June 7, 2026 • 44 mins
This weekend, homeowners are tackling various projects around the house, from cleaning gutters to sealing driveways. But have you ever stopped to think about how your home's energy efficiency can impact your wallet? In this hour, Gary dives into the world of energy conservation, discussing the importance of insulation, HVAC maintenance, and smart home practices.
The conversation centers around the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) efforts to promote energy efficiency and reduce costs for homeowners. Ashley England, a senior manager of demand management at the TVA, shares insights on the organization's initiatives and provides tips on how to make your home more energy efficient. From upgrading your HVAC system to being mindful of your energy usage, Ashley offers practical advice on how to save money and reduce your carbon footprint.
This hour also touches on the impact of data centers and the growing demand for electricity. The speaker shares a personal anecdote about reducing energy consumption in their own home, highlighting the importance of small changes that can add up to big savings. Additionally, the conversation covers the benefits of DIY home energy assessments and the importance of regular HVAC tune-ups.
If you're looking to make your home more energy-efficient and save money on your utility bills, this hour is a must listen. Tune in to hear Ashley's expert advice and learn how to take control of your energy usage.
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Speaker 1 (00:28):
Well, the weekend is here and that means a little
work around the home. This staras brought to you by
gutter Brush. Listen, if you forgot to clean the gutters
in the fall time or early spring, and now's the
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(00:49):
keep debris out. It's gutter brush dot com. We thank
them for their sponsorship. All right, let me give you
the phone number and then we're gonna get to the calls.
It's eight one hundred eight two three eight two five five.
Of course we're talking about your home. You got a
question regarding a maintenance repair remodel, you can give us
(01:10):
a shout again. It's eight hundred eight two three eight
two five to five and Jim, thanks for holding on.
Appreciate it. Morning, Gary, Morning.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I have a Butcher block countertop that I put on
you oil. It looks great for a couple of days.
The host smells good and then you can't even tell
a few days later it was done. So I'm doing
the Dike black block coating.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
You're using the what coating.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I'm gonna do the dice. Oh black rock coat.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Oh okay.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I didn't like that because I didn't like the white swirls.
It looked too artificial to me.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Mm hmm. What were you doing to seal your uh,
your count or your butcher block countertop? What would you
put on there?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I was using an oil especially designed for butcher block,
just like a food service.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, I didn't know if it was minor oil or
this special product. Cool. So the dish products you got
it ordered, You're ready to go.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I've got it in the garage. I'm just waiting for
the right time to put it down and I'll give
you a call. Let you know how it goes.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, I know the dish codings is uh, you know,
it's designed to be able to go on wood. I
do you know what kind of wood is on that
butcher block? Is it like a teak or it is?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Probably it was some home peoples pine.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Oh okay, okay, it won't have any trouble fighting on
that then.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, well i'll stand it down too before I do
any of that.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Sure, sure, well, good luck on that. I'd be real curious.
Take it before and after picture on that.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
We'll do.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Thank you, appreciate it. Jim, thank you all right, and
again our lines are open. It's eight hundred eighty two
three eight two five five. Cliff, welcome, Hi morning, good morning.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I was listening to your program on the asphalt ceilings.
Uh huh, and I've got an issue. I put down
a lot of asphalt millings and I put a vibratory
roller on and packed it really good. But I still
have a problem with it washing sometime. Is there a
seiler or something we can put on that the kind
(03:24):
of hind of the washing, or or we just what
we have what we have.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I think it's more you have what you have, Like
the seilers that we were talking about was more of
a compacted asphalt seiler. I don't know how much that's
going to really hold that together. And if you remember,
it was a a two coat system and it was
it was put on two thin coats.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
So you don't know of a bonding agent that we
could use on this asphalt milling.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Uh. I'd have to look and do a little research.
Off the top of my head, I do not know.
I don't know. I'll look it up during the break
and maybe even come up with something so keep listening,
or maybe somebody uses a seiler on that I'm just
not familiar with one.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
All right, Well, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
All right, keep listening. Thank you much for the call.
Appreciate it, and if you'd like to join us, jump
on board and happy to take your calls. Remember, as
we talked about, you know, the old coal tar asphalt sealers.
I think one of the reasons, well they said didn't
(04:43):
last and not kind of last ten years. They used
to last about two years. But I think we also
over sealed driveways years gone by. I think a lot
of times the purpose of sealing the driveway was so
that it looked real good, you know, it looked and shiny.
After a year or two, they would become gray. You
(05:06):
could almost see the aggregate of the asphalt. And so
we did it for cosmetic reasons, and of course some
maintenance issues, but I think more cosmetic issues in years
gone by. If you were doing that every two years
or so, an asphalt driveway is going to give you
(05:26):
about twenty years worth of service. And if you've got
ten coats of an asphalt seiler on, there a lot
of cases, in a lot of cases they would peel.
When we're talking now of asphalt seilers five seven, ten
years worth of life, depending you know, on the bells
(05:46):
and whistles that you have with that sealer, it sounds
to me like the only time you're really going to
have an issue with it is maybe over application. He
talked about the coats being too thick and not really
(06:07):
you know, bonding would become a problem, or they would
stay soft, and tire tracks would be a problem. But boy,
if you can get a driveway that you can get
sealed in seven to ten years and have it fairly
resistant to the UV rays, meaning it's practically going to
(06:30):
be fade resistant, that's a big deal. That's a big deal.
And being a gel also, I think is really helps
with the control that you can have with that seiler's
He was talking about putting, you know, a third of
a can down and as a gel, then taking literally
(06:56):
your squeegee and pulling that around over the surface and
then the brush part of the applicator and working it
down into the surface and then if you want to
smooth it out a little bit with the squeegee again fine, Um,
I think that really, you know, depending on whether you
(07:17):
properly prepared it, because prep is the key, but that
application is really darn near foolproof. But of course it
always comes down to what was on that asphalt driveway before?
Was there oil issues? Did you get those up? You know?
Was it clean? Was it dust free? Because that's the
(07:40):
usual culprits of bad bonding. It's not always necessarily the product.
It'll usually be the preparation or the application. Not to
say that then on occasionally I'm assuming have a problem
with a batcher, something along those lines with That's why
(08:02):
it's all recorded. But in most cases I would have
to say when it comes to coating's failing, and I
don't care if it's an asphalt driveway or a paint.
If a coating fails, it's one or two things. In
ninety percent of the cases, it's either the preparation or
(08:22):
its moisture. So whatever you're using, whatever brand, whatever product,
reads directions, follow the steps minimize the issues that you're having.
Always laughing, almost every can of paint that's on a
hard surface that you're going to walk on, it always
(08:46):
talks about removing the existing finish, and I'm not so
sure we all do that. In fact, if I was
going to place a bet on that. I would say
probably eighty percent of a seven tventy percent of us don't.
We may scrape, you know, scratch it up. We may
(09:06):
make it more bondable, but in a lot of cases
we're not removing the finish. But read the labels. See
what you know. The ultimate way of application is the
way that product has been tested to excel to deliver
the results that you want. All right, let me give
(09:27):
you the phone number. You can grab a line. We'll
take a break, come back and get some questions answered.
Our phone number is eight hundred eight two three, eight
two five five. You're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
At one eight hundred eight two three talk. This is
at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Well spring us here, and so is everything that packed
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(10:27):
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Speaker 5 (10:34):
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(10:55):
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(11:15):
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Speaker 1 (12:12):
All right, back at it, we go at home with
Gary Sullivan and talking on a little home improvement. One
of the things chatted about yesterday was energy conservation and
a lot of parts of the country starting to heat
up summertime and all that air conditioning too. Trying to,
I guess minimize our cost of energy is kind of
(12:33):
pretty much on everybody's mind. And at the bottom of
the hour we're going to talk about summer energy plans.
Ashley England she's going to be joining us. She is TVA,
Tennessee Valley authority senior manager of demand management, and you're
(12:54):
reading in the you know, in articles all about data
centers and electricity, and maybe we can get her to
chat a little bit about that. We can certainly, I
guess demands increasing and so is the price. But how
(13:16):
can we little old us the homeowner, maybe not neutralize
those increases, but minimize those increases. And what are the
big energy hogs that we as homeowners use a lot?
(13:37):
Certainly electric water heaters if you have one, Certainly electric dryers,
air conditioning. I guess those would be refrigeration. Those are
ones that kind of jump the mind, you know, the
light bulbs and lights and things. I'm not saying we've well,
(13:58):
we've minimize the electric We all complained a lot, and
I get that, But boy, when you look at energy
costs and then you look at where we went from
incandescent bulbs to l D bulbs and the cost of
operating them in a way, it's like thank goodness, right,
(14:21):
I mean, I mean, think about that. Lighting costs has
been diminished greatly. You know, whether you like it or not,
bottom line is the cost has been diminished a lot.
Take the old seventy five blot light bulb. You know
those bulbs now are probably nine to ten. Watch you
(14:43):
can you know you can have seven lights for the
cost you could have one. So certainly making headway and
that's helped us all. Like I said, we all grumbled,
we went through growing pains, thank goodness the era of
the CFL's gone. Didn't like those. But now we're living
(15:10):
in the benefits. So what can we do? Well, Actually,
I'll help us with that. I know many of us
we grumbled about this winter being cold, and we had
ice dams and different things. And I keep encouraging people.
If you had those problems in the last winter, or
you just were uncomfortable in a drafty house and you
(15:35):
really don't know what the status of the insulation is
in your house, find out and if you can't get
up into the attic to really look and see, get
a handyman up there and see what your R value
is in your insulation. If your insulation is properly installed,
(16:05):
meaning if it's blown in, it's not covered up, maybe
soft inventing, if you got ventilation. Those two things, insulation, ventilation,
well they play a big role and how efficient your
home is. I mentioned the other appliances and things like that. Yeah,
those are helpful. Light bulbs, those were helpful. We all
(16:28):
went through the thing of buying additional balls. Were all
not running out and buying new refrigerators. I don't think
for that reason. And I'm not saying you should, but
there's a difference. Certainly, if you took an old refrigerator
and put it in a garage and bought a new
refriger that one in the garage just cost you a
lot more than a new one, and asking yourself, maybe
(16:53):
you do need two refrigerators or maybe you don't something
to consider. So I actually will kind of walk us
through some of the things on air conditioning, and I'll
tell you what it'll start. It's just the lowest denominator
and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And
(17:13):
that's the filter on the furnace. I used this analogy yesterday,
and how true it is. If you just ignore you
got an air handler, it's distributing duck conditioned air heat
or cold, and you haven't been responsive to changing that
(17:34):
filter out in a timely manner. And if it's a
pleated filter, that would be sixty to ninety days. And
let's say it's been six eight months once a year.
I don't know that filter's dirty. And as you condition
that air and start blowing it through the air handler
(17:58):
and through the duck work, and that filter is impeding
that airflow, it's gonna take I mean, it's just common sense.
It's gonna take longer for that condition there to satisfy
your thermostat. So that thermostat is not being satisfied. It's
like a hungry baby. It keeps screaming for more food,
(18:20):
in this case, more air. It's not gonna shut off.
And what's that do? Well? That usually it will make
to humidity rise, certainly make the temperature not go down.
It'll be harder to reach that cooler air and have
a harder to reach areas further away from the air handler,
(18:45):
and it's gonna take where and tear on the air
handler itself. So it's like lose, lose, lose. So finding
out where you are on insulation, finding out where you
are on maintaining your filters, there's those are big components
on you know, energy conservation. So Ashley, I'll join us
(19:10):
from the TVA. She'll be up next. As we continue,
you're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
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Speaker 1 (22:10):
All right back, at it. We go thirty three minutes
after the top of the hour talking a little home
improvement and not only is it improving your home in
terms of efficiency, is when you really take a hard
look at your energy cost. And we're going to do
just that. Ashley England, she is my guest. She is
(22:31):
with the TVA Senior Management Division of Demand Management. How
you doing, Ashley?
Speaker 6 (22:39):
Hey, I'm doing well. How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (22:42):
I'm doing fine. Well. I'll tell you what when it
comes to energy, demand's in the news now, isn't it
big time?
Speaker 7 (22:51):
Oh? Boy?
Speaker 6 (22:51):
Is it?
Speaker 7 (22:52):
Yeah, it's in the news. I'm hearing it about it everywhere.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
I'm sure you are. And before we get into the TVA,
really is this this is a worldwide issue, is it not? Oh?
Speaker 6 (23:08):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 7 (23:09):
I mean with the rise of data centers and electrification
you know, happening all over the world, it really is.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
It's a it's a growing need. We need more energy,
that's what we're seeing.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Well, when we were all young and in school, we
learned about the TVA. But why don't you go ahead
and tell us a little bit about the TVA.
Speaker 7 (23:30):
Yeah, sure, you know, it's it's easy to forget what
we learned in fifth grade. TVA. Same for this the
Tennessee Valley Authority, and we are the public outpower provider
for a seventh state region here in the southeast United States.
We provide power that serves nearly ten million people through
one hundred and fifty three local power company. So they're
(23:53):
distributing the power to the en these customers. I think
a couple of things that I always like to remind people.
We are a federally owned agency, but we are self
funded through power sales, not tax dollars. And so we
are public power and we partner with local power companies
to keep energy reliable, affordable, and to help people use
it more energy more efficiently.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah, so we're partners in this. I mean we as homeowners.
I was just kind of going through how things have changed.
I mean, we all grumbled a lot with the CFL
light bulbs and LED light bulbs. But boy, when you
just flash back twenty years now and you think, thank
God we made that change. You know, you can burn
(24:36):
seven or eight light bulbs for what we were burning
one light bulb. That's conservation, that's right, you know.
Speaker 7 (24:45):
I kind of I talk about it with a colleague.
It's to me, it's just about eliminating waste. You know,
why would you waste something when you don't you want
to use all of our resources to the best of
our abilities. And so yeah, I think with technologlogy and
science and letting that advance us. And yeah, we all
have a part to play. And even though sometimes change
(25:06):
is hard, I think it's usually it's often for better.
And so yeah, I think energy. I think if energy
efficiency is just not being wasteful.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
And the TVA's interest in this is, I mean, you
sell energy, but you want to make sure you've got
the energy to sell too, right, That's exactly right.
Speaker 7 (25:27):
You know, for us at least, our region is just
growing rapidly. It's actually going three times faster than the
national average. And so we take you know, a multi
prong approach to make sure we can bring that low cost,
reliable power. And so one element of that is building
megal walks, which we are doing.
Speaker 6 (25:47):
You know, we're to prepare for all this growth.
Speaker 7 (25:50):
You know, we we've got a multi year generation expansion plan.
We're adding about six two hundred megawaks of power to
the system and we've got three over three thy seven
hundred under construction right now, that's enough power to power
more than two million homes. But another tranche of that
approach is investing in energy efficiency and the main response programs.
(26:14):
And so that's what we're doing. You know, we since
twenty twenty four, we're investing one point five billion over
the next five years to help homes and businesses become
more energy at different Actually.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Can you just maybe you don't have the statistics to
really talk on that, but I mean, just from hearing
and reading news stories and talking to people, energy costs,
the graft has got to be going up for the
cost of energy to the people I'm talking to right now,
and that's that's homeowners, right, So we got to be
mindful of how we're spending our energy dollars.
Speaker 7 (26:49):
Yeah, I mean, you know here in the in the
TVA territory, we're doing everything we can to keep costs low,
to make sure that we're not socializing costs from large
industrial energy users that.
Speaker 6 (27:01):
Are moving in.
Speaker 7 (27:03):
And you know, in general, you're right, residential electricity prices
across the US, they are rising and the average bill
is going up. And then you think about also what's
happening at the gas pump.
Speaker 6 (27:15):
You know, those are energy costs.
Speaker 7 (27:17):
So there's just a lot of things that are driving that.
You know, we've got aging infrastructure, We've got flustrating fuel prices,
we got we've got weather. You know, weather is still
the biggest factor. And then the growing demand like we've
talked about from data centers, and so yeah, there anything
we can do to get our bills down to help
offset that, I think makes the difference for everybody.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Well, I'll tell you what. It's got my attention. And
I've been in home improvement for my whole life, and
this is really in the last probably year and a half.
It really has my attention on how I manage my
heating and how I manage my cooling, and how I
balance my humidity. For CO and there was a period
(28:02):
and I'm our flagship stations not far from you. It's
in Cincinnati, Ohio, and there was a period. I didn't
calculate exactly, but I'm I'm going to state that in
the last six to eight weeks we use nothing in
terms of heat or cooling until yesterday I turned the
(28:23):
air conditioning on and I said it six degrees warmer.
And so these those are little those are little things,
but If everybody really starts paying attention to how you're
going to make your home cooler or warmer, that can
add up to big savings.
Speaker 6 (28:45):
That's right, you.
Speaker 7 (28:46):
Know, and part of the reason why you can probably
do that is because you've probably done the necessary things
you need to see to weatherize the facilities. Right, You're
making sure that your home is sealed and that you're
you know, you've gotten you know, better insulation, the better
duckt ceilings, better air air ceiling that's going to help
(29:09):
cool keep cool air in your home, keep the warm
air out of your home, and then.
Speaker 6 (29:13):
Vice versa in winter.
Speaker 7 (29:14):
And so those are the moves you have to make
if you want to stay comfortable. And then and then
you can really play with your HVAC system.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
There.
Speaker 7 (29:22):
I know that HVAC you know, temperature thermocet settings are controversial.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Well, that's true. Everybody's got their thing, and you know,
if they want to pay for whatever, I mean, they can.
I mean, I'm not going to dictate temperature settings. But really,
when you start playing with it, I realized this is
and then we're going to get into how important it
is to make sure I was talking about, you know,
just furnace filter, simple little process, but there's other things
(29:50):
you can do. Like I was paying attention to the
heat of the day, and maybe the heat of the
day was seventy eight. Okay, Well, I realized if about
two o'clock in the afternoon, if I close the windows
and my indoor temperature was seventy two and there was
no nothing going on, that the insulation would keep that
temperature at seventy two, maybe creep up to seventy three
(30:14):
seventy four. But if I left those windows open and
it was seventy eight outside and the sun was beaten
in through the screen, it might be eighty. So pulling
down windows, opening up windows in at night, I'd open
them up, bring in cool. There'd be a little chilly
at night maybe, But then I'm buying all that time
for tomorrow and it's worked phenomenally.
Speaker 7 (30:38):
Yeah, you know, and I love that. I love that
story too, because it's such a good reminder that not
everything you do for energy efficiency has to cost you money, right,
Your own behaviors can really make a difference. You know,
if you're closing the blinds and flipping on your fan
while you're in the room, Yeah, well that can make
a real difference. You know that those sand is going
to make the room feel two to three degrees cool.
(31:00):
It's going to push that fool air down where you
can feel it. And so doing those things makes a difference.
It's easy to neglect them. I'll tell you the number
of times I see people running fans when they're not
in the room, and I think, oh, gosh, why that's
the way.
Speaker 6 (31:15):
You don't do that, You don't in the room turn
it off? Sure, but yeah, you're you're exactly right.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yeah, HVAC tune ups. I talk about the importance of
doing that in terms of I think the latest data
is your HVAC system can lessen an additional twenty to
twenty five percent longer. And I always say, you know,
if you don't like the news you get after it's
(31:41):
been serviced, you can always get second opinions. What's your
take on HVAC tune ups? And you know, furnace tune
up in the fall and spring tune up for the
ac in the in the in the springtime.
Speaker 7 (31:55):
Yeah, I think a tune up is one of the
highest you know, return on investment things that a homeowner
can do. I think, especially in light of what we're
talking about with some folks rates rising around the country.
You know, a neglect to your point from what I've lad,
you know, a neglected system is going to lose you know,
about five percent of its efficiency annually, and you know
(32:18):
that comes back compounds, and so, yeah, you know, you
get your sixteen cer rated system, but it's going to
effectively be performing like a like a eleven or twelve
year system if you don't take care of it. And
so you're exactly right that proper maintenance is going to
reduce the HVAC consumption annually. It's going to make sure
you have great airflow capacity and prevent any sort of
(32:42):
like cooling capacity loss, make sure you have proper refrigerant,
and make sure your duct work is all you know,
in ship shape, all of that, and then you think
about the filter impact alone, right, You know, a dirty
filter can increase your energy consumption by five to fifteen
spot right there. And so if you're not changing that filter,
(33:03):
or if you're not getting your tune up where your
technician is helping you stay on track with those things,
the impact can become really significant.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah, I haven't talked about duckwork ceiling in a while.
But I know I had my inspectors probably fifteen years ago,
and I was losing one ton of air on a
four ton unit. It was amazing just then by aluminum
taping joints, having a ceiling through the duckwork system itself,
(33:35):
I reduced it down to an eighth of a ton
and saw impact on that almost immediately.
Speaker 7 (33:42):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean a lot of these things
they can play for themselves in energy savings in very
little time. You know, Energy Star warns that about twenty
to thirty percent of the air moving through a duck
system could be lost if you have leaks a whole
are poorly connected ducks, and so again, you know you're
(34:03):
paying for the energy, you're paying for that air conditioning,
you want to keep it in your house.
Speaker 6 (34:09):
So I think it's a real underrated measure.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Got a couple of minutes to go. Other things that
you can help us with to save energy would be what.
Speaker 7 (34:21):
Yeah, so I you know, we talked about air stoe,
We talked about that.
Speaker 6 (34:26):
H backtoone up. I do like to remind people if
they live in.
Speaker 7 (34:29):
The TVA territory, you can take advantage of TVA rebates
for those upgrades.
Speaker 6 (34:34):
We offer our fifty dollars.
Speaker 7 (34:35):
Rebate for h back tune ups things like that. But
I think some other really easy ways are to pay
attention to when you're using your largest appliances, things like
your dishwasher and your laundry machine. You talked about, Hey,
it's two o'clock, it's the peak heat of the day.
Let me may close my blinds and curtains. Make sure
you're not running those large machines until later in the evening,
(34:58):
after the peakat the day. Those machines, in addition to
using energy themselves, they generate seats indoor too, and so
your HVAC system is gonna have to work harder to
keep the indoor temperature set to what you have it at.
Speaker 6 (35:14):
So run those later.
Speaker 7 (35:16):
If you're in an area that does you know, time
of use charges, that can also help you save money
on your bill. But one way or the other, it's
going to make your home more comfortable and it's going
to make sure your HVAC system doesn't have to work
as hard.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Here's a little tip I learned. Also on the dishwasher,
there was you know, you turn it on and it
was auto, and then I'd press start and I had
that for four or five years, and one day this
is a terrible story on me. One day I looked
at it goes there's a sixty minute cycle. This other
(35:48):
cycle is like one hundred and twenty to one hundred
and fifty minutes, and my wife's and I probably doesn't
clean as well. I say, well, we don't know, we
haven't done it, and we ran that thing and that's
all we use now is the sixty second or sixty
minute cycle. And I'm sure it made a big difference.
Speaker 6 (36:10):
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 7 (36:11):
And then you know another one on that, if you're
setting your dishwasher to run at night while you're sleeping,
go ahead and turn off the auto heat function. Sure,
and let you know, let it pop open and air dry.
Speaker 6 (36:24):
Again.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
That's well, as as usual, Ashley, you've been a great help.
Is there maybe a website with some additional information also
that the TVA provides.
Speaker 7 (36:38):
Yeah, it's energy Right dot com. We've got tips and tricks,
and if you live in the TVATE territory you can
take advantage of our rebates. We've got a really great
DIY home energy assessment that you can take to learn
more about your home and get a customized report. So yeah,
We've got lots of resources and tools out there Energy
Right dot com.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Very good, Well you enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 6 (37:04):
Oh thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Saying to you all right, Ashley, thank you, bye bye.
All right. We'll open up the phone lines for your calls.
Our number is eight hundred and eight two three eight
two five five. You're at home with Gary Sullivan. Help
for your.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
Home is just a click away at Garysullivan online dot com.
This is at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Thank hey.
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Speaker 5 (38:44):
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Speaker 1 (39:57):
Well certainly never hurts to shadow a little bit about
energy savings. So again thanks to Ashley who is a
demand management for the TVA, and certainly appreciate her time.
All right, our phone numbers eight hundred eight two three
eight two five five and Joe welcome. Oh hi there, Yes, sir.
Speaker 8 (40:21):
I'm from Celta, Delaware, but originally from New Jersey. And
there was a county in New Jersey that put forth
a referendum to build a plant on top of the
Lead Hill and it was all paid by the taxpayers,
(40:44):
so it didn't sit too well originally, right, so they
put up one turbine to extract the Bessa gas and
after two years, the taxpayers were when can you put
up another one? Because it cut their electricity built way
(41:08):
down to almost nothing. I was wondering if Delaware had
any landfills that are waiting to be built upon to
extract a Messa gas to run turbines to create electricity.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Yeah. I don't know the answer to that, but our
flagship stations out of Cincinnati, OHI, and we have a
huge landfill. Also. They're pretty proactive in a good company.
I wonder if they have anything in the plans for that.
Speaker 8 (41:38):
Yeah, I mean, I'm just looking. I mean it was
built right near Giant Stadium. And while they were like
the first ones to call them to say listen, do
you put a couple more really, which they did over
the years. Now they have four turbines on site.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Well, the world is always changing, that's for sure. And
some of the changes we fight and we don't like them.
And I'm just like everybody else, I don't like them either.
But there's been so many things if you really look
back and you wait for it to play out, so
many of them have been beneficial. And so yeah, it's
(42:24):
uh and the demand for electricity data centers. It's no joke.
I mean it's a I'm not going to you know,
blow it up and say a world crisis, but there's
a lot of there's a world competition to be able
to manage the data centers because that's where a lot
of research is going to go. I mean, it's just
(42:46):
going to go there. So I'm sure the energy folks
and I'm sure people like Ashley are under a lot
of pressure to conserve what they have to, you know,
and come up with new idea. So your input has
been very timely and I appreciated. Joe.
Speaker 8 (43:05):
Okay, it was good speaking with it.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
Have a great weekend. Take care, all right. So yeah,
that's boy. I'll tell you very true. Every time I
talk about this, I have flashbacks to the CFL light
bulbs and the LEDs, And believe me, that first generation
of the stuff was not pleasant and it wasn't that great.
(43:32):
It's saved some money, don't get me wrong, but we've
come so far on that now, even to the lighting.
You know, you can't call them about watts anymore, but
you're now they're able to look at it and okay,
that's a soft white we don't get into Calvin units anymore.
That was the blue light all the way down to
like more of a softer white. But man, we got there,
(43:56):
didn't we. And we're saving money and so lot of things.
I certainly appreciate her joining us. That was a good,
interesting conversation. So you can join us now. It's eight
hundred eighty two three, eight two five five, that's our number.
Grab a line, Happy to talk to you about your home,
and you're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
Weekends. I mean, a never ending list of things to
do around your home. Get help at one eight hundred
eighty two three talk You're at home with Gary Sullivan
Well, the weekend is here and that means a little
work around the home. This staras brought to you by
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It's eight one hundred eight two three eight two five five.
Of course we're talking about your home. You got a
question regarding a maintenance repair remodel, you can give us
(01:10):
a shout again. It's eight hundred eight two three eight
two five to five and Jim, thanks for holding on.
Appreciate it. Morning, Gary, Morning.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I have a Butcher block countertop that I put on
you oil. It looks great for a couple of days.
The host smells good and then you can't even tell
a few days later it was done. So I'm doing
the Dike black block coating.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
You're using the what coating.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I'm gonna do the dice. Oh black rock coat.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Oh okay.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I didn't like that because I didn't like the white swirls.
It looked too artificial to me.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Mm hmm. What were you doing to seal your uh,
your count or your butcher block countertop? What would you
put on there?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I was using an oil especially designed for butcher block,
just like a food service.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, I didn't know if it was minor oil or
this special product. Cool. So the dish products you got
it ordered, You're ready to go.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I've got it in the garage. I'm just waiting for
the right time to put it down and I'll give
you a call. Let you know how it goes.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, I know the dish codings is uh, you know,
it's designed to be able to go on wood. I
do you know what kind of wood is on that
butcher block? Is it like a teak or it is?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Probably it was some home peoples pine.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Oh okay, okay, it won't have any trouble fighting on
that then.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, well i'll stand it down too before I do
any of that.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Sure, sure, well, good luck on that. I'd be real curious.
Take it before and after picture on that.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
We'll do.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Thank you, appreciate it. Jim, thank you all right, and
again our lines are open. It's eight hundred eighty two
three eight two five five. Cliff, welcome, Hi morning, good morning.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I was listening to your program on the asphalt ceilings.
Uh huh, and I've got an issue. I put down
a lot of asphalt millings and I put a vibratory
roller on and packed it really good. But I still
have a problem with it washing sometime. Is there a
seiler or something we can put on that the kind
(03:24):
of hind of the washing, or or we just what
we have what we have.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I think it's more you have what you have, Like
the seilers that we were talking about was more of
a compacted asphalt seiler. I don't know how much that's
going to really hold that together. And if you remember,
it was a a two coat system and it was
it was put on two thin coats.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
So you don't know of a bonding agent that we
could use on this asphalt milling.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Uh. I'd have to look and do a little research.
Off the top of my head, I do not know.
I don't know. I'll look it up during the break
and maybe even come up with something so keep listening,
or maybe somebody uses a seiler on that I'm just
not familiar with one.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
All right, Well, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
All right, keep listening. Thank you much for the call.
Appreciate it, and if you'd like to join us, jump
on board and happy to take your calls. Remember, as
we talked about, you know, the old coal tar asphalt sealers.
I think one of the reasons, well they said didn't
(04:43):
last and not kind of last ten years. They used
to last about two years. But I think we also
over sealed driveways years gone by. I think a lot
of times the purpose of sealing the driveway was so
that it looked real good, you know, it looked and shiny.
After a year or two, they would become gray. You
(05:06):
could almost see the aggregate of the asphalt. And so
we did it for cosmetic reasons, and of course some
maintenance issues, but I think more cosmetic issues in years
gone by. If you were doing that every two years
or so, an asphalt driveway is going to give you
(05:26):
about twenty years worth of service. And if you've got
ten coats of an asphalt seiler on, there a lot
of cases, in a lot of cases they would peel.
When we're talking now of asphalt seilers five seven, ten
years worth of life, depending you know, on the bells
(05:46):
and whistles that you have with that sealer, it sounds
to me like the only time you're really going to
have an issue with it is maybe over application. He
talked about the coats being too thick and not really
(06:07):
you know, bonding would become a problem, or they would
stay soft, and tire tracks would be a problem. But boy,
if you can get a driveway that you can get
sealed in seven to ten years and have it fairly
resistant to the UV rays, meaning it's practically going to
(06:30):
be fade resistant, that's a big deal. That's a big deal.
And being a gel also, I think is really helps
with the control that you can have with that seiler's
He was talking about putting, you know, a third of
a can down and as a gel, then taking literally
(06:56):
your squeegee and pulling that around over the surface and
then the brush part of the applicator and working it
down into the surface and then if you want to
smooth it out a little bit with the squeegee again fine, Um,
I think that really, you know, depending on whether you
(07:17):
properly prepared it, because prep is the key, but that
application is really darn near foolproof. But of course it
always comes down to what was on that asphalt driveway before?
Was there oil issues? Did you get those up? You know?
Was it clean? Was it dust free? Because that's the
(07:40):
usual culprits of bad bonding. It's not always necessarily the product.
It'll usually be the preparation or the application. Not to
say that then on occasionally I'm assuming have a problem
with a batcher, something along those lines with That's why
(08:02):
it's all recorded. But in most cases I would have
to say when it comes to coating's failing, and I
don't care if it's an asphalt driveway or a paint.
If a coating fails, it's one or two things. In
ninety percent of the cases, it's either the preparation or
(08:22):
its moisture. So whatever you're using, whatever brand, whatever product,
reads directions, follow the steps minimize the issues that you're having.
Always laughing, almost every can of paint that's on a
hard surface that you're going to walk on, it always
(08:46):
talks about removing the existing finish, and I'm not so
sure we all do that. In fact, if I was
going to place a bet on that. I would say
probably eighty percent of a seven tventy percent of us don't.
We may scrape, you know, scratch it up. We may
(09:06):
make it more bondable, but in a lot of cases
we're not removing the finish. But read the labels. See
what you know. The ultimate way of application is the
way that product has been tested to excel to deliver
the results that you want. All right, let me give
(09:27):
you the phone number. You can grab a line. We'll
take a break, come back and get some questions answered.
Our phone number is eight hundred eight two three, eight
two five five. You're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
At one eight hundred eight two three talk. This is
at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
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(11:15):
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Speaker 1 (12:12):
All right, back at it, we go at home with
Gary Sullivan and talking on a little home improvement. One
of the things chatted about yesterday was energy conservation and
a lot of parts of the country starting to heat
up summertime and all that air conditioning too. Trying to,
I guess minimize our cost of energy is kind of
(12:33):
pretty much on everybody's mind. And at the bottom of
the hour we're going to talk about summer energy plans.
Ashley England she's going to be joining us. She is TVA,
Tennessee Valley authority senior manager of demand management, and you're
(12:54):
reading in the you know, in articles all about data
centers and electricity, and maybe we can get her to
chat a little bit about that. We can certainly, I
guess demands increasing and so is the price. But how
(13:16):
can we little old us the homeowner, maybe not neutralize
those increases, but minimize those increases. And what are the
big energy hogs that we as homeowners use a lot?
(13:37):
Certainly electric water heaters if you have one, Certainly electric dryers,
air conditioning. I guess those would be refrigeration. Those are
ones that kind of jump the mind, you know, the
light bulbs and lights and things. I'm not saying we've well,
(13:58):
we've minimize the electric We all complained a lot, and
I get that, But boy, when you look at energy
costs and then you look at where we went from
incandescent bulbs to l D bulbs and the cost of
operating them in a way, it's like thank goodness, right,
(14:21):
I mean, I mean, think about that. Lighting costs has
been diminished greatly. You know, whether you like it or not,
bottom line is the cost has been diminished a lot.
Take the old seventy five blot light bulb. You know
those bulbs now are probably nine to ten. Watch you
(14:43):
can you know you can have seven lights for the
cost you could have one. So certainly making headway and
that's helped us all. Like I said, we all grumbled,
we went through growing pains, thank goodness the era of
the CFL's gone. Didn't like those. But now we're living
(15:10):
in the benefits. So what can we do? Well, Actually,
I'll help us with that. I know many of us
we grumbled about this winter being cold, and we had
ice dams and different things. And I keep encouraging people.
If you had those problems in the last winter, or
you just were uncomfortable in a drafty house and you
(15:35):
really don't know what the status of the insulation is
in your house, find out and if you can't get
up into the attic to really look and see, get
a handyman up there and see what your R value
is in your insulation. If your insulation is properly installed,
(16:05):
meaning if it's blown in, it's not covered up, maybe
soft inventing, if you got ventilation. Those two things, insulation, ventilation,
well they play a big role and how efficient your
home is. I mentioned the other appliances and things like that. Yeah,
those are helpful. Light bulbs, those were helpful. We all
(16:28):
went through the thing of buying additional balls. Were all
not running out and buying new refrigerators. I don't think
for that reason. And I'm not saying you should, but
there's a difference. Certainly, if you took an old refrigerator
and put it in a garage and bought a new
refriger that one in the garage just cost you a
lot more than a new one, and asking yourself, maybe
(16:53):
you do need two refrigerators or maybe you don't something
to consider. So I actually will kind of walk us
through some of the things on air conditioning, and I'll
tell you what it'll start. It's just the lowest denominator
and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And
(17:13):
that's the filter on the furnace. I used this analogy yesterday,
and how true it is. If you just ignore you
got an air handler, it's distributing duck conditioned air heat
or cold, and you haven't been responsive to changing that
(17:34):
filter out in a timely manner. And if it's a
pleated filter, that would be sixty to ninety days. And
let's say it's been six eight months once a year.
I don't know that filter's dirty. And as you condition
that air and start blowing it through the air handler
(17:58):
and through the duck work, and that filter is impeding
that airflow, it's gonna take I mean, it's just common sense.
It's gonna take longer for that condition there to satisfy
your thermostat. So that thermostat is not being satisfied. It's
like a hungry baby. It keeps screaming for more food,
(18:20):
in this case, more air. It's not gonna shut off.
And what's that do? Well? That usually it will make
to humidity rise, certainly make the temperature not go down.
It'll be harder to reach that cooler air and have
a harder to reach areas further away from the air handler,
(18:45):
and it's gonna take where and tear on the air
handler itself. So it's like lose, lose, lose. So finding
out where you are on insulation, finding out where you
are on maintaining your filters, there's those are big components
on you know, energy conservation. So Ashley, I'll join us
(19:10):
from the TVA. She'll be up next. As we continue,
you're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Start a project and don't know how to finish it.
Call Gary at one eight eight two three. Talk you're
at home with Gary Soliva.
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Speaker 1 (22:10):
All right back, at it. We go thirty three minutes
after the top of the hour talking a little home
improvement and not only is it improving your home in
terms of efficiency, is when you really take a hard
look at your energy cost. And we're going to do
just that. Ashley England, she is my guest. She is
(22:31):
with the TVA Senior Management Division of Demand Management. How
you doing, Ashley?
Speaker 6 (22:39):
Hey, I'm doing well. How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (22:42):
I'm doing fine. Well. I'll tell you what when it
comes to energy, demand's in the news now, isn't it
big time?
Speaker 7 (22:51):
Oh? Boy?
Speaker 6 (22:51):
Is it?
Speaker 7 (22:52):
Yeah, it's in the news. I'm hearing it about it everywhere.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
I'm sure you are. And before we get into the TVA,
really is this this is a worldwide issue, is it not? Oh?
Speaker 6 (23:08):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 7 (23:09):
I mean with the rise of data centers and electrification
you know, happening all over the world, it really is.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
It's a it's a growing need. We need more energy,
that's what we're seeing.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Well, when we were all young and in school, we
learned about the TVA. But why don't you go ahead
and tell us a little bit about the TVA.
Speaker 7 (23:30):
Yeah, sure, you know, it's it's easy to forget what
we learned in fifth grade. TVA. Same for this the
Tennessee Valley Authority, and we are the public outpower provider
for a seventh state region here in the southeast United States.
We provide power that serves nearly ten million people through
one hundred and fifty three local power company. So they're
(23:53):
distributing the power to the en these customers. I think
a couple of things that I always like to remind people.
We are a federally owned agency, but we are self
funded through power sales, not tax dollars. And so we
are public power and we partner with local power companies
to keep energy reliable, affordable, and to help people use
it more energy more efficiently.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah, so we're partners in this. I mean we as homeowners.
I was just kind of going through how things have changed.
I mean, we all grumbled a lot with the CFL
light bulbs and LED light bulbs. But boy, when you
just flash back twenty years now and you think, thank
God we made that change. You know, you can burn
(24:36):
seven or eight light bulbs for what we were burning
one light bulb. That's conservation, that's right, you know.
Speaker 7 (24:45):
I kind of I talk about it with a colleague.
It's to me, it's just about eliminating waste. You know,
why would you waste something when you don't you want
to use all of our resources to the best of
our abilities. And so yeah, I think with technologlogy and
science and letting that advance us. And yeah, we all
have a part to play. And even though sometimes change
(25:06):
is hard, I think it's usually it's often for better.
And so yeah, I think energy. I think if energy
efficiency is just not being wasteful.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
And the TVA's interest in this is, I mean, you
sell energy, but you want to make sure you've got
the energy to sell too, right, That's exactly right.
Speaker 7 (25:27):
You know, for us at least, our region is just
growing rapidly. It's actually going three times faster than the
national average. And so we take you know, a multi
prong approach to make sure we can bring that low cost,
reliable power. And so one element of that is building
megal walks, which we are doing.
Speaker 6 (25:47):
You know, we're to prepare for all this growth.
Speaker 7 (25:50):
You know, we we've got a multi year generation expansion plan.
We're adding about six two hundred megawaks of power to
the system and we've got three over three thy seven
hundred under construction right now, that's enough power to power
more than two million homes. But another tranche of that
approach is investing in energy efficiency and the main response programs.
(26:14):
And so that's what we're doing. You know, we since
twenty twenty four, we're investing one point five billion over
the next five years to help homes and businesses become
more energy at different Actually.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Can you just maybe you don't have the statistics to
really talk on that, but I mean, just from hearing
and reading news stories and talking to people, energy costs,
the graft has got to be going up for the
cost of energy to the people I'm talking to right now,
and that's that's homeowners, right, So we got to be
mindful of how we're spending our energy dollars.
Speaker 7 (26:49):
Yeah, I mean, you know here in the in the
TVA territory, we're doing everything we can to keep costs low,
to make sure that we're not socializing costs from large
industrial energy users that.
Speaker 6 (27:01):
Are moving in.
Speaker 7 (27:03):
And you know, in general, you're right, residential electricity prices
across the US, they are rising and the average bill
is going up. And then you think about also what's
happening at the gas pump.
Speaker 6 (27:15):
You know, those are energy costs.
Speaker 7 (27:17):
So there's just a lot of things that are driving that.
You know, we've got aging infrastructure, We've got flustrating fuel prices,
we got we've got weather. You know, weather is still
the biggest factor. And then the growing demand like we've
talked about from data centers, and so yeah, there anything
we can do to get our bills down to help
offset that, I think makes the difference for everybody.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Well, I'll tell you what. It's got my attention. And
I've been in home improvement for my whole life, and
this is really in the last probably year and a half.
It really has my attention on how I manage my
heating and how I manage my cooling, and how I
balance my humidity. For CO and there was a period
(28:02):
and I'm our flagship stations not far from you. It's
in Cincinnati, Ohio, and there was a period. I didn't
calculate exactly, but I'm I'm going to state that in
the last six to eight weeks we use nothing in
terms of heat or cooling until yesterday I turned the
(28:23):
air conditioning on and I said it six degrees warmer.
And so these those are little those are little things,
but If everybody really starts paying attention to how you're
going to make your home cooler or warmer, that can
add up to big savings.
Speaker 6 (28:45):
That's right, you.
Speaker 7 (28:46):
Know, and part of the reason why you can probably
do that is because you've probably done the necessary things
you need to see to weatherize the facilities. Right, You're
making sure that your home is sealed and that you're
you know, you've gotten you know, better insulation, the better
duckt ceilings, better air air ceiling that's going to help
(29:09):
cool keep cool air in your home, keep the warm
air out of your home, and then.
Speaker 6 (29:13):
Vice versa in winter.
Speaker 7 (29:14):
And so those are the moves you have to make
if you want to stay comfortable. And then and then
you can really play with your HVAC system.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
There.
Speaker 7 (29:22):
I know that HVAC you know, temperature thermocet settings are controversial.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Well, that's true. Everybody's got their thing, and you know,
if they want to pay for whatever, I mean, they can.
I mean, I'm not going to dictate temperature settings. But really,
when you start playing with it, I realized this is
and then we're going to get into how important it
is to make sure I was talking about, you know,
just furnace filter, simple little process, but there's other things
(29:50):
you can do. Like I was paying attention to the
heat of the day, and maybe the heat of the
day was seventy eight. Okay, Well, I realized if about
two o'clock in the afternoon, if I close the windows
and my indoor temperature was seventy two and there was
no nothing going on, that the insulation would keep that
temperature at seventy two, maybe creep up to seventy three
(30:14):
seventy four. But if I left those windows open and
it was seventy eight outside and the sun was beaten
in through the screen, it might be eighty. So pulling
down windows, opening up windows in at night, I'd open
them up, bring in cool. There'd be a little chilly
at night maybe, But then I'm buying all that time
for tomorrow and it's worked phenomenally.
Speaker 7 (30:38):
Yeah, you know, and I love that. I love that
story too, because it's such a good reminder that not
everything you do for energy efficiency has to cost you money, right,
Your own behaviors can really make a difference. You know,
if you're closing the blinds and flipping on your fan
while you're in the room, Yeah, well that can make
a real difference. You know that those sand is going
to make the room feel two to three degrees cool.
(31:00):
It's going to push that fool air down where you
can feel it. And so doing those things makes a difference.
It's easy to neglect them. I'll tell you the number
of times I see people running fans when they're not
in the room, and I think, oh, gosh, why that's
the way.
Speaker 6 (31:15):
You don't do that, You don't in the room turn
it off? Sure, but yeah, you're you're exactly right.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yeah, HVAC tune ups. I talk about the importance of
doing that in terms of I think the latest data
is your HVAC system can lessen an additional twenty to
twenty five percent longer. And I always say, you know,
if you don't like the news you get after it's
(31:41):
been serviced, you can always get second opinions. What's your
take on HVAC tune ups? And you know, furnace tune
up in the fall and spring tune up for the
ac in the in the in the springtime.
Speaker 7 (31:55):
Yeah, I think a tune up is one of the
highest you know, return on investment things that a homeowner
can do. I think, especially in light of what we're
talking about with some folks rates rising around the country.
You know, a neglect to your point from what I've lad,
you know, a neglected system is going to lose you know,
about five percent of its efficiency annually, and you know
(32:18):
that comes back compounds, and so, yeah, you know, you
get your sixteen cer rated system, but it's going to
effectively be performing like a like a eleven or twelve
year system if you don't take care of it. And
so you're exactly right that proper maintenance is going to
reduce the HVAC consumption annually. It's going to make sure
you have great airflow capacity and prevent any sort of
(32:42):
like cooling capacity loss, make sure you have proper refrigerant,
and make sure your duct work is all you know,
in ship shape, all of that, and then you think
about the filter impact alone, right, You know, a dirty
filter can increase your energy consumption by five to fifteen
spot right there. And so if you're not changing that filter,
(33:03):
or if you're not getting your tune up where your
technician is helping you stay on track with those things,
the impact can become really significant.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah, I haven't talked about duckwork ceiling in a while.
But I know I had my inspectors probably fifteen years ago,
and I was losing one ton of air on a
four ton unit. It was amazing just then by aluminum
taping joints, having a ceiling through the duckwork system itself,
(33:35):
I reduced it down to an eighth of a ton
and saw impact on that almost immediately.
Speaker 7 (33:42):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean a lot of these things
they can play for themselves in energy savings in very
little time. You know, Energy Star warns that about twenty
to thirty percent of the air moving through a duck
system could be lost if you have leaks a whole
are poorly connected ducks, and so again, you know you're
(34:03):
paying for the energy, you're paying for that air conditioning,
you want to keep it in your house.
Speaker 6 (34:09):
So I think it's a real underrated measure.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Got a couple of minutes to go. Other things that
you can help us with to save energy would be what.
Speaker 7 (34:21):
Yeah, so I you know, we talked about air stoe,
We talked about that.
Speaker 6 (34:26):
H backtoone up. I do like to remind people if
they live in.
Speaker 7 (34:29):
The TVA territory, you can take advantage of TVA rebates
for those upgrades.
Speaker 6 (34:34):
We offer our fifty dollars.
Speaker 7 (34:35):
Rebate for h back tune ups things like that. But
I think some other really easy ways are to pay
attention to when you're using your largest appliances, things like
your dishwasher and your laundry machine. You talked about, Hey,
it's two o'clock, it's the peak heat of the day.
Let me may close my blinds and curtains. Make sure
you're not running those large machines until later in the evening,
(34:58):
after the peakat the day. Those machines, in addition to
using energy themselves, they generate seats indoor too, and so
your HVAC system is gonna have to work harder to
keep the indoor temperature set to what you have it at.
Speaker 6 (35:14):
So run those later.
Speaker 7 (35:16):
If you're in an area that does you know, time
of use charges, that can also help you save money
on your bill. But one way or the other, it's
going to make your home more comfortable and it's going
to make sure your HVAC system doesn't have to work
as hard.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Here's a little tip I learned. Also on the dishwasher,
there was you know, you turn it on and it
was auto, and then I'd press start and I had
that for four or five years, and one day this
is a terrible story on me. One day I looked
at it goes there's a sixty minute cycle. This other
(35:48):
cycle is like one hundred and twenty to one hundred
and fifty minutes, and my wife's and I probably doesn't
clean as well. I say, well, we don't know, we
haven't done it, and we ran that thing and that's
all we use now is the sixty second or sixty
minute cycle. And I'm sure it made a big difference.
Speaker 6 (36:10):
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 7 (36:11):
And then you know another one on that, if you're
setting your dishwasher to run at night while you're sleeping,
go ahead and turn off the auto heat function. Sure,
and let you know, let it pop open and air dry.
Speaker 6 (36:24):
Again.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
That's well, as as usual, Ashley, you've been a great help.
Is there maybe a website with some additional information also
that the TVA provides.
Speaker 7 (36:38):
Yeah, it's energy Right dot com. We've got tips and tricks,
and if you live in the TVATE territory you can
take advantage of our rebates. We've got a really great
DIY home energy assessment that you can take to learn
more about your home and get a customized report. So yeah,
We've got lots of resources and tools out there Energy
Right dot com.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Very good, Well you enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 6 (37:04):
Oh thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Saying to you all right, Ashley, thank you, bye bye.
All right. We'll open up the phone lines for your calls.
Our number is eight hundred and eight two three eight
two five five. You're at home with Gary Sullivan. Help
for your.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
Home is just a click away at Garysullivan online dot com.
This is at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Thank hey.
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Speaker 1 (39:57):
Well certainly never hurts to shadow a little bit about
energy savings. So again thanks to Ashley who is a
demand management for the TVA, and certainly appreciate her time.
All right, our phone numbers eight hundred eight two three
eight two five five and Joe welcome. Oh hi there, Yes, sir.
Speaker 8 (40:21):
I'm from Celta, Delaware, but originally from New Jersey. And
there was a county in New Jersey that put forth
a referendum to build a plant on top of the
Lead Hill and it was all paid by the taxpayers,
(40:44):
so it didn't sit too well originally, right, so they
put up one turbine to extract the Bessa gas and
after two years, the taxpayers were when can you put
up another one? Because it cut their electricity built way
(41:08):
down to almost nothing. I was wondering if Delaware had
any landfills that are waiting to be built upon to
extract a Messa gas to run turbines to create electricity.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Yeah. I don't know the answer to that, but our
flagship stations out of Cincinnati, OHI, and we have a
huge landfill. Also. They're pretty proactive in a good company.
I wonder if they have anything in the plans for that.
Speaker 8 (41:38):
Yeah, I mean, I'm just looking. I mean it was
built right near Giant Stadium. And while they were like
the first ones to call them to say listen, do
you put a couple more really, which they did over
the years. Now they have four turbines on site.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Well, the world is always changing, that's for sure. And
some of the changes we fight and we don't like them.
And I'm just like everybody else, I don't like them either.
But there's been so many things if you really look
back and you wait for it to play out, so
many of them have been beneficial. And so yeah, it's
(42:24):
uh and the demand for electricity data centers. It's no joke.
I mean it's a I'm not going to you know,
blow it up and say a world crisis, but there's
a lot of there's a world competition to be able
to manage the data centers because that's where a lot
of research is going to go. I mean, it's just
(42:46):
going to go there. So I'm sure the energy folks
and I'm sure people like Ashley are under a lot
of pressure to conserve what they have to, you know,
and come up with new idea. So your input has
been very timely and I appreciated. Joe.
Speaker 8 (43:05):
Okay, it was good speaking with it.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
Have a great weekend. Take care, all right. So yeah,
that's boy. I'll tell you very true. Every time I
talk about this, I have flashbacks to the CFL light
bulbs and the LEDs, And believe me, that first generation
of the stuff was not pleasant and it wasn't that great.
(43:32):
It's saved some money, don't get me wrong, but we've
come so far on that now, even to the lighting.
You know, you can't call them about watts anymore, but
you're now they're able to look at it and okay,
that's a soft white we don't get into Calvin units anymore.
That was the blue light all the way down to
like more of a softer white. But man, we got there,
(43:56):
didn't we. And we're saving money and so lot of things.
I certainly appreciate her joining us. That was a good,
interesting conversation. So you can join us now. It's eight
hundred eighty two three, eight two five five, that's our number.
Grab a line, Happy to talk to you about your home,
and you're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
Weekends. I mean, a never ending list of things to
do around your home. Get help at one eight hundred
eighty two three talk You're at home with Gary Sullivan
At Home with Gary Sullivan News
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