Smart Thermostats, 6 National Awards, How Blower Doors Actually Works

WYSL. Our name is WYSL. It's the Wise Home Energy Show once again on the WYSL. stations. Pure energy. Thanks so much for joining us. And in studio from Wise Home Energy, none other than Mr. Wise Home Energy himself,

Jeff Flaherty. Bob, where did the time go? Back here already. Thank goodness. I know. It' just seems like it was, what, three weeks ago or something? It's a beautiful thing. I love being in the seat- Yeah, wel- ... talking to the masses. Oh, well, talking to the folks, and, uh, welcome to springtime.

It is a wonderful thing, isn't it? I like it. Actually, spring is my favorite season. It is mine, too. Yeah.

Yeah. Everything's, everything's perking up. Everything's in- Everything's new. Yeah. It smells good and, uh- I love it. So I saw a, a, a, one of our state birds out here on the parking lot yesterday. I saw a bluebird. You did?

He's going along, he's following a- an ant who was trying to get back to the nest with some big thing he was carrying, and that bluebird was after that ant.

I said, "Get out of there. What's wrong with you? Drop that thing and get lost." Uh, but he got eaten, so. Ah. Eh, that's nature. I love it. I love it.

So what are we talking about this week? So, well, you know, I, uh, I was, uh, hearing on the news that, uh, RG&E and NYSEG locally here are, uh, putting in these thermostats where they can control your air conditioning, and some people were upset about that.

I heard, uh, you know, some complaints, and I kind of wanted to break that down a little bit because that's been around for a long time. We at Wise Home Energy do energy efficiency. We make homes, uh, more efficient, uh, so they're not, they're not uncomfortable. They're just using less energy to have the same creature comforts. And we're trying to lower the usage in the, uh, state or the country, what- whatever have you, but we, we think of energy 'cause we just plug it in, it's never ending. Well, it's, it has to be pumped or created or sent down the lines in regards to electric, and the same thing happens with the utilities is when we have these hot s- uh, spikes in the summertime, everybody turns it up, and their demand becomes so high that they have to buy their energy at an exorbitant rate on the spot market.

So like all purchases or, uh, a, a decision between, uh, price and value, they figured that it's easier to, uh, for lack of a better terms, bribe the homeowner or, uh, recipient to install one of these thermostats, and occasionally we are gonna dial, uh, up your thermostat in the summertime so you're not using as much

AC. So it's g- it's purely a voluntary decision, uh, on the part of the person who, uh, gets the thermostat. Well, you say bribe. Really what it amou- amounts to is incentivize- Right ... uh, because if they can cut down on the demand, then they don't have to buy expensive, you know, energy that, to, to, uh, to meet the, the e- excess demand.

And apparently this is a pretty modest, uh, decrease that they would be doing. Now, we're talking about smart meters. So if you have a smart meter, you're in pretty good shape. I- I meant smart meter. Well, not that one there, but yeah. I meant a smart thermostat, I meant to say. Right. Yeah. Yeah. We, we can talk about the smart meters too later, but I meant thermostat. So it's, uh, it's a programmable thing, but it's also addressable because it's on the web, right? Right. So they, yeah, they... And I did it some years ago, and you kinda can get... You gotta read the fine print. You kinda can get s- snuck in or, you know, uh, sucked into, uh, a cheaper high-end thermostat. And so I did that, and all of a sudden, you know, they took control of it, and I didn't really like it. So I, I got rid of it and, uh, put in my own thermostat.

Uh, so it, it's purely voluntary, and you get paid for it. Uh, you'll get a, a little, uh, payment. Uh, I don't know the, uh, setup down here, but I know, uh, a friend of mine in the industry ran a program down in, um, uh, Baltimore, DC area, and they put in 400,000 of these, uh, some 10 years ago. And you get, if you let them take 25% control, you get a $25 check each summer. 50% control, $50 each summer. So it's, it's, it's purely voluntary. It's not, uh, RG&E or Big Brother getting into your, uh, thermostat and controlling it. Only if you let them so.

Well, the stories of Big Brother and the, uh, uh, and the electric company are, are, they, they go back, gee, I don't know, maybe 10, 15 years. Because all of a sudden somebody started to notice that, uh, the electric meters on your house are being replaced with ones that have a thing called an FCC type acceptance number on it. Mm. And what the FCC does is anything that emits a radio signal that radiates out through the air, uh, has to be what's called type accepted. That goes for our equipment here at the radio station too. Okay. 'Cause our transmitters have to be type accepted and so on and so forth. Uh, and so that led to this kind of urban myth that, "Oh, my gosh," you know, "now they're gonna be, they're gonna be monitoring every time you run the clothes dryer."

Yeah. "And then you're gonna start getting letters from the utility, 'Hey, we noticed, uh, you were running your clothes dryer during peak,' you know, 'afternoon time. Knock it off.'" Right. "Dry your clothes at 4:00 AM."

Right, right. "Loser." Uh, but of course, that never materialized, and this is kinda like that. Uh, so the, the RG&E program, don't let me jump the gun here on you, Jeff Flaherty, uh, I, I think they wanna reduce your

AC during these peak times in the summer of peak demand, what, four degrees? Right. Right. Maximum, maximum of 40 degrees Yeah, and I haven't delved into it too much, but yeah, they want to make sure that we-- it, it kind of stops rolling blackouts. You know, we see California with, you know, some energy, uh, issues out there. So this is just a well-thought-out plan by people that, uh, you know, want that, that money. So it's, um, you know, it's, it's... It, it makes sense. We--

There's not an endless supply of electricity we can pump down those wires, so, um- Yeah, well, the inc- the, uh, demand keeps increasing. Right. And, uh, we're-- and we are retiring coal-fired plants left and right because the utilities that own those plants are being incentivized by government programs to shut them down- Right ... and replace them with windmills and solar panels. And we won't get into the controversial aspects of this discussion, uh, but the utilities are scrambling here to try to meet demand. Right. Without a doubt.

So yeah, it's... And it's called demand side, so we're just, we're limiting the, the, the demand. It's not... We, we... We're matching the demand to the supply. And, and, and to your point, you know, you're certainly the expert on the FCC.

I know re- uh, talking to my friend, um, 10 years ago that when they were looking at how to communicate with these, uh, thermostats in times of, uh, uh, a state or localized emergency. So if you had a hurricane coming up, you could quickly... And we, we've experimented that, with that on the phones and stuff, but it was a quick way to say, "How can we get this message out that we have a, a regional problem?

Uh, hurricane's coming, shelter in place," things like that. I don't know how far it went, but that was one of the things that they were thinking about using that communication device for. Well, as far as the smart meters, just circling back on those for a minute too. Uh, what all that does is it enables them to not have to have a guy climb out of a pickup truck with a clipboard and walk over to the side of your house- Right ... struggle through the snow drifts, maybe get bit by a, a vicious dog, and write down what your utility, uh, you know, consumption was.

Right. So you drive to-- they-- you'll see the, you know, National Grid or NYSEG pickup truck, uh, you know, tooling through your neighborhood. All he's doing is collecting meter readings. Right. And there's an RF pickup device in that truck, and it picks up the data.

Right. And, and, you know, people are concerned that they're gonna catch all the data in 15-minute increments and, um, you know, around here I, I don't think it's a thing, but they do have a thing in certain areas called a day-night meter. So you'll pay more during the day, and it's another way to incentivize you to shift your usage patterns.

So for example, out in Arizona, uh, because they have a lot of solar, but people are at work, so they don't need their homes, uh, cooled.

People come home and have a big surge. It's 5:00, 6:00 o'clock, and what they've encouraged people to do is kind of preload their homes or pre, uh, condition their homes and, and, and cool the homes down early when the solar is being created for no cost.

So it's just a, it's just a way to match, uh, demand and supply. We're, we're in America, so we think it's, uh, an endless supply of everything, right? But during COVID and supply issues, we found out that there-- in some things there's not an endless supply, and in fact, most things there's not an endless supply of, uh, resources, so. Well, and there's an old saying that goes, "The obvious is not invariably the accurate," too. And so you have a lot of folks out there, uh, and I understand where they're coming from. What they wanna do is they wanna try to save on their utility bills. Right. So what they'll do is they'll have a programmable thermostat, and they'll shut off all the heat in the place, uh, in the winter months until an hour before they come home. So now the furnace is cranking along, cranking along, cranking along to raise the interior temperature 15 degrees.

Uh, and then they go to bed, and they want it, uh, they want the house to be 55- Right ... and then nice and toasty when they wake up again. And that's not an efficient way to use, uh, to use central heat, nor is it in the summertime the way to use AC.

Right. Yeah. And it, it- You use at least as much electricity doing it that way. Right. And especially, you know, we used to go counsel people to set back the thermostats, uh, but a- at a reasonable rate and for eight hours. You wanted some eight hours. But what happens is you're, you're heating up the air, cooling up the air, but the, the thermal mass of the things that we have will store heat, and so that, that, uh, those devices can or those, uh, objects can cool you down or heat you up depending on what their temperatures are. So that's, uh, um, certainly now with the air source heat pumps, we're, we certainly recommend not to set them back. They're really meant to just run similar to a thruway.

Just get in the car and put it on cruise and let it go, so. Yeah. So- So w- what you're saying, if I, if I'm reading this right, Jeff Flaherty from Wise Home Energy, by the way. Uh, give them the phone number, Jeff. Sure. It's 585-270-5836, and we say, "Don't hate your home. Pick up the phone."

Yeah. Call Wise Home Energy. Don't, don't be, don't be hot in your home- Either ... as we head into the air conditioning season. But, uh, but anyway, uh, if, if you're interested in this program, there's nothing wrong with calling them up. Uh, I know that they've had-- they've taken their lumps lately. Uh, but they're, they're really working at trying to put this in the rear view.

So, uh, call them up and, uh, see if the programmable, you know- Yeah ... remote, remote readable ther- thermostat is for you. Uh, you can try it, like you said. Yeah. Uh, if you like the program, hey, everybody wins. Absolutely. If you don't like the program, no harm, no foul. You can shut it off. You can rip the thermostat out and put your old Honeywell back on the wall. Right. Uh, whatever you wanna do. Yeah. See if it's right for you, for sure. Free choice. I love it.

There you go. Ain't it great? What a country. Yeah. Without a doubt. All right. So you got some other things you wanna tell us about today. Yeah. So I-- You know what? It's time to brag, Bob. I don't like to brag, but I have to tell you, we, Wise Home Energy, was awarded the Energy Star Contractor of the Year, uh, last month, and that is a national award, and that is our sixth, uh, national Energy Star

Contractor of the Year award running, um- Six years in a row? Six years in a row. We are one of, uh, eight companies in the entire nation that, uh, won it in 2023.

Uh, prior to COVID The first two years we won it, we got to go down to, uh, you know, a big, uh, gala down in, uh, DC and the Department of Energy and all the winners. So- This is what makes it worthwhile, ladies and gentlemen, for Jeff Flaherty. Yeah. He's a party animal. It was, yeah.

He loves to, loves to go to DC and party. That was fun. That was a good time. Um, so we, uh, uh, we, we... Unfortunately, the last four years, due to, uh, COVID and, uh, working from home and celebrating from home, uh, we were unable to, uh, you know, have this event. But it's, it's really exciting and it- it's really, uh, it's really a great thank you to, uh, number one, all the employees, uh, past and present who have really bought in, in, into the vision of Wise Home Energy. Um, that is... It is really a tribute to we are doing it from soup to nuts. We, uh, we do all things home performance.

So the home, uh, has many a different systems in the home, and the way they interact, um, that is home performance. And we can't predict everything, but we can look at things and see how they're currently working, and when we make tweaks to them or additions, um, new installations, upgrades, we have to see how they also interact once they're in. We can predict that reasonably from past experience, but that is, um, really a tribute to the hardworking people that, uh, you know, follow the vision of Wise Home

Energy. And, and really, uh, a lot of partners, uh, that we work with, um, a lot of not-for-profits, uh, folks that, uh, really enjoy that commitment.

Um, work with a lot of low income programs and, um, our treatment of those homes and those clients, uh, our partners really love. And, and really the, the, the biggest thanks is to the clients who decided they wanted to fix their homes and wanted to go through this process and do it the right way. And they get online and they write us wonderful reviews saying,

"So happy we did this. This was the way to go. The team was great." And so they not only get the lower energy bills, they're getting a home that they can now live in. There were rooms that they couldn't use before. And it, it's just a wonderful experience and, and it's great to be, uh, recognized, uh, f- for that, uh, commitment. And it's also some commitment to the industry. So we, you know, some of the bullet points are really, uh, kinda setting the, the cutting edge of the industry, uh, creating new techniques and new, um, you know, kinda right on the edge of the frontier of the industry.

And- That's fantastic. So it... Yeah, it's very exciting. And really, you know, it's... We get down to, you know, how do we do it? People are always asking, "How do, how do you win this award?" And- Yeah. What does this, what does this mean? Is the... Say it again. It's the Energy

Star- Contractor of the Year ... of the Contractor of the Year. Yep. Uh, and so h- how do you... What does this mean when you get this award? So we, uh, so they went, they send us some beautiful crystals, and we get to use some logos that we won this award, but it, it really shows that we're, we're committed to that whole industry. So some people, um, install heating equipment, and they, they think that heating is gonna ins- uh, solve everything, and some people install insulation, and, uh, they think insulation is gonna solve everything. Some people install bath fans, uh, because they think bath fans are gonna solve everything. And we are putting all of them together and making the home work properly. And it's really, it's really a set system. Um, and I'd like to break it down for you today. Uh- Please. This is the point where the,

I just need all the competitors to turn off their radios. We don't want you to listen to this stuff. That's right. Uh, no, that is a joke. This is- Other HVAC people, go away. Go away. Oh, a- and by the way, if you try to listen to the podcast, uh, something bad will happen. That's right. That's right. Warning.

But this is just building science, and how we do is we break it up into the envelope and the engine of the home. So the envelope is insulation and air sealing, that is the, the outside. So even, even though your roof is shedding water, uh, that might not be your thermal envelope. So we're examining the thermal envelope, uh, as we've talked about in the past, with that blower door test that measures the air leakage.

So, uh, what we do is we look at that and say, "How is that blower door where you're currently at, um, how does that work? How does that work for your home and the, the problems you're looking to ha- uh, solve?" So we, first we wanna start with the list of the problems that you're looking to solve. Um, some people call up and say, "Hey, I have high energy bills."

What does that mean? Um, if you just installed a hot tub, and you have two car chargers in your garage, and you celebrate Christmas like C- Clark Griswold, you know, those m- it might be high bills, but it's not really correctable. It's just a choice you've made.

So, um, so we look at, uh, you know, what the problems are you wanna solve, and then we begin our process. Uh, so we're doing that blower door test, which is gonna measure that air leakage, and we're gonna... We use a few different ways to, to communicate that, uh, blower door leakage rate to say, how is that compared to other homes? So a brand-new home is, um, rated at three air changes per hour. We're gonna give you the, where you sit at that air change per hour. We can also use a measurement of CFM, cubic foot per minute, uh, per square foot. That's a, that's a rating, and it's, it's based on a scale similar to when we're taking the kids to the doctors or in school. We're, we're saying, "Where are you on the, uh, progression, uh, compared to, uh, you know, other people, percentile in, in scoring of, uh, your grades and things of that nature." We're, we're making that scale and saying, "Where do you wanna be? Here's where you are now." Um, the other, uh, measurement of the blower door is we really can take that blower door and say, if it's

4,000 CFM, cubic foot per minute, at a, a exaggerated rate is 50 pascals If we divide it by

10, it actually gives us the rough square inches of the opening of the home. So 4,000 divided by 10 is 400 square inches of opening in the home, and we wanna seal all of those openings that we can. Ah, but the question is, or the complaint is- Where are they?

Where are they? And oh, you can't tighten up a home. A home needs to breathe. So we have devices that help the home breathe. So we can use ventilation systems like exhaust fans in bathrooms, uh, kitchens. Um, there is natural leakage. We can't really, at this stage of technology, we can't really solve, stop all leakage, so we're gonna have some natural leakage, and we can measure that. So even though that that's a big portion of what we do, and you can have a tight home, but that doesn't mean that there's still leakage causing problems. You could have some leakage to the attic that's gonna cause mold. You can have a cantilever floor that still has some leakage in a very tight home that makes that room very uncomfortable. It, it, it... So there's no magic rule that says, "Aha, your blower door is great." We have to look at it- Oh ... compare it to the whole thermal envelope. Um, and we use that, uh, with different tools of infrared cameras to see the temperature of the walls when the blower door is running. We can use zonal pressures where we can kind of pick different rooms and kind of see how connected they are inside to, uh, outside, uh, based on a, a, a, a Pascal or a m- a pressure rating. Um, so those things all come together and, uh, that is our first and foremost, uh, diagnosis.

We want to do that, uh, check that thermal envelope, figure out where it's at and how it relates to any problems you're having in the home. So there's no one, one fix for everything where you say, "Okay, well I'm feeling kind of chilly, so what we'll do is we'll just, uh, we'll buy a, a furnace that has 50% more capacity." Right. That's not the fix. Now let me ask you this.

You're talking about the, uh, the blower door and the, you wind up with the, uh, whatever the aperture is. Uh, 400 square inches is what the opening is of the house. Yeah. There's no, there's no benchmark for that where you say, "Well, we wanna reduce that, always wanna reduce that by 75%." That is- "So we want that down to 100 square inches." That's a great- That doesn't work that way. That's a great question. We, uh, recently I was interviewing, uh, a person from another company who wanted to, to come to Wise and, and I'm, I'm extraordinarily reluctant to hire people in the industry on the diagnostic side because they have a ton of bad habits and I have to- Oh. I don't like, uh... I'm not a cowboy. I don't like, uh, breaking, uh, breaking, uh- Breaking horses. Yeah. So, yeah. But, you know, I asked how the, what their blower door number reduction was and, and, and he said, "Oh, typically we shoot for 10% and sometimes we get 20%."

And I began showing our board a 48% reduction, 47%, 53% reduction and, and he was kind of blown away and thought we had like torn out the walls and we hadn't really done anything, uh, invasive like that. We just went through our normal process 'cause we know we've have experience of doing this. And these numbers, um, then make the home manageable. We're trying to get control in a home, right? We want control of a lot of things in life, right? We control our radio when we're driving down the road. We control the temperature in our, in our cars. We want... If we wanna control the comfort in our home, we wanna control that air leakage and that thermal leakage.

So that's also the insulation, uh, that matches up with the air leakage. So once we have that, once we have that done, then we can move to the engine, and, and so many times we get calls and, "Yeah, I just got my new furnace and now it's time to get an energy assessment." And it's, and it's, we're hoping and praying that they got- ... the right size unit, but usually 95% of the time they did not. Okay. So bottom line here, folks, is if you're not comfortable, you're hot in your home, you're cold in your home, you're, you're clammy in your home, then you wanna talk to Jeff from Wise

Home Energy first before you call up those great HVAC guys and have them come in and start changing hardware on you. Right. Because this, this is a complicated issue. It's not like it used to be 20 years ago.

No, absolutely not. You're taking, um, yeah, you're really, uh, you're really taking a chance if you don't do a diagnostic first. And like we always say, when you go to the doctor you don't just say, "I want a knee surgery." You say, "I have a pain in my knee. Doctor, what's the best protocol?" And, and they're gonna have a few different steps. "Well, let's try physical therapy first. We don't wanna run to surgery."

Um, so it's kind of the same thing along those lines. Um, we, uh, as we've talked about in the past, we have access to the state energy, uh, grants and rebates and, and energy assessments. So there's no-cost light assessments. There's, uh, advanced assessments based on income.

Um, you know, mention, you know, really we're offering a $49 off a blower door test or nine free LED lights if you call up this month and, uh, mention you heard about us on, uh- Oh, nice ... the show. So $49 off a blower door. That is a critical test. Uh, we don't go off other people's blower door tests. We really only use our own- Use your own. Yeah ... because of the advanced diagnostic skills we have. So- Wanna make sure that you're using good data- Absolutely ... when you make recommendations. Absolutely. All right. So let's do a quick... We got a, we got about, uh, four minutes left here in the program. Let's do a quick, uh, rundown on what, what the process is with Wise Home Energy when you call the number. Sure. 585-270-5836. You can call or text that. All right. So what happens?

Uh, so the process goes like this. Go ahead. So we're gonna do a little intake, similar to, you know, when you were calling up the doctor with, listing all your, uh, family history. We wanna find out about what's going on in the home, how long you've lived there, what type of challenges you're having. If you don't have any problems, it's hard for us to fix any problems. Yeah. It's not that we're not willing to come out, but, uh, let's, let's... The house is big and there's numerous, uh, areas we, we wanna look for to solve the problem. So we first get that first intake done, and then we guide you to the right, uh, path. We wanna know, um, you know, if you fall into an income category.

If not, we have the, uh, no-cost light assessment. So these assessments, um, you know, we think of them as free, but you paid for them already on your utility bill. We're coming into the home with, uh, really- Tens of years of experience, thousands of jobs com- of completion. We're coming into the home. It takes two to three hours.

We're gonna be inspecting the attic, the basement, insulation levels, windows, um, HVAC systems. Um, sometimes that's just, uh, uh, ca- cate- categorizing or cataloging the, uh, uh, manufacturer's data. Other times there's actual tasks we're doing. It depends on what type of assessment is the right path. And then we lay it out. We lay out what the home... what can be improved in the home, uh, what incentives are available. We currently have a $1,200 tax credit through the federal government, uh, for upgrades. A $150 tax credit for an energy audit. Uh, and then there's some individual, uh, rebates for, uh, what, what you choose to improve in the home. So we lay it out. We're not a, uh, sales company, we're a solutions company, so we lay out what the process is, what the solutions are, and then we leave it up to you to choose. As we said earlier, I like free choice. If you want the thermostat, take the thermostat.

If you don't, don't take it. Yeah. So. And then not only that, you're wired to where all these programs are all the time, so you can really save people money. And folks, I mean, uh, this, it's not... it's already cost you something. Right. That's right. You might as well cash in on it. That's right. I mean, the money has already been subtracted from, uh, your, uh, from your account, uh, through your utility bills. So you might as well let Jeff help, you know, and his merry men and women, uh, steer you to where those, uh, where those credits and programs and incentives are.

You're right. You're right. You've already paid for it. It is on your bill. I mean, there's numerous taxes and fees on there. This one is the one fee that you can, uh, get some incentives back on, so you might as well take advantage of it, definitely. Okay. And once again, for this month only, you've got a deal. So we got the $49 off a, a blower door test, or you can get nine free LED lights. Kind of depends on what program you go into. Nifty. Okay.

Yeah. So, uh, tell us about Wise Home Energy real quick. Give us the, the, the thumbnail of your, uh, of your company. Sure. You've been around for how many years? We've been around for 13 years. Uh, we've got a slew of people that have been around for, you know, some 10, 11 years of that 13 years. Uh, really committed to the vision.

Um, I love reading the reviews of, you know, everybody acting professionally in the home, and it was a smooth process. And it, and it does take a little time, but if you're gonna live in your home, why not enjoy it? That's the place where you spend m- uh, the most hours of your life. Hopefully. Hopefully it's not work. Hopefully it's your home.

Um, but if you're gonna, if you're gonna live there all those hours, might as well be comfortable and safe. We're, we can, we can get into indoor air quality at another show, but, um, that's one of the things we offer, too, is really indoor air quality. Once we're done making these, uh, upgrades, let's look at the indoor air quality and make sure the home is performing right for you. And don't fear the programmable thermostat. Right. The addressable thermostat from-

Absolutely ... RG&E and the other utilities, because it's, uh, it's, it's, it's not Big Brother. Absolutely. All right. Jeff Flaherty, uh, Wise Home Energy, give them that phone number again. It's 585-270-5836. And thank you very much for listening to the Home

Energy, uh, program on the WYSL stations. Get the podcast at wysl1040.com. We'll see you next time on Wise Home Energy.