How to Create a Healthier Home to Live & Work In

Aaron Stash, founder of the Electric Home Company, discusses “home electrification,” a practice of helping homeowners create healthier living spaces and work-from-home offices.

Aaron also shares his journey from corporate sustainability to running his own business. The conversation also touches on the challenges of balancing work and family life, the prioritization of solar energy versus home electrification, and the need for greater awareness around home health and safety.

More About Aaron Stash

Aaron Stash, Founder and Chief Electrification Officer of The Electric Home Company empowers homeowners to create healthy, efficient, sustainable living spaces through education, technology and a supportive network of industry professionals. 

Aaron began his career in Communications - first as a copywriter and eventually supporting commercial shoots on studio backlots - all while fostering his passion for sustainability. When the opportunity to design and build a new home became apparent, he did so sustainably, moving into the first LEED Platinum certified home in his community where he has lived for over 10 years.

Aaron "lives in his Master's Degree" and used his passion and lived experience to pivot his career to corporate environmental sustainability and social impact. Now, as founder of The Electric Home Company he shares the benefits of home electrification to clients as well as the public as Host of The Electric Home Show on YouTube.

www.ElectricHomeCompany.com

www.YouTube.com/@ElectricHomeShow

Instagram @ElectricHomeShow

Indoor Air Quality Monitors:

Awair Element indoor air quality monitor - https://www.getawair.com/products/element

Aranet4 Indoor air quality monitor - https://aranet.com/en/home/products/aranet4-home

Portable Induction Cooktop:

Duxtop Portable Induction Cooktop Burner - https://duxtop.org/

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Transcript

Kaila Sachse (00:00)
Hello from the Bringing Up Business podcast, where we talk about business and parenting. I am your host, Kaila Sachse, mom of a very rambunctious toddler. I'm also the owner of a creative and marketing agency called Yumari Digital that specializes in branding, websites, marketing campaigns, and more. Today's guest, Aaron Stash, has a business that is turning up the heat on sustainability efforts. And he is also...

sharing his parenting wisdom with us today. Aaron is the founder and chief electrification officer of the Electric Home Company, empowering homeowners to create healthy, efficient, and sustainable living spaces through education, technology, and a supportive network of industry professionals.

When the opportunity to design and build a new home became apparent to him, he did so sustainably, moving into the first LEED Platinum certified home in his community where he has lived for over 10 years.

Now, As founder of the Electric Home Company, he shares the benefits of home electrification as host of the Electric Home Show on YouTube. Aaron, I'm so excited to chat with you today!

Aaron Stash (01:16)
Thanks, great to be here. I like that turning up the heat on home sustainability. Fantastic.

Kaila Sachse (01:21)
I'm glad you caught that. was my,

I'm trying to be punny today, know, gotta keep it fun. So let's dive into your story. Tell us about your parenting and business journey and when they crossed paths.

Aaron Stash (01:24)
I love

Yeah, I have a graduated eighth grader. So now I have two high schoolers. have, my son will be a freshman and my daughter will be a junior. So not quite the toddlers, but they're still running around like crazy. And yeah, so I spent the better part of my early career in corporate sustainability.

and recently moved into entrepreneurship. Such an exciting and new experience. And I think all through this time being a parent was really a challenge, right? I think that's what we're all facing is how do we balance that back and forth? And I think the greatest thing I've seen so far as an entrepreneur is the ability to be a greater part of my kid's school experience.

So, know, in corporate America, I wasn't really able to go to those field trips and doing things like that. And, you know, I was excited to go on my son's French field trip to the Art Institute of Chicago. I was excited to go to my daughter's high school for their entrepreneurial class. And it really wasn't something that, maybe I didn't think about when I was in corporate America or definitely didn't have the time for or didn't make the time for. So.

Kaila Sachse (02:42)
Yeah.

Aaron Stash (02:42)
It's a great opportunity to have that time, that flexibility.

Kaila Sachse (02:46)
Yeah, that's amazing. Okay, so wait, your daughter's taking an entrepreneurial class in high school?

Aaron Stash (02:52)
Yeah, their high school is a little crazy. So she actually wasn't in the class, but it's essentially, you know, if Shark Tank was a high school class, that's what this is. Didn't really have that when I was growing up in a small town. But yeah, we're in suburban Chicago and I feel like they have every opportunity possible in this high school, which is great.

Kaila Sachse (03:03)
No. Yeah.

my goodness, that is so cool. I didn't even know something like that was possible. I went to a public school in the suburbs of LA and I feel like my academics were very specific to just like, you know, getting ready for college, right? The basics, the math, the science, the history, the English, you know, the ush. I was lucky enough to take some art classes and that's what ended up helping me in my journey in discovering.

my passion for graphic design and all of the tertiary goodies that I get to be a part of. ⁓ But man, I feel like an entrepreneurship class would have just been, that would have been huge. How is your daughter taking to that? I'm so curious.

Aaron Stash (03:44)
Right?

Yeah,

I mean, it was a fascinating session. So essentially each of the student groups presented their ideas and different business plans that they'd put together. And then we, as entrepreneurs, shared what we were doing and kind of back and forth. But the level of detail and engagement that the students shared was fascinating. I was not thinking about that as a junior, sophomore, senior in high school at all. They're already hitting the ground running.

But yeah, speaking of art, you know, as the doting dad here, I will point out the art behind me is my daughter's. So she is the artist of the family as well. So big fan there.

Kaila Sachse (04:29)
Oh my goodness, she has a bright future ahead with art, with the entrepreneurship. I'm so excited for her. So it sounds like you were a dad before you started your business. When did you decide to start the Electric Home Company?

Aaron Stash (04:45)
Yeah, so the Electric Home Company is relatively new. We've been around for less than a year in the Chicagoland area, helping people break up with a gas company. How can we remove fossil fuels from our home to be healthier, safer, more comfortable, and ultimately more environmentally friendly? And I look at things like HVAC equipment, hot water heaters, induction cooking, laundry, and then in the Chicago area, air sealing and insulation, right?

I was talking to a colleague out in California about water heaters and they were like, well, we'll just put it in the garage. It'll be fine. In LA, that's probably okay to put your water heater in garage. In Chicago, not so much when it's negative 15 degrees outside. And so, we have to deal with certain things in our climate that you're not going to deal with in California or in Florida or other parts of the country.

It's very regionalized, right? There are certain things that we can all do, but there are certain ways that we have to accommodate our climate here in the Midwest that you might not have to do elsewhere and vice versa in more humid climates, more temperate climates, different things you're gonna do.

Kaila Sachse (05:53)
That makes sense. know, so where I live, I'm not in LA basin, so it's crazy. I'm only 60 miles from the city, but the climate difference is pretty intense. So where I am, it's, 110, 120 in the summertime, but it can be down to 20, 30 in the wintertime as our low is low. So it can be pretty intense. And I noticed that I have to...

Aaron Stash (06:07)
yeah.

A lot.

Kaila Sachse (06:22)
consistently change my water heater settings per the season. So for the summertime, it doesn't have to be up as high. For the wintertime, has to be up way higher just to keep up with our hot water demands. so it's interesting how that hasn't been accounted for previously. Like having a hot water heater out in the garage, it shouldn't be a normal thing in climates like where I live and especially in Chicago where you have

What would you say, negative 15? Something crazy? Yeah.

Aaron Stash (06:53)
Right, right. Yeah, we have the

worst weather in the country, right? So, you know, there's a couple weeks in the summertime when it's beautiful here, but don't come to Chicago in January or February. You will not enjoy it at all.

your question about becoming a dad, and I think, I feel like in my corporate career, I feel like I became a parent at maybe the worst possible time in my career. And I say that because I was starting to take off and do more advertising work, and because of that, I was traveling.

And so I'm in the Midwest and I'm traveling to Paramount Studios to shoot commercials, which was an amazing experience. But I was essentially gone for a month of the year away and I had a new baby at home. And it was, again, probably the worst possible time as a parent to be doing that. it really, think that experience helped me refocus what I wanted to do in my career. I was like, this is great, but...

Kaila Sachse (07:35)
Yeah.

Aaron Stash (07:52)
I want to be home. don't want to miss this time with them.

Kaila Sachse (07:55)
Right, right, yeah, that time is precious, especially, you know, I feel like when my baby was an actual baby, I still call him my baby, and I feel like I will call him my baby when he's a teenager. Yeah, but it seemed like he was a different child every month during the infancy stage. It's like, who is he going to be now? ⁓ now he's starting to develop these skills, and he's got this little tiny personality trait starting to blossom.

Aaron Stash (08:06)
They'll always be right.

Kaila Sachse (08:22)
I can only imagine what that was like for you to be traveling and then come home to essentially a new child. Like, who is this kid?

Aaron Stash (08:29)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, and

ultimately, you know, maybe the positive side of it is, is they're so happy to see you when you return, right? You'll never feel more love than like when you walk in after having been gone for a while and like, Oh, hey, I remember you, you know, which is amazing. But then you're also like, I wish I was here. But yeah, I think, you know, it's so cliche, we say like, you know, treasure the time because it goes so quickly. But with now two high schoolers, it's so true, right?

Kaila Sachse (08:38)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So you were traveling a lot when your kids, your first born or both of your kids?

Aaron Stash (09:04)
Yeah. Yeah. So

So I guess my daughter would have been two and my son would have been born. ⁓ when kind of all the things started to hit to like, Hey, you need to go out here and you need to be, you know, traveling quite a bit.

Kaila Sachse (09:16)
Yeah, that's so challenging. What did childcare look like during that time? Was it just your partner taking care of the kids or?

Aaron Stash (09:25)
Yeah, I mean, so my wife worked full time. So I mean, obviously, or not, maybe not obviously, but like she took her time that she had for maternity leave. She's a teacher. And I feel like most teachers children are born in April or May. I don't know teachers that are watching, you know, because they're planners, right? If you've met a teacher, my wife is, you know, the most organized person I know, always planning things out. And it's like, well, if we have the baby in April,

then I only have to take a month off of school, but I'll get the whole summer off, and then I'll get some extra time for maternity, planning the whole thing out, right? How can we maximize the maternity leave that's offered? So our daughter was born in March, our son was born in April. But yeah, thankfully, as a teacher, she did have that flexibility to be home for the summer, but it wasn't helpful that I wasn't around, right?

And then going back to school, she went right back to work in the fall. And then it becomes a daycare situation, right? And I think, you know, unfortunately the cost of daycare just keeps going up and up and up and kind of finding the right one. And, you know, do they need to be learning Latin at, you know, three months old or something like that, because we want to prepare them for their, you know, graduate degree. It's just crazy kind of the gymnastics that we go through mentally to prepare our kids.

Kaila Sachse (10:33)
Yeah.

Yeah.

my goodness, I am currently in this limbo of how I want my kid to be schooled. it's like weighing out all these different options. I'm at the point where I'm seriously considering homeschooling because I feel like I have the most, and this is probably like a me issue, but I have like the most control. Like I know he's safe. I know that he's learning things that are actually helpful in this world. But then it's like, will he lose out on the richness of...

outside schooling so i don't know i'm just so torn

Aaron Stash (11:15)
Yeah, I I grew up in a small town, so I didn't have a whole lot of options in that way. And so it's a really different experience for me as a parent as well. You my high school graduating class was under 100 people. And, you know, my son graduated eighth grade with over 200 people, right? So all of those junior highs coming together, they'll have, you know, roughly a thousand kids in their class. And they're one of the smaller suburban high schools.

Kaila Sachse (11:20)
Yeah. Yeah.

Wow.

Aaron Stash (11:41)
And navigating that is such a different experience for them than anything that I had to do in the small town. Coming down to sports and arts and music, in a small town, everybody did everything. Because if you didn't, you didn't have enough people for the team or enough people in the band. And so there were a lot of opportunities and crossover.

I feel like here in the suburbs and, know, in the larger cities, it's like, if you didn't start that program at five years old, yeah, you're never going to make the team because, know, they've been doing it nonstop, which I call it the sports industrial complex, right? In terms of like all the things they have to go through and yet they can't be kids. Right. So. Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (12:27)
Right, right. I think about that too because I want to make sure that my kid is building memories as a child. He gets to just be a child, not have to act like a mini adult. At the same time, of course, like I want to prep him to be a capable person in this world and be able to manage himself, clean up after himself and be able to face difficulties.

Aaron Stash (12:34)
Mm-hmm.

Do they clean up after themselves? I'm waiting for that.

Kaila Sachse (12:53)
You know what? I kind of figured out a little hack with him. I don't know if this is being a business person or something, but I call it the art of leverage. So if he wants to, I don't know, play with his blocks, but he has a pile of cars in the middle of the living room, I'll say, okay, you can play with your blocks. First, you put away your cars. First, put away your cars, then you can play with the blocks. It's the first then soundbite.

Aaron Stash (12:57)
Okay.

Yep.

Kaila Sachse (13:20)
And that seems to be helping because he knows like, okay, well, I can't do this thing. won't let me if I don't clean up first. And now I'm like implementing that with everything. So it's like end of bath time. He's ready to get out of the bathtub. I'm like, okay, cool. Put your bath toys away back into your basket first.

Aaron Stash (13:31)
Yeah.

Yeah,

Nope, that's fantastic.

Kaila Sachse (13:39)
I don't know. Yeah, we'll see if it sticks.

If you have any tips, I am open because yeah, what is it like raising a teenager by the way in 2025? Like this is.

Aaron Stash (13:47)
Oh my gosh.

I mean, they're so different. So my daughter is 16. My son is 14 and they could not be more different people. And which is amazing, right? And you know, I think the the ultimate thing is that they're not me. They're not my wife, right? We're trying to shape and mold them into like, oh, these are the things we like. And they're like, we don't like those things. We want to do this. And like, what? I thought everybody liked that because my wife and I have very similar tastes, right? We're married, we get along, we have

all these things and it's like, wait, you want to do that? Like we never did that. What are you talking about? But yeah, I mean the things that they have to navigate and again, the size of the school and the scope of like the ideas and things that they have to plan out so much different than what I grew up. Luckily my wife grew up, in the suburbs in a larger school. So, I can kind of look at her and be like, is this what's supposed to happen?

But, yeah, as, as kids, I mean, I think the biggest thing is they have a really strong friend group between both of them. ⁓ and I think having that support network at their own age, right? They'll listen to their parents and hopefully we're in their ear, but.

Kaila Sachse (14:46)
Mmm.

Aaron Stash (14:55)
We're not there all the time anymore, right? So hopefully they're making good choices. And I think that a lot to do with the kids that they're hanging out with.

Kaila Sachse (15:04)
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I was listening to a bit about the Blue Zones across the world. Have you heard about the Blue Zones? Yeah, so the Blue Zones...

Aaron Stash (15:12)
yeah, yeah, yeah. The folks

that live to like the longest age, yeah, one's in Italy.

Kaila Sachse (15:19)
Exactly, exactly, yes. yeah, so the blue zones focus on these places around the planet where people tend to live the longest and they dive into why that might be. And one of the factors is that social connection. So it makes sense to set your kids up for success by helping them learn how to protect and nourish and build those relationships, especially as a teenager. That's the age when...

when they start to dive into that part of their lives.

Aaron Stash (15:47)
Well, and I feel like, especially around here, everything is so compartmentalized in terms of, you are the sports kid. You only hang out with that group or you are the band or choir art person. only hang out again. Like that was a different experience for me because in a small town, you know, I played sports, I was in the band, I was in the choir. ever again, everybody did everything. And yeah, we had like a smaller subset of people, but like I was kind of friends with everybody.

and so I think that, narrowing it down to like, well, why don't you go talk? well, can't talk to them or they're in this different group. So just kind of breaking through some of that, which I know has probably always existed. but it's a, yeah, definitely a different experience from, you know, small town.

Kaila Sachse (16:31)
Yeah, no, I get that too because I you know, had a similar experience in high school I did multiple I was a part of multiple groups and It's funny you look through the yearbook and I'm in these different group photos for like, know the choir there There is there's cheer. There is all kinds of different stuff But but I say that to say, I I went into high school with the intention of breaking

Aaron Stash (16:39)
Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (16:54)
boundaries for myself. I never wanted to be boxed in and I feel like that has served me throughout my career because I am not going to let anybody tell me what I can and can't do, you know, and that's something that I really hope that my kid can can hopefully learn for himself, too. I don't want him to to feel boxed in by anybody, anything. and I can see that.

Aaron Stash (17:06)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Kaila Sachse (17:18)
I can see how you're doing that with Electric Home Company. You're saying, okay, everybody is using these gas appliances. First, tell us why using gas appliances is not a good idea for our future and how you are breaking that box.

Aaron Stash (17:34)
Yeah, absolutely. So a number of reasons, right? I look at purely the environmental side. Anytime we're burning something, right? We had an air quality alert here in Chicago today. We had one yesterday and these are from Canadian wildfires, right? We're not facing wildfires as directly as folks in California or other parts of the country, but you know, the air blows, right? It's going to keep going. So as these things happen, it's going to affect all of us on the planet. So anytime we can stop burning anything.

Kaila Sachse (18:00)
Mm-hmm.

Aaron Stash (18:03)
whether it's in our cars or in our homes or elsewhere, we're going to be improved. I think the big thing that folks don't think about in their homes is indoor air quality overall. So if I gave you a glass of water that was dirty, you wouldn't drink it. If I gave you some fruit that was rotten, you wouldn't eat it. But we spend 80 to 90 % of our lives indoors and we really don't know what we're breathing.

And so, if you don't see it, you're not going to measure it. You're not going to think about it. So the, the biggest piece with combustion and fossil fuels is indoor air quality. there are many studies out there that even when your gas range is off, it's likely leaking benzene and other chemicals into your home, even if it's not on. And then if you are using it and you forget to put the range hood on, or you don't have a very powerful range hood,

you might as well be cooking over a campfire in your kitchen, right? All of that stuff is coming into your house. So if you're not ventilating it properly, you're breathing all of that in, your kids are breathing all of that in. don't want to be ⁓ too doom and gloom, Google these things, but asthma conditions in children increase if you have gas appliances in your home, right? These are fumes and chemicals coming in from the

air conditioning, heating and cooling, HVAC systems. We have a lot of natural gas infrastructure and people are just used to that. So, the challenge that I face is education and awareness that there's a different way to do things. over the course of the last 10 years, technology has really improved and

so what I've seen is HVAC companies and contractors that have been in business for 20, 30, 40 years are very hesitant to the new technology because when they were learning the technology, it wasn't going to work in Chicago. It's just the technology wasn't there to work in a sub-zero climate. If you're in Georgia or Texas or all of these other places that have been using heat pumps for years and years, it's fine. They know what's going on. They've been using it.

but their temperatures are not dropping below zero on a regular basis like they are here in Chicago. And so it just takes an extra level of planning to get there. But yeah, so ultimately, from a safety and health perspective, those are the big reasons to remove gas from your home, but also from a comfort perspective. A lot of people just are used to, I've got a cold room in my house and I just.

wear a sweater, grab a blanket on the couch because it's always cold in this corner or yeah, we don't use that room in the summer because it just gets too hot up there. And people just deal with it, right? It's like, that's the way the house is. We can't do anything about it. It's like, well, no, you can do something about it, right? It's like, if your house were your body and you're like, ⁓ my arm is always sore, you'd probably go to a doctor and figure out what's going on with your arm.

Kaila Sachse (20:43)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Aaron Stash (20:58)
you wouldn't just kind of put a sling on and be like, well, it just hurts in February. So, but that's kind of how we treat our homes. And, you know, when I think about heat pumps and heat pump HVAC, these are really the most comfortable type of equipment that you can own because it runs low and slow. You want it to constantly give you that same temperature throughout your house. And it has flexibility.

If you put in an addition or you have a room that's hot or cold, you can put in a ductless system that will help temper the air in that space. You can't do that with a gas furnace or your typical air conditioner that's running through ducts without thousands upon thousands of dollars of expense. ⁓

Kaila Sachse (21:44)
Right.

Aaron Stash (21:45)
one of the challenges or questions I get from folks is, well, if we electrify our homes, how is the grid going to handle that? And ultimately, yes, the grid needs to be updated, both from electrical side and infrastructure beyond. We need to do that whether we electrify or not, but so many homes, at least in our area, are still using electric baseboard heating, which is basically like a toaster oven on your wall.

Kaila Sachse (22:01)
Yeah.

Aaron Stash (22:10)
And it's 100 % efficient because as much as you plug in, that's how much heat you get out. But a heat pump system is 200, 300, maybe 400 % more efficient. So if we changed out all of those electric baseboard heating for heat pumps, we would actually reduce the load on the grid.

Kaila Sachse (22:20)
⁓

Yeah.

Interesting, that makes sense. Also something about having a toaster oven in my walls, maybe this is being California but I instantly think "fire" and that scares me. I don't know, it just seems sketchy. But if it's working, maybe this, right, yeah. I'll go the heat pump strategy instead. Yeah, that sounds better. Now, how would this tie into solar? you offer support with solar services too or?

Aaron Stash (22:39)
Right, right, yeah, yeah.

Great for toast, maybe not for your house.

Yeah.

Yeah,

absolutely. you know, folks with solar are really one of my target clients because I think there's been a great push for solar energy, right? I think if you can put solar on your roof and you can afford it and you've got a good spot for it, you should absolutely get solar panels, whether you're leasing it or buying it. The challenge with solar is, solar panels don't keep you warm at night. They don't make your house more comfortable, right? If your kids go outside and they're cold, you don't tell them to put solar panels on their head.

Kaila Sachse (23:21)
Right.

Aaron Stash (23:26)
You tell them put a coat on. so essentially with our homes, we've put all these solar panels on, but we really haven't fixed what's inside the house, right? So solar panels don't reduce the amount of energy you use. They just offset that energy. And so, you know, if I look at an energy efficiency pyramid for a house, solar panels are at the top of that pyramid. I want to make sure ahead of time that people are aware of what we can do, that you're looking at insulation and air sealing, right?

Kaila Sachse (23:26)
Right.

Aaron Stash (23:54)
put that coat on your house first, that you're looking at your appliances, right? If I'm cooking over a gas stove all this time, how can I change that to an induction cooktop? If I'm using a gas dryer for my laundry, change out these appliances, which while expensive, are way cheaper than solar panels. So if I've got, you know, 20, $30,000 and I want to be more, you know, energy efficient and more environmentally friendly, yeah, I can spend that all on solar panels.

Kaila Sachse (24:13)
Mm-hmm.

Aaron Stash (24:24)
Or I can do a whole bunch other things that will actually reduce the amount of energy I use and make the inside of my house more comfortable. And then when everything's electric, that's when we add solar to it because now everything that in my house that is electric can now be powered by the solar panels. And so you can potentially have, you know, a net zero situation where you're not paying for power for that appliance because your solar panels are providing that.

Kaila Sachse (24:33)
Yeah.

That's brilliant.

Right. man. I currently live in a solar powered, ⁓ solar powered home, I would say. I mean, I work with the grid. The grid helps to fill in any blank areas that our solar panels can't help us with. But every time I turn on my gas range or I have to adjust the stupid water heater that is gas powered.

Aaron Stash (25:02)
Yeah.

Yep.

We should

check out because you really shouldn't have to do that. So let's talk more about that after.

Kaila Sachse (25:22)
No, definitely, definitely. But yeah, every time I turn on those appliances or I think about those appliances, I'm like, man, we are spending money and finite fossil fuel on these appliances unnecessarily when the solar could be taking care of that for us. I know for my, this is a little bit of like a side note, but my mom is currently going through menopause and so she has the hot flashes. Her AC, I swear, it's like 50 degrees.

Aaron Stash (25:34)
Right?

Yeah, yeah.

Kaila Sachse (25:52)
She keeps it so cold in that house. But the solar panels have been able to help offset all of that cost. And they're netting positive, right? The solar is generating more power than they're expending. Same with our living situation here in my household. And so if we had those appliances, it'd be a perfect net zero. We wouldn't be spending anything on gas anymore. And of course, just the thought of...

Aaron Stash (25:53)
Bye.

Great, great.

Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (26:20)
I didn't know about all of the icky indoor air pollution that's going on from all of the gas appliances.

Aaron Stash (26:26)
Yeah, yeah. mean, one of

the biggest things I recommend to folks is get an indoor air quality monitor because again, you don't think about it. You can't see it, so you don't necessarily know it's there. But if anybody in the family has allergies or asthma already, like indoor air quality is really important. You're filtering that. And then a lot of folks, if you're...

Kaila Sachse (26:35)
Yeah.

Aaron Stash (26:49)
waking up after eight hours of sleep and you're still tired or you're having headaches throughout the day, you might have too much carbon dioxide in your house because we've sealed ourselves up in these boxes and if they're not properly ventilated, we could actually have too much CO2 in our house, hopefully not dangerous levels, but if you're getting headaches in your house, that's a potential cause of that. And so, you know,

whatever your favorite purchasing platform might be, look for an indoor air quality monitor. You can get some for as little as $50, up to $300, depending on how much information you want. I even have one now that it's part of my smoke detector. So my smoke detector also has a carbon monoxide detector, but they added indoor air quality sensors in the smoke detector.

and I can pull it up on my phone and see what these levels are. Because of course, right? It's sensing all these other things, why not just put it in there?

Kaila Sachse (27:43)
Wow.

That is brilliant. So where would you recommend sticking the monitor?

Aaron Stash (27:53)
Yeah.

Yeah, so if you have one, I would put it in your bedroom because see what you're breathing in overnight, right? That's the one room that you're probably spending more time in throughout the day because you're sleeping there for hopefully six, seven, eight hours, whereas you're moving around everywhere else and you're probably closing the door to your bedroom. So the ventilation in that room is even tighter. And you know, if your CO2 levels are

above 1500 or in the 2000 range, that's really going to affect your health and really going to affect your sleep quality. Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (28:29)
Yeah,

yeah, I that makes sense. Okay, so I can no longer continue blaming my toddler for my lack of sleep and headaches throughout the day. It's probably my gas stove.

Aaron Stash (28:39)
Right, right. I know I was gonna freak

out like what am I breathing in? What should I do? Do I need to open a window?

Kaila Sachse (28:45)
Yeah, it's freaky. I'm actually looking at my closed window and I wanna open it right now. I'm a little scared, but this is a good scare.

Aaron Stash (28:48)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and that's the thing, right? Is

that we've put all this HVAC equipment in our house to keep us comfortable from a temperature perspective. But your HVAC system doesn't typically tell you what your indoor air quality is, right? If there's wildfires outside, then you have a ventilation system. Does it know to turn it off because the particulate matter is high? So I have a system.

Kaila Sachse (29:05)
Right.

Right. Right.

Aaron Stash (29:16)
Called an energy recovery ventilator. I actually have one that's a conditioning energy recovery ventilator and it has sensors built into it so it brings Fresh air in and expels, stale air out and You know, I have seasonal allergies. I once went to an allergist who told me I was born on the wrong planet

I said, that's not helpful. Like, what am I supposed to do about that? Cause I was allergic to like all the trees and plants, which I love and do all this thing. And, as we're building the home, we were looking at mechanical ventilation And so these recovery ventilators bring in fresh air and expel stale air, but ours monitors the CO2 level in our house.

Kaila Sachse (29:38)
Right.

Aaron Stash (29:57)
So even if that number gets high, it knows to ventilate the house. It monitors volatile chemicals in the house and will automatically ventilate. And then their newer model of this system has a particulate matter sensor on it. And if it senses that the air outside is worse than the air inside, it won't ventilate. So if you're in wildfire areas, it will know.

Okay, your air isn't the greatest inside, but it's actually worse outside. So we're just going to recirculate it and kind of scrub it through. it's things that we didn't have to think about or worry about maybe 20 years ago, or maybe we should have been. Um, yeah, the that we're in there, I saw a gentleman was like, oh yeah, my car has that sensor in it as well. And his car, when the particulates level got higher from outdoor air, his car wouldn't bring in.

Kaila Sachse (30:36)
Right.

What?

Aaron Stash (30:50)
outdoor air. Yeah,

Kaila Sachse (30:52)
What? That is so cool.

So zooming out, what has been your biggest takeaway or blessing, right, from being able to work for yourself as a dad? You how do you see those two affecting each other aside from being able to attend school events and be present for your kids? What are some other benefits for being able to work for yourself?

Aaron Stash (32:18)
Yeah, I mean, I

think ultimately the stress level or the anxiety, like if I'm not doing something right now for my business, like that's on me. But every time when I'm working in the corporate environment, I'm like, did I get back from lunch, you know, in enough time or did I do enough work today? And then do I have time to go to these different things? Like I, it was personal pressure more than anything else. Like, am I putting in

You know, a good enough day's work for my employer so that I can progress and, you know, work up the ladder and do these things. And I'm like, you know, at the end of the day, did it really help me? Maybe, maybe, maybe not. And then what did I sacrifice on the family side? Because I had that thought process now as an entrepreneur. Yeah, I'm spending, probably more time working, but in a much more, positive environment for myself.

Kaila Sachse (32:49)
Mm.

Aaron Stash (33:14)
And then being able to say, there's a baseball game. We're going to go do that baseball game. Like I'm going to go and I'm going to participate and be present when maybe in the past I was thinking more of like, I'm here, but I'm still on my phone, making sure that, everything's fine. And it's like, as an entrepreneur, I know everything's fine because I'm the boss, right? Will that change as I grow and get more employees potentially? But I think just having that.

Kaila Sachse (33:23)
Yeah.

Aaron Stash (33:40)
um, lower anxiety and stress level of being an entrepreneur, which maybe sounds counterintuitive as an entrepreneur because there's a lot more things to worry about. but I think the anxiety and stress level is lower for me as a dad, as a father, because I know that I have that time and that flexibility to be present, right? Because I've got, you know, maybe four more years with them at home.

Kaila Sachse (33:47)
you

Aaron Stash (34:07)
to do what they're doing and go to all these concerts and sporting events and whatever it might be.

Kaila Sachse (34:13)
Yeah, make all these memories. And it is also important to talk about the flip side as well. So there are worries as an entrepreneur. What are some things that have come up for you and how have you been navigating those?

Aaron Stash (34:25)
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, as a new business owner, as a startup, it's a couple of different things, right? There isn't a dedicated paycheck coming like it would in corporate America in terms of, this is when I get paid every time. And so kind of understanding financially. But I think just the, the different perspective of small business versus corporate, you know, I joined the local chamber of commerce, which, you know, shout out to the Northbrook chamber of commerce is fantastic.

Kaila Sachse (34:40)
Yeah.

Aaron Stash (34:53)
but it's a totally different experience than corporate America, right? We're talking about, the mom and pop stores, which now I'm a member of the mom and pop, doing these things. And I think the ability for folks to connect with each other and to want to lift everybody up, like that exists in some parts of corporate, but I feel like it's also, like I don't want to lift you up too far because then you'll, excel where I won't.

Whereas this is like, your business is completely different than mine. So I'm happy to trade, ideas and comments and, and customers when it makes sense. So that's been a positive, but just, I think the challenge is the shift in my mindset, right? Having spent 20 years in corporate America to be like, ⁓ this is a different group of people and they have a different priority that I need to understand more.

Kaila Sachse (35:30)
Mm.

Aaron Stash (35:41)
And I kind of grew up around it. Like my mom and dad were both entrepreneurs. My mom was a realtor. My dad was an appraiser and an insurance salesperson. So like they were part of the chamber of commerce and the rotary and all these things. So kind of followed that. I just didn't do it professionally for 25 years.

Kaila Sachse (35:59)
Yeah, yeah, there's there's a bit of a gap and and that's okay, you know, I always feel like it's important to Flush out whatever it is that we want to try right so for you you tried the corporate America life and it seemed like something that you wanted in the beginning and eventually over time you got to Got to understand like that wasn't quite your your gig right as of right now. It's not quite your gig Maybe you'll get back into it in the future. Who knows?

Aaron Stash (36:23)
Well, and

to tie it into like parenting. ultimately about 10 years ago or so when we moved into the house, I really wanted to make a shift in, what I started in my career and what I ultimately went into. And at that time the questions I was asking myself were, do I want to become an entrepreneur right now? can I do these things? And honestly, like there was a lot more risk when my kids were three and five.

in making a whole career shift and like the security that that corporate job and the insurance and all the things provided. And so, know, lucky enough, I was able to pivot internally within my career. But, being a parent at the time, prevented me to a certain extent from becoming an entrepreneur 12 years ago ⁓ because I needed or wanted that security ⁓ from again, that typical paycheck and insurance and

Kaila Sachse (36:57)
Right.

Yeah

Yeah.

Aaron Stash (37:18)
you know, vacation time, et cetera.

Kaila Sachse (37:21)
Yeah, no, that completely resonates. I started being an entrepreneur previous to becoming a mom and I feel like my risk appetite was so much higher before I became a mother. Now I'm so much more mindful of the risks that we're taking and on one side that's a really good thing because the risks that I do take now are more calculated.

and they have a more solid approach. But on the flip side, it's scary. It's a lot scarier to be an entrepreneur as a parent, especially with a little guy. But that comes with the territory, right? And an understanding. If you're going to become an entrepreneur, you are taking a big risk. I mean, I won't say big. It depends on how calculated you are and how much you've padded yourself.

Aaron Stash (38:01)
Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (38:10)
⁓ But yeah, no, it's a very real thing. Now you mentioned becoming more aware of finances. Can you shed a little bit of light on what that has looked like for you? Like how has that changed the way that you handle your money now that you don't have a steady paycheck?

Aaron Stash (38:10)
Yeah.

I think just the the security of knowing like, when I check my bank account on this particular day that the check is in there, right. And it's like, understanding like, we've got enough, you know, money to take that vacation or whatever it might be. And now it's like, ⁓ the vacations that we were going to do, are we going to be able to do that?

Kaila Sachse (38:35)
Mm-hmm,

Aaron Stash (38:47)
there's not a dedicated amount of vacation days per se, right? So if I'm on vacation, then I'm not working, right? So versus getting paid for your vacation. But yeah, I think just the stability of understanding more so, and then as I'm getting clients, it becomes more, when are these things hitting? They're still hitting at higher low times during the year.

Kaila Sachse (38:53)
Right.

Aaron Stash (39:11)
versus a constant steady stream, right? As soon as people start to turn on their air conditioners or their furnaces, depending on what time of year it is, that's when the phone calls are, right? ⁓ And what I'm trying to do with my business is also, change that cyclical nature or the times that those happen because people do need to plan ahead, right? So if it's January 5th in Chicago and your furnace breaks and it's five degrees outside,

Kaila Sachse (39:20)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Aaron Stash (39:37)
you're probably not going to electrify because you just want whatever furnace is on the truck as soon as possible because it's cold outside. And you don't have time to think about, all the calculations and what needs to be done. So I need to get in front of people sooner to help them build that plan. recently had a client, we've been talking for a while and unfortunately her water heater died over the weekend.

Kaila Sachse (39:47)
Right.

Aaron Stash (40:05)
And, we'd been talking about things, but we hadn't really built out a plan. And she's like, I need hot water. And now she's locked in for 15 to 20 years with her gas appliance, because we just weren't able to get, a plan in place in time to meet her needs

And, you know, that's the situation that a lot of homeowners are in 80 to 90 % of the times we change our water heater or our furnace are because they die. And unfortunately that's, a very stressful period of time as a homeowner to be like, what do I have to do? And then, you know, from a contractor perspective, they want to do it quickly for you and make sure you're happy. And they're not going to pitch you.

Kaila Sachse (40:35)
Mm-hmm.

Aaron Stash (40:46)
and more environmentally friendly option at that time. So, you know, I think part of that is again, just raising awareness that these things exist. ⁓ what I'm trying to understand is, a lot of the folks in my field in the area that are talking about home electrification and building electrification, they're all men. They're all just a bunch of, you know, middle-aged white dudes like me talking about this and

Kaila Sachse (40:49)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Aaron Stash (41:13)
you know, because it's either because it's techie or whatever it has to be. I want to get more moms and more women engaged in thinking about air quality in your homes my wife jokes with me a lot. It's like normal people don't think this way like you do. And I'm like, you mean you're not like checking your air quality all the time and like wondering about your water heater or, you know, conversely thinking about like our cooking.

Kaila Sachse (41:22)
Mm-hmm.

you

Ha ha.

Aaron Stash (41:37)
Like cooking is a very emotional experience, right? You know, we've been inundated with ads that we should be cooking with gas for, over 50 plus years. And so we have a very emotional experience with our cooktop, and if I tell you, we're going to change that out for an induction cooktop, you're going to say, well, over my dead body, are you taking my gas range? Right. Because we have this experience and we love it. And like, like our granite countertops that we installed having, you know, this

Kaila Sachse (41:46)
Right.

Aaron Stash (42:05)
six, eight burner gas range is really a status symbol, right? Not to mention the utility of it. And now you want to change it into a different thing. And I think the challenge to there is when I talk about electricity and electrification, particularly on the cooktop, people think the old coil electric stove, which is garbage, right? I mean, it works, but it's not like.

Kaila Sachse (42:13)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Aaron Stash (42:32)
I don't want to recommend anybody get an electric, coil stove. but an induction cooktop, is using electricity, but it's using electricity to create a magnetic field. And so don't know if you've ever cooked on induction. It's just as responsive as gas. It has no off gassing because it's electric.

Kaila Sachse (42:35)
⁓

Aaron Stash (42:51)
and you can wipe it down because it's a glass surface just like you would an electric cooktop. So it's easier to clean, it works faster and it works just as quality as gas and a lot of high-end restaurants are switching to induction cooking because it's also safer for their employees. It's cooler. You're not heating your whole kitchen or your whole house with the fire because it literally heats the pan directly.

Kaila Sachse (42:51)
right?
Love that. Yeah.
Right? Right.

Aaron Stash (43:20)
⁓ I have a friend who, he's a realtor and he often takes people through these electric homes and he'll put a $20 bill on top of the induction cooktop and then he'll boil water on top of the $20 bill to highlight that it's not cooking the surface, it's only heating the pan. it really kind of gets the point across that this is a much safer experience. Yeah, so.

Kaila Sachse (43:43)
Yeah.

Aaron Stash (43:45)
Yeah, parents out there listening, I want to get more folks involved in indoor air quality and thinking about these behind the scenes of your home. one of the things I consider myself an interior interior designer, right? I'm looking behind the walls. What are we putting in there? What are we putting in the mechanical room that's ultimately going to help your overall interior experience?

Kaila Sachse (44:07)
Right, I love that. So it sounds like for you, you're facing a cyclical market challenge, right? People get cold, they pick up the phone, by that point it's too late. So for you, you want to plan ahead. What efforts are you doing in order to get ahead of the cycle? I know you're less than a year, so you haven't had a chance to experience a full cycle yet.

Aaron Stash (44:24)
Right.

Kaila Sachse (44:34)
But so far, what are your ideas for marketing and sales in order to get ahead?

Aaron Stash (44:35)
Right. Yeah, I mean the biggest piece that I did, having started in advertising and communications in my career and having been on stage since I was five years old, you I was the youngest child, so I had to get some attention somehow. So they put me up on the stage. I started a YouTube channel. So I'm the host of the Electric Home Show on YouTube, where I document not only my own projects, but homeowners that have done this in their own homes. So... I've done 100 year old homes that have gone all electric in the Chicago area, in central Illinois, in the city as well. It's funny, I did a ⁓ video on my induction cooktop at my own home and my wife's like, I have to be in the video because no one's gonna believe you because you're not the cook. So she's like doing copy.

Kaila Sachse (45:09)
Wow.

Aaron Stash (45:25)
on my electric home show video because like, no, actually use it, it works because I didn't have to convince her right. She was that person was like, I want a gas range, I want this. And I literally bought her, you know, a, you know, small single induction burner, which you can get, you know, at IKEA or Amazon or wherever. And so if you're thinking about induction, go out and buy that 50 to $100 single burner and try it out and try to boil some water and race yourself against your gas cooktop boiling the same amount of water. And I guarantee you the cooktop will be faster because it works instantly. But yeah, so I put together the YouTube channel, The Electric Home Show, which is great, but also, okay, I'm producing videos, but then I'm also doing the actual work. And then I had a friend over this past week. He's like, you're in my Yahoo News feed.

Kaila Sachse (45:59)
Right.

Aaron Stash (46:19)
And I was like, what are you talking about? And he's in Texas. And so Yahoo news had covered my, like one of my heat pump videos. They wrote an article about it. They featured my video and like, okay, I'm now on the internet. and so I'm, I'm reaching out like locally through social media and promoting my channel that way, but I wasn't expecting someone from Texas. actually had someone from California call me as well. And they're like, can you help me with this? I'm like, I'm happy to talk to you, but like I'm in Chicago.

Kaila Sachse (46:49)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So your service area, just to clarify, are you only serving in Chicago or Illinois or

Aaron Stash (46:56)
⁓ I can do so physically I'm doing Northern Illinois, Chicago area physically where I can go to your home. I do have an opportunity to do virtual consultations. so folks can book a virtual consultation. Now what I'll say there is I'm very familiar with the incentives and the opportunities in Illinois. I'm happy to explore kind of what things are happening in Texas or California, but it'll be a much simpler.

Kaila Sachse (47:04)
Mm-mm.

Aaron Stash (47:23)
process and hopefully be able to connect you to somebody there to do the work. But right now it's a focus on Illinois. I'd love to say, yeah, I can help you throughout the country, which I'm happy to talk to folks. And if they're looking for a virtual consultation, I do have that offer on my website, electric home company.com.

Kaila Sachse (47:40)
Amazing. Perfect. Well, gosh, Aaron, you're doing the coolest stuff. Thank you so much for helping to improve the air quality and the overall living quality for people and especially for families, keeping our homes safer and just more efficient. So thank you so much for the work that you are doing. I'm excited to see the future of your business and how you're able to help so many more people because you're already off to this amazing start. Like this is gonna be incredible work. Oh my goodness.

Aaron Stash (48:12)
Yeah, no, thank you so much. It was a pleasure talking with you. I appreciate it.