Welcome to season three of MTE's Plugged in podcast.

This season, we will continue to explore the world of electric vehicles.

Whether you're a seasoned EV driver or you're just beginning your journey into electric vehicles, this podcast is for you.

For a more enhanced experience, be sure to watch the video version of this podcast that will be linked in the show notes.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to MTE's Plugged in podcast.

I'm Brandon Wagner and I'm with Amy Byers.

Hey, Amy.

Hey, Brandon.

Welcome, everybody, to the Plugged in podcast.

So Brandon and I were talking about, you know, what would be a good topic for the winter months.

And you know, you have the, you already have the cost of charging that ev, and now we're going into the winter months where usage always goes up.

You know, when the temperatures goes down, usage goes up.

So we thought it might be timely to bring in one of MTE's energy pros to come talk to us about ways to save this winter.

So I have asked Katie McKee to come, and she is one of MTE's energy service coordinators, or what we like to call energy pros.

And she does a great job.

I've had her do my house, my daughter's house, and she has given us some great tips on how we need to be living better electrically, if that's.

But anyway, Katie, welcome to the podcast.

We have lots of questions for you, but before we get started, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Sure.

So I've worked at Middle Tennessee Electric as an energy service coordinator for about five years now.

I went to mtsu and I got a degree in energy technology and I worked at Home Depot for eight years.

I've gotten my Building Performance Institute certification and Home energy rater certification.

So I like to think I know a little bit about building science and construction and energy and how to save money.

And you're always learning more.

I know we've been talking about some issues that my daughter's having with her duct work and dampers.

And you're like, well, I'm fixing to go to school about dampers, so I'll get back with you.

So you're constantly learning too.

So.

And I know the beauty too, is when any of our members ask a question you don't know, you'll go figure it out.

You will go figure it out for them.

So let's dive right into some of our questions.

So the first one I have is what are the most cost effective ways to reduce your heating cost without sacrificing comfort?

So I always tell people there is a balance between energy savings and comfort.

So if comfort is important to you, which I think it is to everybody, I think the best thing to do is, okay, focus on comfort when you are at home.

But when you're not at home, that is the time to do energy savings.

So when you're at work or when you're asleep and you're bundled up in your bed, that's the time to cut back your thermostat just a couple degrees.

And I tell people, don't do anything too drastic.

Don't do four or five degrees, just do one or two degrees.

Cause one degree can save you 3% on savings.

And that can really add up, especially as it gets colder and colder.

And you might find out that you're okay with having a 1 degree savings all day and all night.

So then you can adjust and start turning back a little bit more.

But without sacrificing any comfort, the best thing to do is try to insulate your home as much as possible.

So attic insulation is of course important, but things that you need to do and focus on around your house is insulating your windows.

People who just have blinds just have plantation shutters.

That doesn't really stop a lot of that heat transfer from inside and outside.

So I've been really pushing cellular shades recently because they have a really good insulation value.

And when you close the blinds completely, it really stops a lot of that heat from escaping your house.

Right.

Well, Katie, how could I, how can I know whether or not my house is well insulated?

I know you talked a little bit about attic insulation.

Should I check certain areas or how can I make sure that my house is insulated properly?

So what?

The only insulation you can really control is in your attic.

So if you have wall insulation and you're.

Or if you don't know if you have wall insulation or not, if it's built after certain year, I think it's in the 30s, you have wall insulation.

Whether it's high quality, you can't really tell and you can't really do much about it.

But your attic insulation you can control.

So if you go into your attic and you see your floor joists that are going across the top, if you can see that wood, it's not enough insulation.

We want to see 14 inches, which is nice and high and fluffy and even all the way across your attic.

If it's low, if it's compressed, if it's missing in some places, that's where that cool temperature is going to find the path of least resistance and come into your home or heat escape your home.

And that's why it's also important to have every single attic door, Attic opening, whether on the side of a wall going into like a little cavity or you pull down your attic door, Everything needs to be insulated and sealed up.

So my best thing is, my number one tip is just go stick your head in the attic.

And if you see your floor joists, you know, you probably have like 6 to 8 inches of insulation.

You need to double that.

What about throwing stuff on top of your insulation?

Well, is it insulation you're throwing or is it T shirts, which doesn't really help if you just want to throw in.

Well, I mean, you know, you go up a lot, a lot of times, and people will, you know, put.

I was going to say suitcases will fall over on your insulation.

And that's where you're getting that mash down situation.

So.

So we don't want that.

Because that insulation, it works by having air pockets.

So the moment you push it down, you reduce all those air pockets and that insulation value decreases.

So high fluffy.

So you want the floor storage.

So you wouldn't want to take that board and mash that down.

You're going to want to build that up a little bit.

Yes.

And put it.

That is correct.

Perfect.

So if you just put a board on top, you are pushing down the insulation and you are reducing its efficiency.

So I've seen in new homes where they build up, you have to take a big step up into your attic, and that's because they've built up so that you still have not a lot of insulation underneath it.

So, Katie, as soon as I bought my house, I've been in it a few years now, but it was 20 years old.

The air conditioning unit, the heater, it was all original to the house.

So as soon as I bought the house, I had to replace it.

How can I extend the life as long as possible on that, especially as it gets colder and it seems like it works a lot.

I look over my thermostat, it says heat a lot on those really cold days.

Do I need to do regular maintenance?

Does that translate to cost savings?

What can I do to extend that life?

Absolutely.

So there's a lot that comes into play when it comes to heating your house, especially in the wintertime.

One is, you know, how efficient is your house?

How much insulation do you have?

How many windows that are covered and keeping that heat in do you have?

Do you have a lot of holes in your house?

Allowing Air to leak out and you have to constantly replace that air with new warm air.

So it's important to make your home as efficient as possible.

And then you have to look at your H Vac unit.

You know, how old is it, what condition is it in, you know, your air filters, all that type of thing to make it work as efficiently as possible.

Units can last 15 years easy if you take care of them properly.

And if you have someone come out to your home and tune it up, which is making sure everything looks good, making sure your free online outside is wrapped and insulated, and making sure your coils are cleaned off properly.

Properly.

If you're having an issue with some type of heating issue, they can check then and prevent something further from happening, hopefully.

Now there, of course there will always be issues like, you know, some mechanical thing happens and something breaks and that will come up.

But if you maintain your unit, you can make it last longer but also last or make it more efficient as it ages or keep its efficiency as it ages rather.

Yeah.

So it is important honestly to get it tuned up at least once a year.

Contractors really say twice a year and I agree twice a year is a benefit.

And right now we do have or TVA in Middle Tennessee Electric does have a $50 rebate for tuning it up once a year.

What about other kind of affordable upgrades like maybe storm windows or the weather stripping door sweeps?

What about those things and will they make a notice difference?

Yeah, so that all goes back to keeping that heat inside your house.

So weather stripping is something that is super cheap and super easy to replace.

You just go to Home Depot and go to the hardware aisle and you will see unfortunately.

Well, fortunately, unfortunately you'll see 20 different types of weather stripping.

So you get overwhelmed because you don't know what you need.

So I honestly would just take a picture of the weather stripping you have on your existing door and you take it to Home Depot and you try to find something that matches the side of the door.

They have a big strip of leather stripping that comes in a six foot strip instead of a roll.

The roll of foam insulation goes around your attic.

You know there are attic doors, so there are different types.

And it just when you go, you just take a breath and you just look and read each one and figure out what would work for your situation because most of it is relatively inexpensive.

So there's weather stripping, there's a door sweep along the bottom which is the rubber pieces that just fall off over time as the door opens and closes.

Super cheap, super easy to Replace it just takes time to do it.

Caulking around trim caulk is like a dollar a tube.

And if you see a crack, if you can, if you see cobwebs, if you see where bugs enter into your home from a crack, that's an easy place for you to seal up.

Because if bugs are entering, air is escaping at the same time.

Storm windows I do like, if you have a single pane window, you need to have a second layer.

It's just like attic insulation or layering yourself when you're cold, you want more air pockets.

So a storm window creates that air pocket between the first pane of glass and the second pane of glass.

If you have a couple hundred dollars, it's not super, super inexpensive, but it's very efficient.

Upgrade is a storm door for all your doors or a cellular shade for your windows.

Curtains and blinds add a couple layers to covering your windows.

But a cellular shade adds a lot more insulation than just plantation shutters or curtains.

So Katie, are there any specific habits or small changes in our behavior?

And we've talked about small things we can do around the house, but you know, a lot of times the biggest impact on your usage is yourself.

So what are some of the habits that we can do that would lead to big savings?

So a lot of it just kind of relates, you know, it's balancing your comfort settings with what you want to save when you are going throughout your house on your day to day activities.

You know, people wake up, they want to turn on the heat, they need to take hot showers.

You know, these types of things use a lot of electricity in the morning and then they might forget to turn back their thermostat.

Well, that is a priority, you know, making sure either, okay, I don't need to heat up the house as much early in the morning and then I can go to work and it still has an energy saving temperature.

And then when I come home I can be nice and comfortable and then when I go back I can or go to bed, I can turn it back down again.

I think that's the most major or most important thing that you can do.

And the easiest way to do that is to get a smart thermostat or a programmable thermostat so that you can just set your schedule and your thermostat will just take care of it for you and then you can just go on your way.

That's what I do.

I mean, I know I would forget every day if I didn't have that.

And what I do as well is if I'm cold at night and I'm just trying to get warm before I go to bed, I do turn up the thermostat one degree, just one, and I let it heat up a little bit.

And then after a couple hours, that thermostat goes back to energy saving mode.

So I don't have to worry about that.

And I spoiled myself for just a little bit.

Because heating and cooling is so much of your electric bill, especially in the winter, we do focus a lot on the thermostat settings and what you're comfortable with inside your home.

So bundling up, wearing socks, wearing layers, you know, that is something to keep your body warm and that, you know, instead of having to turn up your thermostat and heat your whole house, you're just trying to keep yourself warm.

I really suggest, you know, trying to minimize all space heater use.

I know sometimes they are important and I'm not saying that in every situation it's, you know, don't use them ever.

But they cost about 16 cents a kilowatt hour, or I'm sorry, 16 cents an hour.

So when you have multiple of those going on and you have them running all night, that can easily add 50 to $100 on a bill.

So when we see a high bill spike, I ask.

That's the first question.

That's my first question.

Absolutely it is, yeah.

So space heaters, let's try to minimize those.

Let's use electric blankets.

Yes, they use electric heat, but they're a lot smaller scale and they heat your body.

You could even like turn that electric blanket on before you go to bed, let it warm up your bed.

Then once you're in there, turn it off, you're all nice and toasty and it'll.

Yes, yes, absolutely.

Like you have a toasty environment and then you go to sleep and then you turn down your thermostat just a couple degrees.

So I'm not asking people to sleep and it's 60 degrees, but, you know, little heating pads, heating blankets, you be careful with them, of course, but then things like that's heating, that's keeping yourself comfortable.

But water heating is about 20% of electric bill use.

So, you know, try to use less hot water, try to use cold water in the washing, you know, washing and drying, that type of thing.

I know right now it's cold season, so you are going to be using hot water to bathe and to shower and whatnot.

So you will have a little bit more of an increase because you're Reheating all that water constantly.

So just be aware of that and maybe try to reduce that usage when you can.

But another couple easy tips that I tell people too is on nice sunny days, unless you have really leaky windows, but you've got good windows on nice sunny days, open those blinds, let the sun come in and help heat your room.

That's going to kind of take some of that pressure off your heat pump.

And then, you know, when the sun's going down, definitely close them to keep the cold out.

And another thing, you know, I used to say this with kids, you know, watch your kids.

But I feel like adults are just as bad.

But don't sit there with your refrigerator open, staring in there.

I mean, you know what's in your refrigerator.

Think about that before you open the door.

Staring at it for a length of time isn't going to magically make something appear that you want there, you know, so, you know, I think that's something because you're letting all of that cold air into your house.

So now your unit's going to have to kick in and try to heat your house back up.

And then when you close it, that refrigerator is going to have to work harder to cool all that down.

So think about what you want before you open that.

So there's little tips like that as well.

And we have a lot of those tips on our website, mte.com energytips so you can go on there and get a lot of winter, summer, and all the time energy tips.

A lot of tips which I do like to go through.

I like the sun one because, yeah, people don't want to live in a cave, you know, in the wintertime, and that's always the hardest thing to balance.

People want to have their windows open, but you lose a lot of heat that way.

So when the sun is shining in your windows.

Absolutely.

Utilize that.

Open up your blinds, let that heat come in.

But the moment that sun is not shining in that window, you are losing heat.

So close it up and layer it up.

You know, if you don't have multiple blind, if you don't have thick blinds and curtains, that cellular shade helps.

But just make sure you have at least two layers of something to cover it up.

So, Katie, you mentioned one degree could translate to 3% savings.

Do you have a recommended temperature setting to use?

And does it change between day, night and.

Yeah, so in the wintertime, heating is the most expensive thing.

So TVA recommends, and we recommend, you know, 68 degrees.

Let's start there.

68 degrees is a good energy saving temperature.

But and every degree that you can turn down, you know, regardless of whether it's close to 68 or, you know, 65 or 64, that's going to save you 3% per degree because your heat is not running because your backup heat doesn't have to turn on.

So the closer you get to outside temperatures, the less your unit has to turn on for.

But even if you're at 72 comfortably, if you turn it down 1 degree to 71, that's a 3% saving period.

So let's say you're used to sitting.

You know, you're used to a 72 degree house in the wintertime.

I know comfort is of course the most important thing.

But in extreme winter temperatures, your house will have a hard time reaching that temperature.

So turning it down one or two degrees will help you save that money.

But also get your house to a temperature where you're still semi comfortable and not using a lot of extra heating.

So they suggest 68 degrees.

That's a good middle ground for comfort and energy savings.

When you go to work or when you go to bed, you can cut it down just one or two degrees.

That will really help.

You have to be careful because you don't want to turn it down too much.

So there is a balancing act of energy savings and then actually using too much energy when you cool your house down too low.

So I tell people just one or two degrees, nothing too extreme.

If you do it too many degrees, then it has to use a lot more energy trying to reheat your house.

Well, I was going to say if you have turned it down, let's say you go off to work and you don't have like a programmable thermostat will solve all these, all this thing I'm fixing to mention.

But let's say you go off to work and you're like, I'm going to set it at 65 and save money.

And then you come home and you're like, this house is gold.

And you turn it up to 70, your unit is going to be like, oh my gosh.

Especially if you have a heat pump.

If you have a heat pump, this is kind of what I'm talking about.

But your unit's going to be like, I got to heat this up as quick as possible.

And it turns on your emergency heat.

So all the money you saved all day, you have probably used it all and spending more.

So you know, if you're in that situation, we always try to tell people, turn it up one to Two degrees at a time, gradually do that.

Don't try to raise it four or five degrees because that's going to cost you in the end.

But again, a programmable thermostat is going to fix that.

Knocks that out.

Yeah, exactly.

Completely.

You were going to say, well just.

You know, I know that when my emergency heat comes on a lot and I think I have a thermostat I need to replace because it tries too hard.

I try to say just go up one degree and it still kicks it on.

But I have measured, I have a little device that measures the KW pool of different things.

And I think when my house is pulling emergency heat that loads is around 10 kilowatts.

And to compare that to a level 2 EV charger, if you have a 40amp charger, you're pulling about 7.6 kilowatts.

So it's significant amount of energy.

So I know people think, well, I just knocked the chill out of the air.

You know, that's a phrase we hear a lot.

I just knocked the chill out of the air.

Well, you did it a very expensive way because that emergency heat.

So I tell you one of the things, and I'm not an energy expert at all, but when I did previous role working with small businesses, they I tell people watch your thermostat because you need to make sure it's not kicking on emergency heat and you can go into the settings and change that or you can get an H VAC pro to come out and help you with that.

But I've had people that it was kicking on emergency heat and they didn't even know it.

And so it's just something to really be aware of because what happens is, you know, when you find out is when you get a really high electric bill.

I know.

So with that I'll just expand on that a little bit.

Heat pumps are really popular around here and I do think they're very energy efficient.

But people don't tend to know that they have that backup heat that can cause high bills.

So most of the heat pumps, they use their backup heat when it gets below 40 degrees outside.

So one when it drops below 40, their backup heat's going to turn on a little bit more.

And if it's below 40 day and night, that backup heat is pretty much running constantly and it kicks on either a 5kW, 10kW or 15kW back up heat.

So it uses a lot of electricity when it's on.

People see their bills double, triple sometimes just because of that.

So one, keeping that thermostat set lower prevents that unit from kicking on as much.

So prevents the backup heat from kicking on as much.

Preventing it from, you know, or just turning it up one degree at a time prevents that backup heat from turning on as much as well.

And if you, Brandon, have a smart thermostat, you might be able to go in there and see if that backup heat is programmed to turn on after a 0.5 degree change or a degree change or 2 degree change.

I think mine, I can even pick the degree, like if it's this temperature outside, don't kick on before it gets to that temperature.

Sometimes it can get too smart.

And so it can be a lot more information than what you think you need.

But once you start going through it, because mine turns on when it hits 35 degrees outside, but I don't have as hot of air when it gets cooler and cooler until that backup heat finally kicks on, which, you know, give or take, you know, it's a balance, you know, of energy savings and comfort.

And I will say, you know, on these program level thermostats, depending on, you know, there's, there's a lot out there.

So I'm just speaking from what I have.

I have A echo B, that's what I have.

And it's very interesting because I will go in there and I will try.

You know, it gives you so much data and I'll go in there to say, okay, what's happening?

When did this kick on?

And it'll tell you and it has the stages and stuff and it'll tell you when you kick, when the emergency kicks on, how many hours it's kicked on.

So you really can look at that information.

Go and look at the MyMTE app as well, where we track your usage with the weather data and you can really see, okay, I totally understand why my bill went up.

You know, everybody thinks, oh, they've raised the rates or we've done something or whatever.

But no, if you really dig into the data, you can see exactly why and how your electric bill goes up.

And that's why we spend a lot of time trying to educate our members because we want to give them the power of their energy usage.

We want to give them the power to control things and learn how to do that.

And the programmator thermostats.

Like I feel like of all the upgrades, energy wise, I've had throughout my lifetime, that one is the most game changer for me just not having to worry with setting the thermostat it does it for me.

It goes down at night, comes up.

It really kind of levels things out.

And you can set it.

Like when I'm away, there's a setting and I can punch I'm.

And it'll do whatever.

A lot of people are trying to upgrade their homes to smart home technology and a smart programmable thermostat just ties right in with that.

I can be very lazy and I can sit on my couch and say, you know, I'm not going to say I don't want to set off devices but, you know, turn up thermostat 1 degree and it will and it's really nice.

Yeah.

Or we've been, we've been away like we've gone on vacation and we forgot to do it.

So I'm sitting in a hotel room looking.

I'm like, oops, we need to, you know.

And I'm raising my thermostat from the hotel room.

So it's really a great.

Yeah, the Ecobee nest and I'm pretty sure Honeywell probably has it as well.

But having the graphs of your electric or your H vac usage and you can see when the emergency heat kicks on, that is, I've solved a lot of high bills from showing them like this is when the emergency heat's been kicking on.

And that's.

So Katie, I get your question a lot about the Niteflex rate.

People tend to ask me what can I do in addition to charging my vehicle overnight.

Or maybe they don't have an ev, but they moved from an area that had a time of use rate and they want to take advantage of the savings that Niteflex offers.

What are some things they can do to maximize savings?

Yeah, absolutely.

So from 10pm to 4am they're saving 3 cents a kilowatt hour.

So what they can do is shift some of their higher energy usage to that time frame.

Charging their EV overnight, doing laundry, you know, their dryer uses a lot of energy because it's taking electricity and using that to create heat.

So that's a high spike in energy usage.

Your hot water.

Now I know a lot of people are going to be in bed by 10pm I'm starting to get to that age.

I am in bed by 9:30.

Well, I like to butt especially now it gets cold.

But if you are awake.

Yes.

Do some laundry at night, you know, do again for energy savings.

Still use like cold water, maybe warm, cold.

But if you're drying, you know, use that at 10pm or later.

Dishwashers or doing your dishes.

Dishwashers are, are less or are more energy efficient and use less water.

But maybe have it set, you know, to program in the future to run overnight instead of running when you first.

And a lot of those will have delays.

Yeah.

So you can, when you're done with supper, you can fix it, you can delay it, It'll just start on its own.

Yes, heating and cooling.

So right now in the wintertime, you know, we're trying to cut down cost, period.

Yeah.

Your heating costs will be mainly when you're at home in the morning and in the evening, but when you go to bed, you need to turn it down anyways.

But really it's just, okay, let's maybe not make it such a big change from when I want it to be turned up anyways.

And then when it goes to 10pm it will cut back and save me more.

But you just want to do a little bit more high energy things at night, mainly.

That's anything that requires heat.

So, you know, dryer, dishwasher, hot water, that type of thing overnight.

Yeah.

Okay, so our final question, which is probably the most important question, and this is to all the MTE members out there.

So all the MTE members, listen up.

This is what you're going to want to know.

First of all, Katie, I want you to talk to us about the home energy checkup, which is a free thing that we provide to our members where you actually go out and talk to them.

So I want you to tell us a little bit about that and then I also want you to tell us about our rebates, because we have a lot of rebates for between what we do, what TVA does.

We have a lot of rebates for our members on some of these things we've talked about today.

So give us the rundown on those two things.

Okay, so home energy checkups are completely free.

We want to help people as much as possible.

We want them to understand their electric usage, their, you know, their home construction building signs of their home weatherization improvements.

We want to help.

We just want to be there to help so they can.

Our members can contact us on our app or on our website, which is mte.com home energy checkups.

Or call us at 877-777-9020 or they can email us.

Our energy services team is energyserviceste.com and.

The app you can get, it's my MTE.

You can get that on the Google Store, the Apple Play, wherever you get your apps.

Yes, it is my M Y M T E I love this app.

I really do.

There are so many things that you can see on there.

You can see your hourly data.

You can see, you know, a graph breaking down what is causing your electric or what is using energy in your home.

It's so much fun.

I'm a nerd about that though.

So right now TVA is offering a wide variety of rebates.

It is for the entire Tennessee Valley area and it's each individual utility that's kind of enacting them.

Middle Tennessee Electric is responsible for our area.

So when a contractor does work and then submits it to tva, TVA will then email that member to claim their rebate.

The best way to figure out what contractor to use and what upgrade to get and how much the rebate is is to go to TVA's website, which is energyright r I g h t dot com and they can always call us as well to tell them, you know, what rebates are available.

Right now, the biggest bang for your buck is a $500 rebate for attic installation.

And I mean, it doesn't matter if you spend, you know, $500 or $2,000, you're going to get a $500 rebate, $50 for a tune up on your H vac unit, and that's per system.

So if you have two or three units, that's $50 per unit.

If you need to purchase a new unit, then they want to encourage energy savings.

So they will give you $250 up to $1,500 back for a new H vac unit, whether that's gas or dual fuel or a heat pump.

Now, of course, the bigger the rebate, the more expensive the unit because the more energy it's going to save.

You know, There is a $800 rebate for replacing your water heater with a heat pump water heater.

So there's a lot of things that absolutely add up to energy savings.

And so if you're looking at getting anything or if you know you're about to invest in something major in your home, give us a call so we can make sure you find a right contractor and get a rebate.

Great.

Yeah, great.

Well, Katie, thank you so much for being with us today.

I think this has been, this has been a great podcast.

I mean, I've even learned, like, I'm taking notes for myself.

I'm like, well, I need that instant.

You know, I'm doing the $50 tune up.

I am too.

I'm too.

I might be doing somatic installations.

I like taking notes.

Let me throw in there, too.

If you are installing an EV charger, there's a $50 rebate for that for 240 volt service in your garage.

So that's our EV Ready program.

So there's a lot of good stuff.

And just to plug the Tennessee magazine, if you are an MTE member or really, I think that the Tennessee magazine goes all over Tennessee if you're a co op, a member of a co op.

But for the MTE members, in January, we put in there our rebate schedules.

So, you know, we always feel like every January because they change some, but usually by the first of the year they're settled down.

And every January we print that out so you can just tear that sheet out and put it on your refrigerator and have that.

So that would be a great resource as well.

But again, Katie, thank you.

This has been so informative.

If you have any questions about anything we've talked about today, email us@evcarclubte.com for more information on MTE's Drive EV programs or the EV Car Club, you can visit DriveEV.com and until next time, plug in, power up and drive safe.