Watt's New
A series of conversations about “Watt’s” new in the energy space, hosted by Cobb EMC - one of the nation’s largest electric membership cooperatives based in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta.
Watt's New
Inside Your Attic - The Key to Energy Efficiency
Summer is here, and your energy bills don't have to soar with the temperature. Energy expert Jeff Mason reveals the simple yet powerful ways homeowners can boost energy efficiency and slash utility costs.
This is what's New a series of conversations about what's new in the energy space hosted by Cobb EMC, one of the nation's largest electric membership cooperatives, based in Marietta, georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. Now here's.
Speaker 2:What's New Another episode of what's New. My name is Mike Caraccini. I'm the director of member and public relations at Cobb EMC. As we roll into the summer months, it's time to start talking about energy efficiency, and Jeff Mason is our guest today on what's New. It's time to start talking about energy efficiency and Jeff Mason is our guest today on what's New. He is an energy advisor here at Cobb EMC. He's been working with us for 25 years and most of the time he's been performing residential and commercial energy audits, showing our members how to conserve energy and ultimately saving money on their electric bills. Jeff, welcome to what's New. Thank you, mike. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3:Explain the difference between energy conservation and energy efficiency? Okay, I'd be glad to. Energy conservation is active or behavioral. It's how we're using energy. You know you're turning lights off in a room or you've got a programmable thermostat so you can control your temperature settings. Energy efficiency now that's going to be passive or something permanent how efficient we use our energy like. How well is our home insulated? Is our HVAC system pretty new and it's more efficient? But both of these are needed to use energy wisely and efficiently.
Speaker 2:And let's talk about how an average home can become energy efficient.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the number one thing I see in doing the audits is lack of attic insulation. So if you're so inclined, you could have a peek in your attic and see how thick it is. And I say how thick, that's a reference to the R value. So current is R38. That's our code for attic insulation, but that's about 17 to 18 inches thick. So if you get up there and it's a lot less than that, then chances are pretty good you're going to need some attic insulation added.
Speaker 2:And you talked about energy audits. You do a lot of these for our members. Can you describe an energy audit real quick?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'll go out to the send an appointment. Go out to the member's home usually. Get there, say hey, I'm here for the energy audit and what I like to do is start in your attic. I'm going to have a look at your insulation, I'm going to look at your HVAC ductwork, I'm going to walk the main floor of your home and all I'm trying to do here is just trying to help you, the member, save some energy.
Speaker 2:What are the most common things that you find when you do an energy audit?
Speaker 3:I guess during the summer months that would cause a home to be energy inefficient. Again, the attic installation is a big deal. The other are the attic accesses, like if you have a pull-down. A lot of times I'll go to a home and it's just a thin piece of wood. There's no insulation there. That's a great place to use what's called an insulation tent. It sets up and attaches to the frame of the pull-down and it's a way to insulate and air seal that access point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the attic space seems to be a big culprit when you do these, and I would imagine it's entry points for air. So wherever there's air coming in or going out of your house, that seems to be a common place that a homeowner can be more energy efficient, correct?
Speaker 3:That's called air sealing. So you want to air seal the best you can. So in exterior windows and doors, check the caulking and weather stripping, especially on your entry doors, that piece of rubber, the weather stripping across the bottom. They just always break down and crack and if you're a do-it-yourselfer it's an easy fix.
Speaker 2:Hopefully, wherever you're listening to this podcast, your energy company offers you a free home energy audit, so you can save a couple of bucks on your electric bill. Jeff, what new technology do you come across that would help a homeowner be more energy efficient?
Speaker 3:I'm seeing a lot more programmable thermostats and smart thermostats these days, and that's a good thing. However, there is one caveat no-transcript, then throw the thermostat out the window. You're not saving anything. You've got to set the thermostat and let it do its thing.
Speaker 2:And I can tell we're about to press a hot button right now. About to press a hot button right now no pun intended.
Speaker 3:But what is the ideal temperature to keep the thermostat at? So ideally recommend 68 degrees in the wintertime and 78 degrees in the summer, and those are. That's kind of across the board. That's a department of energy recommendation.
Speaker 2:Jeff, I don't know if you can hear that, but that's the sound of couples fighting about those temperatures. Right now it seems like an obvious question and answer, Jeff. But why become energy? Is it worth the cost to the homeowner in the long run?
Speaker 3:Yes, and again, I know I keep going back to it, but in the case of attic insulation, if I run across a home that really needs it badly and they bring it up to code, this is an average, your average home. If you do it correctly, the insulation brought up to code, you can recoup the cost on it in roughly two and a half to three years. So that's a great place to spend your money. And again, when you look at these energy efficiency improvements, I kind of try to look at them from the viewpoint of return on investment.
Speaker 2:At the time of recording this podcast episode. We are currently rolling into the summer months and we've been talking about air escaping and going in and out of your house. Does the strategy change for the winter months?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and to go down the road with your point. Coming into the summer months, this is a great time. If you haven't had your HVAC system serviced, please do so. Just. Any system can leak the Freon charge over time. The Freon is the gas that makes the air conditioning cool. If it leaks and gets low, it's not going to satisfy the thermostat, the system will run too long and that can run your bill up. Gets low, it's not going to satisfy the thermostat, the system will run too long, and that can run your bill up. So have it serviced for sure. And the other biggie change the filters. That's a very simple thing. I know it's one of those out of sight, out of mind things, but change that filter and that'll definitely help out as well.
Speaker 2:And you mentioned those smart thermostats. I have a couple at my house and they actually remind me when to change the filters and when to have service done. So always good to check on your attic installation, your HVAC unit. What about appliances? They seem to be the biggest energy consumers in the house. We always hear about Energy Star appliances. Even lighting is involved too, right yeah.
Speaker 3:Just make sure, if you're shopping for new appliances, to go out and make sure they're Energy Star rated. What you'll probably discover is just about everything across the board has an energy star rating. Now, definitely LED lighting. If you haven't replaced all of that lighting in your home, start doing that. And the LED lighting has gotten a lot better over the last few years. It used to be it was. Everything you bought was very harsh light. You can go through the color spectrum now and it's very good lighting now.
Speaker 2:The podcast is called what's New, so we like to talk about new technology and new innovations in the energy space Anything new and exciting in the energy efficiency space that you like Well, I think.
Speaker 3:AI is going to. I mean, it's as we can see, it's going everywhere, into every type of work situation, home situation, so I think that is going to create a lot of advancements for us in the energy efficiency realm. I mean even more in-depth of maybe reminding you of things that need to be done with the house, or maybe remind you hey, this afternoon is going to be really hot and sunny. You need to close those drapes on those huge windows. You've got up front, things like that.
Speaker 2:And where do you see energy efficiency and audits and things of that nature going in the next few years? Well, with AI.
Speaker 3:it's going to get real interesting. But the thing I think that's real important with an energy audit is, I just think, the human touch, having a real human go out to the home, you can see and spot things that maybe normally wouldn't be seen. I mean, I've been doing this for a number of years so I think I'm able to pick up on things maybe other folks might miss out on.
Speaker 2:And if Jeff can't come to your house? You can't make it out to wherever you're listening to this podcast. Can you get a professional energy audit done?
Speaker 3:Yes, you sure can. And the professional audits they get much more in-depth. They do something called a blower door test where they check the air leakage of your home. You can have that done. Another pretty cool thing you can have done are infrared camera or IR camera photos made of your home. To me now this is kind of going into my opinion, but that works better in the wintertime. You know, get the home heat, turn your heat way up before they get there with the camera. You use the camera and you can see where it's lit up and leaking all over the place where you need insulation.
Speaker 2:Lots of innovative technology out there and simple checks you can do on your home so you can become more energy efficient and ultimately save a couple of bucks on your electric bill. Jeff Mason over 25 years experience in the energy space and an energy advisor here at Cobb EMC. Thank you, jeff.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Mike, I enjoyed it. You can listen to this episode anytime and get other episodes of what's New at CobbEMCcom slash podcast.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to what's New hosted by Cobb EMC. Listen to more episodes at CobbEMCcom.