Everyday Green Home

If you take care of your home so that it will take care of you, you won't have to do as much to look after it. Everything you do to maintain your home will pay off in the long run and you won't end up having the big calamities and repairs that you would have to deal with if you did not care for your home properly. 

The average home has about 75 different components in it that need to be tracked, so the thought of maintaining it can be a little overwhelming. And we do need to know how to take care of everything in the right way.

As you take care of your home, you will have a great opportunity to uplevel it.

 

Take a moment

It's worthwhile to take a moment to consider what you're going to use to repair, maintain, and replace your household components.

You need to hold onto your user manuals because they can make your routine maintenance much quicker and easier. If you have lost a user manual, you will be able to find it easily online, on the manufacturer's website.

 

Some tips to make things easier

In Marla's book, Living Green Effortlessly, Simple Choices For a Better Home, there is an entire chapter about maintenance. It has a great checklist and some seasonal information about how to segment your maintenance work to make things a whole lot easier. 

You can also go to www.greenhomecoach.com and download the Ten Ways to Make Your Home Healthier and More Efficient and Durable. 

 

Home/building owner training, documentation, and resources

Houses are getting smarter and they're getting more complicated to run. Most new houses come with a rudimentary owner's manual, so whether you're moving into a new or an existing home, you will get a lot of information. And as you live in the house and experience what it's like, you will start figuring out how to do things. 

The trick is that if you don't operate the house properly, you're not going to get the great benefits of all the new technology that's been put into the house. Learning how to do this can be overwhelming, so having some kind of guide, or manual helps.

 

Logging in to your home on your phone

You can log directly into your house with your phone. 

Tony has five different display houses that he can log into with his phone, and he can change each one of them. So, when buying an existing home, be sure to check that the previous home-owner has logged out of the existing network because it will tie into the controller, and they could end up controlling the wrong house!

There are some wonderful apps and technology available to help you to do these things automatically.

 

Figuring things out more easily

Ask the previous owner of your new home, or the real estate agent, to walk you through the house to show you where everything is and how everything functions. This could save you a lot of time and effort.

 

Training

It's not always possible to figure things out on your own. Training allows you to do things in the way they were intended, and get the full effect.

There's a lot that goes into building a green-certified home. And if you, as the owner, don't know how to use it properly, you could experience problems. This is why certain green-certified homes require you to get basic training to better understand the home, and to get the biggest benefits from it.  

There are also tons of resources available.

 

Important things to be trained on

1. Heating and cooling filters.
2. The thermostat.
3. Lighting controls.
4. Fan controls. (And how to put them into reverse for the winter.)
5. Water heater.
6. Recycling practices.
7. Any other household systems.

You will need to be instructed about most things, outside of the basics that go into a green-certified home. 

 

Refrigerators 

If you're not taught how to use a smart appliance properly, their features are useless.  General Electric and Whirlpool are now building refrigerators with the software to integrate with Alexa. These refrigerators can let you know when you're running low on something, but you need to know how to operate them and set them up. 

 

How to get, or create the necessary training

In today's homes, there's just so much to remember. And you're not going to remember everything just by walking through a home for a couple of hours. Here are some tips to help you:

* The realtor, builder, or owner could physically walk through the home with the person needing to be trained.

* When using HomeNav, the owner can be taken through the house with a tablet with HomeNav on it. 

* You can put direct links onto the model page on HomeNav. 

* You can create a virtual manual by uploading short videos, plans, or custom documents, to HomeNav, for the necessary training components.

* You can make videos, or take photos of the manuals with your phone, and store them online, in a Dropbox, to refer to them when needed. (Remember to store them in a meaningful location, where you can find them again, like a Dropbox.)

 

HomeNav is a free online software tool to be customized with an inventory of all the appliances, fixtures, and features in the home.

 

Going above and beyond and spinning problems into opportunities

Going above and beyond a customer's expectations is great for marketing. You can turn the requirements for a green home into a fantastic marketing tool!

Everyone needs training but they don't always get it. So by providing it, even in the form of a one-on-one transaction between homeowners, it will be appreciated, and it will elevate you to the next level. 

Links and resources:

For Marla's book go to - https://greenhomecoach.com/book-living-green-effortlessly/

Go to www.greenhomecoach.com to download the Ten Ways to Make Your Home Healthier and More Efficient and Durable.

You can go to the Insinkerator site to find tips about garbage disposers - https://insinkerator.emerson.com/en-us

HomeNav - https://www.homenav.com/

We all want a home that looks good and performs well. Today, Steve Spratt, of Home Preservation Services joins us. He is an expert in homeowner operations and maintenance and he has a fantastic website, called Home Preservation Manual. In today's episode, Steve will be giving us lots of great information about owning and maintaining a home, and all the responsibilities that go along with that.  

 

What motivates Steve

The home represents some very important things that often tend to go unnoticed by the owners. And many people seem to take their homes for granted, and they don't take very good care of them.

 

What a home represents

1. Value. (It is a big investment.)
2. A place of nurturing and re-energizing.

Steve helps people to maximize the value and the nurturing aspects of their homes by showing them how to take better care of their homes.

 

The service that Home Preservation Services provides

Home Preservation Services does four visits to the home each year, and they provide a checklist of preventative maintenance tasks for the homeowner. Everything is pre-scheduled and they are on call 24/7 for any breakdowns that may happen between visits.

 

The purpose of the Home Preservation Manual

The Home Preservation Manual is there to deliver the services provided by Home Preservation Services, to improve the value and the nurturing quality of the home.

Home Preservation Services is located in Silicon Valley and it manages 300 estates in that area. If you live outside of Silicon Valley, you can use the Home Preservation Manual philosophy, find your local resources, and achieve the same results. 

 

What value means in your home

Your home is a stable investment that is not liquid. In financial terms, a liquid investment is more valuable than a non-liquid investment. So to maximize the value of your home, you have to keep it in the condition that it can be marketed quickly. This means that it always has to be kept in good shape. 

The paybacks you'll get from maintaining your home well

• Your home will be more valuable.
• Your home will be more nurturing to you and your family.

Avoid becoming overwhelmed

There are so many parts to keeping your home in good shape that it's easy to become overwhelmed. By setting up efficient systems, and being organized, you can turn your nightmare into the American dream. 

The Home Preservation Manual has some super-effective, easy-to-follow, well-tested checklists to help you organize your home maintenance. And the website has an entire section on recognizing and understanding the responsibilities of homeownership. 

The key points of Steve's strategy for taking care of homes

• Keep a brand new home as close to brand new as possible.
• Know the condition your home needs to be in for its maximum value.
• Get your home in the shape it needs to be in for its maximum value.
• Always keep it in that condition.
• Set goals for your home.

 

Planning and budgeting for the upkeep and upgrading of your home

It costs way less to keep a home in tip-top condition than it does to repair and restore things.

Preventative maintenance is so valuable that it's even considered an income-producing act, as opposed to a cost. Preventative maintenance can also prevent disastrous things, like water-heaters bursting, from happening.

It's a good idea to set some money aside, in an investment account, for the ongoing costs of maintaining your home. The Home Maintenance Manual website has a formula, based on the square footage of the house, for working out how much money you will need to set aside. 

Using the Home Maintenance Manual website most effectively

Steve recommends first visiting the My Home page on the website. There, you will learn about your home and how everything in it works. It has a checklist of all the things you need to do to familiarize yourself with your home.

Remember, if you own a home, you have the responsibility of taking good care of it. And taking regular care of it is much cheaper than waiting for things to break. 

Be pro-active, not reactive!

Resources

HomeNav is a compendium of resources on Marla's website, www.greenhomecoach.com. It goes hand-in-hand with the information that Steve's product offers online. 

Home Preservation Manual is all about why you need to do the things you need to do to maintain your home. It is full of information about how to do things and all other aspects of maintaining a home. They see themselves as Real Estate Asset Managers. https://www.homepreservationmanual.com/

 

Links:

For Marla's book go to - https://greenhomecoach.com/book-living-green-effortlessly/

Go to www.greenhomecoach.com to download the Ten Ways to Make Your Home Healthier and More Efficient and Durable.

Steve's email - [email protected]

Steve's website - https://www.homepreservationmanual.com/

For Marla's book, Living Green Effortlessly, Simple Choices For A Better Home, go to www.livinggreenbook.com 

For Five Myths of Green Homes, check out Marla's What Makes A Green Home Green Audio Program. It will help you find, and sell, the value of green homes, and features, in your clients' homes and projects. Go to www.greenhomecoach.com and click on the link for Five Myths of Green Homes. You can also connect with Marla on Facebook, at Green Home Coach, and let her know the green home myth you hear the most.

The following episodes will help you dive into several of the myths in Five Myths of Green Homes, and help you learn how to work with them:

1. Dreaming Your Home - How to dream it, plan it, and pay for it.
2. Do You Know Your Total Homeownership Cost?
3. Green As You Go - Paint by numbers.

You can find all of these podcasts on www.greenhomecoach.com. Just click on the podcast link and search for the one you want.

 

You can learn even more about green homes and features by checking out Marla's What Makes A Green Home Green Audio Program. In easy-to-understand language, this program consists of audio trainings that are easy to consume on the go, and concise resource guides to ensure you absorb the information and reference it easily in your day-to-day activities. Your investment in this knowledge could unlock thousands of dollars more in business for you in your home projects. Learn more by going to www.greenhomecoach.com and clicking on Five Myths of Green Homes.

Marla's program, What Makes A Green Home Green, is an audio program in easy-to-understand language, easy-to-understand language, this program consists of audio trainings that are easy to consume on the go, and concise resource guides to ensure you absorb the information and reference it easily in your day-to-day activities. Your investment in this knowledge could unlock thousands of dollars more in business for you in your home projects. What Makes A Green Home Green will help you find and sell, the value of green homes and features in your clients' homes and projects. To learn more, go to www.greenhomecoach.com\homepro.

 

 

If you take care of your home so that it will take care of you, you won't have to do as much to look after it. Everything you do to maintain your home will pay off in the long run and you won't end up having the big calamities and repairs that you would have to deal with if you did not care for your home properly. 

The average home has about 75 different components in it that need to be tracked, so the thought of maintaining it can be a little overwhelming. And we do need to know how to take care of everything in the right way.

As you take care of your home, you will have a great opportunity to up-level it.

Take a moment

It's worthwhile to take a moment to consider what you're going to use to repair, maintain, and replace your household components.

You need to hold onto your user manuals because they can make your routine maintenance much quicker and easier. If you have lost a user manual, you will be able to find it easily online, on the manufacturer's website.

Some tips to make things easier

In Marla's book, Living Green Effortlessly, Simple Choices For a Better Home, there is an entire chapter about maintenance. It has a great checklist and some seasonal information about how to segment your maintenance work to make things a whole lot easier. 

You can also go to www.greenhomecoach.com and download the Ten Ways to Make Your Home Healthier and More Efficient and Durable. 

Home/building owner training, documentation, and resources

Houses are getting smarter and they're getting more complicated to run. Most new houses come with a rudimentary owner's manual, so whether you're moving into a new or an existing home, you will get a lot of information. And as you live in the house and experience what it's like, you will start figuring out how to do things. 

The trick is that if you don't operate the house properly, you're not going to get the great benefits of all the new technology that's been put into the house. Learning how to do this can be overwhelming, so having some kind of guide, or manual helps.

Logging in to your home on your phone

You can log directly into your house with your phone. 

Tony has five different display houses that he can log into with his phone, and he can change each one of them. So, when buying an existing home, be sure to check that the previous home-owner has logged out of the existing network because it will tie into the controller, and they could end up controlling the wrong house!

There are some wonderful apps and technology available to help you to do these things automatically.

Figuring things out more easily

Ask the previous owner of your new home, or the real estate agent, to walk you through the house to show you where everything is and how everything functions. This could save you a lot of time and effort.

Training

It's not always possible to figure things out on your own. Training allows you to do things in the way they were intended, and get the full effect.

There's a lot that goes into building a green-certified home. And if you, as the owner, don't know how to use it properly, you could experience problems. This is why certain green-certified homes require you to get basic training to better understand the home, and to get the biggest benefits from it.  

There are also tons of resources available.

 

Important things to be trained on

1. Heating and cooling filters.
2. The thermostat.
3. Lighting controls.
4. Fan controls. (And how to put them into reverse for the winter.)
5. Water heater.
6. Recycling practices.
7. Any other household systems

 

You will need to be instructed about most things, outside of the basics that go into a green-certified home. 

Refrigerators 

If you're not taught how to use a smart appliance properly, their features are useless.  General Electric and Whirlpool are now building refrigerators with the software to integrate with Alexa. These refrigerators can let you know when you're running low on something, but you need to know how to operate them and set them up. 

How to get, or create the necessary training

In today's homes, there's just so much to remember. And you're not going to remember everything just by walking through a home for a couple of hours. Here are some tips to help you:

* The realtor, builder, or owner could physically walk through the home with the person needing to be trained.

* When using HomeNav, the owner can be taken through the house with a tablet with HomeNav on it. 

* You can put direct links onto the model page on HomeNav. 

* You can create a virtual manual by uploading short videos, plans, or custom documents, to HomeNav, for the necessary training components.

* You can make videos, or take photos of the manuals with your phone, and store them online, in a Dropbox, to refer to them when needed. (Remember to store them in a meaningful location, where you can find them again, like a Dropbox.)

HomeNav is a free online software tool to be customized with an inventory of all the appliances, fixtures, and features in the home.

Going above and beyond and spinning problems into opportunities

Going above and beyond a customer's expectations is great for marketing. You can turn the requirements for a green home into a fantastic marketing tool!

Everyone needs training but they don't always get it. So by providing it, even in the form of a one-on-one transaction between homeowners, it will be appreciated, and it will elevate you to the next level. 

Links and resources:

For Marla's book go to - https://greenhomecoach.com/book-living-green-effortlessly/

Go to www.greenhomecoach.com to download the Ten Ways to Make Your Home Healthier and More Efficient and Durable.

You can go to the Insinkerator site to find tips about garbage disposals - https://insinkerator.emerson.com/en-us

HomeNav - https://www.homenav.com/

We have Tina Gleisner with us today, from Home Tips for Women. Home Tips for Women teaches women how to care for their homes and gain the confidence to maintain and effectively update their homes to become their dream home. Tina's content is different because she puts a lot of thought into organizing her information, to make it relatable.

 

Dealing with mold

It's astonishing how many people are dealing with mold in their homes, and in many cases, it's not being dealt with correctly. 

When you buy a home in Florida, you need to get a mold inspection as well as the regular home inspection because so many houses have mold. This is a good idea for everyone because if mold is left unchecked for years, the whole house could even have to be gutted as a lot of mold hides inside the wall cavities. 

Although most people are used to visible mold, a lot of invisible molds can also exist in a home. So if a house has been flooded, you typically have three to five days to get the house clean and dry to prevent the mold from forming. 

 

The steps to take if you have water in your home (from flooding)

1. Identify the source of the water and shut it off.
2. Get as much water out of the house as possible.
3. Dry the house out. (Remember that you only have three to five days to do this.)

 

Mold can give you headaches or make you sick.

 

Home Tips for Women and the home maintenance check-list

Tina has a unique, three-tiered approach to her home maintenance check-lists. She explains that many people think they have to do their home maintenance themselves. So she wants everyone to understand that, as a home-owner, their priority is to make sure that everything gets taken care of. And you don't have to do that personally.

1. Inspect your home each season, inside and out, to find out what needs to be taken care of.
2. Maintain the things that require maintenance. (Or have a handyman do it.) 
3. Update the things that require updating.

When you have little time available, inspect. When you have more time, maintain. And when you're ready to dive into something, update.

 

Motivating people

Over the years, Tina has been getting more and more creative about different ways to motivate people to do home maintenance. She has been coming up with different home-maintenance strategies to suit people's personalities and lifestyles.

She also suggests that you reward yourself after completing your home maintenance, to motivate yourself to keep doing it, going forward.

Home maintenance is a great sustainable practice because it makes things last. And preventative maintenance will reduce the number of repairs you will have to do, and it will save you money.

"Paint is not about pretty. Paint is about protecting the wood." - Tina

 

Water heaters

A decent water heater should last between eight and twelve years. The minerals in the water will eventually eat the water tank away, so you should empty the tank and clean it out once a year. 

There is an anode-rod inside every water tank, designed to attract the minerals and get eaten away, rather than the water tank itself being eaten away by the minerals. The anode-rod needs to be replaced every four to six years to prolong the life of the water heater.

 

Great tips

 - Put pockets on the inside of your cabinet doors so that you can keep your home maintenance check-list and the receipts for any home repairs or utility expenses at hand but out of the way. 

 - The number one way that water leaks are found is through the bills. So it is important to check your water bill for spikes, to show you that you're losing water somewhere in the house. 

 - Take ten or fifteen minutes each month to review all your bills, and check your home for changes. It could save you money in the long run.

 - Take photos of the exterior of your house so that you can check each month for any changes.

 - Have a list of everything that has to be checked each month, and pay a handyman to do the inspection and tell you what needs to be done.

 - Change the batteries in your smoke detector whenever you turn the clocks back or forward.

 

Inspections that you can do 

1. Home inspection (When a home is bought or sold.)
2. Mold inspection (Particularly if you live in a humid location.)
3. Energy audit (To see how well the home is performing.)

Links and resources:

 

Tina's website - www.hometipsforwomen.com 

Tina's email - [email protected]

 

To learn more about green homes, and how technology is a part of them go to www.greenhomecoach.com/homepro 

 

For Marla's book, Living Green Effortlessly, go to  https://greenhomecoach.com/book-living-green-effortlessly/

 

Matt Belcher works with Hibbs Homes and is well known in the green home world and as the author of Build Green and Save: Protecting the Earth and Your Bottom Line from NAHB Builderbooks. It was written for builders to incorporate green practices into building. Matt has been a long-standing champion of green home building, as well as a hero and mentor to Marla. “Rising tides raise all boats” – Matt.

Pat Dodd of Dawson-Dodd Heating and Cooling – we heat and cool the impossible Dawson-Dodd will work installations many contractors will walk away from. Heating and cooling older homes and even homes which do not have ductwork is their specialty. They offer systems and installation which cool from the top down as well.

Read more at The Green Home Coach Website! The Green Gab Podcast Links Bar:  Subscribe via iTunes |   Subscribe via RSS Feed |  Facebook Page |  Twitter Page |  Stitcher Page Connect with The Green Gab Podcast Hosts:

— Marla Esser Cloos on – The Web – Twitter – Facebook – LinkedIn

— Tony Pratte on – The Web – Facebook – LinkedIn

 Green Gab: About the Hosts of The Green Gab Podcast:

Green Gab Podcast Host Marla Esser Cloos is the Founder of The Green Home Coach – a company leading the way to inspire you to learn about, focus on and put into place Green Solutions when it comes to your life, home building and more.

Marla is an NAHB Master Certified Green Professional, LEED AP and Missouri Woman Business Enterprise. She earned her B.S. in Engineering and Public Policy and a Certificate in Energy from Washington University.

Click here to learn more about Marla at her website online via TheGreenHomeCoach.Com

Connect with Marla Esser Cloos on – The Web – Twitter – Facebook – LinkedIn

Living green, or sustainably, is about more than just saving on your electricity bill, and doing your bit to protect natural resources. It's about creating a safer and healthier lifestyle without having to compromise on style, quality, or budget. 

Today, Tony Pratt joins Marla once again, to talk about green labels. They will be explaining what green labels are, what they mean, and how to use them.

 

What are green labels?

Green labels are there to show us that there has been third-party certification for a product, an assembly, or even an entire building. They are proof that something has been certified, and truly is what it claims to be. If the third-party was not there, anyone would be able to do or say whatever they wanted to, about any product. 

 

Greenwashing

The term 'greenwashing' was coined about ten years ago. It's used when someone thinks, or hopes, rather than knows, that a product is green. It is actually nothing more than marketing hype, or the misdirection of consumers because, although something is being claimed to be good for the environment, in reality, that may or may not be so.  

The FCC and greenwashing

The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has put out rules about what you may say and claims that you may make, about a product. Also, there is a standard code of ethics for marketers, and the American Marketing Association has very specific rules that forbid marketers from making any unsubstantiated claims.

 

Using 'green' terms

Many people, even in the home-building industry, don't fully understand what green terms mean. Nor do they understand their value. And they often don't even know how to use the terms properly, so they tend to throw them around loosely, without understanding the consequences or the ramifications that are sure to follow. For example, a home that has Energy Star-certified, energy-efficient windows cannot be described as an energy-efficient home simply because it has an energy-efficient feature in it.

Certain terms have no real meaning to the FCC. Like the word 'natural', which is often used to describe food and personal care products. 

There are some very specific rules for using the word 'organic' to describe products. 

The goal of green labels is to be like the term 'organic' is, in the food industry, for products, materials, or even for entire homes. It is to give people something tangible, and reliable parameters, around that particular characteristic. 

 

Why green labels?

Green labels are there to help us to better understand what we're buying or getting. 

 

Having peace-of-mind around energy-efficiency 

Many companies are doing things lately that are more sustainably-minded. It could be with the product itself, in the operations of the company, or both. So there are multiple levels on which we can choose to engage with companies that are doing things better. 

The green labels give us all the necessary guidelines to make sure that we're doing something impactful, that will protect our families, ourselves, and our fellow human beings, without us having to do all the research. 

There are a lot of boutique dry cleaners that have sustainable dry cleaning. They often use fuel-efficient, natural gas or electric vehicles. 

 

Green labels for the home

A lot of the products that are being put out on Everyday Green Home- The Green Shop, have green labels on them. And for the products without the green labels, Marla has gone through the same vetting process that they used in the National Green Building standard, to ensure that those products meet the same requirements that they would have used in the Green Home certification.

Some smaller companies may not want to go through the certification process because it's costly and time-consuming.

Green labels for the home cover everything from energy-efficiency, to water-efficiency, to resource-efficiency, to toxin-free products, and recycled materials.

 

Taking small steps

You can green your entire home, taking one small step at a time. Some smart steps to take in that direction are:

• Energy Star - It covers 1000s of quality products, including complete home certification. Choose these products when you decide to upgrade or change anything electrical in your home.
• Water Sense - It covers much the same for water as Energy Star does for energy. Choose these products when it's time to upgrade or replace your washing machine, dishwasher, faucets, showerheads, or plumbing fixtures.
• Green Guard - This certification tells you that a product, usually for woodwork or cleaning, has fewer toxins in it, and it meets California's requirements for air quality.
• Start taking control of the quality of the air you're letting into the house. 
• Cradle To Cradle is a new interesting, energy-saving concept, for both products and processes. The output from one process becomes the input for the next process. This is an efficient way to use resources. 

 

How green labels apply in other parts of our life, and for homes

The US Green Building Council has LEED (Leadership, Energy, and Environmental Design). It is available for homes. There is also the National Green Building Standard, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), as well as local and regional green building standards, like Green Build Texas, Green Build Washington, and Earthcraft Homes in the South-East.

And there are energy-efficient only certifications like Energy Star for homes and new homes, and Home Energy Ratings Score (HERS), which is a home energy ratings score index, or a scale of energy efficiency, which assesses the energy usage in a home and relates it to an existing home. 

 

Sustainability is about more than just the products

Sustainability is about society and living standards. It's about how people are treated, and the wages they're being paid. 

 

You're going to start seeing a lot more of these green labels. They are out there to make your life easier. 

 

Links:

Energy Star - www.energystar.gov 

The Environmental Working Group - https://www.ewg.org/

There's a lot of talk about energy efficiency when it comes to green homes. Currently, there are many innovations available to make energy efficiency easier, controlled, or managed. Today, we're going to be looking at ways to gain efficiency through innovation with energy control systems, smart appliances, and renewables. 

 

Energy control systems

 

Thermostats can be part of an energy control system. Right now, there are controllable thermostats available that you can put in place yourself, to replace your current one. These are linked to the wifi in your house and you can control them from anywhere in the world, using your phone. 

There are also more advanced systems available, where you can control everything else in your house as well. With that kind of system, you can set your house up with certain parameters that relate to the scenario that will best suit your lifestyle. 

 

Aspects of energy control

 

Get-up mode can:

⦁    Turn on the lights. 

⦁    Adjust your thermostat.

⦁    Automate your coffee pot.

⦁    Turn on your music or TV.

⦁    Open your automated blinds. (It's easy to set your system up so that you can benefit from some "daylight harvesting" by using sensors to turn the lights on when they are needed.)

 

Customizing your controls  

 

The settings for get-up mode could work either on a timer, with sensors, or with both. 

You can also control the lights in your home by selecting a customized profile to give you the amount of light that would best meet your needs. This will save you from having to use energy that you do not need.

 

Customizing your controls will make you happy

 

If you can turn something on and off, you can control it. 

You can create a customized experience that will increase your happiness and your satisfaction with your home. You can control your music and TVs for your entertainment, and use these things only when you need them.

You can enjoy some psychological and emotional benefits while you are saving energy and money on the cost of your utilities. So, you can make your home your happy place!

 

Energy efficiency is not about having less

 

Energy efficiency does not have to be about having less. It can be about having what you want when you want it, (or need it) and not having it when you don't need it. So you're not wasting anything if you're being smart about how you're using things.

 

Saving energy can be very simple

 

An energy control system can be anything from a simple DIY system up to a very elaborate, very elegantly programmed system. There is something available for everybody, and every budget.

 

More and more innovative energy-saving technology is becoming available

 

The whole world is moving towards everything being controlled by apps.

A lot of new energy-saving technology is showing up at building-industry and consumer electronics trade shows.

 

A big benefit of energy control systems

 

Energy control systems are part of a bigger system that can control all kinds of things in your home. One of the big benefits of energy control systems is that they could help us to overcome what we may lack in our behavior, and control it through technology and automation.

You may not be able to control the people in the house, but you can control how they use the house.

 

Starting with the simple things

 

You can start with something simple like a programmable, or wifi-enabled thermostat. Or with a motion detector sensor on your light switch, which you can insert in your existing switch plate, to turn the lights on and off. You can also install a dimmer switch for your lights. This can then be tied into your overall energy control system, to control a bigger scenario-based system.

Bathrooms are a great place to add motion detector sensors to the light switches. 

Most basic ceiling fans can be controlled with a smart switch.

 

Smart appliances and the internet of things

The theory behind the internet of things is quite fascinating. You need to think of your entire house as a living, breathing, technological ecosystem, where everything in it, like your refrigerator, your stove, even your car, is tied to the internet of things. These appliances can then communicate directly with the manufacturers and let them know if there are any problems. This can allow for hassle-free maintenance of your appliances and your belongings.

This has created issues for some people because of the data collected and the lack of privacy that goes with it.

 

Smart appliances

 

Smart appliances can communicate directly with the energy utility as to when energy rates are the lowest. They can then be scheduled to run during the times that the household is using the least amount of energy when the rates are lowest.

Smart refrigerators can be programmed to let you know when you're running out of things.

Smart appliances are wifi enabled and they allow you to get things ready automatically, from your phone.

Apart from saving energy, smart appliances could even extend to convenience and safety features in the house. 

 

Different kinds of systems

 

There are different kinds of systems, both simple and advanced, for controlling your energy usage. There are:

⦁    Cloud-based systems

⦁    Programmed systems

With the advanced, higher-end systems, if you can write something down in a sentence, you can make the system do it.

 

The International Builders Show

 

At The International Builders Show, the vendors will be showing all the new and innovative products. 

 

Tying renewables into an energy controlled system

 

Most people are familiar with renewable energy obtained from either solar panels (photovoltaics) or the wind. Wind-generated energy is typically found on a utility-scale, as in large farms and ranches, or places that have enough space to put up a lot of huge wind turbines.

 

Solar

Utilizing solar energy has become very popular lately, as it has become a lot more affordable and accessible. 

The issue with solar energy has always been around its storage in the house. This used to require large banks of batteries. Recently, however, Tesla has been bringing out batteries that can store three days' worth of energy. Their goal is to create batteries that can store enough energy to last a whole week.

The reality of storing solar energy is that the excess energy gathered during the day usually gets fed back to the utility company, rather than being stored in batteries to be used at night. The rub is that, in certain states, the cost of the energy that's fed back into the grid is calculated at cost, and yet for the energy that is being used at night, the consumer is paying the retail price. That's just not fair, is it?

 

Innovations from Tesla

 

Tesla has announced that it has developed a new kind of roof tile that could be a game-changer. These roof tiles come in four different styles, to fit in with different styles of architecture, and because they are tiles, they could be acceptable in some places where solar panels are not. 

These roof tiles are reported to be very durable, and they are supposed to last twice as long as a typical roof, but time will tell how long they last. 

These solar roof tiles are packaged with a battery. 

 

Tying a renewable energy system in with an energy control system

 

A renewable energy system can be tied in with an energy control system. This means that you can manage both where the energy is coming from, and where it's going to.

You can set the priorities on different systems and appliances in your home so that the power from your solar system will go first to your priority items. And with the more advanced systems, you can:

1) See exactly what you are producing from your renewables.

2) See exactly how much energy you are using, and for what.

 

There are also many other renewable energy sources available for heating, hot water heating, and many other uses. These will be covered in a later podcast.

 

Innovation is not going to stop. It just keeps coming! And it's always changing.

We have Kim Owens with us today. Kim is an energy auditor, so she goes to people's homes to give them an overview of ways to make their home more energy-efficient. Most of her suggestions are easy and economical to implement. And there are many benefits to creating an energy-efficient home.

 

The way Kim works

 

Typically, Kim contracts Precise Building Performance, the company that she works for, to create energy efficiency for her clients. 

Precise Building Performance usually contracts with all the utility companies. because most people in the state of Oklahoma get their energy efficiency through their utility company.

 

Oklahoma is an energy state

 

Oklahoma is truly an energy state- and it's not all about drilling for it! Driving down the streets of Oklahoma, one can see oil pumps with all the wind turbines in the background. There are also solar farms, and people find it very interesting to see just how much the utilities in Oklahoma are into energy audits.

 

About energy audits

 

Many people don't know what energy audits are. Kim has a free newsletter to inform people about it because most Oklahoma utility companies offer free energy audits as a service to their members. Kim points out that the more energy-efficient you are, the more money you can save on your utility bill. 

 

It's not just about saving energy

 

When we save energy, we don't only save money. There are always many benefits to practicing green sustainability. 

• We save carbon emissions.
• We save lots of other greenhouse gas emissions. 
• We improve our health in our homes, in our communities, and the world at large. 

 

Kim's background and her focal points

 

Kim has a background in counseling and physiology. And she has a holistic wellness coaching business. Everything in our lives ultimately impacts our health in one way or another and there is always a causal relationship with everything, so Kim's focus is on mental health, physical health, and the ways that people's homes are affecting their health. 

 

People often have the wrong impression of energy auditing

 

People tend to think that their windows, air conditioning, and all the other big stuff will have to be replaced. Yet, windows are usually the last things that are recommended because they are expensive and it could take up to twenty-five years to recoup your investment. 

 

What a basic audit entails 

 

• Kim starts from the outside and looks for things that are drawing heavily on your utility, like a pool, or a hot tub.
• She checks in the attic to see how much insulation is in there.
• She depressurizes the house with a vacuum tool to see how much air is being pulled in from the outside, through cracks and crevices. Then she checks the rooms for leaks.
• She checks the air conditioning unit. 55-6% of most utility bills is from the air conditioning unit 

 

Kim likes to take the homeowner along with her as she checks their home so that she can educate them.

 

Ventilation

 

Sometimes it's necessary for a certain amount of pressure to come into a home. With new homes that are built to be very tight, there are ventilation strategies and equipment that allow for that. With existing homes, it is very challenging to make them completely tight. 

 

Mold and mildew are not our friends. The exhaust fans in bathrooms take the humid air out so this helps prevent mold and mildew.

 

Remember to close the damper on your fireplace when you're not using it.

Why utility companies are paying people like Kim to do energy audits for their utility customers

There seems to be a misconception that energy companies are out to screw people because they charge for the utilities they provide. Yet, they authentically care about their members, and about being good stewards of the energy they're producing and supplying. And they want to do right by everybody, so if they can help people save money and create an energy-efficient home, they will. 

For utility companies to help us be more efficient with our use of energy, it helps them too because it means they don't have to build as many facilities to handle peak-load production.

Power pools

Very simply put, there are power pools where all the utilities dump their power. Then the companies that want to distribute that power bid on it. 

Some tips for creating a more energy-efficient home

• Place bits of cork all around the windows, on the inside of the house, where the window meets the wood trim.
• Place weather-stripping around the doors.
• Use LED lights.
• Don't run your pool pump all the time.

Links: 

Kim's email - [email protected]

Precise Building Performance - https://precisebp.com/

Today’s guest, Kellye Markowski, is a residential and commercial energy audit provider and project manager with Energy Smart Homes. Kellye works independently, which allows her to have an unbiased approach to finding out how to get a home to perform well. 

Kellye’s enthusiasm for helping clients and homeowners optimize the comfortability of their space, along with reducing costs, is genuine and powerful. She not only carries out a meticulous energy audit for each and every home but always delivers more than the client’s money’s worth. While every homeowner wants what’s best for their home and family, people often don’t know where to start, and that’s where Kellye comes in. 

Taking the Best Course of Action 

There are always multiple solutions to every problem. Kellye’s job is to help clients better understand and weight out the pros and cons to each method. Kellye’s go-to strategy consists of helping people recognize the benefits of each solution and what would make it a good option for their individual circumstances. With this in mind, clients are able to accurately weigh out options by acknowledging which strategy best reflects their needs. 

Reducing Energy Cost and Optimizing Comfort in your Home 

Often times, homes and commercial buildings are built with only one thing in mind; stability. Stability and protection from outside elements don’t ensure comfortability or optimal energy preservation, which is why having an energy audit prior to further construction is so necessary. Kellye has encountered a plethora of homes with inadequate insulation, uncapped holes, electric furnaces with misplaced ducts, and so much more. Her ability to find and solve large-scale problems hidden right under the noses of homeowners is unmatched. 

Kellye implements her expertise in a way that will help homeowners divert further discomfort. Without an energy audit, homeowners often result in dealing with unresolved and easily avoidable problems. Kellye finds ways to address issues relatively inexpensively and as seamlessly as possible. 

Understanding Construction for Energy Conservation 

People tend to gravitate towards the prettier, more glamorous aspects of a home – lighting, countertops, extravagant bathtubs. While the mechanics of a living space may be the least fun aspect of maintenance, it may easily be named the most important. No matter how pretty your home is, if you’re uncomfortable, you won’t be able to enjoy anything else. Homeowners typically aren’t well educated in how to tell if a house is built to perform well, which is why energy audits are important. 

Kellye’s experience as a construction estimator and large loss handler with an insurance company has qualified her with the expertise needed to properly evaluate a living space. Along with this, she has extensively submerged herself not only in her own education but as an educator. After 18 years as an art teacher, she transitioned to use the skills she acquired in creative thinking to support her passion for conserving and energy efficiency. 

Assumptions Home Owners Make when Buying 

Just as people often assume products are sustainable, people often make the same assumptions when purchasing a home. After all, why would people build something defective? Well, the truth is that homes are often built simply for protection, and little thought of comfortability is applied to the building process. 

Kellye’s comprehensive knowledge of building functionality is applied when auditing each and every home. She helps clients understand what is needed for their home in order to integrate the necessary elements to improve their level of satisfaction. 

 

Approaching Clients with Attainable Solutions 

Kellye is able to achieve her goal to optimize comfortability by communicating with clients in a way that is easy to understand. Kellye has found that the number one reason clients work with her is due to her comprehensive communication skills. She is very articulate and thorough when it comes to her evaluating and conversational methods. 

There is an array of resources available to individuals looking to improve and optimize their homes. What Kellye has to offer promises stability, comfortability, and long-term satisfaction. The benefits of a home audit are endless and guarantee to bring great value to each and every client.  

 

 

Links

 

AeroBarrier – breakthrough envelope sealing technology, offers a revolutionary air-sealing solution that solves the problem of homes that leak. Air leaks are a major factor in homes that may not be comfortable or perform well. AeroBarrier stops the leaks for improved comfort, health, and safety for the people living in the home.

The #1 reason people call Kellye is high utility bills and lack of comfort. When people see Kellye do an audit, they see the benefit of the audit before she even reviews the audit report with them.  The report gives the actions that can be taken to address the issues found. And it is the actions that make the difference. The great reactions and ad hoc testimonials she receives attribute to her passion for her work and helping homeowners live better in their homes.

She knows how to use her tools and talents to discover the “smoking gun” and gets a charge out of being able to find the culprit and get it fixed.  You can reach Kellye at [email protected].

Resources on today’s Home Detective for Home Performance

Nest Learning Thermostat

Energy Smart Homes, Kellye Markowski’s company

Home Performance with Energy Star, St. Louis

BPI, Building Performance Institute, for Homeowners

For more information about green homes and green living, check out www.GreenHomeCoach.com.

My guest on today's Green Gab is Rhonda Flint, a wellness advocate with Young Living Essential Oils. Essential oils have been an incredible tool for Rhonda and her family to have healthy bodies, and bring wellness into their home. 

 

A new dimension with essential oils

Before discovering essential oils, Rhonda didn't realize that many of the things that she brought into her home were affecting her family's health, their cognitive abilities, and their endocrine systems. Since she replaced those things with essential oils and established some dietary changes, her children no longer frequent the doctor's office nearly as often as they used to.

Now, her goal is to help people to change their lifestyle and bring about healthier homes. 

 

An incredible wellness tool

Essential oils are nothing new. People have been using them since biblical times. So, whether we ingest them, use them topically, or diffuse them, we're not introducing anything foreign to our bodies, and so our bodies know just what to do with them. Essential oils do an incredible job of boosting our immune systems and helping to fight off free radicals.

 

Essential oils are a potent tool

Herbs have their place as a tool for your wellness, but to utilize an herb, the plant has to be dead. Most essential oils, however, are extracted from the plants in the steam distillation process, while the plant is still alive. This means that essential oils capture the essence of the plant. So, when compared with herbs, the constituent rate of their anti-oxidant levels is much higher, making essential oils a more potent tool for wellness than herbs.

 

Essential oils as part of a lifestyle

Essential oils can be used every day, as part of your lifestyle. They help the endocrine system, the upper respiratory system, and the digestive system. You can use them for skin-care, as a deodorant, and as a nutritional supplement. 

 

Healthy lifestyle changes

One of the biggest lifestyle-changes that Rhonda made was to remove all the unhealthy air-fresheners and perfumed candles from her home. We breathe these things into our lungs and we absorb them through our porous skin, so they affect every single organ in our body. Rhonda replaced the air-fresheners and candles with essential oil diffusers. She and her family have learned what it's like to breathe clean air again and many of the ailments they used to suffer from have disappeared. 

The other change she made was to stop using drier sheets because they contain benzyl acetate and benzyl alcohol. To replace them she uses a drier ball with some essential oil on it. Drier balls reduce the drying time and they also remove the static from the clothes. If you don't have one, you can simply take a wash-cloth, put a couple of drops of essential oil on it, and place it in your drier. 

 

Small steps towards creating a healthy environment

You don't have to change everything at once. It took Rhonda nine years of baby steps to do it. She started by replacing the air fresheners and candles in her home with diffusers. Then, two years later, when her daughter broke out in a rash on her face, she realized that the drier sheets were toxic, and she replaced them with drier balls and essential oils. 

 

Cleaning up your laundry routine

Today, there are many more clean options available than there were twelve or thirteen years ago. Now, you can walk into any store and find several different kinds available. Many local manufacturers are also making products. Although these products don't always have all the certifications, you can look at the list of ingredients to feel assured that they are good. Or you find DIY recipes to make clean products at home to keep your laundry smelling rosy and fresh.

 

Easy DIY 

Rhonda has tons of DIY recipes available for making your home cozy, clean, and sweet-smelling. Her favorite is the Outdoor Annoyance-Free Spray. It's great for preventing annoying flying insects from bombarding you when you're outdoors, especially in the evenings and around water. It doesn't coat your skin with any harmful ingredients. 

 

An incredible product to replace several others

There are lots of green products available for cleaning your home. Young Living has an incredible cleaner, called Thieve's Household Cleaner, a blend of eucalyptus, rosemary, lemon, and cinnamon bark. It has a wonderfully clean and invigorating smell, and it can replace every other cleaning product in your home. It's very concentrated so it takes just one capful to make a 32oz spray-bottle full of household cleaner. This product is completely safe for anyone to use, even children. 

 

Hidden dangers

When you see the word "fragrance" in a list of ingredients, know that within that word is an entire recipe of other ingredients that the manufacturer is not obliged to mention. 

 

Cooking with essential oils 

Young Living has a line of Vitality oils that you can ingest. The Young Living Cinnamon Vitality oil is great in apple pie and you can also boil the apple peels with a little essential oil to permeate the air with a delicious, warm smell. The peppermint oil is wonderful in tea.

Links and resources:

You can find Rhonda on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/rhonda.r.flint

Email Rhonda at [email protected]