 Well, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our quarterly, our second quarterly event. So my name is Tamara Warren. I'm actually a member of the City of Columbia's Climate Protection Action Committee, and we welcome you to this event, which is entitled Energy 101, Keeping it Cool, Columbia. So today we have the great opportunity of hearing from subject matter experts as well as agencies that are gonna give you tips and resources for keeping cool this summer. We know we are in the midst of the warmer seasons, and it may be a little bit challenging for some of you residents getting an understanding of the best ways to stay cool in an affordable way. And so we hope this evening you will have the opportunity to hear from, again, those experts in those agencies that can let you know the most affordable ways in which you and your family and your friends can stay cool. And so first up, we actually have another member of CPAC who is Bob Petruis, who is gonna tell you about affordable appliances that you can purchase or even look into to help you and your family stay cool in your homes. It's getting hot outside. It's definitely time to buy an air conditioner. So many choices. What would be the best for you? What about installation? How much will it cost to run? Here's what we'll cover today in air conditioning 101. Choosing the right type of unit for your window. Getting the right size of air conditioner enough to cool your place but not oversized. Installing your new air conditioner and keeping cooling costs down. There are lots of air conditioners. What kind will be best for you? Well, the first question to answer is, what kind of windows do you have? The most common kind of window has a lower and upper sash and the lower sash slides up. This is called a double hung window. Most window air conditioners are made to fit this kind of window. If you have windows that slide to the side or that swing out, you'll have to make sure that whatever you buy will work in that situation. A standard air conditioner like this one will fit most double hung windows. These are fairly easy to install and are usually the least expensive option. One type of AC unit that will work with just about any openable window is called a portable air conditioner. This kind sits on the floor and can be rolled from room to room. It uses an exhaust hose to send hot air and moisture out of the room. You'll need to purchase the hose and fitting for your window separately. Air conditioner cooling power is rated in BTUs. A unit with more BTUs will cool a larger space but it will also take more power to run and will increase your electric bill. There are three things to consider when choosing the right size of air conditioner. How much space do you need to cool? How many people will typically be in the space? And what kind of cooking do you like to do? A rule of thumb is that you'll need about 20 BTUs of cooling power per square foot of space. So if you're in a 250 square foot or smaller studio apartment, a 5,000 BTU unit should be plenty. On the other hand, a 750 square foot apartment would need about 15,000 BTUs of cooling power. In some cases, it might make sense to have more than one unit, maybe one in the living area and one in the bedroom, for example. Another consideration is when you do and how many people are living in the space. The 20 BTU per square foot rule of thumb applies to a place with two people. For every additional person, you should add 600 BTUs. And if you do a lot of heat-generating cooking, you might need to add an additional 4,000 BTUs just for that. So here's an example of how to figure how much cooling power you need. Suppose you, a partner and a child live in a 600 square foot apartment. You keep afternoon cooking to a minimum and seldom use the oven. So a 600 square foot space will need 12,000 BTUs to cool it. And since there are three people living in the space, add 600 BTUs. You don't cook a lot in the afternoon, but do some. So we'll add 2,000 BTUs to account for the heat generated by your stove. That totals up to 14,600 BTUs, so you will want to find an AC unit with at least that number. An option would be to purchase two smaller units, one for the living area and another for the bedroom. If you're handy with a screwdriver, you should be able to install one of these units yourself, although you might need some help lifting it into the window opening. Many contain everything you need to install them, but in some cases you might need to purchase support brackets separately. You'll also want to give some thought to making sure the window is secure to prevent someone outside from forcing it open. Depending on your window and AC unit, you might also need to install a drain hose to keep condensation from dripping onto wood trim, which could cause it to rot. Make sure you have a three-prong electric outlet close to where you will install your unit. You want to be able to plug it directly into the outlet. If you have problems with it tripping your electrical breakers, you will need to take other appliances or lights off of that circuit. In extreme cases, an electrician might be needed to upgrade your house wiring, although that would only be needed in older houses, probably. Be sure the electrical outlet is close to the air conditioner. Never use an extension cord with an AC unit because the cord can overheat and start a fire. Ah, your new air conditioner is installed and running and you're feeling cooler already. But how much is it going to increase your electric bill? In general, the more BTUs, the more it will cost to run, but there are some other things that will affect your bill as well. Efficiency will make a big difference in the long run. Efficiency means how much electricity it takes to cool your place. When you go to the store to compare models, you'll see an efficiency number called an EER on a big yellow label on the box. That number probably will be somewhere between eight and 12. The unit with a higher number is more efficient and more efficient means less expensive in the long run. More efficient units often cost a little more upfront, but will save you money on your monthly summer electric bills. Suppose a unit with an efficiency rating of nine costs $50 per month to run. A similar unit with an EER of 10 will cost only 45. After a few months, you will have recouped the extra amount it cost and then the savings start to mount up. Here are a couple of other things you can do. If you have ceiling fans, use them when your AC is on. They will help to circulate the cool air around more evenly. If you're in an apartment with more than one room, keep the doors between rooms open while you're running the AC so that the whole place stays cool. If there are any cracks around windows or doors that allow outside air to come in, see if you can seal them up. That'll help in the winter too. Once a month, clean the coils, fins and filters according to the instruction manual. Doing that will keep your unit running as inexpensively as possible and will help it last longer as well. Keep cooking to a minimum, especially the oven and especially in the late afternoon when it's warmest outdoors. And of course, use the warmest comfortable temperature setting. The AC will run less and cost less if you keep the thermostat at 78 compared to say 74. But everyone is different, so if you needed a little cooler, that's fine. So remember, get the right unit to fit your window. Choose a unit that has enough cooling power, 20 BTU per square foot of space in your house. Make sure that your unit is installed purely, properly drained and that the electrical outlet is safe. Minimize air leaks, keep the coils and filters in your unit clean and run your ceiling fan for comfort and energy savings. Thanks for watching Air Conditioning 101. I hope you've learned a few things that will help you keep cool and save money. Wishing you a cool and comfortable summer. Back to you, Tamara. Well, thank you, Bob. And hopefully the resources that Bob provided will be very helpful, even not just for those of you who are living in apartment spaces, but even in other homes or other areas. And so definitely do a little research to see ways in which you can actually purchase those inexpensive and affordable appliances and make them helpful for your individual living spaces. And so now what we're gonna do is reach out to some of our agencies and hear about the resources and information that they can provide to help us stay cool in our individual areas. And first up, we're gonna be hearing from Natasha Pauling, who is with the South Carolina Association of Community Action Partnerships Community Resources. And she's gonna be talking about weatherization assistance programs that she and her colleagues have oversight over. So Natasha, the floor is all yours. Good evening and thank you so much for having us here. I was really looking forward to having an opportunity to address the people of the city of Columbia about our program. I think this is our second time at the table. So that's going to be great. And I forgot to start my video. And sorry about that. And I think this is our second time having an opportunity to present. Unfortunately, our weatherization personnel couldn't be here today because of training, but I'm here, public information officer. And if you have any questions that I can address, I'll be happy to take them back to them and then share the answers with the city of Columbia so they can let you know on the website what those answers are. So let's proceed with our presentation. See the screen share and here we are. The people at Chesapeake or Marlboro EOC were kind enough to allow me to use their weatherization assistance program presentation. And so we'll move from there. The mission of weatherization is to reduce energy costs for low-income families, particularly for the elderly, people with disabilities and children, while ensuring their health and safety. In fact, our programs always focus on those particular groups, people who are elderly, people with disabilities, and people who have children in the home. Our focus as community action, of course, is on families who are living in poverty. And so you do have to meet some income guidelines in order to be eligible for the program, which will be listed a little bit later in the slideshow. And here they are. A household's income must be at this time below 200% of federal poverty guidelines to qualify for assistance. And so you can see that for a family of one, that would mean $2,146.67 monthly or $25,760 annually, whereas for a family of four, that would be $4,416.67 monthly or $53,000 annually. As I stated before, these are the categories of the people that we have, the disabled, the elderly, households with children under age 17 or age 17 and under, those who have a high energy burden and those who are high energy users. And these are the points they're used to determine which weatherization projects that our agencies take on. Unfortunately, this is not an entitlement program. And so when the funding is gone for that particular quarter or that particular year, the funding is gone. And so say for instance, if you had a disabled person in the home who's also elderly and you're living in a multi-generational household, and so perhaps you have grandparents who are taking care of kids or grandparents who are living in the same household with their children and their grandchildren, that household also has a high energy burden and they're a high energy user. That family would have 100 points and so they would certainly be very high on our list to serve in the Weatherization Assistance Program. And so if not, then they place them on a waiting list according to the amount of points the application received and they get to them when they have an opportunity. What they do is they perform a home energy audit. A home energy audit includes a comprehensive assessment of the current condition of the home. And so they determine, what's happening in your home right now? Why are you losing so much energy? Why are your energy costs so great? An assessment can take several hours to complete. They do what's called a blower door test and where they put the blower to the doorway and they determine exactly how much energy is leaking out of various surfaces within the home and they have a reading of that energy leakage. So the Autonomous System in determining energy conservation measures that can reduce the home's energy usage and a home cannot be weatherized unless it's been assessed because those are requirements under the federal guidelines. So they examine the building shell, the heating and cooling systems and appliances. They test combustion appliances for safety and efficiency, say for instance, your stove or your water heater may use a combustion device. Determining existing insulation levels such as in your attic, it may not be adequate. Measuring air leakage, metering electrical appliances, evaluating moisture and other health hazards, interviewing the residents about how to use energy. What total area is in the home? You may have a home where this particular room is a lot colder than the other rooms are in the wintertime or this particular room is a lot hotter than the other rooms in the summertime and health issues that may be connected to the indoor environment such as asthma. So here's the home energy audit that I was telling you about. Measuring the air leakage. Air leakage occurs when outside air enters a home and condition air leaves the home through cracks and openings. Now our grandmothers would always say, look here, I'm not trying to air condition outside or I'm not trying to heat up outside because you're opening the door. Well, in many cases, even with the door closed, you are in fact air conditioning and heating up outside. So this is the Bloor door test that they use to determine the energy audit to determine a home's air tightness. Sometimes a home gets what's called a deferment. A deferral of a home may be necessary if there are enough health and safety issues that they cannot be reasonably addressed through weatherization. This doesn't mean that weatherization assistance won't be available to that home at all, but it has to be postponed until the problems can be resolved for alternative sources of help are found. And as a matter of fact, I was doing some of that earlier today. We had another program where we tell people about our assistance programs. So someone called in today and asked for help. And I was able to tell her, I'm not sure if our health and safety funding, because it's only a certain percentage of the weatherization, is going to be able to handle your problem. But here are some other resources, such as the housing trust and so on, where you may be able to get some health and safety issues in your home addressed. And then we can come through and do the weatherization as well. So we do use partners in other words. That may include that the client has known health conditions that prohibit the installation or installation of other weatherization materials. So they may have something where they're allergic to what we're going to install. Or in today's climate, they may have a person in the home who has COVID. That's a communicable disease. And so we're not able to enter the home at that time because the person has a communicable disease. The building structure or its mechanical systems, including electricity and the plumbing are in such a state of disrepair. They cannot be repaired reasonably within our budget. Or the house has been condemned or electrical heating, plumbing or other equipment has been red tagged by local or state building officials or utilities. Or moisture problems within the home are so severe they cannot be resolved through weatherization services. There can also be dangerous conditions that exist due to high carbon monoxide levels, due to combustion appliances, they also cannot be reasonably resolved. And those have to be addressed before we can send our personnel into the environment. The client can be uncooperative, abusive or threatening that does happen on occasion. It's rare, but it can happen. Toward the crew, subcontractors, auditors, inspectors or others who must work in or visit the house because we have to make sure that our crews are going to be safe. Also the extent and condition of lead-based paint in the house could potentially create further health and safety hazards if they're disturbed. Unfortunately, lead paint is one of those things where sometimes you have to let sleeping dogs lie because if you actually touch it and disturb it and start to make it chip up, then it can then cause the people within the home to have more illnesses than they would have by the lack of weatherization. There can also be illegal activities that are occurring in a dwelling unit. And if that's the case, we can't have any part in it. Here's the weatherization assistant, which is a tool that they use. It's an energy audit software tool developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory from the Department of Energy and Weatherization Assistance Program. Within this software are national energy audit tool for site-built single-family houses and the manufactured home energy audit for mobile homes. It is through NEAT and MHEA that recommended energy efficiency measures are identified. Now some typical measures that we undertake in the homes are to insulate attics, floors, walls, ducts and water heaters. We caulk and seal leaky windows. We weather strip exterior doors. We make sure that we air seal any penetrations that are occurring within the structure. We install exhaust vents. We replace light bulbs with CFL light bulbs. We install low-flow shower heads and install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors within the home. So it's comprehensive service. Air sealing. Here's the blower door reading before, 49.9. And here's the blower door after, 48. And the configuration was at 37.36. It's now down to 25.12, as you can see. So the air leakage is considerably lower than it was before. I mean, after services were given to the home. Now here's some of the air sealing work that's done. We actually go into homes and they have holes in the floors, in the walls and so on. And so sometimes we have to take care of that as well. Here's some of the duct sealing that can happen within the ventilation systems. And here's the result of duct readings, of duct ceilings rather. Here's the duct readings before sealing and here they are after sealing. And for this one, say for instance, we have 26.3, 21.4 and 21.2. Afterwards it goes down to 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. You can see what a vast difference that makes after duct sealing and how much energy could be saved simply by sealing up the ducts themselves. Now here's an attic that our people worked on as well. It had about three inches of weatherization that's not nearly enough to keep a home feeling comfortable. Here is the attic insulation after we're done. And it has eight inches of insulation instead. And so not only could you be heating up the outside, you could be heating up your ceiling as well or your attic as well where nobody's able to enjoy that. Now this one didn't have any insulation at all in the attic and we were able to then give it eight inches of insulation after weatherization. Also a common source that people don't consider is the attic hatch. You'll have this simple board in the ceiling to seal up the attic and you won't realize that, hey, there's no insulation on that whatsoever. And so the heating and the coal will be going directly up through that particular hole into the attic and you'll be trying to cool the attic or heat the attic all year and not even realize that's where a lot of your energy bill is going. And so we'll create a barrier that will keep the home feeling much better because you're no longer trying to heat and cool the attic as well. Here's a crawl space under the home before weatherization. It's a little bit of insulation, but it's not enough. And here's the crawl space after we're done. Here's another crawl space with no insulation whatsoever. And it looks like a big barrier was also not installed evenly. And so the vapor barrier keeps the moisture from getting to the home. And here's the crawl space after we finished our work. The water heater, insulation, a blanket can be placed onto an electric water heater only. A gas water heater is not allowed to have a blanket because it's a hazard, it could cause a fire. And here is window sealing. As you can see before, it just had these little parts on there and around the window it looked a little bit like the ceiling was coming off. And afterwards, everything was well insulated to the size of the air conditioners and also around here. A lot of times people will think that the sort of corrugated material that they have with air conditioners is going to be adequate to seal around them, but that's not always true. Oftentimes you have to do some supplemental work to make sure they're truly energy efficient. Here's a refrigerator replacement that we did. Went from a, as you can see, it's one of the home's biggest energy users. And so we looked at the kilowatts per hour per year on this refrigerator, the original one and replaced it with a new one. And so this home was able to be much more energy efficient just based on the refrigerator alone. Some more weatherization procedures are replacing the light bulbs, giving the home a smart thermostat, installing a low flow shower head, providing a six month filter supply so that the air conditioning system can run more efficiently or HVAC system rather. We also repair the through the wall hood range. As you can see, it looks like they had already possibly had a previous hood range and the wall was never repaired after it was replaced with something new. And so we were able to insulate that as well and fix the hole in the wall. Here's a health and safety issue. An ASHRAE fan, which was installed and vented through the roof to provide air ventilation for the home. So the switches set to automatically come on the specific time during a specific time period rather. And as you know, right now, this is a big deal because one of the ways that some airborne diseases such as COVID are spread is through the air. And so if you don't have adequate ventilation within a home, you can actually have family members who can track airborne diseases from one another. Here's a front door before and after. This is one of the ones they did on the mobile home. The porch couldn't be replaced because we didn't have a rehab program going at the time. But of course, we always notify the homeowners of rehab programs they can contact. And if they like to work with our personnel to do additional services and they can always help them contact someone else as well. But the door was replaced because it wasn't functional at that time from an energy perspective. We installed a smoke and carbon monoxide alarm and each weatherized home is given a smoke alarm for the living room and each bedroom. Here's a dryer vent from before and after. And here's the dryer vent pipe after. The flexible dryer vent pipes are replaced with rigid pipes to prevent airflow restriction because that wastes energy by increasing the drying time that your clothes have. And that also increases the lip buildup and the possibility of a dryer fire. And so it's also a health and safety issue within the home. In conclusion, the weatherization program is a program designed to reduce energy costs for low-income families before home can be weatherized and in-depth energy audit to assess the whole home as a system is conducted. The home energy audit identifies measures that will produce the highest energy savings for the home. And the weatherization assistance program does not make aesthetic changes to the homes however, the changes significantly affect the home by reducing energy usage, thereby reducing the client's energy bill. And again, my name is Natasha Pauling. I'm from the South Carolina Association of Community Action Partnerships. Thank you so much for listening about our weatherization program. We have a host of other programs that are designed to help people to raise their socioeconomic level. We would love for you to come into any of our offices. In the meantime, you can always reach us at 803-771-9404. That's 803-771-9404. You can also reach us on our website at www.scocap, S-C-A-C-A-P, .org, www.scocap, S-C-A-C-A-P, .org. Thank you very much and have a wonderful day. And thank you very much, but we actually have a question for you Natasha if you will be able to answer it really quickly. So thank you. The information was very helpful as well as being able to see the visuals, let us know the type of work and assistance that can be provided. But the question that we have is, is it better to insulate a crawl space or attic for energy efficiency? And so are you able to kind of speak to that really quickly? I would have to say that it's better to insulate them both because if you are losing energy through the ceiling, it's just as bad as losing energy through the floor. And vice versa. Well, thank you very much. And so next up, still looking at resources that are provided, we are going to talk to Ginger Greenway who is with Dominion Energy. And she is gonna let us know about the resources that are provided by our utility services. And so Ginger, you're up next. Okay, thank you so much. Can y'all hear me okay? Yes, ma'am. Okay. So glad to be here with you. And the first part of this is I'm gonna talk through some of the programs that we have for our residential customers. And then towards the end, I have some energy tips. And some of them have already been reviewed. And some of ours might have a little different twist on it. So I'll skip through any repeats, but I'll take a few minutes with those. So, and so Natasha is moving the slides for me. So Natasha, next slide please. And one more slide. Okay, so the first thing I'm gonna talk about, these are residential programs. And our programs that I'm specifically talking about in the energy conservation area, we are more focused on the electric side of conservation. Although with our home energy checkup, it's available to any of our customers, whether you have electric, electric and gas or gas only customers as well. Now for the installations that we do, those are only for the electric side of things, but we do a visual inspection. We conduct in a normal year, which of course this one has not been, we do about 3,500 visits a year. Since COVID last March, we started doing virtual visits and we've been conducting virtual visits all through the pandemic time. We started backing customers homes the 1st of April, but now we offer both because we understand that some customers aren't quite ready to get back with people in their homes yet. So we're still doing the virtual visits as well as an option. And we conduct those by phone and we use Microsoft Teams as it's very similar to Zoom. And so if a customer's interested in a virtual visit where they want to be able to show us things in their home, then we'll walk them through how to download the app. It's a free app. And then we can conduct the visit that way. So for our visit, we also install energy efficient measures. We install LED bulbs. And this slide, we've made some recent changes. So at least five, if you have still the old incandescent bulbs, but up to 15 bulbs. If you have an electric tank water heater, we will wrap your water heater for you. And then we'll also, if it's an electric water heater, we'll add pipe up to six feet of pipe insulation from the hot water leaving the water heater. And then we also have a low flow kitchen faucet aerator. Our customers are loving it. It doesn't seem like low flow and it swivels. So it makes sure if you have a standard kitchen faucet, it makes it much easier to use. These visits are available to customers whether you own or rent. It can be single family home. Really, if you're an electric residential customer, electric and gas residential customer, you can have our visit and we can do the installations for you. And then once the visits complete, we will send you a report with photos of what we feel like you need to focus on for your home. So we're not gonna have you going out and we're gonna focus on low cost, no cost things that you can do. And so for example, we're gonna take a look in your attic, let you know if you have an attic space available and we'll take a look in your attic and let you know what recommendations we have there to get you to the correct attic insulation level or caulking, weather stripping, those kinds of things. We don't actually do the caulking and weather stripping, but we'll give you kind of a play by play report so you can focus on the things that are gonna give you the biggest bang for your buck. We also are starting to offer more energy efficient installations for qualified customers. Once they complete the home energy checkup, this is a newer program. So I can't really give you all the details yet but by taking this first step, then we can see what you might be available or qualify for. And it could be some attic insulation, some weather stripping, some ceiling and things like that. But you have to do this visit first and then we'll let you know. Now in that program, the customer does pay some of the cost up to 25% of the cost. So we can tell you more about that if you're interested in the home energy checkup. So next slide, please. Okay, so the energy wise savings store. This is an online store that customers can purchase energy efficient products and the prices are really good. We run online specials all the time. You can either go on our website, that's the best way to go, dominionenergysc.com. You can see what's available out there. And again, like I said, we run specials all the time. You can also, if you're not comfortable on the website, you can call by phone and they can talk you through what specials are available and what might be available for you. So next slide. And appliance recycling. This is for customers that have that old inefficient refrigerator and are looking to replace it. And so we will remove that refrigerator, send you a check for $50 and then we'll recycle it responsibly. Next slide. Heating and cooling equipment. This is for customers that have central heating and cooling systems and it's time to replace. And so based on by purchasing or installing a more efficient unit and there are some guidelines around it. So if you get to a point where you've got to have a heating and cooling system replaced, check with us first to make sure that you're focusing on the ones that you may qualify for some rebates. And the rebates are up to $750. Next slide. And then also, and it's been mentioned a couple of times about the artwork. So having artwork sealed and insulated and replacements, there's rebates available for that. So anything you're doing like around your major appliances in your home and it's time to replace or repair, make sure you check and see what programs are available. The programs don't change real frequently but they do change and sometimes more rebates and bigger amounts are available. Next slide. Home Energy Reports. This is a program that is coming soon. So fall of 2021, this is where customers will be able to receive a report and it will give them, they'll fill out information specific to their own home. And so that way, then from that we'll have you in compare groups with customers that have similar homes, similar age homes, similar equipment in the homes. And then you'll get reports and you can put together kind of a plan so that you can focus on how you can lower your energy usage, which therefore lowers your energy cost. Next slide. Okay, so this is going into the tips for saving energy. So I'm gonna, there's a lot of slides. So I'm gonna try to go through these fairly quickly but hopefully I can give you enough information so I don't go too fast, so. Okay, so next slide. Where does your money go every month? Next slide. So, and this chart is an older chart but it still pretty much rings true. And so what we find is most of our customers spend, if you take your annualized bills for the year and you look at it that way, of course your bills I'm sure are higher in the hot summer months and the cold winter months. So if you look at your bills on an annualized basis, most of your dollars are going to heating and cooling your home. And if you can see there's that 29 and 13%. So it equates to almost half of what you're spending each year. This chart is based on a national chart. So we do know that probably our cooling is a little higher than sometimes than other parts of the country. And then your next biggest one is water heating and then appliances and lighting electronics behind that. Next slide. So one thing for you to understand is what is your base load power? So what are you spending each month that's not related to weather? So a good way, and this is something we can help you do if you have the home energy checkup is try to understand your base load power because until you really understand what you're doing, it's kind of hard to make the right adjustments to see the savings that you may wanna see. Next slide. And I think this was in somebody else's presentation, but basically this is a slide that kind of shows where you see the orange arrows going out. That's showing where air is conditioned air and the winter is leaking out. And then also you see where the arrows are going in is where cold air is coming in in the winter. So if you're, and the attic insulation is a really good example, we're gonna focus more on getting that attic with as much insulation. For our area, the recommended amount is a R38 or that's 12 to 14 inches for our service territory, the state of South Carolina, that's pretty much across our state. And we do find attics all the time that have little or very little insulation. This is one thing that people can do that can make a change fairly quickly. Again, when we're looking at homes, we're looking at what's gonna be your quicker return on your investment and attic insulation is a really good one. Ceiling the home tube, and that goes in with this. Next slide. Okay, so heating and cooling. Next slide, please. Again, sealing up your living space, caulk, weather strip around windows and doors, spray foam, pipe and wire penetrations. So you know, especially, I know I had an older home where when we first bought it, the pipes coming in under the sink in the kitchen had big gaps where you could just see there was nothing around those pipes, big holes there. So by taking spray foam, you can get it at most any hardware store, big box store, and you spray it, and then it hardens and it seals up those spaces. Again, if you have the home energy checkup, we can point these things out to you and kind of give you some guidance on how to take care of some of these things. Next slide. Back to the attic insulation. So this is an attic that's not really well insulated, but if you have little or very little, we do consider upgrading to go ahead and upgrade to the R38, 12 or 14 inches. Our building code currently right now in our state is R30, which is 10 to 12 inches of blown insulation, but we know that from the homes that we visit, especially if your home is 20 plus years old, this is probably an area that really probably needs some attention if it has not gotten any. Also remember, if you're storing things in your attic, if you're laying it on top of that insulation, you're compromising the effectiveness of that insulation. So that's another thing just to be aware of. If it's easier, sometimes for people that are doing it themselves, it's easier to complete it in stages and use bat insulation, which is the rollout insulation instead of the blown. Next slide. So one of the other things that really people can do, and I know there was, I saw the video about the air conditioning, window air conditioning, but really, and this is for winter. So let's, well for winter, it's 68 or lower. Let's skip that one since we're more into the summer and go to the next slide please. Okay, thank you. So with an electric heat pump, which is what a lot of our customers have if they have, this is for central units, and if you have electric sourced heat, you either probably have an electric heat pump or you might have an electric furnace. For an electric heat pump, this is one that when the air blows out in the winter, it's blowing out more of a, it's a cooler heat. It's not a hot heat, but then when the temperatures really drop, then it uses auxiliary heat as a backup. But for the air conditioner side of it, then it's gonna cool and you can move that thermostat. So next slide, trying to get to, let's skip over that one too, I apologize, and over that one too. And over that one. Okay, this is where I needed to be, I apologize for that. Okay, for the summer though, 78 or higher is the recommended for energy efficiency. And I know a lot of you are already saying that's just way too hot for me. I certainly understand. We know most of our customers keep their thermostat on 72 to 74, and that's what's comfortable. And this is for either you have a central unit or your winter unit. But the one thing I would just recommend trying is turn it up a few degrees when you're away. So even if you're comfortable setting is 74, turn it up to 76, 78 when you're away. If it's 78, cut it up a few degrees when you're away. And try it because especially in the South Carolina summers, it gets so hot that on those days when it's 100 degrees and the feels like temperature is even higher than that, these units are just gonna run continuously to try to get you to something close to those degrees. So just consider managing that thermostat is one of the things that we really taught the customers about if it's a windy unit, same thing, turn it up a little bit when you're away or if you're not using it right then. If you have a central system though and our climate with all the humidity that we have, we don't recommend just turning the unit completely off on those, when the temperatures are 80s and above. So because one of the other jobs of that unit is to pull the moisture from your home. And so if it's not doing that efficiently, then you could run into other issues. And I think this has already been mentioned, utilize fans so that you can raise the thermostat a little more and it doesn't really matter. It can be a ceiling fan, a box fan, oscillating fans. Those can help you be comfortable at a higher temperature. But remember, they don't actually lower the temperature in the home, but they can make you feel cooler. Next slide, please. And then this is for a central system, but if you look on the cooling side on the right, just look at what you keep your thermostat on now. And so if you're not keeping it on 78, you can look below that and see how much more that could increase your costs on the cooling side of your bill for that summer. So just be aware of it. And then another thing we suggest to customers sometimes is if say you're keeping your thermostat on say a 75 or 74, try raising it to 75, wait a couple of days, see if you can get comfortable with it, try raising it another degree. And if you're way lower than that, same thing. Next slide. This has been brought up a few times too. Check in dot work and filters and making sure the dot work is well-sealed and insulated. Check filters monthly, replace them when they're dirty. But if you are not running your system all the time, you might not need to change it every month, just check it. And if you have pets in your home, you may wanna open it up if you can and just vacuum it off. And that can help use that filter a little longer. Try not to block returns and then keep the dots and returns and filters clean. Next slide. The air conditioning, if it's an outside unit, keep the condenser cools cleaned, make sure you have at least two feet of clearance for ventilation. And this is one, keeping that shrubbery trimmed back can help that unit run more efficiently. And when possible, you wanna have it serviced at least once a year. Next slide. This is more for the winterizing. So, but what I will tell you a couple of things that's already been talked about for the units, it's really hard to winterize AC units in our climate because our temperatures change so much, but really making sure it's well-sealed, which was discussed earlier. And if you're able to upgrade to a newer unit, that can also really help. But as you can see, this one, it's not sealed around the windows. So this would, you'd be paying for the air to cool and it'd be going right back out the window. So, next slide. In the summer months, keep the direct sun out by closing the blind shades and drapes during the hottest part of the day. And because that radiant heat, no matter how good the windows are or not good, that heat's still gonna come through. Next slide. Water heating. Next slide, please. Water heating is about 13% of most of our customers usage. And so, one thing we do understand is that water heaters come from the manufacturer set at 130 to 140. So, one thing by just lowering that thermostat to 120, you can see a pretty good difference, especially if you have a lot of people in your household and you're having lots of showers and lots of laundry. Next slide. So this is what I was talking about. This is a water heater that insulated and the pipe was wrapped. And I did hear someone else say, so we don't wrap gas water heaters for safety reasons. Next slide. And so, this is actually a picture of the little faucet there. That's the little kitchen faucet air-raider that will add to a standard faucet and it actually swivels. And so, it's another way to save. Also, putting in low flow shower heads can also help. And then remember using vent fans to reduce heat and humidity in the summer. But remember like for shout for bathrooms and kitchens, you don't wanna leave those running all the time, especially if you're air conditioning your home because it takes out the moisture but it also takes out the conditioned air. So use those limitedly. Next slide. For lighting, next slide please. So for lighting, we're seeing, at least what we're seeing in our service territory is we do still see a lot of incandescent bulbs. We do see some customers that have compact fluorescent light bulbs but what we're installing is the LED bulbs. And so, and these have even more savings than the CFLs which are the little curly cube bulbs that were really popular a few years ago. And so, but then the LED bulbs, the costs have continued to come down. Those are also available on our online store. And again, we'll install them for you if you have a visit with us. And they last even longer than the compact fluorescence. Next slide. And this is just, so they also don't give off that heat. So if you've ever tried to change an incandescent bulb right when it was running and you didn't let it cool down, you might've gotten your hand burned. So that's still a problem. These use 75% less and they can be used anywhere an incandescent bulb is currently used. And really they can be used in more different fixtures because their wattage is lower. Next slide. This just shows a quick comparison of the different types of light. One of those is incandescent, one CFL and one's LED. Next slide. And that shows you where they are. And then you can see the wattage equivalents at the bottom. So to the far right, the incandescent bulb, that's a hundred white bulb. The CFL would be a 15 watt equivalent. And then the LED is a 10 watt equivalent. So you're using the 10th of the power that you would use with that incandescent bulb. Next slide. So just the good old fashioned tip of turn the lights off when you're not using them. And now there's also timers and smart plugs where you can control lights. So there's lots of neat technology that's out there and more to come. Things are changing really quickly. Next slide. So major appliances, and I'm just next slide please. So on the refrigerator and freezer, recommend the settings for the refrigerators 36 to 38, zero to five for the freezer. Make sure to check the condition of the seals and then clean the coals periodically. Another thing we see a lot of times when we go see customers, they'll have a freezer that's almost empty. So, or they'll have, you know, they're not really utilized and they might have a secondary refrigerator and it's not, so a fuller refrigerator is gonna work more efficiently. If you have a freezer section and you don't have much in it, consider putting some bags of ice or some jugs of water. That'll help it stay cold without working as hard. And then also, it can also help with sometimes when you, if your power goes out during some of these summer storms, it'll keep your stuff cold. Next slide. In the laundry room, washing full loads in cold water, trying to use that light, shorter light cycle. It helps to dry clothes one load after another and then clean the lint filter between cycles. And then avoid using the dryer in the hottest part of the day during the summer months to prevent unnecessary cooling. So those dryers add a lot of heat to if they're inside your home. And so that could cause your unit, your AC to come on a lot more. So just try to avoid that. We do get the question sometimes, is it more expensive for customers based on rates? But our rates stay the same throughout the 24-hour period. So that's not the reason. It's just you don't wanna add that additional heat to your home if you can avoid it. Next slide. Dishwasher, use a shorter light cycle, air draw setting when possible. Try with newer dishwashers, try not to pre-wash and then check the filter for blockages. Next slide. Electronics, another thing that we're seeing, of course, this is like your telephone. This is pretty much anything else we hadn't talked about. TVs, DVD players, set-top boxes, which are like your cable boxes, other home equipment, small appliances, et cetera. So next slide. So smart power strips, this is another thing that we're getting ready to introduce for the home energy checkup. So for customers that have already put in the LED lights, or they might have a small home office or they have some gaming equipment or other things like that, we'll install a smart power strip. What this does is, and you can choose, and some of those plugs will be where they never turn off, but then if there's other equipment that isn't always used, it'll shut it down if it hasn't been used in a while. So customers are really liking them, and these are also on our online store. Next slide. Stove and oven, just match the pot size with the burner, use lids, keep the burner pans clean if you have those, use glass or ceramic pans and you can lower the recommended temperature setting by 25 degrees. Try to keep the oven door closed. You'll lose heat from it and you'll also add more heat to your home. And then when possible, use the smaller appliances like a toaster oven or a toaster instead of heating up that whole oven for a smaller quantity. And then don't put foil on the oven racks covered up. They need to be vented so that the oven will work properly. But of course you could put the foil at the bottom to catch things. And again, this is another one that you don't wanna use during the hottest hours of the day in the summer months. Next slide. And I'm almost done, almost done. Here's a few more tips. Keep those interior doors open. I think someone else said that too to promote proper air flow. Any unused rooms, keep those vents open. We really don't like, we don't recommend closing those off because that central system is working together. Now, if you're air conditioning room separately with window units, that's a whole different thing. So yeah, close them off. But if it's a central unit, really try not to. Again, utilize fans for summer. The recommended is counterclockwise so it blows down on you but really remember that's a preference. Some people like them clockwise because it doesn't blow directly on you. It's the comfort for you. It doesn't really change the temperature so that's completely up to you. And then consider turning fans off when leaving the room since they don't actually make the room cooler. But if you're gonna keep your central system, thermostat at a higher setting, sometimes leaving fans running, they don't use as much energy as the central system and they can keep the air from filling the stale. Next slide. So our website is dominionenergysc.com. If you're interested in having home energy checkup, you can go there and easily sign up. It's a few questions and a click and you'll get a phone call to schedule a visit. Or you can call our customer service center at 877-510-7234. And this real quick is just kind of the impact of our energy efficiency of what we've saved. And so we've engaged, and this is a few years old so we're waiting on a new one that we've engaged over 150,000 customers and over 10,000 businesses. And so basically this is making a difference in changing the impact of not paying attention to the energy efficiency, what it could be. And I'll be glad to answer any questions. Thank you so much for your time. Well, thank you very much, Ginger. And again, thank you, Ginger and Natasha for those great resources that are provided by their individual agencies. And so next what we wanna do is talk to some individuals who are directly in a community working in different capacities, but today they're gonna be sharing about what they're able to provide with some of our elderly customer or our elderly residents as well as others. And so we're going to have the pleasure of talking to Officer Sumter as well as Sergeant Smalls about what the Columbia Police Department is able to provide. So Officer Sumter, I give the fourth floor to you. Thank you very much. Thanks for having us on to enlighten everybody about our program that we're offering with the community police department. Sergeant Smalls should be on also he's the supervisor in our unit. He's the supervisor over the resource officer's program, our ACE program, we stand for assisting Columbia's elderly and crime prevention. And in that unit, we do lots of different things, but we hear today talk about our cooling event where we supply our seniors with fans, air conditioners to help them keep cool for those who unfortunately aren't able to get these items for themselves. We assist them in getting those items and when it really didn't find those individuals then we can go out and deliver those items to them and hopefully help them keep cool and it's starting to get hot. So it's by time for us to start doing that. Sergeant Smalls can kind of elaborate more on what we are doing with that unit. Yes, and thank you again for having us. Great information from everyone today. So I'm gonna go over the eligibility requirements for this particular program. First of all, it's called Fanda Heat. It's been, we implemented this back in 1995. That was the first inaugural Fanda Heat program event. Since that point, we've assisted over 7,000 Columbia seasoned people. I don't like to say elderly, I'll say seasoned folks. And the eligibility requirements are essentially if you're 55 and older, if you do meet that prerequisite, you must provide, all you need to provide is a good contact number, a good address and we'll contact you to provide you with that assistance. And oftentimes, we have that luxury and like I also stated, some people don't have that item, particularly during the summer months here in Columbia, South Carolina, where we know if we're being famously hot, some people don't have that access to that air that they so desperately need. So we try to provide fans and or AC units to the seasoned community members. So also, we do also have a few other eligibility requirements that we do offer for individuals that have a major illness and will provide a fan and or an AC unit, not and but or an AC unit, I should say, depending on your condition, we'll try to get you an AC unit obviously. Also families with young children and those that may not have, like I said, access to a fan or an AC unit, we'll try to get you one of those items as well. So those are essentially the requirements and you can reach out to our headquarters and the number is 803-545-3500 and we'll be more than willing to get your information. As long as you meet the criteria, we'll definitely do our we can to get you a fan or an AC unit depending on your condition. Obviously we are accepting donations as well at this time. So we're definitely asking for the community to help us in this endeavor as we continue to move forward throughout the summer and this will go on throughout the summer, by the way. It's gonna go through the Labor Day, which is September the sixth. We will be continuing this program for the entirety of the summer months. And also one other thing, we're accepting donations of fans or AC units to all of our locations to include headquarters, which is located at One Justice Square, the Metro Region, which is at 1800 Main Street, North Region, which is at 3905 Enzer Avenue, South Region is the location is 2132 Divine Street, the West Region is at 690 Club Road and the community services location at 1745 Busby Street. Those are the locations that we're accepting donations. Again, if you wanna make a financial contribution, you can make a check out to the the Columbia Police Department Foundation and we'll be so happy to partner with you in this endeavor. And unless you have something else off to add. No, I think you covered it. I think that sums up our presentation in terms of what we're doing with fan heated this time. I'm gonna send it back to you. Well, thank you both, Officer Sumter and Sergeant Smalls for the great work that you're doing with this program and knowing that these resources are available for our seasoned residents. So again, if you do have more questions, please feel free to reach out to them to get more assistance or more information. And in the same vein, we're now going to talk to Helen Brooks with Prism Health to give us an idea about why all of these things are important. So we now know that there is affordable appliances that we can possibly purchase. There are resources that are available from our various agencies, but why is it significant? And so she'll give us more information on about those health and safety precautions we need to be worried about in these warmer months. And so Helen, the floor is yours. Sorry about that. Can everyone, can y'all see the presentation? Yes, ma'am. All right, thank you. Well, thank you for that introduction. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I am Helen Brooks. I'm part of the STERV program. I'm the STERV program coordinator at Prisma Health Midlands here downtown Columbia at the Richland campus. And today we're going to talk about what is all this heat about? I'm actually Richley from Connecticut. We don't have a lot of heat up there maybe for a couple of months. So what an interesting find here in South Carolina and how important it is to stay cool and maintain your hydration. There we go. So with temperatures rising, our body heat also rises. And our body tries to get rid of heat through sweating. But when we sweat and lose our fluids then we get into trouble. So we're going to just take a little few moments to talk about heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, sports, what to drink and be fast which is kind of my specialty if I go the right way. So heat cramps are the most common problem that people face when they're out in the heat. They'll have like muscle cramps. You'll hear people talk about them in the back of their legs, sometimes in their arms and in their abdomen. A lot of times people think their abdomen they might actually be hungry but it could be cramping because they need to take in more water and hydrate better. The best thing to do is to get to a cool place and to drink some fluids. And it might just be underneath the tree in the park underneath the overhang. Air conditioning is always best but we can't always have access to that. Heat exhaustion is the next level. And when you're exposed to high temperatures and not enough fluid you can easily get into this troublesome state. Mowing the lawn for me is a big one. A lot of people are out there working in their gardens working in the lawn on their lawns. Sometimes they're having barbecues and picnics often visiting in the park or downtown maybe at an event and they haven't hydrated enough. And what you'll notice is dizziness, nausea you might feel really tired and get a headache. And a lot of times it's frontal area your eyes will be aching people will say again, get to a cool place, drink fluids. If you're still having these problems for an hour or more where you have other medical conditions like diabetes or heart failure or COPD or asthma you might need to seek medical help. And I would strongly suggest that. Heat stroke is the most severe, the most severe. The body can no longer regulate the heat control. It's already sweated as much as it can do. It can't cool its body anymore. The heat stays inside and causes us to get into a big problem. What'll happen is a person will start breathing really quickly, quickly, quickly breathing. They'll have a faint fast pulse. They'll say, oh, I feel lightheaded. They'll be confused, not familiar with what they're doing. I'm not able to hold something or to concentrate or answer a question. And then they can even fall into a coma and believe it or not that can happen very quickly. And this is a medical emergency. You would loosen the clothes around the person, put a cool cloth on them, make sure you've called 911 and you'll feel their skin. Their skin will feel damp but yet clammy feeling. Really, really important to get help right away. So here's some overall tips. Really drinking lots of fluids is best. Two to four glasses of water per hour but you can drink sports drinks as well. You need to be a little careful though because they have electrolytes in them and if you have a heart condition or you're on special medicines that might not be the best option for you. The worst option though is actually sugary drinks like sodas or a lot of caffeine, caffeinated drinks like coffee or tea. I won't use brand names, but plenty of sodas out there have caffeine in them and they can actually cause you to be more dehydrated. Even alcoholic beverages do the same thing. Avoid high temperatures and I love that everybody gave tips about how to cool their house down, keeping things sealed and comfortable. And if you're gonna have to be outside, like I like to go out in the morning and water my garden or go out in the evening time or late afternoon but avoid that 10 a.m. to two o'clock time. Definitely right around noon when the sun is at its highest and its peak and most hot, you'll lose a lot more fluid that way. Find a cool place to be. Air conditioning really is best and I really enjoyed that when I came down here that it was everywhere, you know up north, we don't have that a lot. My car didn't even have it when I first came down here and believe me, I put some fans in that thing. But if you can't get into an air conditioned area, use a fan, you could use a misty cool water. Get in a shady area, use a cool cloth. Definitely try to keep your skin free and cool and keep hydrated. Sunscreen is also a great tip. And down here, I would think that everybody wore it because not only can we get sunburned but you lose so much more water that way. And sunscreen can block the extra rays. And I don't know if you've ever had sunburn but trust me, I have. And when you do, your skin is so tender and it actually loses more water than you normally would as it's trying to repair itself and keep itself hydrated on the outer level. So really important to wear that sunscreen, not only to protect our skin from sunburn and cancer but help us to keep our body temperature regulated. Definitely check on your neighbors and your friends. And I love that the Columbia Police Department has the fan sharing the fans and fanning the heat because a lot of our neighbors may not have air conditioning, may not have properly sealed doors and windows, may not have the ability to be cool. So check on them. If you haven't seen somebody in a while, are you okay? Do you need anything? Do you have water? I'm actually kind of surprised that there are lots of people out there that don't even have running water or that don't have the opportunity to be able to have air conditioning units. And again, I love that the Columbia Police Department is offering that so that everybody can have access. That's amazing. And the electric company is working with offsetting the bills and looking at energy efficient ideas. And we have so many good ideas here that maybe not everyone's not aware of but make sure that you check on your neighbors, use the buddy system. I tell people all the time, they'll say, well, I'm gonna go walk my dog. Well, people walk their dogs for a long time. So somebody needs to know you're out walking your dog. What if you had heat exhaustion or heat stroke or had bad cramps where then you couldn't walk or move? We need to know that everyone is okay and that they're being hydrated and watched for. I do that all the time. If I'm out mowing the lawn or I'm in the garden, I'll let my husband know and he'll check on me in about 15, 20 minutes. If he's doing it, I do the same thing, water and a towel. We call them bead towels and I enjoy mine every day. What about sports? Well, people love sports and we're always outside and now that COVID restrictions have been lifted way more people are outside and participating more and being more involved and basketball is a great indoor outdoor sport. Tennis, baseball, simply doing simple things just even visiting hopscotch. There's a little girl in my neighborhood and she loves her some hopscotch. She's out there all the time and I always am like, I hope you got your water bottle. And she always waves her little pink bottle, I got it. But that's really helpful. So before you go out and do sports or activities outside drink one to two cups of cool water, not cold, just cool, regular temperature out of the faucet. If it's more than 85 degrees out it's definitely more important to drink more water. So I would double it. During your sport activity, keep drinking fluids about a half a cup to a cup every 20 minutes. So if you've got that water bottle out there or that Gatorade bottle, you can go ahead and just take a sip of it every time there's a break with basketball every time they change sides or have a time in between a quarter, go ahead and get you a drink. Same thing with baseball. I noticed soccer is really big too as well. Lots of kids out there. And then afterwards definitely rehydrate, sorry for about two hours afterwards and not necessarily ice water. Or we said during ice water but you wanna have it be more kind of out of the faucet or tepid, not so cold that you get a chill which isn't even real actually. You wanna drink something that's gonna be able to be utilized quickly in your body but it doesn't have to regulate. So here's a little thing about water versus sports drinks. I didn't used to be a fan of water but I have come to love it. It's a natural hydrator. It's essentially free. You can get it everywhere. So it's a cheap alternative to a sports drink definitely. The daily recommendations according to the USDA women should have 2.7 liters a day on average. Men the same if not more. Children and toddlers I kind of broke it down in age groups a little bit. And it's kind of neat. I mean toddlers still need 1.3 liters a day and a liter is about four and a half cups and we're talking hydrating drinks like water not necessarily juice and milk and flavor drinks but water, straight up water. So their body can utilize it and function at its best level. Sports drinks provide carbohydrates which equal fuel for the body and they also provide electrolytes. They can replace salt and some of them have a lot of potassium in them. So I would recommend if you're going to use a sports drink, Powerade, Gatorade, any of those brands to really look at the electrolytes on it. And if you are on medications for blood pressure for heart disease, even asthma, any medicines you're on make sure with your doctor that it's okay that you take this additional salt and potassium and check with them as well for what the recommendation would be if you are going to be involved in an event for outside. If you're an enemy outside longer than 60 minutes though and participating in a sports activity it is recommended to have a sports drink. So I know I went kind of quickly talking through the different aspects of trouble with heat. Prisma Health has a Flourish blog and I've got the website listed up here but you can actually Google Prisma Health Flourish and it'll get you there. We have lots of health and wellness tips on there and really good information provided by providers such as myself and physicians and physicians assistants and all kinds of levels of healthcare. And it's really a helpful thing. You could sign up before it and get certain specific alerts. And now at the end of it my little stroke part of it is be fast. And you know, strokes are really common in this area they're actually pretty high and patients who are at risk for strokes that have had strokes before or have trouble with cholesterol and not good fluid hydration really increased the risk of having strokes as well. So here's just some quick symptoms of stroke. We use the be fastachronism. And it means bad balance or your balance being off and eyes having trouble seeing a sudden dark spot or sudden loss of vision, facial drooping or drooling or numbness like you've been at the dentist, arm or leg weakness usually one sided and not both but trouble holding something up or dragging your foot, slurred or strange speech not getting your words out. And it is time to call 911, 911 right away. If you have any of these symptoms and you think someone's having a stroke you call 911 and you just say it right on that ambulance right on the line. I think my family member is having a stroke. I think I'm having a stroke and they will dispatch to you right away. They will get you to the best center that can give you the best care which by the way is Prisma Health Fitness of course. And our center here at Richland can give medication and do procedures that can actually get rid of and break up a clot in the brain and restore lots of good function and get people back to normal. So it's a very exciting time for health and very exciting time that we have all these resources available to us to help keep us cool during the summer. Thank you again for having me and if you have any questions I'm happy to answer them. My email was on there if you have questions about stroke or would like stroke information or other information that our hospital can help provide to you. Thank you. And thank you Helen that was great information and so again for all the resources that we have been provided it's good to know the reason why they are significant for these very reasons knowing that whether we're spending time outdoors or even if we're unfortunately in places where it's a little bit warmer to be concerned about or to really look out for those factors that should be of concern and then just make sure what we're doing what is necessary in order to stay cool. So before we end off with this workshop we would like to talk with Lori Zokowski who is with CPAC as well and really kind of bring it together. So we looked at the different resources that are available by our agencies. We have a good understanding about why it's important to stay cool in these warmer months but where are some of I guess where are some of this additional heat starting to come from? And so she is gonna share a little bit about what we should look at when it comes to climate change. And so Lori I'm gonna ask a general question especially for those where are as familiar. So climate change has been discussed a lot in recent years and so we've either heard it by our local politicians or we've heard it in other media. And it's been said that some communities may experience extremely warmer temperatures. So if we think it's hot now unfortunately we could see hotter temperatures in the near future. So can you explain a little bit about the connection between climate change and the impacts on vulnerable communities and what really is a vulnerable community? So thank you so much for having this and thank you so much for organizing this. So I would say a vulnerable community might be someone who might not be able to get themselves out of this situation of the heating. That might be people who are insecurely housed. That might be people who work outside. That might be people who can't afford to do some of the cooling measures that others might be able to. Also there could be people who have physical or health conditions or that are causing them to be more vulnerable to the heat. And so we have to think about we might say out of jest that it's famously hot here in Columbia. It's expected that over the next decade we're supposed to have two months of the year above 95 degrees Fahrenheit. And I am also from the North. And so my body has not been made for these temperatures. And the idea of two months of the year being over 95 is just hard to think about. We have to think about how are we going to be helping these people who are new. Some of them are also a very important part of the economy and make things run even though they might be considered a vulnerable population because of how they do their work. So we have a lot to think about in terms of keeping society functioning as we move through climate change issues. Okay, great. And so although we've heard about resources that are provided both in South Carolina and specifically with the city of Columbia we do know that climate change is not just something that's local. It is just going to have an impact on the entire global community. And so to that end, since climate change is a global concern what are ways other countries may also be addressing this issue? So I think a lot of issues in which we're talked about today in terms of thinking about how we are more efficient with our energy use is something that's happening elsewhere. What might be happening elsewhere is that the governments might be subsidizing people's efforts for that. In Canada per se there's a carbon price now and with that they're giving citizens up to $6,000 to work on home improvements for energy efficiency because ultimately they know that if we use less energy we will emit less carbon. Cause one thing that's got that sort of like is it natural or how is climate change really happening? It's because we're burning coal and natural gas and oil and because of that we're putting extra carbon in the air which is effectively acting like a blanket. The other thing, there was a question asked or it was kind of brought up about time of use rates and that is also something that's happening elsewhere that can help think about how we're emitting carbon or where the emissions are coming from cause it makes you think about when is there the most demand on the system and when could we be using less energy? So fuel efficiency also I'd say is the final thing that is really being done elsewhere just thinking about how to use our energy smarter so that we reduce the effects of climate change. Okay, and so still thinking about what the impacts that climate change will have on our communities although we know there are multiple resources that can be provided from our different agencies what are some of the things that just general citizens may be able to do to help combat climate change on their own even the smallest activities what are some things that they may like to be able to do or engage in? I think many things are covered today that I would have initially said to this but just like what we're doing here I think talking about it is something that will get us thinking more about it because it raises awareness of the health issues it raises awareness about how we could save energy it raises awareness of how we could reduce emissions and the impacts that are coming at us for climate change so I think the biggest thing any one person can do is talk to people about climate change. Okay, and one last question and so what do you think the future looks like as it relates to climate change and the communities we live in whether it's we stay on the same trajectory or if we choose to kind of put some efforts forth in hopefully making things better so what do you envision for the future or see for the future? So there are times when people might say that scientists are bit doomsday about climate and that's because there's more uncertainty coming towards us we know that we have flooding locally we know we have more hot days we know that as we have fewer frosts that means we're gonna have more pests which for the home gardeners they might think about but also for those who think about diseases that are transmitted through stinging insects and so it makes one think about how do we wanna make life more comfortable? So we have to think about either adapting to all these uncertainties or about reducing it and I think what makes me very optimistic is thinking about how we have a lot of creative potential in front of us of thinking about new ways and new models to think about building communities that are resilient to these types of stresses that are coming forward and so I think that it will be very interesting seeing all the new things that we can work together as a community to make a better life for everybody. Well, thank you very much Lori for that update on the impact that climate change is having and will have on the warmer months or just in our communities as a whole. So thank you very much. And so we would like to thank everyone who has presented today. Again, we've had Bob the trueless with CPAC who provided information or affordable appliances that you can purchase and use within your individual homes. There was Natasha Pauling that talked about the weatherization assistance programs that are available to citizens as well as Ginger Greenway who shared about the resources that are available through Dominion Energy. We also heard from officer Clarence Sumter as well as Sergeant Smalls about the Fanning the Heat program. That is available through the Columbia Police Department for those individuals who need assistance. And we also heard from Helen Brooks with Prisma Health. So let us kind of bring it all together and understand that why are these resources important because we wanna make sure that we're staying cool and hydrated in these warmer months so we can have or enjoy our summer going into those cooler months later on. And then we also again want to thank Lori for giving me a bigger picture about how climate change is playing in part and will play in part in understanding that there are different things even small things that we can do to make changes. And so on behalf of the city of Columbia, CPAC we thank you for joining our Energy 101 workshop which is our second one for the year. And so we look forward to coming back next quarter in giving you great insight or tips or resources that will be beneficial for you and your family and friends within the community. So stay tuned for what that topic is going to be. And so with us being in famously hot Columbia please reach out to these different entities to these different individuals, get more information. If it was a little bit fast paced hopefully you can reach out and get more about the resources but definitely in these cooler months continue to stay cool and stay safe. And on that note we will see you next quarter. Have a great evening and stay cool. Bye-bye.