Watt's New
Have high utility bills?
Doug Rye says, ‘It’s your own cotton-pickin’ fault.’
Architect Doug Rye asked the
audience gathered in Penfield
Twp. Hall if they had high electric
bills.
A handful of people raised
their hands.
“What do you do? You call the
electric Co-op don’t you? Why do
you call them? Why not call your
builder? Call your realtor? They
sold it to you.
“Don’t call your electric Cooperative.
They’ll help you, but there’s
no gain in it for them if you have
high utility bills. If you have high
bills it’s your own cotton-pickin’
fault.”
Rye is a licensed architect from
Arkansas and is known as the
“King of Caulk and Talk.” In 35
years, he has helped design more
than 300,000 homes around the
country. “They are all electric,” he
touts, noting 65,000 of those
homes have a geothermal heating
and cooling system installed. He
is the host of a weekly radio
show called “Home Remedies,”
which is heard in 14 states.
Locally it can be heard on WOBL,
1320 AM on Saturday mornings.
Beginning this month, the show
will air at 9 a.m. He now is a
monthly columnist in Country
Living magazine.
Rye put on a two energy efficiency
presentations in early April
with about 70 people attending.
He also made two presentations
in Tiffin. While his presentations
were essentially the same, the
comments made here are a compilation
from one of the four presentations.
Rye commended the Penfield
Township Trustees for installing
a geothermal system when the
township hall was expanded and
renovated in 2003. “This is a
wonderful facility,” Rye said.
He was impressed with the
Cooperative’s aggressive promoting
of geothermal. “Your Cooperative
right here, percentage-wise,
is doing more geothermal systems
than any other Cooperative in the
country.” Lorain-Medina Rural
Electric has approximately 1,000
systems installed on its lines.
“Geothermal is 400 percent
efficient for heating. You have to
buy propane for 55 cents a gallon
to match geothermal,” Rye said,
adding a geothermal system is
five times more efficient than a
gas furnace.
“People ask me what’s the payback
on geothermal. Well what’s
the payback on carpet? There’s no
payback on carpet, so why do you
put it in the house?
Judy Scaife of Litchfield told
Rye that she paid $2,800 to heat
her home with fuel oil. They switched to geothermal
and their heating bill dropped to $740.
“Here’s the simple thing that I know. Invest your
money in energy efficiency in your
home,” Rye said. “It will literally
make you money every month.
Nothing in your home makes you
money except what I teach.”
Rye does not believe solar panels
or wind generators are good investments.
He says a geothermal system
will be much more cost effective
than investing and installing solar
panels.
“Seventy-five percent of geothermal
is solar. The ground temperature
is a constant 52 degrees and it
is heated by the sun. A geothermal
system operates 24/7, does heating
and cooling; and 50 percent of your
hot water is free.”
Rye strongly endorses the
Marathon® water heater, which
LMRE has sold, installed and serviced
since 1995. The Marathon tank
is surrounded by 2-1/2 inches of
foam insulation and carries a lifetime
guarantee to never leak or rust.
He said most water heaters do
not have insulation on the bottom.
“So, 24-7, it’s heating your slab floor. Isn’t that
great?” He recommends slipping a one-inch piece of
foam board underneath the water heater, unless it is
a Marathon tank with insulation on the bottom.
He does not believe in using a gas water heater.
“Twenty-five percent of your home energy bill is
water heating. The best gas water heater is 57 percent
efficient. If something is 57 percent efficient,
how much does it waste? Would you buy a water
heater with a sticker that said ‘this water heater only
wastes 43 percent of the energy?’
“Why don’t our politicians say we need to quit
wasting 43 percent of the gas that we use.”
He strongly endorses cellulose insulation for
homes because it effectively stops air infiltration.
“The biggest problem with homes is air infiltration.
People say ‘a house has to breathe.’ A house
doesn’t have lungs. Another word for ‘breathe’ is
leak. It’s all about air infiltration.”
Rye commended LMRE for conducting energy
audits using a blower door and an infrared camera to
detect air infiltration for members.
He said bills are 30 percent lower in homes with
cellulose insulation compared to
fiberglass. Cellulose insulation is
soundproof, bugproof and fireproof.
“Ever try to burn a Sears catalog?
Cellulose is recycled newspaper.”
He used an insulation demonstration
device with fiberglass insulation
on one side and cellulose on
the other.
He generated heat using a 100-
watt incandescent light and a small
fan. Within seconds, air moved
through the fiberglass insulation
and floated a ping-pong ball to the
top of a tube. On the cellulose side,
the ping-pong ball never budged.
Thermometers showed the temperature
of the fiberglass insulation case
rose 20 degrees inside of 10 minutes
while the cellulose thermometer
moves less than one degree.
Rye’s presentation was paid for
by NuWool Insulation, a cellulose
insulation company.
If a home already has fiberglass,
he said it isn’t cost effective to
switch to cellulose. “Just caulk,
caulk and caulk.” He said homeowners
could add 12 inches of cellulose insulation
over the top of existing fiberglass insulation.
Rye said when buying windows, the U-Value
should be less than .31. “The lower the U-Value the
better,” Rye said.
He recommends people convert to compact fluorescent
lights. He showed the lights that LMRE sells.
“They are guaranteed for nine years. When the bulb
burns out you will have saved $40. That’s 500
pounds of coal at the power plant. If you do four
bulbs, that saves a ton,” he said.
“Regardless of your income or your situation,
there is something you can do to help you save energy
at your home.”
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