 Think Tech Hawaii program code. I have a very, very special guest this morning or this afternoon, Chelsea Harder, president of Pono Homes. What in the world is Pono Homes? Chelsea is gonna tell us all about it and it's just wonderful and wonderful work that her and her staff are doing. But first let me set the stage a bit. I am with the Hawaii State Energy Office and our goal is 100% lean energy by the year 2045, which is not all that long from now. And I was talking to a conservative guy not long ago and he was arguing against wind and against solar and saying, no, oil is the only way to go, oil and the fossil fuels. And a point that he made that I took pretty seriously was the fact that if we go all renewables plus efficiency, we're gonna need hundreds and hundreds of thousands. This is worldwide of solar panels and those use a whole lot of different minerals including rare earth minerals and tens of thousands of giant, giant wind machines primarily out in the ocean. And they are made out of special composite materials, again, rare earth and it got me to thinking just efficiency plus wind plus solar, that is not enough. We need to do resource efficiency also just in the humble example of a home. If it's beginning to have all kinds of problems, why not really fix up that home, make use of all that wood, all that concrete, all that metal that went into making the home and extend its life another 10, 20, 30 years? Resource efficiency, which is a good read-in to Chelsea's talk. This is Pono Homes and you know what? Chelsea, I am not gonna spoil anything for you. I'm gonna let you tell your own story. So take it away, Chelsea. Ah, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here, Howard on Think Tech. And like Howard said, I am president of Pono Homes. We are an energy efficiency company that focus on getting ourselves to our 100% clean energy goal and through single action. So a lot of times we hear those kinds of stories like how we're just told, you know, what can you do to transition to clean energy? And it really starts with the individual. So we help people by doing the dirty work in their home to help be more efficient. So if we could bring up the first slide, please, Hailey. So Pono Homes, we do in-person home energy audits and retrofits for Hawaii residents. So we'll have some of our technicians go into people's homes and they will identify opportunities for energy efficiency. That will mean installing LEDs, water fixtures like faucet aerators, high efficiency shower heads, advanced power strips or timers to help offset energy use and other things like cleaning vents and fridge coils. So like I said, we'll go into your home and really help identify those opportunities and do the dirty work to help you save energy and money. So the value in this service is not just a one-time savings. It gives cumulative savings over a number of years. You see some of the stats on the screen there. We serve 13,000 homes and saved on energy bills. This times those by 10 and it really adds up. So if we can sweep across all homes in Hawaii, we can really make an impact. And we do this through in partnership with Hawaii Energy and the County of Kauai. So in talking about traditional in-home services, we have a technician go face-to-face that's a little bit scary during COVID. So what we've done, which I'll talk a little bit about later is developed a self audit and a virtual audit where people, if they have high-risk individuals in their home can empower themselves to do these same services for their home. Next slide please. So why are we doing this? Like Howard said, we're really, really dependent on fossil fuels here in Hawaii. We spend a lot of money on them. You'll see some of the stats there. I'm not gonna repeat them. And 80% of our energy comes from oil. So how do we transition out of that? It's not only expensive, but it's dirty. And energy efficiency is the easiest, most cost-effective way to help achieve our goal of 100% clean energy. So there are other efforts that have to go in tandem with that. But as an individual, this is what we can all do and we can start by getting your home service by putting a home. It also, it really provides economic relief during these challenging times for everyone. So this is kind of a win-win. Next slide please. So these photos kind of give you a snapshot of what our service looks like. We work with the homeowner or renter and walk through the home to identify these opportunities and install these measures with folks so they can know, ah, this particular LED, I want this size, I want this brightness. We'll work with you on that because we wanna make sure that, you know, you're living the way you want to but that you're the most energy efficient possible. And then through the self-audit, so we've developed an online platform, a native web application where people can go online and kind of go through our checklist and be able to say, okay, this is the lighting portion of my home, I'm going to go through and install these measures. I have this installation guide from Pono Home and so on and so forth with water measures, cleaning filters, things like that. So it really helps people take matters into their own hands. So for those that are really self-sufficient and say, I can do this all on my own with a checklist, that's great. They can do the self-audit option. For those that say, oh, I kind of want some help because I don't exactly know what I'm doing. We have a virtual audit where someone from our organization will be online or on the phone, just like this on Zoom and we'll walk through their home with them and be able to say, see that fixture here, this is how you would switch it out. So we are now piloting this on the County of Kauai. We started over the summer and by next month, we will have served over 100 homes and the County of Kauai generously offered $150 worth of energy efficiency items. So they're seeing a ton of savings and I'll give you some stats on that in a little bit. But if we can go to the next slide and show you a little bit about what the web app looks like. So you'll see here, homeefficiency.com that is part of Pono Home. So these, I put three snippets here where you can see this guided self audit through the web application. And we get really specific with our measures because sometimes when there's kind of blanket statements, it's easy to get overwhelmed. So we'll walk you through step by step. And then once you have selected what items you want and if there's challenges, you can always look through the video and say, oh, this is how I install my faucet aerator. Then you will submit your request to us. If you're on Kauai, you'll be eligible to get $150 worth of items through County of Kauai. And then we are looking to implement this more broadly throughout all the Hawaiian islands. Okay, next slide. So these are some stats where in Kauai, we've saved over $37,000 per year on energy bills. So over 10 years, you just times that by 10, it gets to be a lot of great cumulative savings for people. 81,000 kilowatt hours per year we save and over a million gallons of water and 141,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. So if you want, you can go to homeefficiency.com slash kauai impacts to see this. And like I said, we're looking to scale this broadly because people are really happy with the results they're getting. However, we are still servicing homes through in-person, face-to-face. Our technicians have very strict COVID protocols. So they have the face mask, they don't touch anything that they don't need to, they have gloves and shoe covers. So we're really making sure that people feel safe when we're going through their home because economic relief is really important, not only just in the long run because Hawaii has a high cost of living, but really especially because of COVID, we're looking to make sure that people are not spending money on something they don't have to, like electricity if they can switch over just some measures. Okay, last slide. Thank you. Yeah, very simple. Why do we do all this? Because there's no plan B. I know there's a lot of, you know, SpaceX excitement from some communities, but really we need to cherish this island earth that we have. And I think Hawaii is in a really great position to be leaders in, you know, where we live in a closed system, where we can be leaders in sustainability because the impacts of our actions really are affected quickly and we have really strong communities where we can band together and really move this forward. We were the first to have our aggressive 100% clean energy goals. So I think with the help of other organizations and, you know, the great state energy office that Howard works for and policy, we can really get there. So we're happy to provide this small part in achieving our goals. Thank you, Chelsea. You know, we had a question. What excuses do you get to not retrofit the home for efficiency? Ah, that's a great question. I think everybody's really busy. I think they say, I don't have time. I've been meaning to do it or I don't quite understand what this means. And then some people will have maybe they're proactive and go out to Home Depot and get all these items themselves. And then they say, I haven't gotten around to it. So I think people really have great intentions and I think that the lifestyles that we have are very busy. So that's kind of the roots of why this company was developed in 2014 was like, hey, we can easily do that. This is something that, you know, we've lived in breathe and if we can make it easier on people to be able to provide the service, we are happy to. Thank you. Thank you, Chelsea. And you mentioned Hawaii leading the way in clean energy, which indeed we do. I used to go to mainland conferences, real life conferences with real life people at them. What a concept. And inevitably I would find the people look to Hawaii for leadership. And within Hawaii of all the islands, it's Hawaii that is really and truly leading the way. There are times when Hawaii is able to shut down all of their power plants and run a combination of efficiency because that brings the demand down plus the renewables that they have there. And on that very, very cheery note, we need to take a break for one minute. Sink Tech Hawaii code green Josie Harder back in a minute. Hi, I'm Rusty Kamori, host of Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. I was the head coach for the Punahou Boys Varsity tennis team for 22 years and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. My show is based on my book also titled Beyond the Lines and it's about leadership, creating a superior culture of excellence and finding greatness. I feature a wide range of amazing guests who share valuable insights about how going beyond the lines leads to success in everything you do in life. I'm looking forward to you joining me every Monday at 11 a.m. Aloha. Good afternoon again, Howard Wick with Josie Harder, president of Honohomes. We've covered a lot of ground and we do have a question for you, Josie. What are the biggest barriers you see to Hawaii attaining 100% clean energy? And we already know you're doing all you can to alleviate that problem. Right, so building on the, so again, assuming out from the residential perspective, I think if we look at the whole system of folks that are working on this tirelessly in Hawaii, I think sometimes policy is a challenge and I think that's why the 100% clean energy goal was really pushed forward because we need something to anchor to and something to keep us accountable. And there are a lot of great people in Hawaii who are so committed to this. And I think with policy, they're constantly working to develop these to help us transition. So I think another challenge is that we are stuck in a system where we're very dependent on oil. So this system was developed when Hawaii first got electricity. We're one of the first states in the nation with Yolani Palace. And back then, oil was cheap, it was easy. We didn't know how dirty it was. And I think changing systems is really hard, but we're all really working towards that. And then cost. Sometimes it is a lot more expensive to invest in renewable energy. I think we touched on energy efficiency is very cheap, but it can only go so far. And then Hawaii energy is really doing such a fabulous job in cutting our emissions with different programs. So yeah, I think those three things, policy, money and recreating a system for renewables. And you mentioned Hawaii energy, Telsie. Can you elaborate a bit about what the relationship between Pono Homes and Hawaii energy is? Sure. And I think, you know, for anybody who's watching Think Tech, I'm sure they're very aware of Hawaii energy's work. They're the energy efficiency program for Honolulu, Maui and Hawaii counties. And then there is Kaua'i County, which is a co-op. So everybody working on energy efficiency together. So what we do is we are one of their channel partners. So we work directly with them to get households on board with our services to sign up. And then we connect with them in addition to going into their home and retrofitting, we also offer them Hawaii energy appliance retrofits. So if they have an old refrigerator, they can work with Hawaii energy. And switch that out in other larger appliances as well. Now the refrigerators may be the most dramatic example. I know the rebate amount changes over time, but when I last looked at refrigerators, I think the rebate amount was $150. Plus, if they're still doing what they used to do, they would deliver the, or have the new refrigerator delivered for free at no cost. And then they would haul the old refrigerator out, again, at no cost. And they wanna make sure to haul that old refrigerator out so you don't put it in the garage for your fishing and your beer. And sometimes when you're in a hardware store, you'll find that LED lamps are inexpensive. And that's because Hawaii energy is subsidizing that cost. They should have a little sign there, saying compliments of Hawaii energy, but often they don't. On the subject of efficiency, I like to define efficiency simply as doing more with less. And the easiest example of that is some of you are old enough to remember what an incandescent lamp was. And the Latin word for white hot heat is, incandescer. I once had a state senator measure the temperature of an incandescent lamp. I used to take it around, take them around as samples and burn socks with incandescent lamps. He came up with 465 degrees. Most, that's heat, not light. Most of that was utterly, totally wasted. You know, oh, maybe I'll let you do this example. Chelsea, if you remove a 100 watt incandescent to get the same amount of lumens, the same amount of light with an LED, how many watts would you need? Putting you on the spot here. Thank you. I believe 10, but don't quote me on that. So what I understand from incandescent is that they are 90% inefficient. So they're actually heat producers and their secondary services providing light. So like you said, there's no question as to why you should switch over. And I'll have to look up that exact number. No, I'll give you a hint. The ratio is about 10 to one. You can remove 100 watt incandescent, replace it with a 10 watt LED and you've got the same amount of light. And an LED after, you know, it's been burning for hours and it's just warm. It's producing almost all heat or almost all light. And speaking of which, some people are still saying, oh, I don't like LEDs because they are harsh and they're glaring. You can get any, you can get LEDs. And I think you probably offer this in any flavor you want now. Really, really warm, soft light, medium light, blue light and so forth. The more blue it is, the more intense, the look of the light. Efficiency has an economic investment. Let's say you took out that 100 watt incandescent, put in a 10 watt LED. How are you at numbers, Chelsea? I was going to put numbers back. I can put them out if you want. Well, let's say take out a 100 watt incandescent screw in a 10 watt LED. You're saving 90 watts. You burn that light for 1,000 hours a year. You're saving 90,000 watts, which is 90 kilowatt hours, which is times three, just from that one little light, you're saving $30 a year, based on 30 cents a kilowatt hour. And you paid, say, five or $6 for that LED light. And you say, oh, that's so expensive. First year savings, $30, is that? Well, it's an LED. That's all about, yeah, yeah. And then they last, at that rate, they last for like 15 years. So that's just a dramatic example of what efficiency does for you. And all of the items that you mentioned are late likewise, super, super, super efficient. And Howard, I'd love to go back to your point before about LEDs offering different watts and different size. So we, like, let's say we go to a house that has a chandelier and they're really interested in maintaining the aesthetic of that. So we'll make sure that we match their light, the shape of it, and the warmth with that. So we definitely want to work with the homeowner to make sure that it's always an upgrade, not a downgrade. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And just to speak in your chandeliers, the lamps that go in there are called the candelabra lamps, generally. They're skinny and the base is quite small and you screw them in. I recently did an unscientific survey and found that even the candelabra lights yield 80 lumens per watt. And the typical incandescent light, well, if it was that small, it would yield about 10 lumens per watt. So even with a candelabra, you're saving by a factor of 10 to one. And again, you do get any flavor that you choose. If we want, we can go to slide four again just to kind of speak to that point. So if you look on the left, we have on our native web app, and I'm sorry if it's a little bit small, but you have the different types of light. That's just a snapshot. There's about nine of the different ones that you can choose from. So we look for indoor, outdoor light, different globe-shaped things like that. So we'll make sure that, like I said, people get the right one. Similarly with water fixtures, if you look at the shower head, if you used to a handheld one, we'll make sure you get a handheld one when you switch out to high efficiency. I also want to mention that a lot of people think high efficiency shower heads are low flow. They're just more highly aerated. So you still get the same pressure and the same experience. It's just air mixed with water and it's still invigorating and you're not gonna downgrade into something that doesn't give you as much pressure. I think the technology since it first came out has really changed and it still offers that. And you mentioned one of the items that you offer are power strips. And before you describe what a power strip is, why it's important, I will say that the two huge users in homes in Hawaii homes used to be the resistance water heater. Those are gone because we all have heat pumps or solar water heating and the refrigerators and 20 year old refrigerator of a certain size would consume about 1400 kilowatt hours a year, get the same size refrigerator now with all the bills and whistles, 400 kilowatt hours a year. From men to savings, just from efficiency. But in our closing minute or so, can you describe why power strips are so important? Well, power strips are important because a lot of times we have appliances plugged in and they will pull voltage out of the wall and cause you, we call it a vampire load. So it'll suck the energy out of the wall and when you're not even using it. So the advanced power strip, you can plug that in and plug your TV, DVR, whatever you have into that power strip and you can make sure that it is not drawing power when you're not using it. So it's pretty handy. Yeah, and the more and more gadgets, electronic gadgets that we have in our home, the greater the percentage of total energy you say the account for. You go into a commercial building now and up to 30% of the energy used in a commercial building is called other because it's all those electronic gadgets. And when you leave the office for at the end of the day, a lot of those things may still be on and drawing considerable power. So the idea there in the commercial sector is to get those darn things off. So same principle with residential things, yeah. That's exactly. Yeah. And again, I wanna emphasize that Hawaii is leading the nation in efficiency. We're ahead of anybody else, even a super, super efficient state like California. And people like you, Chelsea, are the big reason why we are attaining our goals. And we are looking at the 100% clean energy goal. It looks like we may finish ahead of schedule at the rate we're going because of like you and technology is improving so, so, so, so rapidly. I gave you the example of LEDs. And then on a very cheery note, the cost of solar is coming down, the cost of wind energy is coming down. They exceed, they're much cheaper than coal energy right now. So there is with all the doom and gloom out there in the world, there is definitely, definitely cause for optimism. So on that very cheery note, you have a little parting phrase here, Boris Chelsea. Oh, did you contact information in the last slide? Pardon, did I give you what information? Contact, oh, yes, if you want to contact us, please, please email us at OatPonaHome.com. So I-N-F-O-A-T-P-O-N-O-H-O-M-E.com and we'll be happy to speak to you about our different services. And I think, you know, parting words is that we're all in this together. We're so grateful to have partners like you, Howard and ThinkTech and Hawaii Energy County of Kauai and all the folks that are working towards this goal and something we're really grateful for is the communities here in Hawaii as well. So thanks everyone for charging on and I'm really confident that we're gonna meet our goals. Thank you for having me today. Thank you, Chelsea. It's been a great, great pleasure. And on that very cheery note, farewell from ThinkTech Hawaii, cold green. See you later.