Why Your Energy Bill Feels Wrong (And How to Actually Read It)

Well, has everybody got the pure energy out? It's time once again for the Wise Home Energy Show here on The Voice of Liberty. Pure energy.

That's right. And the majordomo is in the house. It's- Pure energy ... Jeff Flaherty. Hey, Bob. Great to be here. I'm hoping to bring some energy to the show or- It's gonna be springtime, yeah. Yeah. Or maybe save some energy. We can get out? there and walk a little bit. We don't have to drive and use. our cars.

Hmm, that's right. Yeah. Maybe you can pedal a little bit or- jog, whatever. It's a beautiful time, of year in this area, isn't it? I love it. It really is. I've, uh, lived in a lot of places, and I've always said that, you know, uh, spring's my favorite time of year, but there's nothing more beautiful than the Finger Lakes in the summer. It really is. It really is. We don't know how good we got it sometimes, right?

Yeah. Well, you know, uh, sometimes, uh, because of conditions, I'll just say, beyond our control, uh, you, you start to wonder about things.

But, uh, yeah, just, uh, just take a drive through the Finger Lakes. Mm-hmm. Mm. Lots of good stuff there out there. I remember being in the car with people from California, and, uh, we're just driving along, you know, like through Naples, Yates County out there, and they wanted me to pull over, like, repeatedly 'cause they, they were taking pictures of stuff. You know, like hay bales- Yeah. ...

in, in farmers' fields and, and barns and stuff that' I just drive by and don't even notice. Right. Yeah. And they're like, "Wait, wait, whoa. Gotta get a picture of that." Yeah. Spectacular views. Yeah, yeah. It is funny, you're... when you're running through it every day, you don't notice it. That's right. Yeah. Absolutely. Take time to notice it. I think we get that in houses sometimes. Some of the calls we get, uh, people have been living with some of the things, uh, for a long time and, and don't really notice it.

Uh, had an interesting call, uh, recently. We haven't been out to the home yet, but they sent in some pictures, and the client had some ice dams this past winter, and it was a ranch home. And, uh, the roofer came out 'cause that's what people call for ice dams and, uh, he said, "Uh, I looked in your attic, and you got the best of both worlds. You got foam insulation and cellulose insulation."

Um, so she sent over the pictures and, and that is not correct. You- Somehow I thought that's where this was going. You're not supposed to have both of these. So I'm, uh... You know, it's, it's interesting to see that there's cellulose on the, the floor of the attic or, or your ceiling of your living space.

Uh- That's a loose fill stuffer. Yeah, loose fill, ground-up cellulose. It has to, it has to be, uh, air sealed first. So I suspect it wasn't air sealed because somebody came in, uh, so that must've oughta solve some problem. So she's, uh, new to the home.

So the previous owner must have said, "Well, that didn't work." So the next person comes in and he says, "I got this magical foam stuff," and he sprays foam on the roof deck. So the protocol is you would remove the cellulose if you did that. I have a feeling this attic is gonna be very swampy, and it's gonna have a lot of missing, uh, spots. So, uh, we'll, we'll update, uh, our listeners on the next show, but that was an interesting one. So to me, that means it's been done wrong twice so far. And- A case history is what- So where the third time is gonna be a charm when Wise Home Energy goes out there.

Uh, but sometimes people don't know, uh, how well of a job we did. And so we had this client recently who, uh, uh, we did some work for and, and she kept saying that her hybrid hot water tank, uh, was, was costing her so much money and it was out of control and her bills were up and... And I kept saying to her, "You need to send us your bills."

Um, and she would send these screenshots on the phone and the app, and it was a graph. And, and graphs are great. They're neat. You can do anything you want with them. You can make them look pretty or ugly or, it-- But how do you interpret them?

And I kept saying the, "This information isn't information. It's, it's very generic, and I need the actual usage." And she would go and get me something different. I said, "You need to log on to your utility provider and give me the monthly usage." She finally did. This has taken months and sends it over. I calculate it up and didn't even, uh, uh, nom- normalize it for the rougher winter, and we had reduced her electric usage and her gas usage. So that had gone out the window. Once we had the facts, it had gone out the window. And so her complaint is, um, that more people moved into the home, and the hot water tank isn't keeping up.

And we'll go out and analyze the usage and the usage rate and the recovery times and, and hopefully we'll get a solution for that. But from a pure energy standpoint, as, uh, the show, uh, intro song says, uh, we, uh, saved her, uh, on energy usage. And, and so one of the challenges, the rates are going up, and we're getting these calls and, um, it is-- it's, it's not information. It's a feeling. Yes. You know, the f- the house my folks bought, um, you know, back in the late '50s was, like, $15,000, you know? I'm sure that house is worth $300,000 now. Yeah. So stuff goes up and- Those were the days. Yeah. And I can't control that. Um, but when you get to the utility bills... So I, I wanted to show her how you go and pull your actual usage because the bill they mail to you or email to you, um, most utilities are, let's talk our Genea [Avangrid] NYSEG locally, it'll have this graph. And this graph is different for each home. It's based off of how much you use. And so the graph has four quadrants high. Each quadrant is a quarter of an inch high, and the usage, uh, is based off of how much you use. So, uh, one person's bill, somebody sent me a bill, and they had a big spike 'cause they had estimate-- the readings for months- And so their quarter-inch, uh, graph is 1,430 kilowatt hours.

Mine, or, and the average person might be 600. So it-- You can't tell by this graph and, and I'm not gonna get out and, you know, estimate where it falls on the graph. I need the actual number of kilowatt hours or therms that are used. So

I went to go online, and I was locked out of my account. I te- technology's awesome, except when it doesn't work. So I don't know if that's because I, I have three accounts attached to the same email. So I have my, my home address, and then I also have, uh, two utility bills in the building where I have for work.

And so I couldn't get into it, and so I'm a frustrated person, and I call the 800 number, and those things don't do very well. But you could press a button a-and then it said if, you know, "Press this n- button if you'd like your energy usage mailed to your house." And so I pressed it, and, uh, that was a Friday, and on a Tuesday, the, the usage showed up.

And so I, I will tell you that that was RG&E and NYSEG. Uh, they're gonna operate the same. They're owned by the same parent company. So that is an option, and you can get to that pretty quick by following their prompts. Now, that gives you the usage per month of the last 12 months.

It does not give you the dollar. Uh, so that is the best thing you can get. You can go online and download that information. So in lieu of both of those pieces of information, I need to see the actual usage. And so that brings me to a question mark of why does the utilities not put it right. on the bill? And, uh, so locally in this, uh, western New York, we're, we're looking at, uh, National Grid,

NYSEG, uh, RG&E, National Fuel, and then you're into the municipal providers, which is a lot of those. But those publicly r- um, traded, uh, utilities, uh, they all do the h- mostly with the graph that, shows up every month, and it's, it's a pain in the butt. But what I will tell you is. National Grid, to their credit, not only has the graph, but then they put a 12-month, uh- Yeah. ...

uh, usage, uh, on their bill. So kudos to, uh, National Grid, uh- Yeah. We're, we're National Grid here. Yeah. So yeah. And, and, and that's, and that's a handy thing on the bill. It really is because it's, it's data.

It's like, it's like me saying, "Bob, you know, I went to the gas station, and I spent $45, uh, uh, on fuel." Now, I didn't tell you if I got a 30-gallon, uh, pickup truck or I got a seven-gallon, uh, Yugo. I, I didn't, you know, I didn't really... It, it's not relevant if I don't have all the information to be able to compare it to, and I don't know, why the utility has made it so difficult to get that information. And, and so

I grew up in this area, so I had, um, most of my life RG&E, where I had the, the electric and gas bill on the same bill. That's... In, in my opinion, that's somewhat unique in America or, and in a lot of regions where many people, when you, ask them about their bills, they call them their light and their power bill-

Right ... or their light and their heat bill. Where we, if you, if you live in an area where they're both on the same bill, you don't think about the-- think of it that way, and it's hard to disaggregate it between the two.

And, uh, so it, it... That's, that kind of muddies the water for us. But, the, the, the cost, we, we' cannot control the cost of the unit. There's 60 ESCOs out there. You can get it delivered by your utility, RG&E and NYSEG, but you can go buy from a supplier. We're seeing a lot of, uh, people complaining about their bills and, and we d- we-- they email them over, and there's a big, there's a big bill all of a sudden. And, and so these ESCOs might slip in some charges.

So we can't really say anything about that. We just, we focus on how much energy you use. Yeah. And when we do upgrades, we can reasonably expect that you'll, based on what you choose to do, that you could lower those usage rates, all things being equal, if the weather conditions are similar to the, the previous year, so. Yeah, you wanna be careful with those ESCOs. Uh, we've tried one here, uh, once upon a time. It was probably 10, 12 years ago.

And by ti- It, it's very difficult to sort things out. I mean, it also complicates interpretation of how much you're paying for the energy. It does. Uh, but we took a look at it after a year of doing this thing, and, uh, our-- it, it caused our utilities to go up by about 40%. That's amazing. So we, uh, canceled it toot sweet.

Yeah. And I, i- I was looking in prep for the show to see if they, um, have any, um, analysis of all the ESCOs. Years ago, they, they published it, uh, I think in the newspaper. It was available online, and they kinda did an analysis and, and I-- my recollection was when you, when you sorted through all this stuff, it was-- RG&E was the best locally. So, um, you know, each, each, uh, you gotta do what's right for you, and you can inspect that. But it's, um, but those are the things we're dealing with is, is w-we get a lot of people feeling that their bills are higher. Well, I'm, I, I don't work very well in the feeling of my bill is higher. I need to see the actual proof. The utilities should make it much easier to get that information. Um, and if I get unlocked out of my account, I'll let you know, how that goes.

Um- Still working on it. I am still working on it, but, uh, you know, I, I pay my bills. So, uh, it's, uh, attached-- I, I can never figure it out. It's attached to the, the online checking account, so the bill shows up, I pay it. But, uh, to find the actual usage and log on, it's, it's a difficult thing. And, and we get this perception with clients. We've had a lot of them who, they call up and, and they say, "My bills have gone up," and we, we- Finally get the raw data and we say, "No, we, here's your previous bill and here's your bill now, and, and the usage has gone down." I cannot control the cost of that gallon of fuel or if you will, like a gas station. I don't have any control over, that. Um- Well, it's, it's been a tough winter, and, uh, one of, one of the factors is, of course, New York State, uh, has cut back on, uh, you know, domestic generation. Yeah. So they're buying a lot of, uh, utility, uh, utilities on' the open market. Yeah. And, uh, what happens, uh, on the open market? Well, you' have the law of supply and demand.

Yeah. There's a lot of demand. What happens to the price? It goes up. So, you' know, um, New York is buying a lot of energy. They're getting off that' big orange extension cord that goes to Canada or New Jersey or wherever . Right. And, uh, they pay what it. costs because- It is ... and, that just gets passed right along to you. We got a real startling electric bill-

Yeah ... here during the winter. Yeah, the spot market, uh, uh, electricity is, uh, difficult to store, so they have to create it. a- as you use it.

And, uh, when you p- when you are using it during those peak times, uh, that price is gonna be much higher. And, and they have some, uh, daylight, day-night meters or time-of-use meters, so, uh, some people are exploring those. "Hey, I wanna charge my car overnight. It's a cheaper rate." You have to sign up for it, I believe.

And, uh, so that, tho- that's it. You know, people don't really understand their bill, right? And, and so w- we have to break the bills down and kind of estimate, well, are you... What... You're heating your hot water with gas. Let's try to pull out your gas usage.

Uh, let's look at the summary usage, calculate your maybe clothes drying, your cooking, and then we back it out to establish a little bit of how much you're using for hot water, cooking, and how much you're using for heating. So that... And that's how we disaggregate the bill.

Uh, it's not an, not necessarily an easy thing, but it's something that needs to be done so that we can explain to clients, uh, that we're gonna, you know, save them money here, but if we don't touch your hot water, we're not gonna save you any money on your hot water. We're gonna save it on, on heating.

So, uh, breaking that thing, uh, down. Electric and gas is a little easier because it's delivered, uh, or, or, you know, through the pipelines or through the electric wires. When you start getting into oil and propane, um, that's a little trickier. And we'll... Clients will come in with oil and propane, and we say, "What's s- what's your, what's your last year's usage?" "Well, I just, you know, I throw the bills out, and I got this last bill." And it's, to me, it's a simple phone call. If you can't call, your oil or propane provider and get a year's statement,

I'm not sure that's a, you know, a quality provider. Yeah. So just make that' phone call. And, I would think as a, as a customer service-oriented, uh, company, you would just provide that, and then you know the dollars per gallon, and you know how many gallons you use. And then we have to kind of... That's a trickier, um, thing to disaggregate because we don't know how many gallons are left in your tank, and so it... But we can get a ballpark. We can get a little closer. But when someone hands us one bill or they shred them and it, it's, it's, it's kind of a challenge. But you, y- it's...

What do they say? Uh, what's, what's not, uh, measured can't be, uh, improved. So it's a good idea to kind of know how many gallons of oil or propane you're using. Hang on to those bills for a year. I mean, you, you know, it doesn't take up much space. Yeah, absolutely. Absol- But it, it is one of the challenges we face. Now, you get to the other ones of, like, we use wood and all the woods in our backyard for free. That one's a little harder to, uh, to calculate, but, uh... And those are, you know, the, the big fuel sources, and that's what we, we use to do these, uh, energy audits to really fix other things in the home. Yes, we're trying to save you on your energy usage, but we use that to really get in there and dig into what you wanna do, how you wanna approve, improve your home, and, um, but it starts with that, that, that information that seems to be not that readily available for clients.

Uh, so I wish the utilities would, uh, step it up, make that bill, uh, just much more detail-oriented. National Grid has set the standard. I hope they, uh, I hope they can follow it, so. A little more intuitive. Yeah, Superior Plus, by the way, uh, if you're a propane user. We don't use propane for heat here. The only thing we use it for is the emergency generator out front. We got a- Oh ... 450-gallon tank out there. Uh, uh, but, uh, their bill is very easy to understand. Isn't it beautiful?

Yeah. And, and of course, I mean, really the only thing that most of the time the generator gets used, it fires up in auto exercise mode on Saturday morning. Yeah. Runs for, you know, an hour or whatever, and then shuts down. Uh, so it- it's kind of hard to, to judge what the actual usage is- Yeah ... because we don't use it much. Yeah. Uh, but, uh, it's a good bill, and yeah, I mean, hang on to those bills, right? Absolutely. Yeah. It's, uh... And in this day and age, hey, you can, you can just take a picture on your phone and it's stored there. There you go.

It's just a simpler time to just store some data. Uh, and yeah, maybe you don't want all that paperwork, but, uh, snap a picture, store it in an email, do something and, uh, because you'll wanna know. Maybe, uh, maybe you're not getting the best rates. Maybe you wanna, um, you know, shop it around. And in mine, I had an experience where the one month, uh, back in August bumped up, uh-

Three, fourfold, uh, my electric and I had to dig a little bit and I couldn't, I couldn't really dig a little bit in detail what that was, what that anomaly was. Um, you know, looking for some appliance that accidentally got turned on and left on for, you know, 30 days.

I don't know. Uh, and I'm in the industry, and I had to put a meter on the outside of my meter just to get some bulk usage rates and, and things came back down and, you know, now it's out of sight, out of mind, and the prices are down and...

But, uh, those are the things that we need is to get started on the energy, uh, audit process. We need that energy audit usage. That's what the state wants. They want energy savings. You get a qualified expert coming into your home to analyze your whole home to look at things like ice dams, uncomfortable rooms, indoor air quality, uh, musty smells. We're-- We really can look at a whole host of things using, uh, these no-cost energy audits. So what the first part is to, uh, get the energy bill and the energy usage really, so. The, uh, voice of wisdom you're hearing, uh, Jeff Flaherty of Wise Home Energy. Uh, don't be cold in your home or hot in your home, uh, uncomfortable in your home. Pick up the phone and call. 585-270-5836. Getting a little sample of, uh, of the comprehensive approach that, uh, Jeff and his gang take to making sure that you're, you're comfortable and that you're not spending too much, uh, you know, on your environment in your home and getting the best air quality.

Yeah. Yeah, it's amazing. Um, and, and, you know, we always say j- sign up for these programs. Uh, there's always a-- So there's rebate programs, but when you get into the income-based programs, um, there's, there's always been ebbs and flows. Uh, we, we've been coming off a, a, a three, four-year, uh, heavy flow where there's, there's been a lot of incentives.

And we're getting word that things, um, uh, are slowing down a little bit and they're throttling back and, and procrastinations is something that, you know, maybe, uh, myself, uh, uh, certainly can take part in and, and it just never generally works out that well to, to procrastinate.

And it's always a good idea to take advantage of these programs. Sign up. Maybe you can get a little work, and then maybe in a few years you can get a little more work. But the people that didn't get it for the past five years are still sitting at the same, uh, energy use level, comfort level.

So we can do these in staged approaches and, and we're starting to see it, um, slip back a little bit. Well, that'll create a little, um, keeping up with the Joneses jealousy type call. "Hey, my neighbor got all this extra stuff. Uh, why didn't I get it?" And, uh, we're just, uh, we're just facilitators of the rebates and incentives. We do not make the rules. We come in and analyze the home, uh, in an unbiased way to look at what the home needs, what your desires are, and then we match it up with the, the state incentive. So, um, don't rest on your laurels. Get, get going. Take advantage of this, um, because you can stage it like that. We've had many customers that have come back to us two, three times, uh, and staged their, their approach, and they're, they're thrilled with it. And they did it, you know, the best way you can and the-- for the best price you can get, uh, by accessing these incentives, so. So for people who've just tuned in and, and maybe they're hearing the program for the first time, and that happens all the time, you know. New, new listeners, uh, discover the program. They kind of fill them in here. Uh, you're talking about getting work done and you're talking about, you know, in, in various different terminology here.

Uh, tell them-- L- let's go, uh, Wise Home Energy and NYSERDA 101 here. Tell, tell them what it is that you do. You're not, you're not the furnace installer guy. Yeah. You're not the air conditioning guy. Yeah.

You're not the roofing guy. Yeah. Uh, y- you, you, you have the systemic approach, uh, which is highly scientific. Right. So we, um, we as a company are a Building Performance, uh, Institute certified Gold Star contractor. You have to be to-- and be involved in the NYSERDA programs.

NYSERDA, uh, is New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and they, uh, are in charge of a little fee that's on, on your utility bill. There's a lot of fees on that bill, but one of them goes into the systems benefit charge. So it's-- The goal is that NYSERDA will take that money to lower the usage so that we don't have to build more infrastructure and coal-burning plants and more production. If we can get the same or better enjoyment of life and use less energy, then that's the goal. So- And this program, by the way, you're already paying for. Uh-huh. Out there listening to this show. Yeah. Everybody pays for this 'cause it's on your utility bill.

Yes. Yeah, that's the amazing thing and, and people... I'm glad you made that point, Bob, because people think, "Ah, nothing's free." It's not. You already paid into it, so you might as well take advantage of it. And so we come out to the home once we get, uh, the utility bill and a little paperwork, and we do an assessment. So we're looking at all the insulation levels, uh, up in the attic, the walls, uh, down in the basement and, uh, measuring those. And then we're looking at the air leakage, uh, level. So that's measured with our magical blower door, and it is magical. It is one of my, my favorite tools. It, it may sit in my car all the time as I I drive around 'cause I just wanna be able to pull that out if I need to and, and do that test.

Uh, and we measure that air leakage and that insulation, and then we look at the equipment, and we, we map it all out and, and see how these parts come together, and then we match it up with what your concerns are in the home. And, and so if you have ice issues, then we're gonna be looking at the air leakage and the insulation and the ventilation in your attic. Uh, if you have cold rooms, we're gonna look at the insulation and air leakage of that room, then we're gonna say, "Is that as good as it can be?" Now we gotta see how much we're delivering to that room with a, with a, a heat run or a, a radiator or some-- what our heat source is. And, um, so we, we map that all out and, and we're-- our goal is to Uh, prove that we improved the conditions in the home. And that's what we do. We take tons of pictures. We, we measure things, and so we know they're better.

Um, I went to a home recently, and, uh, it's, it's, it's a tricky home in the city of Rochester call... We call them bungalows. Some people call them craftsmen.

But the front, um, second floor bumps out over the porch, and it just... These are uncomfortable, uncomfortable rooms because many of the sides of the, the front bedroom are sort of facing outside. They're sitting over this porch. And to add insult to injury, it was very difficult when they built the home to get a heat duct to that room. So the, the heat duct that is there is not, uh, giving enough heat, but it's losing so much heat and energy in air leakage through this front room with all these slopes connected to the porch.

So it can be dramatically improved, uh, but, but the average contractor doesn't see it. This, this, this home, it had the attic, insulated, walls insulated, uh, but here this gentleman is, uh, saying, "This is very uncomfortable." And, and we know why. We can, we can improve it, but he might need to do some extra stuff to get a heat run through there.

So we do it from a scientific, uh, standpoint and not from a sales standpoint. And we're, we're recommending those things, and typically we install all those things, uh, with the exception of, uh, probably solar and, and geothermal, which, uh, are more, um, you know, robust type, uh, measures that you're gonna get on your home. So we're, we're, we're more focused on the tightening them up, insulating and doing, uh, traditional HVAC or some, some air source heat pumps is, uh, uh, the focus. And every case is different. Every case- They're like snowflakes ... is different. So that's why you need to call Wise Home Energy to, uh, to get the process underway so that this gets done right and you get the appropriate fix for whatever ails your home.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, give us a call. 585-270-5836. Uh, we just wanna have a conversation. Our goal is for you to call us in, in three years and tell us how great of a job we did. We're not looking to sell you anything. We, we... In fact, that's the, our worst nightmare is someone's like, "Well, what do I need?"

It's like, well, what do you want fixed? We, we want... And some of this stuff is abstract. It's comfort in this one room. It's, uh, you know, musty smells in the basement.

Uh, we need to know what you're looking to, to improve, and then we'll go ahead with our game plan to analyze the home with a focus on those goals and then dev- develop a plan for you to, to improve it. And, and that home I went to yesterday, um, you know, the, the, the heating tag said it was done by this expert heating technician, and it's... I don't even need to open the door. I, I just know it's oversized. I know it's oversized.

And, and this was not a very big home. I mean- Chilly. Let's get a bigger furnace. I haven't done the calculation, but it doesn't help when you have a cold room because the furnace won't run long enough. Had he put in the smallest size possible, uh, I'd have a better chance of insulating this and m- trying to make this heating system work, so. You get all this, uh, swing. And by the way, you guys, uh, who may be just joining us for the first time listening on our Southern Tier stations now, WLEA and, uh, 92.1 and 106.9, you guys in, uh, Hornell, Alfred, Almond, uh, Canisteo, uh, you know, even Bath, uh, uh, pick up the phone. Yeah. We've been doing a lot of work down there. We were called out, uh, for a few, uh, folks down there and, and it's kind of taken off, and they've really loved the results they're getting. Results is, uh, really should be our middle name if we got a extra, uh, name we could throw at the Wise Home Energy line. There you go. Don't be shy.

Uh, pick up the phone and call that number one more time, Jeff Flaherty. It's 585-270-5836. And you've been listening to the Wise Home Energy Show brought to you by Wise Home Energy on the

Voice of Liberty. Get the podcast at wysl1040.com. Thanks for listening.