American Energy Dependence

They say Americans are energy dependent. I never believed it until I spent a year in China. There, I could walk to the store, the bar, jump in a cab and for $3 head across to the other island and get a nice dinner. I'm not saying it was a perfect situation, and the China is the model we all should follow. I am saying that in a year I spent $10 on gas. 2 weeks in the US I spent $200. 

So I started reading about energy and energy dependence. Turns out here in Las Vegas, where our state appliance is the air conditioning unit, the second most expensive thing you pay for is the electrical bill (the first is your mortgage). Why? Because most of the homes built here in the last decade suck. They are built to the "code minimum" which is the lowest possible level the contractor has to build to. This presumably gave them the highest possible return on investment (ROI). This combined with the lowest bidder phenomenon, sub-contractors who under bid the job so much that all potential profit margin disappeared with the first mishap, has resulted in seriously deficient houses.

Who's paying for it? You are. First you're stuck with an overpriced mortgage. What? You owe $400,000 and the house that got foreclosed on across the street just sold for $150,000? You're house, with the same floor plan, the same sized garage, the same cute little corner unit, is now worth $150,000. It sucks. I get it. Your reaction is to say screw it, I'm not going to do anything to fix up my house until I figure out what's going on with the housing market. A new granite countertop isn't going to add $250,000 to the price of your home. There's nothing wrong with that, it's silly and stupid to pay for something that isn't going to be worth it down the road.

My father-in-law has a theory on making money. It basically goes, "you can either make a boat load of money or save a boat load of money". Essentially, even if you're making more money than Bill Gates, but your spending it at the same rate as you're making it, you're still going to be poor when the first financial hurdle comes up. The best policy to the road of riches, the sweet moment of your life when your money is working for you, and all those beautiful little green pieces of paper have babies and now you have more little green pieces of paper, and you get to become a member of the do nothing club, is spend less and save more.

How does energy savings equate into this? Simple, for $10 and 2 hours of your time you can cut 10% off your energy bill... summer/ winter, all year around. How? Spray some foam into the perimeter of your electrical box and seal it from drafts. If you have cold and drafty rooms find out why. If you're still within the warranty period for your house the builder will fix any deficiencies you find. 

Anyways, this is my first post. More to follow as I find the deep, dark, dirty secrets of the home building boom. My company, Fix Electric, is now offering free thermal audits of your home. I can show you where all the those cute little dollar bills are blowing out of your house. Stop the madness! Stop sacrificing your hard earned money! Give them a chance to grow up and have babies, and re-populate your bank account!