Speaker C: I know you guys both mentioned the R value. What is the R value and how do you check that?
[00:06:32] Speaker D: It's basically the depth of the insulation up in the attic ceiling or in the walls. It's obviously difficult to add to the R value inside the walls without removing sheetrock. But most of the time when we add R value to the ceiling, it's just easy to get a blower machine and then you just blow on top of what's already existing. So it could have an R value of like a 20. So we'll add some inches to bring that up to an r value of 50. And that just makes the house just that much more efficient.
[00:07:03] Speaker C: Some of those smaller things people can even check themselves. Right. I know we have a do it yourself guide on the website that be a little bit older, but According to that. I mean, you can take a piece of plastic wrap and figure out where a lot of those air leaks are kind of shocking, actually. I mean, near a window or something makes a little more sense. But you hold it near like a. A light switch even, or a socket like the ones we have on the wall in here, and you can see that thing move from just the airflow coming in and out of a house through a spot you wouldn't normally think to insulate.
[00:07:34] Speaker D: Correct. I mean, anytime you see daylight, looking inside your home to the outside is just a good indicator of some air loss. Pretty obvious. Definitely A lot of round doors, exterior doors and windows. Those definitely just need to be addressed. A lot of times a ton of older homes have attic fans and no one even uses them anymore. But the amount of air that those allow air to escape through up into the attic is just astronomical. And people just don't realize that fireplaces is another one. Sure. Where they don't ever use their fireplace and that air is just seeping through and up out the flue. And a lot of times people just don't realize that.
[00:08:13] Speaker C: And I think it's important to note that you don't actually do the repairs or anything like that. Boone Electric doesn't partner directly with a company who does anything like that. But you guys are from the area, you probably know the direction to at least point them in, depending on what it is that they need.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: You know, going to the attic, you know, there's a couple local contractors, you know, we'll give them their information and they'll come out and give them a free bid on the attic. See kind of what the R value is. And like, as far as doors and windows, I personally kind of direct them to some of the local companies here and they'll be able to help them out on those improvements. Air sealing, you know, whether it's foam spray or whatever they're doing, you know, a lot of the small stuff they can just do themselves and like, we'll point that kind of stuff out to.
[00:08:57] Speaker C: Them in the event somebody does have to do a major renovation, like new windows or they want a new ground source heat pump. We do help with some of that in the form of rebates still. Right.
[00:09:07] Speaker D: There's. We have rebates on ground source heat pumps, dual fuel heat pumps, attic insulation, water heaters, and a lot of that. You have to do the blower door test, which I know you're going to get to here in a little bit. But the blower door test is just a way to kind of fine tune everything. And it really pinpoints a lot of the problem areas in the kind of home inspection that allows the member to really get a good grasp on if the windows are leaking or if they're just cosmetic. A lot of times the corporate of a window leaking could just be the install itself and not necessarily the name or brand or type of window. If it's not installed properly from the get go, then it's going to leak. And getting new windows won't necessarily fix that problem. So the blower door test shows whether they are really leaking or not or if it's just some sort of other issue that they could handle.
[00:10:03] Speaker C: What is a blower door test and what do you guys do and what do you look for when you're running one?
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Okay, so blower door test is where we go in the home, we shut all the windows, all the exterior doors, we leave all the interior doors open. And what we're doing is we're depressurizing the house and we're basically checking for the volume of air changes per hour. So basically we turn the machine on and then what that does is it actually, you know, pulls air through the house. It's a good tool for us to use as a guide. Then we can walk through with the member and see all the area that need improvements like can lights, you know, stuff like that. And then we go kind of go over that stuff with them and make notes and everything. And then therefore they're able to fix those problems.
[00:10:47] Speaker D: Yeah, like Chuck said, it depressurizes the home. So in return we're pulling air out of the home, which therefore sucks air into the home through all your, your leaks.
[00:10:59] Speaker C: And that's how you guys walk around and kind of figure out where the air is coming from.
[00:11:02] Speaker D: Right. And that's what really I guess kind of opens the eyes of the homeowner when, when that air is coming in and they can actually feel with their hand or like you said, hold a piece of paper up and see it moving back and forth and be like, wow, that's, that's really, really is leaking.
[00:11:19] Speaker C: And it's a strong current, I guess, of air. I mean you could really feel it. There was no, no mistake that it was, you know, a ceiling fan or something blowing on it was air going through the whole.
[00:11:31] Speaker D: Correct. Yeah. There's a lot of people don't realize that the light switches actually produce a lot of air loss. And we do have foam plate covers that we actually give out Here at Boone Electric. It's a quick, simple easy fix.
[00:11:44] Speaker C: And this part probably bears repeating. But if you have questions, please check out the website or call beforehand when you do some of those steps with major repairs. Because there are some things that have to be done beforehand to make sure things qualify for those rebates that we do have. We want people to use them and take advantage of them, obviously, but there is a process they have to go through and going out doing it on your own and then calling you guys sometimes negates that whole process and they they can't get a rebate for. So please call or check out the website and talk to somebody before doing those things. And there are a lot of local programs outside of Boone Electric that can help with some of that. I know CMCA has a weatherization assistance program. There's LIHEAP funds out there. So some of this stuff is not as cost prohibitive as you might think at first glance. And again, please visit us online Boone Electric Co Op. Check out our Energy Solutions tab there for more information. Or you can call us here. 573-449-4181. Gentlemen, thanks for joining me today to discuss it. I really appreciate it. I think the members can learn a lot about their home and their efficiencies and once again, it's free.
[00:12:53] Speaker D: Thanks Zach. Yeah, appreciate it. Yeah, as long as the members know, just give us a call before you start a project and that way we can help out as much as we can.
[00:13:01] Speaker C: Thank you guys again and thank you for joining us today. Be sure to come back next month and until then, we'll see you somewhere down the line.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: Thank you for tuning in to the Buzz, a podcast by Boone Electric Cooperative. To subscribe or for more information, you can find us on Facebook, Instagram X and LinkedIn. And of course, you can always visit us 247 at Boonelectric Co op. Boone Electric Cooperative, your co op, our community.
