WEBVTT - Slashing Your Monthly Utility Bills #087 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.200 Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt, 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:26.440 and today we're discussing slashing your monthly utility bills. Joel, 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:29.640 that is right. This episode, we're gonna talk about how 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.760 you can make your home energy efficient. We're gonna talk 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:35.480 about ways to cut your power bill, gas, and water, 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:39.520 those three main utilities, and I'm looking forward to diving 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:42.080 into this one with you, ma'am. Yeah, and water. Honestly, 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:44.800 I'm I think that one is one that's Water rates 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:47.960 across the country have been soaring, and especially here where 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:50.199 we are in Atlanta, it's kind of gotten ridiculous. So 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:52.720 even cutting your water bill, it's possible, and we're gonna 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.440 talk about that as well. I'm excited about it. But first, Matt, 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:57.880 I wanted to mention I saw this really interesting video 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:01.360 about this musician. His name is Mike Posner, and honestly, 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:04.840 I don't really know his music, but he's doing something fascinating. 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:09.279 He's walking across the entire country, uh, from coast to coast, 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:13.920 and I like Forrest Gump style, right exactly, Like that 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:15.920 makes me think of those are the next words coming 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:18.240 out on and he he actually kind of looks like 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:20.600 Forrest Gumps did when he with like kind of bushy 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:23.840 curly hair and like the beard and stuff. Um, but 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:26.720 it made me think like he's doing something really intentional. 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:28.800 For some reason. This was the task that he felt 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.560 compelled to take on right now, And it made me 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:33.679 think of two of a recent listener email that we 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.319 got from listener Todd, and he talked about how he 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:40.520 ditched his y membership in an email to us. Why 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:42.920 m c a membership? Yeah, in order to walk his 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:45.640 dog every day in this beautiful part of the country 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:48.440 that he's in in Roanoke, Virginia, and even send us 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:52.080 a picture of kind of this beautiful mountain view that 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:54.920 he gets with every walk with his dog. And I 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:56.960 was like, I don't know if every walk is that beautiful. 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:00.560 That was a particularly beautiful sunset. Yeah, but that's uh, 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:02.480 it's like McAfee's knob. Did you look it up? I 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:04.000 did a little bit of research. No, I didn't. I 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:05.520 just saw the picture and I was like, well, that's nice. 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:07.320 I wish I could walk to their every day. It's 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:09.679 a spot. It's on the Appalachian Trail and so there's 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:11.120 lots of through hikers. But I guess you can just 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:13.320 hop on there and do the hike sort to Alec 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.000 cart right the quick tangent. Do you have any desire 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:19.320 to hike the a t ever No, honestly a little 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:21.200 too intense for me. But I don't know with the 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:23.400 right in the back of my mind, all right, maybe 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:25.120 you want to do with me. We'd have to do 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:27.200 it like sooner rather than later though, before we get 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:28.400 too old. I don't know. I don't want to be 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:30.360 doing it like seventy six or anything like that, you know, 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:32.560 but you can. There's lots of old folks that do it, okay. 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:34.480 I do consider seventy six old. By the way, if 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.080 sorry to offend any seventy six year old listeners out there, well, 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:39.000 that impresses me all the more people doing it at 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:41.000 that age, like that's incredibly impressive. And we had a 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:43.560 buddy who did, who hiked the whole a T man. 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:46.280 I think it's really awesome. It just honestly doesn't I 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:47.760 don't feel a called to do it, but I just 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:51.079 love that idea too, of of walking more and taking 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:53.800 advantage of the natural beauty that's around you. To see 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:58.320 that Todd decided to ditch a gym membership where he 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:00.040 was walking on the treadmill or something like that in 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:01.840 order to get outdoors. You know, I feel like that's 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:04.680 what biking is for me. It's like cool that I'm 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:06.880 getting all my cardio in on my way to work. 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:09.560 And at the same time, I do feel this like 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.920 really amazing connection to our city, to nature on that 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:16.520 bike ride that I wouldn't get if I was stuck 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.280 indoors doing my workout. Yeah, man, that's great. You know, 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:20.840 when I get out of that, I hear that, and 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:23.440 I think what we should be doing is focusing on, 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:26.080 you know, our lifestyle now, but just like enjoying our 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:27.840 life right now and not getting too caught up with 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:30.520 the goals. And so, like our listener Todd, like his 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:32.359 goal might be to be fit right and to get 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:33.880 in shape, but you don't want to let that goal 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:35.880 of being in shape overshadow of your life, and so 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:37.800 why not do something you know with his dog, he's 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:39.960 able to get out in nature, like enjoy life now 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:41.920 you can. It's great to set goals, but I think 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.800 sometimes when you overvalue those goals and maybe put too 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:48.119 much weight on them, you cannot enjoy the here and now. 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:49.920 And so yeah, maybe this is a little called our 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:51.960 listeners to. It's great to set goals, but to make 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:53.920 sure that you're enjoying life the here and now, and 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:56.720 we like to do that every Weegio by having a beer, 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.800 craft beer. Matthew, that's right. Yeah, So today on the show, 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:05.200 we are drinking a double Brute Citra in Galaxy I 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:09.200 p A by Bear Republic Brewing Company there out of California. Man, 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:12.040 they've been at it a long time since and they 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:14.440 were kind enough to send this beer out to us. Yeah, 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.960 this one is called Challenge Series eleven and we've never 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:19.840 had a Brute I PA on the show before. I 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:21.440 don't think. I think I've only had maybe two of 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:23.760 these in my entire life. Actually, it's like a really 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.599 new style. There's like this new fad of trying to 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:31.080 combine wine and beer, Like these hybrid style beers and 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:33.279 Brute I p A s are kind of another way 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:35.080 for them to get kind of the taste of like 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:37.880 a champagne a little bit that kind of dryness I 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:41.520 feel like into a craft beer. And so yeah, like 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:43.240 there's no limit to what people are doing with craft 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:46.040 beers right now. Nice, Yeah, Joe, I'm excited to enjoy 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:48.360 this beer with you on this episode. We'll talk more 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.040 about this at the end of the show, all right, Matt, 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:53.799 So onto the subject at hand. We're talking about slashing 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.120 our monthly utility bills. Interestingly enough, I mean, we waste 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:00.040 so much money on utilities that could be back in 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.080 our pockets if we would be just a little more 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:05.480 intentional about making our homes more energy efficient. And it's 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:07.800 important for us to look at the payback time of 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:10.760 any potential energy saving steps we might take. And some 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:12.919 of these steps that we're gonna talk about, they're a 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:15.560 touch more labor intensive, and other steps that we're gonna 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:17.880 talk about in order to make your home more energy efficient, 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:20.400 well they're super simple and you could probably tackle them 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:23.240 in an hour, not even a weekend, right, Like you 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.159 could do something really quickly. But it's really important because 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:28.520 these are changes that we can make that don't just 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:30.680 save us like five bucks today, but they might be 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:33.159 able to save us five bucks a month for the 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:36.120 coming years if we make that small change to our 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:38.520 energy usage. And so, yeah, I think is an interesting 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:40.920 topic to cover. Yeah, Joel, Like you said, we're gonna 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:42.919 cover sort of a range of different things that you 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:45.400 can do to make your home more energy efficient, things 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:47.120 that would be easy to do if you even if 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:49.359 you lived in an apartment or if you're rented a house, 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:52.000 like things that would have an immediate payback. And then 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:54.320 also to yeah, like you said, like the bigger things 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:56.360 that that might take a little bit longer. But we're 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:58.440 gonna kind of cover the spectrum of the different kind 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:00.599 of projects that you can do to your home a 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.760 little more energy efficient. But before we even actually dive 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:06.360 into the tips, right, like, I think it's important to 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:09.200 ask ourselves why does this even matter? It's not just 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:10.960 about taking care of the earth. And you know the 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:12.920 money that you're saving right now, but Joe, like you said, 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:16.000 like the money moving forward, right, and even beyond that, 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.560 the potential for what that money could grow into if 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:21.640 you invested that money every month. Don't forget the rule 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:23.720 of one seventy three right where you can take a 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:26.760 monthly expense and multiply it by one D seventy three, 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:29.480 And that's what you could have in ten years if 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:32.800 you were to reduce a monthly expense and instead invest 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:35.320 that right, So, say you are able to cut a 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:38.279 monthly expense by seventy five bucks. You take that seventy 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:41.160 five bucks every month, invest it in ten years, you're 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.479 looking at a solid thirteen thousand dollars. Man, That is 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:46.760 a lot of money, that is, yeah, for sure. And 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:48.440 and so even beyond that, so you're able to cut 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:50.520 a bunch of bills, right, If you're able to reduce 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.039 some monthly bills, some monthly utilities by two hundred and 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:55.640 fifty dollars a month, in ten years, you're looking at 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:59.040 forty three thousand dollars, that's like a whole lot of money. 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:01.839 So just keep in mind that recurring monthly expenses have 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:04.719 a huge impact on your ability to say for the future. Yeah, 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.120 And we talked about that rule of one seventy three 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:10.760 in our just general cutting monthly bills episode that we 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:13.080 did a while back. That's right, And so we talked 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:15.600 about you know, cutting cable, internet, all these sorts of 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:18.440 things that that can help you in how much you're 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:21.239 spending every single month. And that rule of one seventy 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:22.800 three is just a great thing to kind of grab, 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.120 grab onto and and kind of to do some basic 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:28.520 math that helps you see how much money you could 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:30.720 put back in your pocket if you invested that money 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:33.320 like you said, as opposed to uh, spending it on 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:35.760 whatever you're spending it on that month. And we talked 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.280 a little bit about our monthly utility bills, but we 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:42.320 didn't go into how you can actually dramatically reduce those bills. 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:44.880 And so yeah, let's get into that now. Let's first 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:48.520 kind of talk about electricity, right, power, the power bill, 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.040 the power bill, the dreaded power bill every month. And 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:52.480 I want to say one thing real quick when it 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:54.760 comes to the power bill. I know there are a 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:57.200 lot of utilities out there who will let you sign 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:59.920 up for something called budget billing, which kind of takes 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.440 into account the way that you've used power over the 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.480 previous year and then gives you a level bill every 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:07.400 single month. And I think you know that can be 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.560 helpful for your budget. But for me, I don't like 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:13.000 budget billing. And let me tell you why real quick. 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:17.360 It's because I actually like seeing how much energy I've used, 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:19.840 and particularly like in the summer months, if I have 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:22.360 turned on the air conditioner more than I wanted to, 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:25.160 I kind of like feeling the pain getting that bill 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:27.840 in the mail and seeing that I'm spending more money 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:30.440 than I want to. It changes my usage it changes 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.000 my habits. Uh, and so for me, that's why budget 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:35.920 billing isn't as good because I don't feel the pain 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:38.520 in the same way. I like seeing the exact amount 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:41.280 I used and how much it costs me. Yeah, you know. Actually, 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:43.360 in the research for this episode, I came across this 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:45.400 thing called the Sense Energy Monitor. Have you heard of 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:47.240 this thing or have you seen it? No? What is it? So? 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:50.680 It's this device that you clamp onto the the sort 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:53.000 of the main cables that go into your circuit breaker box, 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:56.160 which sounds kind of intimidating, right, but it looks super easy. 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:58.600 And what it does is in real time, it reads 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.600 the actual amount of electricity that your house is drawing. 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:04.360 And it's integrated with an app on your phone, which 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.600 is crazy to see real time the exact amount that, say, 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:09.439 when you're a c kicks on, you can watch it 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:13.079 spike and then stay there, or you can plug everything 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:14.640 in your house if you want to, and just with 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:16.800 nothing else running, you can see how much power your 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:19.319 fridge is actually drawing from from the system, how much 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.840 it's costing you. Totally fascinating. It's actually it's kind of expensive. 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:24.640 It's like two or three bucks or something. Well, that 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:27.920 sounds like a recipe for ruining my marriage because I 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:29.800 would be like constantly on the app measuring how much 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:31.720 we're using, being like turn off the I know, I know, 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.000 but I don't know. It looks super slick. It had 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:36.720 amazing reviews on Amazon, and I totally spent way too 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.440 much time reading about it and kind of checking it out. 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:41.040 I might ask for one of these for Christmas or 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:43.000 something like that. I thought it might be something totally 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:45.000 up your alley as well. Yeah, I know they have 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:47.520 like those individual things that you can plug into your 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:50.000 outlet per socket, yeah, per socket. But yeah, it's something 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:53.000 that's whold home overall the entire house. That's what I 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:54.920 want to know. And I'm telling you that the interface 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:57.240 was super slick and it looked like you can chart 0:09:57.280 --> 0:09:59.400 it and kind of keep track of, you know, your history, 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.400 don't know, like super cool. Basically, like I'm a big 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:04.920 fan of running, and like I've got run Keeper that's 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:06.200 what I use, and it kind of keeps track of 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:07.480 your runs and stuff like that. And you've got this 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:09.640 history and you've got your numbers. But to be able 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.040 to do that with your with your home electricity, yeah, 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.079 I was totally nerd and out on it and might 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:17.560 have to add that to the Christmas list. Dude, that's awesome. 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:19.440 I love it all right. So let's get into some 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:21.880 of the actual specific things that you can do to 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:24.280 kind of keep that energy from spiking, the ways that 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:27.560 you can cut back on your power usage in order 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.240 to have a lower monthly bill. And you know, the 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:32.079 number one thing that you can do is actually by 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:35.400 far the easiest thing, and that is to change your 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:40.520 thermostat settings. Of the monthly costs of home utilities come 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.600 from heating and cooling our home, and so the best 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:45.240 way to get around that, right is to change your 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:49.280 actual thermostat settings. And you know, most local utility providers 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.200 say that you should keep your thermostat on sixty eight 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.960 in the winter and seventy six in the summer to 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:57.720 prevent overusing, and that's totally true. I try to go 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:00.120 just a little bit beyond that more like see D 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.680 four in the winter and seventy seven in the summer. 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:04.800 It's it's summer is a little bit harder. It could 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:07.120 be difficult with the kids running around. Yeah, everyone's like 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:10.719 sweating and piste off. I'm with you, though. We try 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:12.920 to we actually push seventy eight, and we we rocked 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:14.760 the ceiling fans pretty hard. But there you go. Yeah, 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:16.760 seven eight in the summer for us, and then in 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:19.920 the winter, I think we do sixty seven during the day, 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:22.240 but at night that's what you got, big savings right there. 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:25.280 May I drive it down to sixty one at night. 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:28.080 There you go. You're not gonna get frostbite in sixty one. 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:30.480 I mean, come on, it's not gonna happen. Yeah, sixty 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:33.000 one totally safe temperature to be at in the winter, 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:35.640 but you know, for power again and in the summer months, 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:38.640 utilize like your ceiling fans. Pretty much all homes have 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:40.360 ceiling fans built in. If you have an older home, 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:43.400 that might be something worth actually installing. If you don't 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:46.120 have a ceiling fans in your house, don't pull a 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:48.080 jol and get one of those like ceiling fans with 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:51.200 the with the tiny blades on the that are totally ineffective. 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:53.680 Those things are worthless, man, and a waste of money. 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.200 But even if you aren't super d I y you 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:58.920 can just get even a table fan. For me, if 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:00.280 I get hot, I have a fan in that I 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:02.280 can flip on and I've got that pointed sitting right 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:04.800 there for me at my desk, because guess what, for 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:06.760 maybe close to eight hours and during the day, that's 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.240 where I'm sitting. I'm sitting there working and I'm able 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:11.800 to keep myself perfectly happy and cool just with a 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:13.880 little bit of air movement. Yeah, ceiling fans are awesome. 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:16.719 Attic fans. If anyone has an attic fan, make sure 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:19.160 to use it. Matt Our first house had an attic fan, 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:22.240 and it was freaking awesome, man, because let's say in 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:26.439 the spring, where the temperature is eighty two during the day, 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:29.160 but it is, you know, sixty two in the morning 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.079 when you first wake up. You can open up the windows, 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:34.680 open up the door, and turn on your attic fan 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.400 and it sucks in all the cool air cools down 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.280 your home like eight degrees in like three minutes. It's 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:42.200 so nice, man. It just helps you to not have 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:44.160 to use the A C nearly as much. I'm a 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:46.320 huge proponent of attic fan. Yeah, I've never lived in 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:48.280 a house that had an attic fan, but anytime I've 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:50.400 seen one of those in action, it kind of blows 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:52.280 my mind. All right, So now we need to ask 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:54.840 a question. I guess about thermostats. We just talked about 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:57.560 setting your thermostat at different temperatures. Where do you come 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:00.240 down on the smart thermostats that are kind all the 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:02.280 rage these days. Man, I've got one. I'm a big 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:05.320 fan of the Nest thermostats. You know, they were greats. 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:07.400 I think for a lot of folks who have a 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:11.280 predictable schedule though, they cannot get the fancy or nest 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:13.640 thermostat right like, they've got different levels. Now they've got 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:15.480 the I think it's called the E Nest, and then 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:17.840 they have the Nest learning. The Nest learning is the 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:20.600 one that automatically will will learn from your behavior and 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:23.160 sort of where you set the thermostat and will create 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:25.040 its own sort of schedule. But if you have a 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:27.120 predictable schedule, you know that every day you're gonna leave, 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:29.439 you know, this time of the day to go to work, 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:31.920 you don't really need the learning thermostat and you can 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:33.960 save yourself. I think it's a hunter Bucks cheaper to 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.640 get the E thermostat, And so it's basically a programmable 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:40.559 thermostat that you can change on your phone at any point, 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.280 but it's not learning. That's all you need because you 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:45.640 set the schedule, you said it and forget it and 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:47.720 you're good to go. Man. Plus, it's just awesome to 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:49.880 be able to you know, turn down say you forget 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:51.560 to turn down the heat, you know, in the winter, 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:53.800 or turn up the A C in the summer if 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:55.360 you go on a trip, and to be able to 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.040 hop on your phone and do that and not basically 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:00.720 be stress the entire time you're away thinking damn, I'm 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:03.079 cooling my house for nothing or I'm heating it for nothing. 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.600 I love that. Yeah, so I haven't made the transition 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:09.440 to a smart thermostat. I just disciplined and actually turn 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:11.679 it off before you leave, right. Discipline might be one 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:14.720 word I would say, probably anal. I'm like, really, you know, 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:16.720 I'm not anal about many things in life, but about 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:19.200 the thermostat setting, I kind of am. You're that roommate 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:21.880 in college where you would you do the thermostat battles with? Yeah? 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:24.880 Probably I was that guy. Yeah, And so yeah, at home, 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:27.560 I'm I'm pretty intentional about what we said it on 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:29.600 and when we kind of create a little bit more 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:32.280 of a comfortable environment when we're all at home versus 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:34.080 you know, when I leave for work and we're kind 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:36.800 of heading outdoors bumping it up so that the A 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:39.640 C isn't running right. So I don't feel it necessarily 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:41.560 the need to get a smart thermostat. I think for 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:44.240 a lot of people who aren't as diligent in setting 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:47.600 their thermostat settings appropriately, then you know, one of those 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:50.120 kind of smart thermostats could be helpful, and especially because, 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:53.560 like you said, you can remotely change those settings, which 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:55.800 is great. Speaking of that, Matt, So you know, we 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:57.560 just talked about budget building, and that's something that a 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:00.440 lot of electricity providers offer. A lot of of power 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:02.440 companies also give you the choice to do a time 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:05.760 of use electricity plan, and they incentivize you to use 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.640 your electricity at certain times of the day, pretty much 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:10.920 like the off peak times that most people aren't using it. 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:13.080 And you are on one of those plans. So how's 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:14.880 that working out for you, guys? Yeah, it really has 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:17.200 worked out for us. And what's good to mention there 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:19.760 is that it's only for three or four months out 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:21.600 of the summer. Like, so it starts. I don't even 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:23.360 think it starts in May. I think it starts in June. 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:26.280 I think it's like June, July, and August, maybe September 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:28.000 as well. Yeah, that makes sense, like the sort of 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:30.280 summer hot, hot months, but it's only for those three 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:33.160 or four months out of the year. And like you said, they, yeah, 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:37.120 they incentivize you to use less electricity during the peak 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:39.680 hours of the day. Uh. And that's basically like like 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:42.280 from nine to six or something like that, or maybe 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:44.440 it's seven. I forget. I don't know because I've got 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:46.360 a set's on my thermostat and I don't even really 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:48.600 think about it, right, But so that means that your 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:50.400 air doesn't kick on at all between those hours. No, 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:53.040 it's on, but we keep it a little bit warmer, right, 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:55.120 So so in the summer months it's a little bit warmer, 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:57.240 and then once we break into that zone, that period 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:00.400 of time when the cost drops, that's when it kind 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:01.840 of kicks on. So it's a little bit warmer. In 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:03.960 her house, we're a little more dependent on ceiling fans, 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:06.640 table fans and things like that. But then I think 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:09.560 it's seven o'clock for for Georgia. Power Once that time 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.160 hits our a c drops a degree or two and 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:14.280 the house gets cooler, and for us, I think man 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:18.000 it's saved us close to like ten of our power bill, 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:20.120 and that's kind of average over the course of the year. 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.880 But yeah, it is ten times less expensive in those 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:26.000 off peak hours. And so in particular, if you get 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:28.760 home from work a lot later, or you know that 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:31.880 you can do your laundry run the dryer in the evening, 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:34.440 or especially say, if you work the night shift or 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:36.160 something like that, right if you have a schedule that's 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:38.520 reverse of most folks where you're kind of sleeping during 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:40.160 the day and not doing much, but then at night 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:41.520 that's kind of when you wake up and kind of 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:43.800 start your life. But there are some big savings that 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:46.080 could be had there. Yeah, you know, it's interesting, Matt. 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:49.880 My my sister just switched over to Google Fi from 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:54.040 like a traditional cell phone carrier, and she's become so 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:57.120 much more cognizant of the data that she's using. It 0:16:57.120 --> 0:16:59.720 seems very similar to one of these kind of time 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:03.520 of electricity plans, because you're just way more thoughtful about 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.000 the energy you're using when you're directly seeing the impact 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:09.480 a whole heck of a lot more. And she's kind 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:12.080 of become that same way, Like she's very thoughtful about 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:13.560 you know what. I can wait to look that up, 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:15.200 I can wait to check my email, I can wait 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:17.440 to watch that YouTube video because I know that I'm 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:19.440 paying for every single tent of a gig of data. 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:21.240 And we talked about Google Fi, you know, back in 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:23.520