392. Residents are Shocked!

Hey, what's up, everyone? Welcome to the Derek Cole Podcast. Thank you for being here. My pleasure to talk with you on this session. And I want to talk about energy bills, utility bills. Folks are getting their bills in the mail from these very cold times and they're shocked or stunned by the usage and by the bill. So it's a combination of two things. I mean, it's, it's rising prices. Of course, everything today costs more than did last year. So it's rising rates on the energy side as well as we're coming out of a very cold period where your heating was running. And if you had a heat pump is running on the emergency heat quite a few times, a little more than normal. And if you had a gas, you use quite a bit of gas. So that cost happened there. So what can you do about it? I read an article in the Pilot newspaper, which is out of Moore county, and they thought about the, you know, utility prices going up, the commission and of course the, the harsh winter and the bad weather. Of course that has an effect on. Has to. But what can you, what can you do about it? Are there habits you can change? Are there things that could be improved? We're in a business or industry that's. I love, I love it so much because we're in heating there. Heating air is one of the most often used appliances in your home. It's going to pull some of the most energy. It's going to be some of the most used of the appliances in your home. So we can have a direct impact on the energy that's being used. So there's all kind of examples of ways to save energy. Is it with the. People tend to only think is only with the temperatures. But is it with the temperatures? Is it with the duct system? I mean, on average, the average home has 25 to 40% leakage of conditioned air in the duct system. So what does that mean? That means worst case scenario. That means for every dollar you spend, of course, unless your heating is 100% efficient, that's what's good about it, is that there's no combustion. You're not losing anything from that. So if I pay a dollar for heating, 40 cent, worst case, 40 cent. Worst case of average, 40 cent of that one dollar is being lost because of the duct system. It could be holes, it could be not sealed, it could be air leaking out. That's a major, major problem. So could you look at something like duct ceiling? Yes. There is obviously an upfront cost to get it done, but is it worth that? In the long run to not lose that energy. One things we can do before we even do a duck ceiling is we test the duck to see what is being lost. And then we calculate it's all by computer, what was lost, where you are and where you can seal it to. And then we'll give you a graph at the end. Say, look, I started here, I ended up here. We've seen some major differences in the starting and ending points. By sealing your duct system, that's. That's one thing. So you got a duct system. You can still. Is your unit running efficiently, has been serviced? Has it been maintained? Is it running as efficient as it can? That's another one to look at. If you haven't had a maintenance or a cleaning or a service, that was some. That's something I would definitely recommend you do because According to the EPA, okay, 1/20 of an inch can affect your efficiency up to 21%. 1/20 of an inch. Think about that. 1/20 of an inch, how small as that for some context. If you want to, you know, measure out some paper and, you know, cut off one inch of paper and then slice that up 20 times and one piece of that is 1 20th right, it's a very small amount of dirt or dust that can cause your unit to not be efficient. So we have the biggest energy, one of the biggest energy users in the home, one of the biggest energy using appliances in the home. How can we make it more efficient so we can stop overpaying? That's what's happening. We are overpaying on utility bills because we're losing it through the duct system or we're not running as efficient as we can. So it's just two examples of things you can do, you can look at to see if you can start saving on those utility bills. And yes, prices have gone up. Prices have gone up. There's no doubt about it. But you can start controlling the energy you use. But first we gotta step back and look at what are we doing and what can we do differently. So what I wanted to do on this podcast as well is I'll put in the notes, I'll unlock a couple of resources guides for you to go to and click on, as well as the Healthy Home Challenge. This is a challenge that we've been doing for a little while now. We have finally set the price at 97. It is available right now for $7. What they get you for $7 is five videos of me and William Skipper going through some of the critical items in your system and what you can do about it. First of all, why, why is it critical, why you should pay attention to it and what to do about it? And then we give you quick, a quick action guide. They'll help you do something about it. Now, I get that, you know, five days, five videos, five emails from me. It might not change what you're doing right now, today, but at least you'll have some context to know where this is coming from and what you can do about it. Now, it's up to you if you want to actually do anything about it, right? I mean, I, I can't come to your house and say, you need this, you need this kind of filter. You need to protect your unit, you need to save energy. You know that's not gonna happen. That's gonna have to be on you, right? I mean, I can give you all the resources, but it's up to you to actually say, let's go, let's do it. We can do it. Let's attack it. Here's what, here's the plan, here's what we're going to do. And then you measure the results, right? We had that testimony from a, a client a couple days ago. Simmons, seal my duct system years ago. And I see a big difference in my energy cost. So, I mean, that's, that's a testament. We've done just duck selling alone. We've done hundreds. I, I, it's not thousands yet. We've done hundreds of homes and duck systems. And I've never had a client call back or email me and say, you know what? I regret doing that. I regret selling my ducks. I regret, you know, going to, going from 20% to 3% or 5% leakage. No one's ever said that. That's never been the case. So it's only going to help. It's not going to hurt. It's only going to help. You're only going to save more energy. But I'll link up those, those things in the notes of the podcast, but, but take advantage of them. I mean, it's free information and decipher yourself. I mean, our job, I tell, I tell the team all the time. Look, our, our, our duty, our service to anyone who calls us is, is to present what's available now. It's up to them if they want to do it. But now, you know, right, it's my job to educate you on what's available. It's up to you to actually take it a step further and say, yes or say, let's go, let's do it. That's totally up to you, but it's our job to educate. Okay? I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Derek Cole Podcast. Tell some people about this episode. It's on each of us really, to spread the better ways to be healthier and more comfortable in our homes and workspaces. I'm asking you to be the dealer of positive and life changing messages in your circle of influence. Take a screenshot right now and share the screenshot and the link to this episode with three of your friends today. Share it on social media. Use the hashtag Healthy Home. That's Healthy Home. We are always giving away shout outs prizes to our community. If you would like to help me personally then please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. Give us some stars. Leave a review because that stuff actually does help and I read all the comments. So my last thought for today, please remember you deserve better air at home and greater comfort at home. Don't settle for being uncomfortable for your heating air every single month. We are so thankful for having you here in our community and be sure to go deeper with us@simmons1hour.com. Sam.