What If Your Biggest Energy Leak Is Habit

Your summer utility bill is not just about the weather, it is about the small decisions that stack up every single day. We sit down and build a simple, realistic plan for lowering electricity and water costs while still keeping your home comfortable through Minnesota heat swings. If you have ever wondered whether an HVAC tune up is worth it, how often you really should replace an air filter, or why one sunny room turns into an oven, we get into the details that actually change the numbers.

We walk through practical home energy efficiency moves you can start this week: scheduling annual AC maintenance, keeping furnace filters and vents clean, and tackling dryer vent cleaning for both energy savings and safety. From there we talk shading strategy, why closing blinds at the right time matters, and how smart thermostat schedules can reduce cooling costs without buying into the myth that setbacks “waste” energy.

We also cover easy upgrades that pay back quietly, like switching to LED bulbs, running ceiling fans the right direction, and checking with your electric company about off peak rates for things like EV charging or water heating. On the water side, we dig into irrigation system leaks, broken sprinkler heads, and why “set it and forget it” watering schedules can punish your budget.

Plus, our legal minute with attorney Jeff O’Brien highlights the Minnesota Radon Awareness Act and the disclosures required in residential real estate transactions. If you found this helpful, subscribe, share the episode with a homeowner friend, and leave a review with your best tip for saving on utility bills.

You can always find U. S. Home Talk and connect with the hosts and the community at their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/U.S.HomeTalk/ or at our website, USHomeTalk.com

Transcript

Welcome And Octagon Banter

0:15

Oh, he caught me sleeping. Just doing a little there we go. We got it all shared now, folks. Welcome back. This is Wednesday coming at you every Wednesday at noon U.S. home talk. I'm your host, Jason Walgrave with the Walgrave Real Estate Group and the Minnesota Real Estate Team at Remax Advantage Plus. We've also got the great Michael Overson. We need one of those microphones that drop down from the ceiling that Bruce Buffer has and it comes down and he we need that. I can work on it. I can work on it. Can we get the IT guy to uh get that installed before next week, you think? We should do the show in the octagon. Yes. Absolutely. That would be that would be epic. That would be epic. And then when you or Marcus say something stupid, then I can go, you know, throw you up against the body slam us. Yep. Do something, put a move on you. Yep. Something like that. Put a move on you. Uh Marcus. Armbar, headlock, we do uh uh some sort of submission moves. Yeah, submission moves. Yeah, I like it. It's good rear naked choke. Yep. Yep, yep, that's good. Uh Marcus is off this week. I think he's doing something important. Um, I think he's doing something with the the border realtors in in South Dakota, is what I think he's doing. So uh Mike and I are here today. We've got, of course, our fantastic producer, Evan Little. He is also our insurance expert with uh Paragon. So um hey folks, we appreciate you tuning in this week. Um, what do we got going on? Well, Summer's here. Uh today we're gonna be talking about ways to save on your utility bills. And um, I've already started uh I've already started doing most of these actually. Um mid 80s for the next couple weeks, it looks like. You know, last week we were uh 90 something. There was a couple soccer games that uh we attended that was whoo is hot. What the weird thing about it was I really remember we had a flag football practice on a Thursday, right? And we were in stocking caps and coats and gloves, and it was cold, it was windy, it was not fun, right? Literally five days later, we're practicing in 90 degree heat, and everyone's like, Oh, it's so hot. Cut practice short. So, how do we go? How do we go from winter coats and stocking caps five days later to 90 and like we got to cut practice short now because it's too hot? Because we live in Minnesota, that's how that's right, baby. That's right. We are tough up here, folks. So um, wherever you're tuning or whenever you're tuning in, we do appreciate it. Of course, we're on Facebook and YouTube. Um, a lot of folks uh download the podcast. Uh we syndicate with all the podcasting platforms after this show. And so um, whether it's uh Wednesday at noon or later in the week, do we do appreciate uh you guys tuning in?

Summer Utility Bills Game Plan

3:21

So let's talk about uh how to save on uh utility bills. Look, any any ways we can save on anything right now, right? We want to talk about it. Um, one of the first things on the list is uh to get your HVAC ready, uh, get your AC system ready. What does that mean? Um, I really recommend a yearly check. Um, they'll come in. I I've heard a couple ads running on the radio lately where there's HVAC companies that will come out and for like 150 bucks. Um they'll come out and inspect your AC unit, make sure that everything is running the way it's supposed to. Um, if you do that, folks, if you do that yearly, your AC unit will last longer. Um, and it's you know, sometimes it's little things that get neglected, but um, if they're neglected for long enough, it can it can turn into a big thing. So uh get it inspected, you know, get that hundred and fifty dollar tune-up that they have out there, um, and then you're gonna be you're gonna be ready to go. Um, we have a service uh through a company. We pay 25 bucks a month uh for like a membership, if you will, right? It's an HVAC company, so 25 bucks a month we pay. With that, we get a spring full HVAC system, right? So in the spring it's like your air conditioning and you get all this stuff, you get everything checked, and then in the fall you get one too. So in the fall you get the furnace and you get all the other stuff that needs to be checked, right? Because you're gonna pay 150 bucks for a one-time call. Hey, call and come out here and check this, right? So for the $300, you we get the spring and the fall, yeah, get everything checked, but then we also get discounted services. So now if there's uh something that needs to be replaced, we get 15% off all the service for them. Um, and then there's like other stuff where we get 25% off for other things. So not only do we do it get a discount on that stuff, we get the two services, just it makes sense. Yeah, you know what I mean? And it's it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal. And then if you're you know you're signed up for that monthly membership, um, guess what? You're gonna have it checked in the spring, and you're gonna have it checked in the fall, you know. And and so it's it's easy to it's easy to put things off and be like, oh yeah, I'm gonna I'll do it next week, next week. Well then you know, next thing you know, the summer's over. Yeah. And they don't and we don't even reach out to schedule it, they call us. They call us and they'll be like, hey, it's time to schedule your spring, whatever. When can you do it? Love it. You know, so it's good. If you can sign up for one of those, I recommend it. We do it, I think it's a great deal.

Filters And Dryer Vent Reality Check

5:40

Uh number two on our list, uh, clean air filters and vents. Uh, we've talked about this a number of times in in past shows. Uh furnace filters, I'm I'm a 30-day guy. Every 30 days, change the filter. I we buy the uh the less expensive ones, um, but we change them every 30 days. I mean, there there's filters out there that you can buy that say you don't have to change it for 90 days and or maybe even 120 days. I don't know. I I I mean we keep we keep our furnace fan running 24-7. It it never turns off, and not in the 11 years that we've been there. Um we we and we do that because we want the air to to continually circulate through the house, right? So my mind is hey, if if that thing's running 24 hours a day, we need to change that filter every 30 days, and and that seems to be working pretty good. Um, they also they also recommend the vents. I think this is one thing I'm guilty of it. Um what do you mean vents? Well, you got your your air vents, you know, the the vents that the heat and AC come out of. Um, but then you got your dryer vents. Um and I'll tell you what, if those things start clogging up, your dryer's gonna work a lot harder, you're gonna burn a lot more electricity. Uh, burn your house down too, right? Or you're gonna you're gonna burn your house down. So I man, I I I think I went eight or nine years without cleaning out the the dryer vents. Um, I just forgot about it, right? And then Liz and I were we were on vacation, we had um the kids were home, someone was uh family members taking care of them, and she sent me a video and she's like, Jason, I'm really worried. These vents need to be cleaned. So as soon as I got home, I got them all cleaned out, and and and they were they needed it. It was it was bad. So you clean the dryer vent yourself? Yeah, I bought I b I bought a tool. I got a tool, like the snake tool that you hook up to the end of your vacuum cleaner, and it just sucks it all out and and it were it works pretty good. I saw a guy YouTube video or something that maybe it was on Facebook or something. The guy guy takes his leaf blower and he puts it up to the vent, and then you know, because a lot of them have a cap on the outside, right? So he takes the cap off the outside so it's just free-flowing, you know, from start to finish, remove gets his dryer moved out of the way, takes his his leaf blower, sticks in there, blows it all out. Dude, that's a great idea. Yeah, that's a great that that that would just be fun to do. Hey kids, go watch stand next to this vent outside and see what happens. Yeah, look, look in that vent, see if anything starts coming out, just hit it. Uh we're folks talking about ways to save on utility bills this summer.

Blinds And Sun Exposure Tricks

8:22

Uh, next on our list is uh keep the blinds closed. I mean, uh we're we've been doing that for the last three weeks. We're closing blinds uh certain parts of the day. Um if you've got the the blinds open and that sun's baking in all day, it it's it's gonna make a big difference on how hard your AC has to run, um, how comfortable your your home is. I mean, most new homes have uh they have double or triple pane glass with uh it's an argon gas that's filled in the middle. That certainly helps with some of the the the sunlight, some of the rays that come through. And then it's an insulation barrier, excuse me, to keep your homes cooler in the summer and and warmer in the winter. We have uh we have one bedroom that's south facing at our house. We have a blackout, blackout shade. Yeah, there. It's like literally in the middle of the day, you close that thing and it's it's black in there. Yeah, um, and as long as we do that, the room is manageable, right? It's second floor, it's south facing, it's catching all the sun all day long. That blind is closed, fine. It's fine. You open that thing, yeah, it doesn't matter how cold you put your air on. That thing is it's a sun on there. That room is hot. That room's hot. We had it. It's interesting that you say that. So my office um faces south. My office windows doing so. Uh a couple weeks ago, the the AC unit for my zone um was out, and I mean, we it's a pretty good sized building that we're in, right? The whole building is nice and cool. My office, 88 degrees, it got up to. And and it's like, how is this even possible? The whole rest of the building is is, but the sun's baking in all day, you know. So it uh it makes a difference. Um

Off Peak Rates And Smart Thermostats

10:03

lower your utility rates. What does that mean? There's off-peak. I think a lot of people don't realize this, but there's off-peak um electrical, right? And so a lot of times folks will use that off-peak to to charge their EV vehicle, they'll they'll use it to um to run their water heaters. And so they're they're definitely check with your utilities company, check with your your electric company, find out if there's off-peak available, and then certain appliances can be run during that time. Or just start start telling your wife to stop taking 10-15 minute long hot showers. Stop using all the hot water. I know, right? But we you got kids too. Your kids, are your kids like long shower, like not really. Not really, okay. They're pretty quick. They they're they're pretty quick. I mean, I think I think the girls take a little bit longer, but they they don't, yeah, they don't spend a whole lot of time in there. So we got two kids that are quick ones that just in and out, they just want it, right? It's just whatever. Yeah, and then we got two that just want to stand in there. It's like a come on, steam room, right? Um time your thermostat. Look, they got some fantastic thermostats. Uh, nest is a popular one. You can set timers, and and if if you're not home during the day, um set that uh temperature up a little bit. It doesn't, if there's nobody in there, you certainly don't need to have uh the home cooled as if there is, and so uh time your thermostat that can work really good during the day at night. Um, not only in the summer, but that works great in the winter too. And so um set your thermostats, time them. Uh that'll save you guys some money on utilities this summer. Do you have a timer on yours? Programmable or yeah, we got a programmable deal. I don't know what we got it set to, to be honest with you. I don't know if it's programmed for timing and stuff. You know, the old the old argument was well, if you if you let it get up to you know 70, let's say 78 degrees in the day when you're not there, and then when you get home and you want it down to 72, well, it's just gonna take more energy to get the 78 down to 72, so you might as well just let it run all day long, anyways. Yeah, that's I can't imagine that's theory is checks out, does it? No, because it no, because your home cools off pretty quick. I mean, you think about it, doesn't take that long to to to cool off the house. The AC units, especially newer ones, are I mean they're efficient and they're powerful and they they do a good job. So uh no, I I'm going to uh I don't agree with that theory either. Okay, okay. Uh switch to LED bulbs. Uh we've done this a number of years ago. Um I started with um I started with all the the the bulbs on the front of the house, the ones that are in the the soffits. Uh and the I didn't do it for energy saving purposes, I did it because I was tired of changing the bulbs. You know, and and so one day I went up there and I think I changed 12 or 15 of them. Um man, that was three, four plus years ago, and I haven't changed the bulb since. You know, and otherwise it was every it felt like it was every few months I was climbing up there and changing the bulbs. So uh but LED bulbs are are much more energy efficient, they burn less uh energy than your um than the older ones. Uh and I and I think LED bulbs have come a long way in the last few years where you know when they were newer, they kind of had a weird light. They didn't really they just didn't feel the same, they felt unnatural. Um but today's LED bulbs are fantastic. And I think they run much cooler too. I don't think they create generate near as much heat. So in the summertime you're not having that extra heat source with the lights on. That's a great point. Yeah, they have very little heat that comes off of them. Um what do we got here? Um

Irrigation Leaks Fans And Smart Strips

13:41

check your your so a lot of times folks will have irrigation systems, right? Um it's tempting to just turn it on and and forget, you know, put the plug in and turn it on and let it go. Uh check that irrigation system for broken heads or or for leaks. And so you know your your water bill can get pretty out of hand if you've got an irrigation system outside that isn't uh functioning properly or has leaks or or just you know the heads are off or broken or whatever the case is. And so that that can be another great way to save some money and utilities on your water bills. Uh let's see, use the ceiling fan. I mean, we uh we use the ceiling fan, uh we use the you know the floor fan. Um we're we're we're big fan and and uh and noisemakers in in every room, right? So um, but fans are really effective. I mean, I I think your ceiling fans are fantastic. Um so what what's the rule? In the summer they gotta be blowing down, and in the winter they gotta be sucking up, right? I think that's how it goes. So you've got your forward and your reverse on your fans. I think I think that yeah, summer you want them going down and and then the winter you want it reverse so that it it pulls that warm air up. So uh what else we got? Uh oh, this is a good one. Invest in smart power strips. So, what does that mean? Smart power strip. Okay, we pretty much leave everything plugged in at all times, right? So I think about our uh TV receiver, you know, DVD player, um all of those different things. They there's smart power strips that you can purchase that basically go on a timer. And so um I've got I've got a number of uh friends of mine, they they have a smart power strip on their Wi-Fi. And so at um, you know, nine or ten o'clock every night, click, it goes off. So there's no internet in the house. You know, they they all have kids, and so that this um helps them um manage the uh after hours uh internet use. Um yeah, power strips can work pretty good. Um let's see. Oh, and here here's another one. This is so they're saying don't use the irrigation schedule. Uh again, it's one thing that we we kind of set it and forget it. Uh a lot of cities have um water ordinances where you can water on odd days or even days or whatever the case is, or there's certain days of the week. Um, but I and I've noticed this, your lawn doesn't need to be watered every day, you know, and and so that irrigation system, um, maybe having having that schedule is just costing you water, costing you more water than than you need to use. Um I hate getting that water bill after like three months of summer. And I'm like, oh my yard looks pretty good, but was it worth it? I don't know, I don't know. Can't you just you should hook up to your neighbors is what you should do. You could just you could just pull from your lake, irrigate. Oh, that's right. I mean, that's one of the benefits of the lake. We can we can pull from the lake. It's it's not against DNR or anything like that. It's perfectly legal. So we pull from the lake, so my water bill does not change at all from season to season because um the water that we use to water our lawn comes from the lake. That works out good. Yeah, it works out really good. And if you have a well, um, you know, you can pull from your well, you're gonna spend minimal uh energy costs for the well pump. But there's a lot of homes uh that were on well at one point and now they're on city water, but they kept the well uh and they kept it for outside uses, right? And so um I think these are all great tips, folks. Uh, you know, summer's here. Um I think that there's ways that that we can uh be a little more um change our habits a little bit to save some money on on electric and water, and and so uh great list uh great list to go over and and um take a look at. So

Legal Minute Minnesota Radon Disclosure

17:38

uh legal minute. We better do our legal minute before we fish up. This is Jeff O'Brien, attorney with Hosh Blackwell with the U.S. Home Talk Legal Ed. The Minnesota Radon Awareness Act requires additional disclosures and education to be provided to potential home buyers during residential real estate transactions in Minnesota before signing a purchase agreement to sell or transfer residential real property. The seller shall disclose in writing to the buyer any knowledge the seller has of radon concentrations in the dwelling. The disclosure shall include whether a radon test or test have occurred on the property, the most current records and reports pertaining to radon concentrations within the dwelling, a description of any radon concentrations, mitigation, or remediation, information regarding the radon mitigation system, including system description and documentation if such system has been installed in the dwelling, a radon warning statement, and a copy of the Minnesota Department of Health publication entitled Radon in Real Estate Transactions, which is available on the department's website. This is Jeff O'Brien, attorney with Hosh Blackwell with a U.S. Home Talk Legal Med. Ah,

Smoke Detector Timeline And Wrap Up

18:34

thank you, Jeff. You do such an excellent job. We appreciate it. Uh any any last thoughts, uh, Mr. Olverson on our saving utility costs? Here's one thing, uh, just a quick tip. It's not necessarily utility costs, but we're our home is is now uh 10 years old. And uh we're starting to having to swap out all of our smoke detectors. So that's kind of another just maintenance. It's not gonna save you on utility bills, but just know uh every 10 years a smoke detector's got to be uh replaced. Um and if you get the random beep, right? If you just put the battery in it and you get these random beeps, it's because it's 10 years old and they have like a timer on them that remind you that they got replaced every 10 years. Um and they're typically not cheap either. So just uh just know that as well. Get working on it, folks. We appreciate you tuning in. Looking forward to seeing you next week, uh, Wednesday at noon on Facebook and YouTube. Of course, you can catch all of our um syndications with uh podcasting uh anytime during the week in our website, ushometalk.com. Uh real estate hotline number, call us anytime at 612-234 7585. Hope you guys have a great week.