I'm In The Local Press!
Sunday, November 29, 2009 at 1:27PM From the Tempe insert in the Arizona Republic:
Want a few good tips to save money on your monthly utility bill? Tempe resident Jay Fretz has some useful tricks up his sleeve and he’s on a mission to share what he knows, often at no charge, through his new consulting businesses called “Home Energy Xperts.
“If someone is interested in making their home more efficient, they don’t have to buy a new air conditioner, there are small steps we can all take,” said Fretz, who holds a day job at a Tempe structural engineering firm. “Sometimes it’s as simple as cleaning things, cleaning filters, cleaning the coils on the refrigerator, things like that. There are no-cost steps that can be taken. Or, you can go whole hog and go all out and totally upgrade everything.”
Tempe resident Karen Stucke-Jungemann was curious when she heard Fretz refer to “energy vampires,” and agreed to design a new logo for Fretz’ business if he’d come inspect her home; she wanted to know how many of these “vampires” were living in her house, built in 1967. “Even though we have an ‘extremely low electric bill’ in his words, he was still able to give us advice. And we did install more insulation this fall. It was less than a month ago so we haven't measured the benefit yet. One quality of life benefit is that we think we have less airport noise! We live near University and Hardy in Tempe,” Stucke-Jungemann saidAlthough a handful of area businesses offer a similar service known as an energy audit, Fretz is hoping to provide a much less involved, less expensive option for people who can’t afford the $250-$500 charge for a full-blown energy audit. For Fretz’ in-home energy inspection and detailed report, he charges around $50, but much of his advice is free. “What I’m trying to do is carve out a niche below (the energy audit) that looks at the really low-hanging fruit, from light bulbs and turning things off, behavioral changes, to maybe putting weather stripping around doors and things like that,” he said. “Everything on the website is free, anybody who wants to email me and ask me questions or give me a call and ask me some questions about things they could do, steps they could take, to make their home more efficient, I am totally willing to give that advice free of charge.”
JoAnne Smith had Fretz inspect her Chandler home and learned a handful of new things, including how to use the SRP website to evaluate her energy usage.
“I have replaced light fixtures in my three bathrooms so I can use fluorescent bulbs and I rearranged the plugs on my computer and related equipment on two power strips so I can completely turn off the equipment that does not need to be plugged in all the time,” Smith said. She’s also planning to have a timer installed on her electric water heater.
Toilets are also on the checklist.
“I also try to let people know about the rebates that are available. In Tempe for instance, there’s a rebate of 50% of the cost of a new water-efficient toilet, up to $75. So you could buy a $150 toilet at Home Depot or Lowe’s and you get $75 back from the city of Tempe to do that. That might be enough to push somebody over the edge; they might say, ‘well, this toilet kind of leaks or it’s not the right color,’ or something like that and maybe this is the final straw that (makes them realize), ‘oh, I didn’t realize I as wasting 10,000 gallons of water per year. I’m going to go ahead and take care of that.’"
Thanks to Nancy for writing a thorough and accurate article about my business.