[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house front load washing machine. And yes, I know there's 20% of you out there that are rolling your eyes that are saying you'll take my top load washing machine out of my cold dead hands. I get it. I have used front load washing machines for 20 plus years, and it's the only way you really go in Europe.

[00:00:27] Eric Goranson: But I tell you what, if. To save money on water. If you wanna save money on warm water and you want to extend the life of your clothes, that is the only way to fly because you can go through and really get them clean and without having that agitator in the middle, that's beating 'em out. When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know the We got you coming.

[00:00:53] Eric Goranson: This is around the house. Welcome to The Round the House Show. This is where we help you get the most outta your. Through [00:01:00] information and education. I'm Mary g and today we've got a great show ahead. Before we get into that, I wanted to make, make sure that you understand how you can get ahold of me. If you have any questions, first off, you can head over to around the house online.com and you can send me a message over there if you're listening on the radio.

[00:01:18] Eric Goranson: We love that you're catching the two hour show. And if you're a podcast listener, thank you. And by the way, if you're out on the radio and you missed part of the show, don't worry. You can find around the House show on just about any podcast player, and then make sure you're following us on social media.

[00:01:34] Eric Goranson: We have got a ton of social media channels you can find around the house show. On Facebook, Instagram, and, uh, myself, Eric Orson out there as well. And then I've got some new social channels for the new TV show, which is around the House Northwest that is debuting out in the Portland area here in a week or two.

[00:01:51] Eric Goranson: And, uh, you'll be able to catch that online and on the, uh, Fox 12 app that you can find on near your Google [00:02:00] or Apple. You know, app stores and you'll be able to stream the show there as well and you'll be able to catch it on YouTube as we post stuff up. And, uh, if you're in our Portland market and you have home improvement questions, we are asking that you submit those via video and you can head over and find that information on the around the house Facebook page or just type in around the House Northwest and you can find it right there on social media.

[00:02:25] Eric Goranson: Well, today I wanted to talk about saving you guys. because energy bills are not getting cheaper out there. And, uh, it's a challenge that we're all facing other than having some kind of alternative energy source. If you're on electricity, if you're on gas, as in natural gas, propane oil, whatever you're doing out there other than wind or solar, it's getting more expensive.

[00:02:49] Eric Goranson: So today we're gonna talk about top 10 things you can do to give you some energy saving. and I wanted to start out with number one, which is an important one right here. And this is not a sponsored [00:03:00] segment, but it's something I have in my house and it's something I believe in. It is a home energy monitoring system.

[00:03:06] Eric Goranson: So this measures the electricity usage that I have in my house, and it's called Sense. So you can head over to cents.com. Know this isn't a sponsored segment, this is just what it is. And what they do is they use. To notice and listen to your electrical system to see what is being used. If you think about it, when something is using power, it's creating noise in your system.

[00:03:34] Eric Goranson: So I have, uh, worked with these guys for a number of years. I have been back into their labs at, uh, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and stood there with 'em and watched and logged into my own system, gave them my password. We logged in and I could see exactly what's going on far beyond even what was in my app.

[00:03:54] Eric Goranson: You know what's cool is I can go on here, I can log in and I can see exactly how [00:04:00] many kilowatt hours of power I'm using at the. And how many watts I'm using. And it is absolutely amazing cuz it will track all these different items and it'll show you what's always on and what isn't. And when you, when you, when a space heater kicks on, you can go, holy smokes, that's costing me money where everything else.

[00:04:21] Eric Goranson: And I really started to notice what was costing me money. And we're gonna talk about some of these things today on what I noticed that were costing me the most. And if they're costing me money, there's a good chance it's costing you money as well. And these are things that can get pretty crazy and all it takes is a baseboard heater running it full temp that you didn't realize.

[00:04:47] Eric Goranson: All it takes is a water leak or even a fridge not working correctly, and you have noticed. And that's gonna save you some serious money. So we really like saving money that way. [00:05:00] So take a look at it, how this actually works. It's pretty cool. So it tracks your whole home. So water's just tracked through these sensors that wrap around the main feeds that come into your electrical panel, and it samples data like a million times per second.

[00:05:16] Eric Goranson: Seriously, I'm not making that up. And then you, I have on mine a flex sensor that tracks up to two circuit. and then I can see what my, my H V A C system is doing by itself because sometimes with multiple speed H V A C systems, it has so many things that can get, get fused because it's making so many different noises.

[00:05:37] Eric Goranson: So it's got that Also, it, uh, has machine learning learning algorithms that find design device signatures. So what it does is it'll go through and go, Hey, a. makes this noise or a refrigerator does this. And so it's always learning new things. If you plug something in, it'll come up and say, Hey, I found a new water [00:06:00] heater.

[00:06:00] Eric Goranson: I found a new this, I found a new that. Whatever it is. And it's really cool, so you can really go around and test things and it really will help you out, especially if you've got like a heat pump or something where the motor stalls or if you've got issues with a floating neutral. It will really help with that diagnosis cuz it will find those things so when you plug it in, it's really cool.

[00:06:26] Eric Goranson: The sense monitor. Yeah. I usually detects, detects about a dozen devices in the first month and 25 to 30 devices after 12 months. I have hundreds of devices in my home cause I have so many smart home things. So like each switch has its own device. So I've got lots of different things that I can see what my power usage is.

[00:06:47] Eric Goranson: It will just keep going and going and going and it's pretty incredible. So take a look at that and uh, I do have a discount code if anybody ever wants to get one of these. That's over on around the house online.com. And those guys are really [00:07:00] cool. They have always treated me well and uh, it has really helped me out in understanding what my power usage is on electric.

[00:07:09] Eric Goranson: And that's really cool and it, uh, has really helped out, helped me understand that. Now, one of the simplest things you can do around your house is as you're changing out light bulbs, go to an l e d light. Those light emitting diodes, they can make a huge difference on your power bill. And you think about it, if you had a 75 watt incandescent bulb that are slowly going away, and even the compact fluorescence, you can save significant amounts.

[00:07:36] Eric Goranson: And where that helps you is in a lot of. one, it helps you lower that power. And two, if you ever have to go onto a generator or something like that, you are now freeing up those lighting circuits and not using near as enough as much power. And where that makes a difference is in older homes where you have the lighting and the plugs on the same circuit that can [00:08:00] actually help produce that load and let you actually be able to have less issues when you plug in.

[00:08:05] Eric Goranson: A, um, vacuum cleaner or something else into that, you'll have less of that power drop because you have more, you know, you get the lights on, but you're not having as much draw. So it really helps how that works. So, l e d lights are, are key. And of course, making sure you get the right color temperature of l e d light bulbs, because that's the other issue that you can run into is making sure that you have.

[00:08:29] Eric Goranson: Grab the right color. Sometimes you walk in and you walk into somebody's house and I'm like, wow, this looks like a hospital daylight. It's just that office blue, white light, and it's just harsh. Not a fan of that. Uh, that's usually in that four, you know, 3,500 to 5,000 Kelvin, closer to five to 7,000 sometimes.

[00:08:51] Eric Goranson: And that's the, uh, color temperature of the. , I'm usually in that, uh, you know, 3,500 and down. I like to have a little more of a yellow [00:09:00] light, and that's something that will really help you. Now there are new light bulbs out there. You know, when you dim lights, it really is confusing because when you dim the INC candescent light bulb, it would sit there and change color temperature, get warmer.

[00:09:13] Eric Goranson: Brown or yellower as you turn it down. The cool part is, is with, you can get l e d lights now that do that as you dim them. And so instead of just li dimming the light output, it will actually change the color temperature and in dining room lights and things like that where you want to have a little bit more of an intimate feel.

[00:09:31] Eric Goranson: That will give you that. All right, we, when we come back, we have so many more power saving tips for you just as soon as round the house returns. Why

[00:09:46] Eric Goranson: should I be so hot?

[00:09:55] Eric Goranson: So many people?[00:10:00]

[00:10:09] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round The House Show. This is where we help you get the most outta your home through information and education all while having a little bit of fun. Thanks for joining us today. If you're just joining us on the radio, make sure to track us on social media around the House Show you can find us on.

[00:10:25] Eric Goranson: I. Or, uh, geez, Facebook. And don't forget our close group and Facebook that is continuing to grow and that is a great place for you to share up those projects. I'd love for you to share up those projects and see what you're working on. Let's patch yourself on the back a little bit. I'd love to see what you're working on.

[00:10:43] Eric Goranson: So join around the House Nation and uh, we're gonna have some fun over there in the upcoming. Man, we've got so much going on, uh, with social media and everything else. It's gonna be an exciting year in 2023. Coming up here after my show airs on television, you're gonna see on YouTube [00:11:00] brand new videos daily up there.

[00:11:03] Eric Goranson: With some exciting new video content for you guys. Uh, we've, we're creating a television show that eventually is gonna get nationally here that is going to be something different than no one else has done before with home improvement. And this is not gonna be another one of those crazy flipping shows.

[00:11:19] Eric Goranson: Well, we've been talking about how to save energy around your home and we talked about the sense monitor and of course the, uh, l e D lights. Another big one is controlling those l e D lights. and those are gonna be, you know, those smart lighting controls. And where this makes a difference is I really like it because sometimes I'm bad about this.

[00:11:41] Eric Goranson: I don't always remember to shut the lights off that were on the front porch if I'm working from home, those kind of things. I have got my entire house set up, so when I sit here and go through everything, like I'm sitting there, I hit my Goodnight button at night and it changes all the lights. , it [00:12:00] makes sure the garage door is shut.

[00:12:01] Eric Goranson: It makes sure that the front backside, all the doors are locked and gets the house completely ready for me to go get some sleep and turns off my outside lights, my string lights, everything else. It gets it ready to go. So those smart lighting controls can be huge and making sure that everything is dialed in and that's saving you.

[00:12:24] Eric Goranson: Because I have it set that my outside lights come on, you know, around dusk and come on and turn off when the, uh, sun comes up in the morning. So it's always being used where I want it to be. And when it's not, it's turning it off and those things make a difference. And, uh, I tell you what, it is something to play around with.

[00:12:44] Eric Goranson: There are a ton of different brands, depending on what you want it to do. You can get in there and do some of the Lutron ones, which are pretty simple. Uh, I have got, uh, a lot of different switches around my house. I think I have four or five in here. Let's see, I've got Lutron. I have, [00:13:00] uh, most of the Cassada series.

[00:13:01] Eric Goranson: I have, uh, lots of brilliant, I have Oro, lots of different ones that I am testing and some work better than others. And it's just depending what you want them to. All right. That's one of 'em right there when it comes to this, that lighting controls can be absolutely huge in saving you money. Now, here's the one that is expensive, but it is going to be less expensive from here on out, whether you like it.

[00:13:30] Eric Goranson: We don't get politics here on this page and this show and anything that we're doing on here, but we're gonna get down to that, uh, so-called inflation reduction. , and I'm gonna say so-called because I don't think it's gonna do anything to help inflation. But the good news for homeowners is they put in some serious rebates on heating and cooling, and that's gonna save you some money as a homeowner for energy efficient [00:14:00] stuff.

[00:14:00] Eric Goranson: Now, we talked about in the past, we have changed around a lot of the rules on. How they're measuring these, but if you are going to replace that he heating and cooling system, I tell you what, it made a huge difference in my power bills. Going from my 1992 system to a 2021 system. It made a massive difference.

[00:14:24] Eric Goranson: It's saving me hundreds and hundreds of dollars a year, and in the summertime, in my hot months, it's probably saving me $200 a. In my instance. And so that is huge. And I went from, you know, window or portable air conditioners to a variable speed, multi-zone AC system. And I have gas heat, and I have, you know, the, the electric of course for the cooling.

[00:14:54] Eric Goranson: It has saved me a boatload of money. And so I would like for you if your system is over [00:15:00] 10 years, I would take a look at those rebates and see if there are some savings there for you. And a good heating and cooling professional can help you sit there and, uh, do those calculations. Now what I like about this whole thing is that these things can save you money.

[00:15:18] Eric Goranson: And one thing, as we talked about with heating and cooling, you can find the best brand of H V A C system and you are putting in the Cadillac, you're putting in the Bentley. Any of those. If you've got a horrible installer, guess what, that's not gonna work well. So my advice is, is no matter what brand you did, and I put in a carrier system in mine, uh, I really like it.

[00:15:40] Eric Goranson: And, uh, my local sponsor here in Portland, pyramid, HETI and Cooling, I gotta give them a shout out cuz they did a spectacular job on my system. Even my inspector that came over and, and uh, was inspecting all the work for the. looked at it and went, man, this is one of the prettiest installs I've ever seen.

[00:15:58] Eric Goranson: And yes, that installer [00:16:00] is just as important as the material you're putting in there cuz you can have the best system in the world and the worst installer and it's still gonna be a bad deal that's gonna cost you money. So my, my secret to that is jump onto the manufacturer's webpage. If you're looking at carrier train, American Standard Goodman, whoever else you're looking at, I don.

[00:16:23] Eric Goranson: Go on their page and look for their certified installation crews. Usually you have a better luck with that. So that's something to consider there when you're looking at that, that can help you find the right ones and at least the ones that they say they trained. Because the problem ones will end up getting taken off that website because guess what?

[00:16:43] Eric Goranson: All those problems end up going back to corporate and they have to work with it. And so that can be troublesome for. So that's another one of the ones right there. Take a look at those money. We all want to use free money when we can get it and it's not gonna pay for your entire system. [00:17:00] But I tell you what, it could get close depending on what you're doing.

[00:17:03] Eric Goranson: And yes, systems are much more expensive. If you looked at it five years ago, it could be double what that quote was five years ago. So don't get sticker shock. It is expensive all around out there. I mean, I have a. You know, I've got a under 2000 square foot house. It's just my wife and I don't need some big pal place.

[00:17:26] Eric Goranson: However, that would've been well above $20,000 for my system back then, and I didn't use any rebates at the time. So if you can get a bunch of rebates that can save you money. And, uh, we like that. And you'll have a system that'll probably get you 20 years if you maintain it. And that's a key right there.

[00:17:45] Eric Goranson: All right. Now when we come back here, we're gonna talk about one of the biggest things you can do around your house that can save you money because it's one of the biggest energy users outside what we were just talking about with your, uh, heating and cooling system. [00:18:00] This is something that, that goes every day.

[00:18:03] Eric Goranson: Many of us 24 7 and it will sit there and just eat pennies and pennies and pennies a day or dollars a day depending on the system you have. And uh, the next question will be, when was the last time you maintained it either? Cuz it's one of those that always gets forgotten. All right, if you want more information, head over to around the house online.com and you can find us there or on social media.

[00:18:27] Eric Goranson: Around the house. Be right back after these important messages. Don't go anywhere. Save you some money.[00:19:00]

[00:19:08] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round the House Show. This is where we get you the most outta your home through information and education, and we are talking about saving you some money today. What are my top 10? For saving you some serious energy, money around your house. Well, we've been talking about a lot of different stuff, and the one that I was teasing from this last segment is an important one.

[00:19:30] Eric Goranson: Heating water is one of your biggest energy uses in your house, whether you're using gas. Propane or you know, natural gas, which is common or electricity. There is one that's, there's only one heating system here outside of one of the alternative energy sources like solar, something like that, that can save you money.

[00:19:53] Eric Goranson: And that is the new heat pump water heaters, or they're called hybrid water [00:20:00] heaters. This saved me hundreds of dollars a year. In my house, I went from a 40 gallon gas water heater to an 80 gallon heat pump water heater, and that saved me so much time, and even though it recovers slower than the gas one, because I went to an 80 gallon.

[00:20:26] Eric Goranson: I never run outta hot water. I can have a shower going. I can have the dishwasher going, I can have the laundry going. I can have somebody hand washing dishes. It doesn't matter. I am not running outta hot water. And that thing will use about 500 watts. So 500 wat light bulbs in old incandescent days to heat that water.

[00:20:53] Eric Goranson: And it's like the heat pump in your house. It's that simple. Really. It just sits there and goes through, and as it [00:21:00] runs through, it's taking the heat outta the air around it and putting it inside the unit. Now mine, I run on heat pump mode 24 7. Now you do get a little bit of compressor noise about what you hear outta refrigerator running.

[00:21:17] Eric Goranson: Think about that as that's really what your refrigerator is. Think about it, your refrigerator is taking. Cool air and swapping it out. It's grabbing that heat outta the refrigerator and kicking it outside. That's why you get the warm air outta the refrigerator freezer. So it's doing the same thing. Now, I will turn mine over to the, the emergency kind of heat mode, which is the electric only, cuz it does have a hybrid mode where it will, if you are running through a ton of hot water, it will jump in.

[00:21:49] Eric Goranson: If it's concerned about not keeping up, it does have elements that can go into that and you can change that on mine. Mine's made by Bradford White. I've got their Ather and what it [00:22:00] does. Asit sits there and I, I run it on heat pump only mode. I will turn it off when I'm in my studio recording, cuz it's literally 10 feet away from me here in my garage studio.

[00:22:10] Eric Goranson: So when I'm recording I will turn it over to electric only for the hour or two, just cause I don't want the fan noise in the background that you might hear on this broadcast. . But anyway, what I do with this thing is it runs and runs and runs and it saves me, the only maintenance I have to do really on it is make sure that I've got it cleaned out.

[00:22:26] Eric Goranson: My water is super clean here cuz of the city water. It's soft. It's really, they do a great job with this mountain water, but I just have to make sure that the air filter on the top of it is clean and it will give me warnings saying it needs to be happening, but it is a great way to go. Now, the reason that I went with the ather, From Bradford White is, it is the only one out there that I'm aware of that is repairable because think about it, it's got a heating, it's got that system like a heat pump on it, and so if a compressor ever goes bad, they can actually send the [00:23:00] parts out and a heating cooling can, tech can come out and replace that.

[00:23:04] Eric Goranson: All the other ones that I know of out there, you see our throwaway units where. It's like your refrigerator, we're just gonna toss it. That's not as smart. I like one that's repairable and I like that it's uh, you know, made here in the United States, which is awesome as well. So that is a huge way. And I'll be honest, I was going to go with a gas tankless.

[00:23:27] Eric Goranson: That was where I was going. I was sold, I was going on a gas tankless cause I've always wanted one and my buddy. Gregory over there at, uh, Bradford White went, are you sure about that? And he was not wrong. This worked out well. And when I'm on generator backup power, I'm not using all that power so I can heat my water using that 500 watts and do better job of, of, you know, using other things on my house.

[00:23:56] Eric Goranson: That way I can run my heating and cooling system and my hot [00:24:00] water heater. Off my generator without having to go with something huge. And so that's a big, big deal right there. So that's a, that's a big one and fairly inexpensive with the rebates and stuff that you see out there. It's more than a regular hot water heater, of course, but, uh, it pays for itself very quickly.

[00:24:17] Eric Goranson: Now here's the next one I want to talk about here, and this is a big one. Front load washing machine and yes, I know there's 20% of you out there that are rolling your eyes that, that are saying you'll take my top load washing machine out of my cold dead hands. I get it. I have used front load washing machines for 20 plus years and it's the only way you really go in Europe.

[00:24:43] Eric Goranson: But I tell you what, If you want to save money on water, if you wanna save money on warm water and you wanna extend the life of your clothes, that is the only way to fly because you can go through and [00:25:00] really get them clean. And without having that agitator in the middle, that's beating 'em up. Cuz really when you're using a top load machine, You're using 50 or 60 gallons versus mine, I think on the front load uses 12 or 13.

[00:25:13] Eric Goranson: It's not close. And the other thing is, is by the way, I know that you're gonna see top load machines. Those are gonna go away before the gas ranges due. So if you're worried about the gas ranges and that controversy, those top load machines will go first because that's a huge energy use thing right there.

[00:25:33] Eric Goranson: So be prepared. That's on the horizon. That was gonna happen about six years ago, and the Trump administration tapped the brakes on it. I would not be surprised to see that come down the road anytime here soon as an energy efficiency thing, cuz they wanna save you some money. Now, biggest complaints about front load from people that have top loads.

[00:25:55] Eric Goranson: They don't like the musty, moldy smell. They don't like all that. To be [00:26:00] honest, I would almost guarantee that my front load machine. Is cleaner than your top load machine because mine and mine's just an lg. It's a nice LG unit, but it's nothing crazy. That unit there can steam clean itself on the inside, and when I do the tub wash, it cleans on the inside of the drum.

[00:26:21] Eric Goranson: If you have ever taken a front load machine apart to to clean it up, when you get up to that water line, There will be, and you take out the inner tub, which is the one that you put the clothes in, and of course you see all those little holes. There's an outer tub. When you pull that inner tub out, you are gonna notice this nasty gunk on the inside, at the water level of where the oils, greases, scum, mildew, mold is all sitting.

[00:26:51] Eric Goranson: Right. And that's the problem with top load machines is you can't get them as clean. Cuz that stuff is just sitting there and as gross as [00:27:00] it is, your clothes are sitting there bathing in that skunk and nobody likes that. Does the, does the, if you put the cleaner through it, yeah, maybe it might help it, but it doesn't get it all around because you have that water level in there that it comes up to.

[00:27:17] Eric Goranson: That's the maximum fill level. So above that is where it gets nasty. Where with mine it has a steam clean function. You put the cleaner in and uh, it comes out and it smells very clean on the inside, so you don't have the problems you had early on here in the United States with the moldy units, with people shutting their doors.

[00:27:34] Eric Goranson: Mine will remind me when I need to run a clean cycle on it, and that saves me a ton of money. And it also makes it where I save money because it gets the clothes dryer, cuz the spin cycle is heavier With that. What's great is that I use less energy in my dryer because it's actually getting you a really good way to go with that.

[00:27:56] Eric Goranson: Because what it does is it actually gets the closed dryer going into the dryer. So the [00:28:00] dryer has to work less hard. So you're saving some money on that as well. So there we go. Front load washing machine is the next one. And now when we come back, we're gonna talk about another one that I, it was shocking to me how crazy this was, but it was something in my other house that I had when I had the sense in there that I went, oh my gosh, what I thought was cool.

[00:28:24] Eric Goranson: What I thought was handy was costing me twice as much what it should. We'll talk about that just as soon as around the house returns.[00:29:00]

[00:29:02] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round the House Show. This is where we help you get the most outta your home through information and education. Thanks for joining us. If you're just joining us, we really appreciate you tuning in on the radio and of course, you and the podcast that have heard me say that three other times.

[00:29:16] Eric Goranson: Well, I appreciate you listening in as well because you are such a great listening audience and I just want to thank everybody for listening and tuning in. You are part of the success of this show, and what I mean by that is all of us in the United States. But we've been in the top 50 and top 25 in Israel, South Korea, New Zealand.

[00:29:40] Eric Goranson: I see all of you listening in out there and for making us one of the top home improvement podcasts in your countries. Uh, we love you tuning in, and if you have questions on this stuff, make sure you do message me over and around the house online.com because I will help you find answers in your area because I fully.

[00:29:58] Eric Goranson: The things are different [00:30:00] in your area than here in the States, and it probably could be better, but, uh, I really like to see what you guys are doing. So, uh, you are, uh, you are heard, you are seen, and we appreciate you. Well, we've got four things to jump through here in my top 10, so we're gonna have to keep going and not talk about that.

[00:30:17] Eric Goranson: The next one on here is dump that old fridge or freezer. Recycle that. I noticed that my old bar fridge, my pure fridge in the garage. Was using three times. The power that my new one on the inside is I went and did some quick math and went, wow. I could go to Costco or the warehouse center and go pick up a decent one there, and in about three years I'm gonna be way ahead and have something nicer anyway.

[00:30:45] Eric Goranson: So it was costing me a ton of money. So dump that old fridge or freezer and make sure that's updated. Take a look at the energy using on it, usage on it. It can be shocking how they have come a long ways with saving you money there. [00:31:00] Now here's another one that you're gonna go, okay, this is obvious. I get it.

[00:31:04] Eric Goranson: Smart thermostat, we talked about it, but here's a secret to smart thermostats. Before you go out and buy one, take a look at what your electric. Or even gas utility is doing for these. There are tons and I mean tons of products out there that are being given away by those utilities to help save energy.

[00:31:31] Eric Goranson: Now, in full disclosure, read the fine print and understand what you're getting into, cuz there are times that they will say, we're gonna give you. , but under extreme load conditions, we could control that unit. So be careful of that. If you are cool with that and say, Hey, I'm a part of the community, and uh, if they need to control my unit to help keep the system going, that's awesome.

[00:31:59] Eric Goranson: Cool. [00:32:00] If you're like, there's no way in hell they're gonna run my system, keep that in mind. Now the other thing is as some companies, and I've seen this across the country, cuz it's common, they will say, we will give you the free thermostat. But if you wanna pay 30 or 50 bucks, we'll give you, we'll sell you one at a reduced cost and you're not part of that program.

[00:32:21] Eric Goranson: It's still saving you money instead of going out and buying it. Spending hundred bucks, hundreds of bucks on a smart thermostat, they're pretty easy. But here's the secret to do before you. , every one of these have their own little installation things on it where you can take a look at it. So you can pop the cover off your existing one.

[00:32:38] Eric Goranson: Take a look at the wiring diagram and jump online and use one of their wiring finders depending on which one it is and see if it's gonna work. Some of these units need to have that common wire that's gonna be, you know, powering it. So if you've got a 20 plus year system, You might have to have an HVAC tech come out and run [00:33:00] auxiliary power to that to get that going because it might not have the low voltage to run it.

[00:33:05] Eric Goranson: So that's one to keep, you know, keeping track of. Now here's one here in most areas that you should be really paying attention to and saving money. And here's the rule on this. If you can grow grass in your area, like in your yard, then this is for you. And that is controlling humidity. We've had Nikki Krueger on here from time to time.

[00:33:30] Eric Goranson: It's always great. She's super cool. And we talk about humidity. Humidity in your house is basically felt the same way as temperature. So this is why when you walk into your house, go, man, it is 70 degrees, and why is it so dang hot? And you haven't been moving around, you haven't been busy. And it feels. Or you walk into the house and it's 70 degrees and you go, man, it feels cool.

[00:33:55] Eric Goranson: When it feels cool, it's drier, and when it feels [00:34:00] hot, it's more humid. So you could save money by using a commercials full-size dehumidifier when you do this. And that's what's cool is keeping that humidity controlled. With a dehumidifier or even in some areas a humidifier. Controlling that humidity is a very inexpensive way comparing to letting your system do it.

[00:34:27] Eric Goranson: I don't have one in my house. I am going to put one in here. Eventually I've got some other work I'm gonna do, so I need to do that first cause I don't wanna have to resize it again. But here's the key. When you go through and do this, it's pretty awesome. You can control that and. It's gonna save you money and it's gonna reduce the chance of mold anywhere in your home.

[00:34:49] Eric Goranson: So making your house more comfortable and it's using so much less power that can really save you some money. My system, I can run it and, and kind of [00:35:00] cycle it. So if I look at my house and go, oh my gosh, it is humid in here, it is 63% humidity. That is way too humid for my house. I am gonna be growing mold, I'm gonna have problems.

[00:35:12] Eric Goranson: So what I can do is I can heat the room up, I can heat it up to 75, 78 degrees, and then I can turn the AC on. Now my, my unit is so energy efficient that when I do that, I can actually get some humidity control in the heating cycle and then, The cooling cycle runs as a dehumidifier and will kind of, you know, basically cycle that through and pull that moisture outta the air.

[00:35:40] Eric Goranson: That is much more expensive to do that than just run a regular dehumidifier. So I know fully in my house that's costing me money, and one of these days I'm gonna fix that. The last one here is obvious weatherization insulation, making sure that everything's caulked. [00:36:00] Making sure that door doors are sealed up.

[00:36:06] Eric Goranson: If you look at your door and you can see. Daylight around it that can let as much air in as having a window open. So it's something to watch for because that can be very , very expensive to do that. And now one other thing too that I just did, I control, I ex, I had a dog door, big dog door. I have three dogs.

[00:36:31] Eric Goranson: And I had a dog door so they could go outside anytime they wanted to go to the bathroom. But even with that dual magnetic flap that I had, it still let a lot of air in. It was like having that open window. So I put in, and you'll see it in an upcoming segment, I put in a electronic dog door that has a little piece that goes on my dog's collar.

[00:36:54] Eric Goranson: And what that does is that controls it where the dog goes outside the [00:37:00] hard door open. . They go outside, do their business door closes, they come up to the door, it opens, and they come in. And so what that does is that keeps that air from coming in 24 7 when the dogs wanted to come in and out. And now that thing is so.

[00:37:18] Eric Goranson: Sealed up. I got this from High Tech pet. Those guys are awesome. I tell you what, that made a massive difference in the draftiness of that room because I didn't have, like I was saying, like a window open to do that. So my heating and cooling is gonna be a big difference, especially in that room with that.

[00:37:37] Eric Goranson: Now, because I sealed that up, I need to make sure that, uh, I'm not creating too many issues now, I don't have. Too many carbon dioxide things or carbon monoxide things inside the house. All of my, uh, gas, other than my oven actually, other than my cooktop, all my other stuff, uh, my gas furnace is out in the garage, so it's very, um, closed off from that.

[00:37:58] Eric Goranson: But I need to make sure that my makeup [00:38:00] air is good. That's gonna be one of my next projects is installing the correct size of makeup air in a future. TV version of Around the House because I wanna make sure that I get that makeup air taken care of. That is going to be the next issue because now that I've sealed up that big hole, I don't have the makeup.

[00:38:17] Eric Goranson: So when I'm exhausting things, when I turn on that big rain hood or I turn on my vent fans in the bathroom, I need to make sure that I'm not having issues and create a vacuum, cuz then what happens is I'm not bringing in conditioned air and I'm stealing that cold air or hot air from outside and putting it back inside my house.

[00:38:34] Eric Goranson: Well, those are my top 10 there. If you want to comment, I'd love to hear reviews. By the way, if you're listening on the podcast, it's been a couple years since I've asked for it, but, uh, if you have a chance, we'd love to have a great. On any of the podcast players and especially the Apple ones, cuz those help us out a little bit.

[00:38:50] Eric Goranson: But, uh, love to hear your comments on that and, uh, would love to see you jump over to around the house online. Send us a message or again, on Facebook, our close [00:39:00] group around the House Nation where you can post up your projects. I'm gonna really be pushing over the next few weeks of getting those projects shared up, up there so you can really see what, uh, Others are doing.

[00:39:11] Eric Goranson: I'd love to see those projects because we have so many people like you out there that are talented, that are doing some great stuff. All right, everybody. This is the wrap of our energy show for the day. Stay tuned for the next one. Thanks for listening to Around the House.