8. Ryan Herd

February 7, 2020April 16, 2020 ~ Henrik de Gyor ~ Leave a comment

Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Ryan Herd of Caregiver Smart Solutions about using sensors for any stage in life on Aging in Place Podcast

(duration: 33 minutes)

Ryan Herd

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Caregiver Smart Solutions

CES Showstopper award winner

Plastic shot cups

Takeaways

It’s all about sensors.

Transcript

Debi Lynes: 00:03 Hi and welcome to aging in place for every stage in life. What if you could visit or have a home that would accommodate anyone at any age, any physical ability at any time? How cool would that be? That’s what we’re doing here at aging in place. Why me? Because I’m a doctor of psychology and I specialize in physical spaces in Health and wellness. Also, I love designing with intent at any age. Why now? Because we the baby boomers want to age in place gracefully and we want our families around us as much as we can. And why you the audience? Because we want you to experience what it’s like to have a home that’s safe, aesthetically pleasing, and that you can live in at any age with any ability at any time. I’d like to introduce you now to Aging in Place Podcast for every stage in life.

Debi Lynes: 01:03 Hi, I’m Dr. Debi Lynes and welcome to the Aging in Place Podcast. I am here today with Ryan Herd and I’m very excited to have you today straight from the CES conference in Las Vegas. Ryan, I’m thrilled to be able to talk with you and I’d like to learn a little bit about your background, number one, number two about the CES conference and number three, I think it congratulations are in order.

Ryan Herd: 01:31 Hey Dr. Debi. Well, thank you for having us on. I really appreciate it. So, let’s start by unpacking those questions. Who am I? I’m actually Ryan Herd. I’m known as the smart guy. I’ve been in smart tech and IOT for 29 years. I literally wrote the book on it called Join the Smart Home Revolution and I’ve been in the tech industry for all my life. I’m a techie. I kind of love this stuff.

Debi Lynes: 01:57 Did you get into that? How did you get into that area of being known as? I like it. I’m known as the smart guy.

Ryan Herd: 02:03 Yeah, Ryan Herd the smart guy because I wrote the book. So I wrote the book called Join the Smart Home Revolution and it was really to fix or answer that fundamental question, which is what is smart home and how can it help me as a human? You know, the one issue with the technology industry is where you make a lot of widgets and gadgets, but how can I actually help me as a human? So I started to answer that question and because of that I’ve also worked with some of the top companies like Sony and really group would just call a banker and home advisor. I helped them start up their smart home division. So yeah. And I also had a integration firm called the one sound choice. And what we did is smart technology for high net worth, high profile individuals all over the US.

Debi Lynes: 02:50 And you know, I want to get right into it. I still want to go back and talk a little bit about your kids and your life because it’s pretty fascinating. You have, it sounds like you have a nice self-care and a nice balanced life. But to get right to the point, one of the things that intrigued me when I first talked to you, and because I’m older and I’m very, yeah, there you go. A grandmother of nine and most 10. I’m really curious when it comes to aging in place and the home. The more research I do and the more data I have gathered, the more I realize that a lot of the products that are for aging adults if you will, or people who have special needs acute illnesses aren’t really user-friendly. And it was so fun for me to talk to you because that was the first thing out of your mouth is oftentimes people who manufacturer these things don’t really think in terms of universal designer humans.

Ryan Herd: 03:47 That’s the big problem. And, and I don’t mean to beat up on anybody. Again, I’m a techie. I love technology. I just got back from CES and that’s the Superbowl of technology. Now with that said, I’ve been spending a lot of time out in Silicon Valley as well as over here in New York and NGIT and there’s a lot of really smart people. I mean they are doing amazing things and they’re building and designing things that are going to be incredible for when I get older. Where they lack is they don’t understand the consumer or the person that’s going to use it. Today. For example, when we’re talking about let’s say the greatest generation people that are approaching a hundred years old, you know, 19, 28 and older is when they were born. You know, they’re technologically adverse. It’s all about, they don’t want to be spied on. It’s their belief system is, you know, we are going to meet somebody, we’re going to get married, we’re going to buy a house, we’re going to have kids. We’re going to live in that house. We’re going to die in that house. And we’re never ever, ever going to be a burden to anybody else. So that’s what we do see, is there’s people that are trying to just take all these smart home gadgets and put it in mom’s house, but mom doesn’t need a smart lock. She doesn’t need a smart thermostat. She doesn’t need a alarm. What she needs is to know that somebody’s got their back.

Debi Lynes: 05:05 And you know that. It’s really funny because my mom and dad moved in three years ago. We lost my mom, but my dad’s 91 92 and it’s exactly what you say is true. They want their life to be the same as it always has been, but they have so many more restrictions now. And I also think for my dad, at least, he doesn’t want to feel special. He doesn’t want to feel like he’s a burden on anyone.

Ryan Herd: 05:31 Right, right.

Debi Lynes: 05:31 He wants to be as independent as he can. So what does that mean in terms of technology?

Ryan Herd: 05:40 Well, independence, you said it right. So let’s think about it. Remember when you got your first car and you were independent for the first time you left home, this was the first time you’re able to be on your own. Nobody was next to you. You know, we’ve been craving it. We finally got it. Now you’re not going to give that up, right? You want your independence for as long as possible. And that’s why what we’ve seen is those that are 65 and older, more than 85% of them want to live at home alone and independent. So the question is how do we as caregivers, how do we enable that? How do we give them the ability to be independent, live at home, and yet reduce our stress. Because being a caregiver, it’s, it’s stressful, it’s time-consuming and it’s isolating.

Debi Lynes: 06:24 Yes it is.

Ryan Herd: 06:26 So we’ve done, the new company I have called Caregiver Smart Solutions is just that. We’re answering that fundamental question, which is how are they doing, right? We’re enabling your loved one to live home longer while reducing your stress because as I said before, being a caregiver, it’s stressful, time-consuming and isolating. So let me tell you what we’re not, we’re not a camera, right?

Debi Lynes: 06:49 Okay.

Ryan Herd: 06:49 Because cameras are invasive. You don’t want a camera in your home. I don’t want it in my home.

Debi Lynes: 06:53 My dad, Well what’s funny about that is my dad has flat out refused it, don’t be spying on me. not spying. I just want to make sure if you’re falling or you’re slipped or you can’t do this or that, that you’re covered.

Ryan Herd: 07:04 Exactly. That’s actually the first thing I did when my father had cancer. I put a camera in and he put a dish towel right over it. So that wasn’t gonna work. So the second thing that we’re not, we’re not trying to change your loved one’s habit. I dunno. Have you ever tried to change the habit of an 80-year-old?

Debi Lynes: 07:21 Yeah it’s not pretty.

Ryan Herd: 07:23 I can’t even change my own habits, right? So that’s not going to happen. Number three, we’re not aware of it because the reality is, is they’re not wearing them. They’re not charging them up. And you have to understand, as I said before, there’s a psychological aspect. And what I mean by that is it’s like me going to my father Dad, do me a favor. I need you to wear this. And if something happens, you gotta push the button. Now here’s where psychology comes in. The reality is, is I’m working around, I’m dealing with my kids. I’m dealing with this. A video call. I have other meetings I have to take. I’m not thinking about end of life. 93-year-old grandma. You know what she is and now we’re taking this device and saying, if you have a problem, push the button. And she’s looking at that as the button of death. And you have to understand they don’t want that and we want to enable them, but we don’t want to bring that kind of stuff up. So how can we be proactive? And this is what we are caregiver’s smart solutions. We take tiny non-evasive sensors and we place them discretely around the home and what the sensors are monitoring is your loved ones’ habit because your habit is an indicator of your health. For example, if mom’s habit is that she gets up twice a night to go to the bathroom fine green check Mark. That’s what she always does. But if all of a sudden she starts getting up five times a night, three nights in a row, that’s definitely an issue. That’s something you want to know. And it could be a urinary tract infection. No, that’s just a little bit of what we do and we do so much more.

Debi Lynes: 08:56 Talk to me a little bit about a, what is sensor? How does the sensor work? It Does it go in the corner of the room? Does it go in different rooms? What am I actually monitoring movement sound?

Ryan Herd: 09:06 So there’s a couple of things that our sensors are doing in the baseline. We’re measuring movement, we’re measuring things like the refrigerator, we’re measuring the medicine cabinet, we’re measuring the time it takes mom to walk down the stairs. We’re measuring quality. How long has mom been sleeping? It’s really important to get, let’s say five to eight hours of sleep.

Debi Lynes: 09:27 Correct.

Ryan Herd: 09:27 She’s getting up once an hour, every single hour. That could be an issue now.

Debi Lynes: 09:32 Was an issue for cognitive decline.

Ryan Herd: 09:33 It’s an issue for that. And, and you know what? We’re facilitating the insights through the use of an app. You can see exactly what’s going on. And let’s say it’s that. And you see mom, your loved one got up once an hour for four hours straight. So now when you talk to mom, you can say, Hey, how’s everything doing? And what is she going to say? It’s fine. But now you can say, I saw that you were up a lot last night and it, you know, it might’ve just been a bad burrito. I don’t know.

Debi Lynes: 10:01 How does it, how does it actually track? We’ve got about a minute in this segment. So how does it actually document and track? Is it actually formulating data? Is it a, is it journaling for me? Is it sending me a note or an email?

Ryan Herd: 10:18 So what we’re doing from the fancy side is we’ve got a bunch of noninvasive sensors mounted throughout the house and what happens is we’re using something called machine learning. Think of that as a record button, so two to three we’re recording the habits, so now we have a baseline, we know how your loved one is doing, and then from there we add something called AI fancy technology and what AI is looking for is they’re looking for those things that are out of the ordinary. For example, if mom’s sleeping later or if mom is taking longer to get down the stairs or if mom is not drinking, making her coffee. All of these things are outside of what normal is.

Debi Lynes: 11:00 All right, hold that thought. We’re going to take a quick, quick, quick break and I’m going to come right back and get into it again. We’re talking with Ryan Herd and I’m really excited. We’re talking about motion sensors. Stay with us. We’ll be right back.

Henrik de Gyor: 11:12 For more podcasts, episodes, links, information and media inquiries. Please visit our website at aginginplacepodcast.com as we transitioned through life with the comfort and ease you deserve, discover how you can create a home that will adapt to you as you journey through life and the changes it will bring. Please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as our host Debi Lynes and her expert guests discuss relevant topics to creating a home for all decades in life. Don’t miss our weekly episodes of aging in place. Podcast for every stage in life.

Debi Lynes: 11:49 We are back here on aging and place. We’re talking with Ryan Herd, talking about motion sensors. More importantly, we’re talking about universal design. We’re talking about aging in place for absolutely every stage in life and I’ll tell you what’s interesting about this is although we’re talking about older adults at this point in time, one of the reasons I wanted to do the podcast, Ryan, is because it’s really something that’s important for families or folks at any age. I know my daughter has two young kids. And when I think about her having motion detectors, I think, or the sensors as you’re talking about, I think it would be an amazing opportunity.

Ryan Herd: 12:29 And it’s interesting because as your daughter is right, so I’m 48, I’ve got three young boys and your daughter has, and they call us the sandwich generation, meaning, you know, we have our kids that we’re taking care of as well as we have our aging adults that were also worried and concerned about. So we’re sandwich tray in the middle of that.

Debi Lynes: 12:47 It’s so very true. Being a psychologist, I do a lot with the sandwich generation. I started out with adolescent and now I’ve ended up with the geriatrics and I think we’re sitting right in the middle of them. So let’s go back and talk about these sensors and as far as the artificial intelligence piece of that, how this works again.

Ryan Herd: 13:06 So the easiest way to explain it is, as I said, so we have two main things that go on. We’re using machine learning and again, think of that as the record button. So that’s going to record the habits over about two weeks’ time. And then we’re going to get a baseline. So for example, we’ll be able to know that mom is vacuuming every Wednesday because everyone says she’s going in and out of the rooms and we can see them [with sensors, not cameras]. Once we get that baseline, then we can add AI or artificial intelligence on top of that. So for example, let’s say, let’s say we’re talking about false. So envision a Cape Cod. So you have a two-floor house, a mom’s upstairs, she gets up in the morning, she goes to the bathroom. Now these are going to be triggering our sensors and she comes out of the bathroom, she goes walking down the hallway, triggers a sensor on the top of the hallway. We know that she takes about three and a half minutes to walk down the stairs. She’s going to trigger the sensor at the bottom of the stairs. Then she’s going to walk into the living room because that’s the next room. And then it goes into, she’s going to trigger that. Now it’s going to know what her typical timeframe is. How long it takes to get down those stairs. Now another scenario, let’s say she got up, she went to the bathroom, she got to the top of the stairs and now all of a sudden it’s four minutes, four and a half minutes, five minutes. And she hasn’t triggered this. The sensor on the bottom of the stairs where his mom, she’s probably laying in the middle of the stairs.

Debi Lynes: 14:35 Or just we going to say she’s gotten dizzy. She’s fallen. Yes.

Ryan Herd: 14:38 You take another scenario, she triggers a sensor at the top of the stairs but then triggers a sensor at the bottom of the stairs 30 seconds later and does not trigger the next sensor, which is living room. What happened? Mom probably rolled down the stairs. That’s the kind of power that we’re talking about [awareness] and that’s just on one thing. So let’s take it even farther. Let’s talk about dehydration. So technically the closed loop would be things like, I see mom open up the refrigerator. I see mom moving around. I see mom making coffee through the coffee pot and I see mom going to the bathroom [all with sensors, not cameras]. Well, that’s what you expect to happen.

Debi Lynes: 15:13 Correct.

Ryan Herd: 15:13 I’m going into the fridge, walking around, not going to the bathroom and not making coffee. That could because for concern over several days because that could mean that she’s dehydrated. Dehydration that precursor to a fall. And guess what? We don’t want our aging loved ones to fall. That’s the power of what we’re doing.

Debi Lynes: 15:35 So how does this work from a practical point of view? Are you in the actual production? How does someone get this? What would be a fee schedule? It just makes so much sense.

Ryan Herd: 15:49 So we have three different kits. I don’t know if you can see it.

Debi Lynes: 15:54 There you go.

Ryan Herd: 15:54 At Caregiver Smart Solutions, what we do to make it easy for everybody is we made three different kits. We have the Basic kit, Deluxe kit, and Deluxe plus. Obviously, they can be found on our website which is caregiversmartsolutions.com. You can give us a call at (888) 585-5022. Now the easiest way to explain it is think of the basic kit. The scenario is we just got out of holiday, right? We had Thanksgiving, we had new year’s. So let’s say you saw grandma and this was the first time that you realize that grandma, you know she, she’s just not as snappy as she used to be and I’m not saying anything’s wrong with her, I’m just saying that.

Debi Lynes: 16:34 No, no, no okay.

Ryan Herd: 16:34 The first time that your concern you get the basic kit. All I want to know is the basics. Is she moving around? Is she eating, is she taking her meds and is she going to the bathroom? Just the basics. From there, we can go all the way to the deluxe plus kit, which then we’re monitoring obviously much more, many more things like doors. We’re also monitoring things like TV because if mom’s sitting in front of the TV for five and six hours, that’s like me saying, I need you to get up and run around the block. They shouldn’t be sedentary for that long. The coffee pot or tea kettle, we’re measuring sleep quality as well as fall detection, so on that, that is usually for somebody that maybe there’s been an event, maybe mom has already fallen or maybe you’re really concerned about your loved one. Maybe she’s got a bit of dementia.

Debi Lynes: 17:28 Dementia.

Ryan Herd: 17:28 What’s the most important thing when we’re talking about dementia? We’re talking about a did the door open up and b that you walk out of that door because that is the most important thing. Those are the kind of things you want to know.

Debi Lynes: 17:43 Well, it’s really interesting to me because as a certified aging in place specialist of the things I think about all the time are when cost is no object. That’s one thing. Okay, I can hire full-time help, I can do this, I can do that. But I think for many of us within the sandwich generation, we don’t necessarily near-live near our loved ones. And I think that, you know, if there have been such a void in American for any kind of, I guess fixed in the middle, if you will.

Ryan Herd: 18:14 Right.

Debi Lynes: 18:14 And, and more importantly home-health and some of those things are almost cost-prohibitive. How do you all play with others in this area, if you will?

Ryan Herd: 18:31 So think of us as a, we’re complimentary and we’re proactive. So every, all the technology in the market right now is reactive. It’s, I’ve fallen, I can’t get up. If something happens, push a button and we’re all waiting for impending doom.

Debi Lynes: 18:44 Correct.

Ryan Herd: 18:44 How about earlier? So we can start answering that question. As I said before, how are they doing now when we’re talking about in-home care, the least expensive that you can get into it for is twice a week, four hours a day, and that’s only covering eight hours at 25 bucks an hour. And that’s about $10,400 a year. It’s a lot of money. Now the problem is is there’s 168 hours in a week. So what happens that on 160 hours, what would the system like ours? You’re still getting all of the basic questions that you have answered and it could be as simple as how many times is mom going to the bathroom? How many times is she opening up the medicine cabinet at the refrigerator? Is she moving around? Those kinds of things. We’re also complimentary regardless of where mom is living. And what I mean by that is maybe it’s a house, maybe it’s a townhouse, a condo, maybe she’s in independent living, maybe she’s in assisted living because you have to remember in assisted living, if we have the opportunity to put our loved ones in an assisted living place and that’s a beautiful place, but their business model is that they are really an apartment building with a social aspect, right? They do have nurses on staff, but the responsibility is not to come in and check on mom all the time. Once mom goes into her apartment, once that door is closed, there’s now a black hole. So we facilitate you knowing how mom’s doing as well as the nurses’ aid station to know what’s going on.

Debi Lynes: 20:15 One of the things that’s interesting psychologically is I know from my dad at least and for a lot of folks that I know and who have expressed concern with home health or bringing people in is they don’t want strangers in their home. I think, you know, for me it’s 60, I could care less bring him in. You know, somebody is helping me, I’m all over it. But I, but I understand that that’s a huge issue. And so this alleviates all of that. And I think the feeling of independence and autonomy is amazing. Do these run 24 hours?

Ryan Herd: 20:48 They run 24 three 65 so 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. They’re always on. You can take a look at the app and see exactly how mom’s doing and if something’s a miss, you will know. So if something bad happens, we’re going to send that notification to you. So this way you can call up mom or we’re just going to facilitate that conversation. So here’s another scenario. Let’s say you have an in homemade, let’s call her. Sally is going over to mom’s house and then all of a sudden Sally calls you and says, you know what? I think we need more time in the house because I don’t think mom is eating as much cause she looks like she’s losing weight.

Debi Lynes: 21:25 Got it.

Ryan Herd: 21:25 Now you can live well back to our system and see exactly over time, what’s her average, how many times does she open up that refrigerator and if you see it trending down now you know that Sally is, you know, she’s honest. She’s telling the truth. I trust her. She’s absolutely correct. So it’s backing up with the in-home.

Debi Lynes: 21:42 Well, it’s a check and balance. It makes so much sense. Ryan, we’re going to take another quick break and come right back. Once again, we’re talking to Ryan Herd. We’re talking about Caregiver Smart Solutions because he’s the smart guy, so stay with us. We’ll be right back.

Debi Lynes: 21:57 Hi, I’m Dr. Debi Lynes design elements are psychologically and physically supportive and conducive to health and wellness. To learn more about what Lynes on Design can do for you for more information on certified aging in place, and facilitative and supportive design, look for lynesondesign.com. That’s L-Y-N-E-S on design dot com.

Debi Lynes: 22:23 We are back here on aging in place. Once again, we’re with Ryan Herd and we’re talking about Caregiver Smart Solutions, and they are smart. Okay. The natural segue and the natural question is this, how in the world and why in the world, even though I know you’re the smart guy and you’re a techie, I mean, I think this whole demographic and this aging in place phenomenon, I can say this the baby boomers are aging. We’ve got a great transfer of wealth. We’ve got a lot of folks and you and I and me more than you are in this sandwich generation. Can you share a little bit about how you did get into it and then let’s talk about the CES Las Vegas conference and you winning.

Ryan Herd: 23:07 Sure. So my background, as I said before, I’m known as Ryan Herd the smart guy and I’d been in technology for 29 years and I literally wrote the book on smart technology called Join the Smart Home Revolution. So everything is great. And then my father got cancer not once, but twice now. He’s tough as nails, but being his caregiver, I’m concerned, you know, and this is the first time that I’m really concerned on how he’s doing. So being the smart guy, I figured I could find something, buy it, put it in and everything would be fine. And then I realized that in this industry, technology stopped in 1990 literally when we talk assisted living facilities, they still have pull strings and they think that’s so leveraging my background, a smart technology, I started to attack this problem and saying, you know, why can’t I look at an app? Why is it that it’s 2020 and I still need a call, a text, or to stop by to see how my loved one’s doing. There should be the ability to have an app that can answer my fun amount of questions, which is how are they doing? You know, are they moving around? Are they eating, are they sleeping? Are they sitting in front of the TV? And then, of course, there’s the fault. So.

Debi Lynes: 24:16 Brilliant.

Ryan Herd: 24:16 That’s how I got into it and I figured I can fix this problem.

Debi Lynes: 24:20 So what happens now? You were the number one, you won the CES conference. Talk to us a little bit about how that happened after talking with you, it makes sense.

Ryan Herd: 24:31 Exciting.

Debi Lynes: 24:31 But what were some of the criteria that you think you more than check the boxes on that you really had?

Ryan Herd: 24:36 So we entered what’s called the Showstoppers and we first were named prior of CES, we were named one of the top 10 hottest startup at CES.

Debi Lynes: 24:49 Which is how I heard about you.

Ryan Herd: 24:52 Oh really?

Debi Lynes: 24:52 Yes! That’s how I heard about you. I was just doing a little research and I was like… him.

Ryan Herd: 24:57 I got to talk to this one.

Debi Lynes: 24:58 And you know.

Ryan Herd: 24:58 And we went from there and then we had to give another pitch. All 10 companies do. And I got to tell you, there was some stiff competition. There was a great company that was bringing robots. There was another company that was talking about water usage. And it was actually fascinating where it would go on the head in the shower and literally when you turn on, the water would go on. But if it didn’t sense anybody underneath it, it would go on like 50%. And then when you were under it or going, it was amazing. Another company that was doing retrofittable smart dials for stove, you know how all of our stoves are dumb. Or you can put this smart knob on and then through an app you can tell if it’s on, if it’s off all these things. So I, while I had competition, but at the end of the day, as luck would have it, we did incredible and we ended up winning. So we are named the hottest startup at CES. And then on top of that, the next morning we found out that we’ve won Techlicious Top Pick at CES. So we won back to back number ones, which were absolutely fabulous. They really.

Debi Lynes: 26:08 Alright, so here’s the real question now what?

Ryan Herd: 26:12 Now what? Well, we are in the background talking with a lot of the nationwide retailers. We are also thinking about moving into other countries because what we found out, we really knew this, but.

Debi Lynes: 26:26 It’s ubiquitous.

Ryan Herd: 26:28 Yeah. You know, with a product like this, the reality is I don’t care. I don’t care what your race, religion, creed for you live. Everybody has somebody that they love and care about and they want to make sure that they’re okay. And we’re talking about the US we’ve, we’ve actually got about a hundred million people that are 65 and older and 10,000 people a day turn 65. Now when you look at worldwide population, Japan actually has the most amount of old people with the least amount of young people taking care of them. So that’s a huge problem in Japan. Yeah. So it is amazing. So you’re going to see some amazing things from us. You know, it’s our destiny to fix this problem and really I want to, I want to reduce as much stress as I can because I am going through this. I get it. I know what it’s like and we just want to help people out.

Debi Lynes: 27:21 It’s a very practical approach. I think that’s what is intriguing to me is that you’ve really taken, again, the universal design principles of that is a pretty simple application when you think about it, but it really covers so many aspects of safety in the home. Are there specific places that you put these sensors?

Ryan Herd: 27:47 So we do have videos that teach you how to do it and basically it’s…

Debi Lynes: 27:50 Are there Youtube videos?

Ryan Herd: 27:50 Of course, peel and stick them on the wall. You know, we want to respect our loved ones, architectural details, so we want it to be as non-intrusive as possible. With that said, don’t put it behind a door, behind a plant. We can help you with that.

Debi Lynes: 28:09 Okay. You do that. I was going to say, how does one get this product or is it available and if not, when will it be available?

Ryan Herd: 28:17 So this is our third generation product.

Debi Lynes: 28:19 Oh, is it really.

Ryan Herd: 28:19 It’s going to be coming out the second quarter of this year. It’s the most cost-effective. It’s the smallest. Again, these are tiny, non-intrusive sensors. They’re about the size of a quarter.

Debi Lynes: 28:32 How do they mount?

Ryan Herd: 28:34 Peel and stick, You literally peel the back and stick it on the wall. So it’s nice and simple. Now if it seems like it’s too complicated, we’re in the middle of forming a partnership with a nationwide installation company. So this way we’d be able to take care of you. So again, we have some amazing things coming out in the next quarter. So stay tuned.

Debi Lynes: 28:54 Did you have any idea when you first started and went to school that this would be the direction that you would take when you were a kid? Now are your three boys pretty techie too?

Ryan Herd: 29:05 They’re techie because dad’s a techie, but a funny story a side note is I come from a family of entrepreneurs. My mother is a entrepreneur, my uncles are entrepreneurs. And when I got out of high school, I actually went to culinary arts school. So I got a degree as a chef.

Debi Lynes: 29:21 You’re a chef? Of course you are.

Ryan Herd: 29:22 I left that and I started an electronics company in 1989 so that was…

Debi Lynes: 29:29 Tell me about reinventing. Oh, I absolutely love this. There you go. Well, I tell you what. I’ve got a little homework to do now. I’m going to go read up a little bit more about the smart guy and I really appreciate you taking time today and is there anything that you can say is on the horizon, a little teaser that we could look forward to soon?

Ryan Herd: 29:52 So for Caregiver Smart Solutions, we are trying to answer that fundamental question which is how are they doing. And at the end of the day it’s the little things that are important. Is the, is your loved one moving around? Is she opening up the fridge? Is she doing all those things as well as so much more now on the horizon you’re going to see some amazing stuff with us. We are going to be partnering with some of the best companies that are out there. You’re going to see us expand as far as the granularity and the more information that you can get because our goal is to really get into your loved one’s house as early as possible. So this way we can fix as many things as possible as they age and as they age. Really give them the ability and give you the ability to help them out and keep their independence for literally as long as we possibly can.

Debi Lynes: 30:42 You are absolutely amazing. We want to thank you. We want to thank all of you for joining us. I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine, Tracy. Tracy is naturally curious and always creative and when we were doing the Aging in Place Podcast, she said there are so many quick tips that I can think of offhand. My response, who knew she’s going to be with us every week, giving us a quick tip and to hint that is a practical application.

Tracy Snelling: 31:16 Thanks Debi. This shot is for you. I only take five pills a day, so I really don’t need a pillbox every morning. I place my five pills in three cute little shot glasses, one for morning, one for afternoon and one for bedtime. At a glance, I can see [via sensors] if I’ve taken my medications. Of course, keeping them out of the reach of little ones is safety, but since I live alone, I placed mine next to my coffee pot and as I do take my medications, I turn the shot glass upside down. The plastic shot cups makes it handy if you’re a caregiver to remember how the nurses pass medications out in the hospital. It makes it so much easier for the elderly to take their meds out of a cup. Then just placing them in their hands. Who knew those glasses have more than one use?

Debi Lynes: 32:07 It’s pretty amazing to see the direction we’re going for aging in place. My takeaway for today is pretty simple. It’s all about sensors. Just remember that it’s all about sensors. Again, we want to thank all of you for joining us here on aging in place. Have a great week and thank you, Ryan Herd.

Henrik de Gyor: 32:31 Aging in Place Podcast is hosted by Debi Lynes and produced by Henrik de Gyor. If you have any comments or questions, send an email to debi@aginginplacepodcast.com. We would love to hear from you. If you’re interested in advertising or sponsoring this podcast, email us at PR@aginginplacepodcast.com. Thank you for listening to Aging in Place Podcast.

7. Betsy Miller

January 31, 2020April 16, 2020 ~ Henrik de Gyor ~ Leave a comment

Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Betsy Miller of Billy Wood about appliances for any stage in life

(Duration: 32 minutes 32 seconds)

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Takeaways

Induction cooktops are also a very cost-effective option

Lynes on Design

Transcript

Debi Lynes: 00:03 Hi and welcome to aging in place for every stage in life. What if you could visit or have a home that would accommodate anyone at any age, any physical ability at any time? How cool would that be? That’s what we’re doing here at aging in place. Why me? Because I’m a doctor of psychology and I specialize in physical spaces in health and wellness. Also, I love designing with intent at any age. Why now? Because we the baby boomers want to age in place gracefully and we want our families around us as much as we can. And why you the audience? Because we want you to experience what it’s like to have a home that’s safe, aesthetically pleasing and that you can live in at any age with any ability at any time. I’d like to introduce you now to Aging in Place Podcast for every stage in life.

Debi Lynes: 01:05 Hi and welcome to Aging in Place Podcast at any stage in life. We’re so excited to have you today and we have is our guest, Betsy Miller. She and I have been friends for a lot of years and she’s taught me many things at many stages in life, if I can say that about appliances. You are with and own Billy Wood appliance for how many years?

Betsy Miller: 01:28 21.

Debi Lynes: 01:31 And right, 21 years. And I remember coming in as a new mom asking for all kinds of advice and now as an aging adult, I have lots of questions also. So I’m really grateful that you’re here today and I think it’s going to be a fun and information-packed podcast. So yes, that’s right. Yes. Let’s get started first a little bit about you.

Betsy Miller: 01:54 My name is Betsy Miller and I have been selling appliances since 1998. My family owned our business and I have been involved from every avenue of the appliance sales and marketing since the beginning.

Debi Lynes: 02:10 What’s really interesting to me is when I bring a client into Betsy, basically I walk in and then go get a Diet Coke and the rest of the time she is guiding, the client about all the different options and appliances. And you may think it’s a pretty simple thing to do to pick an appliance, but it’s really, it’s an expensive item. It’s something you’re going to have for a long, long time and you want to make sure that the items that you pick suit you and your lifestyle.

Betsy Miller: 02:39 Definitely.

Debi Lynes: 02:39 So what I thought we might do is kind of compare different stages in life and talk a little bit about appliances in general. Let’s go ahead and walk through the places in the house where you need appliances. I think people automatically think of the kitchen, but there it’s much more extensive.

Betsy Miller: 02:54 Kitchen is going to always be the biggest that we deal with. But laundry and again you can talk about different stages of your life on how laundry your needs will change.

Debi Lynes: 03:05 Exactly.

Betsy Miller: 03:06 We don’t here because of our climate, we do a lot of outdoor equipment, which is fun. And the other thing that we’ve seen a big surge in is certain different areas of houses, guest houses that kitchens.

Debi Lynes: 03:22 What I think about when I think of appliances now too, and you and I talk about this all the time, back when we first started, you didn’t really have coffee areas and, and coffee machines that you could build and you didn’t, we didn’t have ice machines, we didn’t necessarily, all of us have wine coolers and now that’s pretty much standard equipment.

Betsy Miller: 03:42 You can do so much. The steam oven, the steam convection oven is probably the biggest surge that we’ve seen.

Debi Lynes: 03:49 What is that?

Betsy Miller: 03:50 It is typically a builtin piece and it cooks with both steam in thermal heat.

Betsy Miller: 03:56 And the whole idea being is whatever you’re cooking, it doesn’t dry out. You can also use it instead of a microwave for defrosting and for reheating, which is a lot of people are trying to get away from microwave cooking. What you’ve heard about the different plastics and everything. So, we have done a lot with the convection steam oven sales, which is pretty wonderful.

Debi Lynes: 04:17 Take two when I talk about is how, how to choose when you, when someone comes in and they’re, they’re really clueless.

Betsy Miller: 04:24 Okay.

Debi Lynes: 04:25 How do you begin or what kind of questions do you ask a potential client about what they need and their lifestyle?

Betsy Miller: 04:34 One of the first questions is, is always going to be budgets because everyone has a budget and some people have a very high budget and some people have a very low budget, but most people have in mind what they want to spend.

Betsy Miller: 04:47 The other thing is everyone kind of has an inventory list of what they want and a lot of what we do is new construction. So the inventory has kind of been addressed by the time they get to me. But that’s what you’re talking about. There’s a lot of new products that I can introduce people to, but the ice machines, warming drawers, wine coolers, that sort of stuff I think are, people are aware that they exist and they will put them in their plans. And of course, the things that aren’t quite as common, like the combi steam ovens and the coffee makers. And even for some people, it’s the warming drawers and all the different refrigeration options. We can introduce them to what’s available and ah.

Debi Lynes: 05:27 Go from there.

Betsy Miller: 05:29 Yup.

Debi Lynes: 05:29 All right, let’s start at the very beginning. We’re walking in, we’re sitting down, I’ve got some plans and we’re in the kitchen.

Debi Lynes: 05:35 Take me through the different kinds of appliances and please we would not, we would love to note names of appliances and doing some research for this. We talked a lot. I researched GE and looked at their universally designed products and ADA products and I think because we’re talking about aging in place at any stage in life, I have a 91-year-old dad and a one-year-old granddaughter and a lot in between. So I’m always looking for what we call and we’re all kind of, we know this word by now, visibility so that anyone can come into my house and it’s pretty safe. So that’s always a concern. When I think of appliances specifically. So we’re walking into a house, we’ve got the house plans in front of us. We’re going first to where, where are you going to take me?

Betsy Miller: 06:18 Usually cooking.

Debi Lynes: 06:20 Okay.

Betsy Miller: 06:20 As far as where it’s going to anchor the kitchen. Okay. And then after that, I go to refrigeration because of sizes and certain houses will have more standardized sizes and pieces than others. We do a lot of custom houses around here. So refrigeration, one of the big words that you’re going to hear as columns, you buy your refrigerator and then you buy your freezer separate and they can go together, they can go apart, one can go on one side of the kitchen, one can go on another. Refrigeration drawers are a big thing and it again, I think it just gets down to the actual end-users and what works best for them in the footprint that they’ve got. And w we have a lot of empty nesters around here and so we do 95% of the time you’ll be talking to a family that has two people under the roof.

Betsy Miller: 07:15 And, but not always, because we also have people like you who have big families and a lot of people come and visit. And I know, I know you’re going to have a huge household for Christmas.

Debi Lynes: 07:26 Exactly my son has four little ones and it’s just getting ready to redo a kitchen too. So appliances are on his mind too. Let’s go, we, we’ve talked about, I know I want to go into the cook-top and the cooking, but we started with refrigeration, so let’s talk a little bit about why columns, what kind of refrigerators, what would be easy to access, what would be convenient and kind of go from there. Let’s talk a little bit about that standard refrigerator.

Betsy Miller: 07:55 A standard refrigerator is going to be a little bit easier because you’re typically talking about 36 inches wide by 70 inches tall. French doors are by far the most popular that’s on the market with the two refrigerator drawers up top in the freezer below.

Betsy Miller: 08:10 It’s just kind of trendy right now with, yeah, depending on aging people though, a lot of times the side by side will work better because you can put what you’re using frequently at eye level for both sides, both the freezer and the refrigerator. If you can customize your options a little bit more and that’s what we’re seeing more of. The columns will run in different widths and you can choose your refrigeration side and you can choose your freezer side.

Debi Lynes: 08:39 I’m not sure, and I don’t mean to interrupt you, I don’t mean what does a column actually mean. What does it, what does, I know we can’t see because it’s a podcast we can only hear but, but talk to me about what a column would actually do.

Betsy Miller: 08:50 The idea being is that you buy a refrigeration column and they’re typically 80 inches tall, so it’s a full height.

Betsy Miller: 08:58 Some of them are 84, but they vary in width anywhere from 18, 24, 30 36 and they go up in six-inch increments, which is what you typically see with cabinets are going in three-inch increments. But you choose what suits your needs. I talked to someone this week, it was a single woman in her fifties and she used more freezer space than refrigeration space just because she works in troubles for work. And that’s what Sumo her.

Debi Lynes: 09:26 Convenient.

Betsy Miller: 09:27 The next group I’ll talk to is someone that again empty nesters retirees that they use the refrigerator more frequently because they have the time to cook fresh and go to the grocery stores. And with buying the pieces separately, you get to choose what suits your needs.

Debi Lynes: 09:44 Are you still looking at pieces that have ice and water? Are those sort of passing?

Betsy Miller: 09:54 It’s a nice convenience, but when we get into those customization options, you usually don’t see them.

Debi Lynes: 10:01 Okay.

Betsy Miller: 10:01 In those situations, we have a lot of ice machines that we sell and it’ll give you a gourmet cube. So if clients are buying an ice machine, we typically wouldn’t do a dispenser in addition to that. Okay, And then we also see whole house filtration, so they don’t necessarily need the cold filtered water as part of the refrigeration.

Debi Lynes: 10:21 Oh my God, I never thought about the filter. We’re going to take a real quick break.

Betsy Miller: 10:25 Okay.

Debi Lynes: 10:25 We’re going to come back and I really, I want to talk to you about what you’ve been teaching us about how companies actually designing for different stages in life. It’s kind of cool.

Betsy Miller: 10:34 Yes, very cool.

Debi Lynes: 10:34 Stay at this. We’ll be right back here on aging in place.

Henrik de Gyor: 10:38 For more podcast episodes, links, information, and media inquiries, please visit our website at aging in place, podcast.com as we transition through life with the comfort and ease you deserve, discover how you can create a home that will adapt to you as you journey through life and the changes it will bring. Please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as our host Debi Lynes and her expert guests discuss relevant topics to creating a home for all decades in life. Don’t miss our weekly episodes of Aging in Place Podcast for every stage in life.

Debi Lynes: 11:16 We are back here on aging in place. My friend Betsy Miller is joining us and we’re talking about everything kitchen right now. you really had, when we came in and we chatted before about what we were going to do here on the podcast today, you had the coolest things ever and I think when you wonder what it’s like to be a kid again, what, when you wonder what it’s like to be an aging adult. You were talking about the engineers and the design of kitchen products and it was really fascinating.

Betsy Miller: 11:43 When I was preparing to come here this morning, I looked up on appliances and aging in place and knowing that was your topic and I just Googled it and found one of the links they had sent me to was GE had a segment, it was on some news station, but what they were doing is they had taken their youngest engineers and made them feel old.

Betsy Miller: 12:07 They had used tape to tape their joints tight, they’d put gloves on top of them, they were wearing glasses that were made everything, I guess foggy, sure. And earplugs. And then they had them go into their test kitchens and try to use everything and see what was tougher, what was easier. And you could see all these young 20 something engineers and they were tracking down about six inches off the cooktop, trying to turn on the controls. And that, the whole 10 episode was to show every, these younger kids to make them more compassionate towards the clients that they’re selling their stuff to. And I thought that was really cool. I was reading a little bit more in one of the things that they were really trying to do was make it easier for baby boomers because that’s such a big part of the population right now and a big thing other than when we were talking about ADA appliances and unique things like side swing doors and dishwasher drawers, what they were doing was adjusting the fonts to either be brighter or larger ovens and on display panels and then being able to adjust the brightness is well so they were easier to see and I actually see that when new product comes out.

Betsy Miller: 13:30 A lot of our demographic, again is a lot of that baby boomer generation and some of the fonts will come out and are very, very gray and we get complaints that people can’t see because there’s no contrast.

Debi Lynes: 13:44 It’s funny, I hear that all the time. Even on appliances, washer and dryers, I hear people tell me all the time that are typically a bit older. They’re like, I don’t want 4,000 buttons. I want something that’s fairly streamlined and easy to navigate and intuitively user-friendly. Do you get that a lot with people?

Betsy Miller: 14:06 Is sometimes we are definitely in an age of home connect though for everything.

Debi Lynes: 14:11 That’s fair.

Betsy Miller: 14:11 And, the manufacturers would be behind their competition if they didn’t have that available. So it’s, it’s kind of a tight rope to walk for the manufacturers to decide whether they want to be super user-friendly or if they want to be up to date with everything else that’s on the market.

Debi Lynes: 14:29 Talk to me specifically about some vendors and things that they’ve done. I know you were talking about aside open. oven.

Betsy Miller: 14:35 Oven. Yeah.

Debi Lynes: 14:37 That some of the vendors in cool things that are trending right now.

Betsy Miller: 14:40 So side-swing ovens are designed to have the dork works just like a regular door does walking into a room. There’s also a French door ovens instead of being dropped down ovens and when people either if you’re shorter, if you’re incapacitated, if you’re in a wheelchair, those are options to get in and out of an oven comfortably without having to have someone help you. And that is a big thing is looking for independence inside the house in and products that can help you keep your independence.

Debi Lynes: 15:16 You were talking about drawers. Tell me about refrigeration drawers right now.

Betsy Miller: 15:22 Well, and there’s drawers for everything. There’s drawers for microwaves that are designed to go under counter. A lot of people feel that they’re safer because you don’t have to pull something hot down, pulling it up.

Debi Lynes: 15:33 Yes yeah.

Betsy Miller: 15:33 That make sense and then refrigeration drawers are another thing because you don’t have to get down on your hands and knees to get into an under-counter refrigerator to see like where your water or where your diet Coke is. Dishwasher drawers, same idea. You’re bringing the height of the dishwasher up. I just had a client today that she had a traditional dishwasher, but it was raised, my guess is 18 inches off the floor. So when she opened the door, the door was 18 inches higher than it would be on a standard dishwasher. Oh, that’s very cool. Yeah.

Debi Lynes: 16:03 Actually that, you know, I’m only 66, but I can tell you that I’m paying attention to those things for two reasons, for three reasons. One because it’s my profession two because I’m old enough now to feel it when I’m bending over. And three because we’re doing the podcast and it’s funny, you don’t know what you don’t know and once you start learning about things, it’s.

Betsy Miller: 16:22 In four because I told you the statistic about the number one cause of death over 65.

Debi Lynes: 16:28 Yeah tell everybody.

Betsy Miller: 16:28 Falling. Another thing that I came across is that the number one cause of death for our population over the age of 65 is something related to falling. And we were talking about that it could be a hip.

Debi Lynes: 16:42 Yes.

Betsy Miller: 16:42 It could be complications of falling, but that I was really surprised to see.

Debi Lynes: 16:49 And I know bathrooms and catch-ups are the two places. Well bathroom, I think it’s bathrooms, number one, kitchen number two and then entering or exiting.

Betsy Miller: 16:56 And this is not my expertise but that’s, they were recommending different types of flooring that were more non-skid. Laminate came into it. Wood came into it. Cork was one of the options that they had mentioned.

Debi Lynes: 17:10 Well just for the general population and many of us. What are some funky fun things that you are seeing trending right now? What about color? Are you seeing stainless? Are you staying back to white? Are you saying…

Betsy Miller: 17:21 Color is the new not stainless? It’s kind of a way to say it is.

Debi Lynes: 17:28 I like it.

Betsy Miller: 17:29 Color is the new not stainless and actually we just got, we just got a e-blast today is Viking has come out with an a new color palette. LA Cornue is a French range that has a lot of different options for color and what you’re hearing is someone will come in and a lot of times they don’t cook but they are looking for a statement.

Debi Lynes: 17:50 For display.

Betsy Miller: 17:50 They’re looking for a statement piece and the colors are not stainless and that’s kind of the idea behind them. A blue star is a company that will customize any range to any color on real color wheel. What else? GE Cafe just came out with a one that’s matte white and matte black. And again, you can customize it with bronze and copper and pewter twin trims. So that, that’s kind of cutting edge. That’s bringing down the price point on. some of the customization options.

Debi Lynes: 18:23 Talk to me about dishwashers. I know they sound so boring, but it’s so funny. I know you’re like, it’s a big deal to you too. I know that whenever I bring clients and she’s like, all right, here’s the deal. Do you want ease? Do you want efficiency? Do you want quiet?

Betsy Miller: 18:36 While the one thing with dishwashers now is they all do a good job. They all clean well, they are all pretty quiet. It just depends on what features that you want and what you’re putting in your dishwasher. But dishwashers are pretty easy and that when you’re talking about placement for things, it’s kind of like when we’re doing our inventory on everything, we go through all the parts and pieces that the sizing can be affected. And then it’s like, okay, how many dishwashers do you want? and.

Debi Lynes: 19:01 Whoa. How many dishwashers?

Betsy Miller: 19:01 And we’re, I we’re seeing two in the kitchen, one in the back kitchen, and they don’t take up a lot of space, so that is a thing that is an easy add on for a lot of people to make their lives easier when they have however many people you’re going to have for Christmas.

Debi Lynes: 19:19 What can I to say. When my with my kids who have four kids, I don’t think I would ever put a dish away. I just have, I had to go.

Betsy Miller: 19:24 Right to left.

Debi Lynes: 19:25 That’s right.

Betsy Miller: 19:25 Go right to left. That’s exactly right.

Debi Lynes: 19:27 It makes so much sense. We’re almost out of time in this second segment, we have a third segment. I know. Can you believe it? How fun is this? We’ll be right back. Here on aging in place talking about appliances. Hi, I’m Dr. Debi Lynes. Design elements are psychologically and physically supportive and conducive to health and wellness. To learn more about what lines on design can do for you for more information, certified aging in place and facilitative and supportive design. Look for us at lynesondesign.com that’s L-Y-N-E-S on design.com. Once again, we are back on aging in place. Again, I’m with Betsy Miller and we’re talking about appliances and I’m laughing because we all have so many opinions about what we want to talk about and it’s so many things, so little time. So I think we’re going to focus on this segment. We’ve got to have your back on safety, safety, safety when it comes to appliances.

Betsy Miller: 20:21 Yes. What we started our conversation with was induction cooking and induction cooking was popular years ago. It’s been popular in Europe for years, but it fell of the fashion in the U S kind of when that timeline came through that everything was nonstick because the pans didn’t work.

Debi Lynes: 20:41 Got it.

Betsy Miller: 20:42 Cook-top, it needs to be some kind of clad bottom that will hold a magnet. So it works is the conductor for the cooking. The idea with induction is the cook-top itself doesn’t get hot. There is a heat molecule that bounces inside the pan which creates your heat. And I have induction at home. I have a 10-year-old daughter. When I moved into this house, she likes to cook a lot and I moved into this house. I was planning on replacing the cooking that was there and I was coming from gas. So my natural inclination was to go to gas.

Debi Lynes: 21:16 Right.

Betsy Miller: 21:17 She’s got this beautiful long blonde hair and I was very concerned about her safety or my stress level when she was because of her safety. And we put in induction and it’s it’s terrific. I put down paper towel a bunch of times, like if we’re frying…pan frying, anything.

Debi Lynes: 21:34 Sure.

Betsy Miller: 21:34 Just to make it easier to keep clean. If you’ve got old cast iron pans like lodge pans or locker, say you can put down one of those silicone baking mats and you can cook right on top of them. So it doesn’t scratch the cook-top, but you don’t have any loss and heat. What we were talking about is, for example, you have your dad living.

Debi Lynes: 21:55 Yes exactly.

Betsy Miller: 21:55 And a lot of people are caring for their parents.

Debi Lynes: 22:01 Sure.

Betsy Miller: 22:03 And so when I talk about my daughter and kids, and that’s a lot of times we’ll see newer grandparents come in and they’re worried about gas in kids, but I hear just as frequently parents yup in the house and either not being safe enough to turn something off, not being safe enough to turn something on.

Debi Lynes: 22:23 Correct.

Betsy Miller: 22:24 And that is induction is such a nice safe way. I use the example that you could put a pizza box on the top of it and right after you took off boiling water in the pizza box, nothing is going to happen to it. So you just don’t have to be concerned about anyone getting burned on the cook-top. It still gets hot if you have a boiling pan on it because your pan has boiling water in it and the pan is hot. But the, the safety factor is so nice before talking about both sides of caring for a one year old and caring for it, a 91 year old.

Debi Lynes: 23:00 Well, and I used to think that you couldn’t use induction if your parents or whoever had any kind of pacemaker. And that’s a myth. All We are here to debunk.

Betsy Miller: 23:08 Yes. Yeah, that’s false that anyone can use an induction cook-top. There’s no safety concerns. I’ve had people ask me about high blood pressure as well and it doesn’t affect it at all.

Debi Lynes: 23:19 Talk to me about washers and dryers. That was one other thing we really wanted to touch on, especially for younger, older folks.

Betsy Miller: 23:25 So we sell a lot of front-load washers and dryers in that’s actually my personal favorite. I feel that for my family it gets our clothes the cleanest, less wear and tear. I haven’t taken anything to the dry cleaner in probably 20 years because.

Debi Lynes: 23:41 What the good front load?

Betsy Miller: 23:43 Oh gosh.

Debi Lynes: 23:43 What’s the brand?

Betsy Miller: 23:44 This is w we GE is excellent. Maytag, Excellent Whirlpool, Great. You would like it because GE just this week we saw that they’ve got a color called Midnight Navy.

Debi Lynes: 23:58 Love it.

Betsy Miller: 23:58 And it’s beautiful and that w that’s why we pick out a lot of things, but I think a front load washer is always going to clean better and be better on your clothes. However, if it is on ground-level, it’s pretty tough to get in there. I used to have an LG that was sitting on the ground. I recently remodeled my laundry room and lifted on my OB, but I had an LG washer and dryer and I could pic, I can just picture myself sitting in my laundry room, criss-cross Apple sauce, pairing socks straight out of the dryer or folding thing straight out of the dryer because it was tough to unload the dryer and your hinge at the hip, which would you know is.

Debi Lynes: 24:43 Yeah they are not great all the time.

Betsy Miller: 24:43 Ergonomically cracked.

Debi Lynes: 24:45 Right.

Betsy Miller: 24:45 And so most of the vendors will have pedestals available, is not option, which will raise the washer 15 inches off the ground. The Heights typically vary from 38 to about 40 inches tall. And so you’re getting them up to, you know, 53 to 55 inches tall and it’s much easier to use.

Debi Lynes: 25:04 Can people put the opening on either side, brand-specific.

Betsy Miller: 25:10 Okay. Typically you’re going to see a washer on the left in a dryer on the right. Some will have hinge reversible options, but that’s going to really be brand specific. We’re seeing a resurgent in the top load washers and dryers from people that feel that front load washers are stinky. And that one thing that I bring up is everyone wants bigger and better washers and dryers, but they get really deep and we always have to be conscientious of people’s height in who’s doing what in the house.

Debi Lynes: 25:44 I do love my speed queen, but when I bend over to get things, I feel like my legs are dangling out of it in.

Betsy Miller: 25:51 That’s really not that tall.

Debi Lynes: 25:53 Yeah that is, but it’s deep man. It, you can put a lot of stuff in small children. You can watch a lot of things in there.

Betsy Miller: 26:01 And dirty clothes. It gets them cleaned because it’s one of the few that’s not a water saver. And I know that’s not very PC in certain areas, but if you ever check out the reviews, people love it because it really gets your clothes clean.

Debi Lynes: 26:14 Yeah, What about the stackables? Are you seeing that for older adults, space savers?

Betsy Miller: 26:20 I don’t think that it’s quite as good for older adults. I think that the stackables are design driven by the designers to give clients more counter space to make it look less bulky in a laundry room. You’re not, I have mine stacked though, but that was because it was the only way it was going to work. So it again, it design-driven, it’s not my first choice but it, it’s there. Now.

Debi Lynes: 26:47 If we’ve only got a couple of minutes, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask this, if you were to splurge for a couple of really amazing appliances, what would those be?

Betsy Miller: 26:59 Definitely a Subzero 648 Pro. It’s that cool refrigerator that has the glass door and it’s all stainless inside and out. It’s what they have on their ads. Definitely. That would be.

Debi Lynes: 27:13 That would be like a steam oven. I would go with a Miele convection steam oven. That would definitely be a piece that would go into my dream kitchen.

Debi Lynes: 27:23 This is fun right.

Betsy Miller: 27:26 I know.

Debi Lynes: 27:27 No coffee bar?

Betsy Miller: 27:29 I don’t know. There’s a certain amount of maintenance involved with them. Oh, And that’s the same, I have the same opinion of an ice machine, although the ice is really great. I like things that are a little bit easier. So the more maintenance the lower on my list. They go in my dream kitchen. Do I have a full-time housekeeper too.

Debi Lynes: 27:54 Oh Yes, you do. Okay.

Betsy Miller: 27:55 Okay. I’ll get a coffee maker and I’ll get an ice machine.

Debi Lynes: 27:59 Exactly I’d like to own both of them. Do you want a wine cooler too, while we’re adding?

Betsy Miller: 28:03 Sure. It’s a dream kitchen. Why not?

Debi Lynes: 28:08 Exactly. And what kind of range would you, Oh, would you like, this is fun now I’m writing all these down, right? Pry pregnant.

Betsy Miller: 28:19 Pause here, and imagine the hardest thing for me because I actually cook and as much as I like the beautiful arranges, I think I would go with a Wolf pro range because in dual-fuel and probably 48 inches because I like the little oven and a big oven and it would ultimately suit me the best. Not the sexiest though.

Debi Lynes: 28:47 Okay. Last but not least, warming drawers. I have found that with my dad here and with my grandkids here. Warming drawer. Love me a warming drawer.

Betsy Miller: 29:02 Placement placement, placement help out. At times people will put them underneath in oven. If it’s on the ground like that, you’re never going to use it. If it is right underneath the countertop, you will use it all the time because you will think to turn it on and it will be convenient to get things in and out. And that is, I have had them in two houses and one was underneath the oven. We never used it. The one was actually above the counter, like just on top of the counter with a microwave on top of it. We probably turned it on four times a week.

Debi Lynes: 29:36 Oh, that’s amazing. Betsy, you are always fun to talk to. You know your stuff, and I’m going to write all this down for my dream kitchen. I mean, you never know. We don’t know what we don’t know. Thank you for joining us. We want to thank all of you for joining us here on aging in place for any stage in life. Hi, I’m Dr. Debi Lynes and thank you for listening to aging in place for any stage in life. We would like to ask you all to give us a review. Of course, preferably five stars. Thank you again and we hope you enjoyed aging in place for any stage in life. I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine, Tracy. Tracy is naturally curious and always creative and when we were doing the Aging in Place Podcast, she said, there are so many quick tips that I can think of offhand. My response, who knew she’s going to be with us every week, giving us a quick tip and to hint that is a practical application.

Tracy Snelling: 30:39 Thanks Debi. Don’t laugh until you try it. We have spotlights, nightlights and flashlights, but what about a tool at light? These John handy lights are a must. If someone in your household suffers from nocturia or even youngsters who just can’t reach the light switch. I bought a model and I tested it for only $7 at my local retail store. The models I saw online started at $5 up to $30 the motto I tested was motion-activated and as soon as I stepped inside the bathroom, it lit the bowl. You attach it over the rim with pliable arms and it runs on three AAA batteries. Also, it’s easy to clean. I find the nicest thing about the toilet light is that it’s not a dazzling bright light, which means I can easily close my eyes and head back to bed. Who knew hitting the loo could be pretty with blue.

Debi Lynes: 31:28 One of the most fun things I do here on Aging in Place Podcast is we do takeaways and that’s something that you can just think about in a concrete way. Today’s takeaway with Betsy Miller was pretty easy for me. The thing that I didn’t talk about on the air and that is really important is induction cooktops are also a very cost-effective option. That’s our takeaway today for aging in place.

Henrik de Gyor: 31:57 Aging in Place Podcast is hosted by Debi Lynes and produced by Henrik de Gyor. If you have any comments or questions, send an email to debi@aginginplacepodcast.com we would love to hear from you if you’re interested in advertising or sponsoring this podcast, email us at PR@aginginplacepodcast.com thank you for listening to Aging in Place Podcast.

6. Missy Santorum and Parrish Neville

January 24, 2020April 16, 2020 ~ Henrik de Gyor ~ Leave a comment

Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Missy Santorum and Parrish Neville of Palmetto Electric Cooperative about electrical service for any stage in life on the Aging in Place Podcast

(duration: 32 minutes 22 seconds)

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Takeaways

Keep your thermostat set at 78 in the summer and 68 in the winter and what a great way to save money. Set it and forget it.

Transcript

Debi Lynes: 00:03 Hi and welcome to Aging in Place for every stage in life. What if you could visit or have a home that would accommodate anyone at any age, any physical ability at any time? How cool would that be? That’s what we’re doing here at aging in place. Why me? Because I’m a doctor of psychology and I specialize in physical spaces and health wellness. Also, I love designing with intent at any age. Why now? Because we the baby boomers want to age in place gracefully and we want our families around us as much as we can. And why you the audience? Because we want you to experience what it’s like to have a home that’s safe, aesthetically pleasing, and that you can live in at any age with any ability at any time. I’d like to introduce you now to Aging in Place Podcast for every stage in life.

Debi Lynes: 01:05 Hi and welcome to the Aging in Place Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Debi Lynes. I am here today with Parrish Neville and with Missy Santorum, director of marketing and public relations director from Palmetto Electric cooperative. Thank you both for joining us so much. I’m really excited to talk to you. This is like a panel discussion on energy. It’s everything good. You know Missy, when we were talking about doing the segment, I think I was really curious cause we are hearing Hilton Head, South Carolina, you are a cooperative and I would love to know a little bit about the history of Palmetto Electric cooperative.

Missy Santorum: 01:43 Well, I’ll tell you, in 2015, Palmetto Electric celebrated 75 years of service to the Low Country. So, I mean that was very exciting for us to celebrate that. Coops, we have 20 in the state of South Carolina. Our service area for Palmetto Electric is all the way down. Hilton Head Island. We serve the whole Island and then up through the 278 corridor into Jasper and Hampton County. So it’s about a 60 miles service area.

Debi Lynes: 02:11 Can I ask a broad spectrum question and Parrish if you want to go with this and that is what is a cooperative?

Parrish Neville: 02:18 A Electric Utility Cooperative is designed to serve the people that it serves. So we provide electric service for our members. So you’re not just a customer, you receive electric service from us, but our whole job is just to provide you that energy.

Missy Santorum: 02:36 Well, we’re not turning a profit, let’s put it that way. We’re not an investor on. So when you are a member of Palmetto Electric, you’re an owner. You’re part-owner of the company.

Debi Lynes: 02:47 What’s our history? Tell me how this evolved.

Missy Santorum: 02:49 So in 1940, President Roosevelt decided that rural America needed to be electrified. We, of course, the investor-owned will electrify the cities, the municipalities, but the rural areas of our country were not electrified. Well. Our service area, including Hilton Head Island, was very rural. No bridge to the Island. When I looked back at the minutes, there were about 83 petitions of people who lived here on Hilton Head Island who would like to have electricity. So the investor-owned decided it wasn’t worth [it]. They couldn’t turn that profit so they were not gonna come serve it. So the Palmetto Electric board back in the day got together, decided they would do it. They barged the poles over. And here’s a funny side note, they barged the poles over at low tide.

Debi Lynes: 03:34 Barged the poles at low tide?

Missy Santorum: 03:36 Low tide and put them on the side. Okay. Right back there near the Calibogue Sound. Went off to lunch. They came back high tide and the poles were floating in the Sound and they had to go out and retrieve the poles. We even got pictures of the barge with the poles. So it’s really unique and we’ve got a great history at Palmetto Electric. And that was in 1950 though when they came over here. Yes Ma’am! 1950 so, and then the forties we were serving Hampton County, Jasper County. And as you know, our counties are the bottom of South Carolina. The state is like an ice cream cone. So it’s the bottom of the cone.

Debi Lynes: 04:14 So now how many members do you have?

Missy Santorum: 04:16 We have about 75,000.

Debi Lynes: 04:19 Oh my gosh. Well, one of the things we’re excited about talking and Parrish, this is where you come in, some of the programs that you have, what’s you’re proud of. And then I’ve got just some generic basic questions that people have actually asked us to ask you. So I think that’s kind of fun. Let’s talk about some programs.

Parrish Neville: 04:36 Okay. Well, we have a lot of different programs we’ve developed over the years. But the main thing to remember is that we’re a distribution electric co-op. We don’t generate electric power.

Debi Lynes: 04:46 So what does that mean a distribution electric co-op?

Parrish Neville: 04:48 We buy power from power suppliers and then distribute it to all of our members.

Debi Lynes: 04:53 So what kind of power are we buying?

Parrish Neville: 04:57 Well, it’s a whole mix, the whole gamut. Traditionally, power is generated by coal. A lot of it’s generated by gas and oil and hydro and nuclear. So there’s, there’s solar is of course now is in the mix too. So all different types of power.

Debi Lynes: 05:16 It’s fun to talk to you about it because you take that for granted as you’re listing off six sources of power. That, and I consider myself a fairly educated consumer. I had no idea. So solar, hydro, coal, gas, nuclear, gas, and what did I forget? Where they’re six! No..I think I got them all actually. Oil. Okay. Yeah. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. From the peanut gallery. We love that too.

Parrish Neville: 05:47 Yeah. So there’s, there’s lots of different ways that power producers create power, but then it’s just transported to us through transmission lines and then we distributed out through the smaller lines, through the neighborhoods and the businesses. So that the important thing there is how much it costs to all of us? That’s always the bottom line is how much it costs. So the costs are determined primarily by one hour each month. So, it’s that peak hour. The hour that we use the most, and during that hour, if we can encourage our members to use less, it saves all of us money.

Debi Lynes: 06:30 All right. Missy explained that. What does that mean “The peak hour” and “Beat the Peak”? Is that what you were saying?

Missy Santorum: 06:36 Right. We have a program Beat the Peak, so it varies. It’s all weather-driven. It’s dependent on like for the winter, Palmetto Electric actually is a winter peaking co-op, believe it or not, because of our heat pumps are very efficient in the hot, humid weather and we have a lot of glass. The way we built our homes here, so it really depends. So in the winter, the peak might be in the morning, in, in the summer it’s going to be in the hot afternoon.

Debi Lynes: 07:02 Okay, so when you’re talking about peak, that’s when the most energy is used and what you’re asking us to do Parrish is?

Parrish Neville: 07:10 Turn that hour we are anticipating a peak to reduce your usage some. You know, not totally stop using energy, but maybe you can avoid doing some things, put them off to other hours. Maybe, you can reduce or change your temperature on your thermostat a couple of degrees. That all can help towards reducing the demand for us.

Debi Lynes: 07:32 Can I ask a very naive question? What are some of the things… Is that include my dishwasher? What are some of the things that I wouldn’t even think about?

Parrish Neville: 07:41 clothes washing, dishwashing, maybe not using some hot water, showering later. Showering later and now. So all those things can add up. Your air conditioning is probably the big one. So, adjusting the temperature just two or three degrees can help us out.

Debi Lynes: 08:00 Is there a temperature range that is pretty much ideal for you all and for the health and wellness of a family, whether they’re seniors or young kids or middle age like me?

Parrish Neville: 08:15 Well, for the health and wellness, I wouldn’t know exactly what that number is, but generally speaking around 75 degrees is adequate for most people. For energy purposes, we recommend in the summertime that you keep your thermostat on 78 and in the winter on 68.

Debi Lynes: 08:34 Oh it’s okay. 78 and 68. My husband and I talk all the time because I tend to be a thermostat [changer]. and he said [no]. Set it… He keeps telling me “set it and forget it.” Or I think you might’ve told me that Missy.

Missy Santorum: 08:48 No, I think that sounds good.

Debi Lynes: 08:50 Why is that so important?

Parrish Neville: 08:52 Well, one reason why in our we use electric heat pumps okay, and in the winter when the heat is running, the heat pump can provide heat two ways from the heat pump, which is very efficient. It’s just the reverse of an air conditioner. So it’s very efficient. But it can also provide heat through auxiliary strip heaters, the auxiliary heaters or backup to the heat pump in extreme weather. But if you adjust the temperature more than two or three degrees at a time, you may artificially cause the strip heat to cycle on and then you’re going to use about three times as much energy as you want.

Missy Santorum: 09:30 Think about your meter running double time.

Debi Lynes: 09:33 Oh my goodness! I didn’t realize it was that significant. See this is why we need to talk to you guys. because I think you know, you don’t know what you don’t know. And I think this is really educational and that’s sort of the point of the whole podcast is to get some of this information out and disseminate it. It really is. We’re going to take a quick break. We’re going to come back and talk about a lot more programs that you all have. Stay with us here on Aging in Place Podcast.

Debi Lynes: 09:55 Hi, I’m Dr. Debi Lynes. Design elements are psychologically and physically supportive and conducive to health and wellness. To learn more about what Lynes on Design can do for you, for more information, certified aging in place and facilitative and supportive design, look for us at LynesonDesign.com. That’s L-Y-N-E-S on design.com.

Debi Lynes: 10:20 We are back here on the Aging in Place Podcast. We’re talking with Palmetto Electric Cooperative. We have Parrish Neville, we have Missy Santorum. Again, it’s super interesting. Who knew this would be so interesting and educational and practical. I think that’s the best part of the whole discussion. You’ve got a couple of programs that you want to make sure we talk about, but before we do, you actually came to my house about a year ago and it was really exciting and you did what’s called a…

Parrish Neville: 10:46 Energy audit.

Debi Lynes: 10:47 What is an energy audit?

Parrish Neville: 10:50 Well, it was an evaluation of your home to see if we could find ways to help you save energy or maybe change some of your operational practices that could improve.

Debi Lynes: 11:00 Which is code for check and see how well were you doing with your efficiency. It was amazing. Can other people ask for this or request it?

Missy Santorum: 11:09 Absolutely! And this is a great way to hold down the cost on your bill and you can’t believe it. I mean you can insulate, you know, you can use foam, you can, you can change out your windows. What were things you found Parrish that Debi needed?

Parrish Neville: 11:23 At your house, we found some installation issues up in your attic. I think we also found some problems with your ductwork going on in that front closet there. Some duct issues there where you were leaking air.

Debi Lynes: 11:37 So what are you looking for when you take a walk, what areas do you go to on when your looking for these specific areas?

Parrish Neville: 11:43 Well, the heating and cooling is usually more than 50% of your costs. So that’s things that relate to the heating and cooling are what we’re looking for primarily. Then we at other things like water heating. Things that maybe have pumps or motors that are running continuous swimming pools or if you’ve got lots of lighting or some other special equipment that might have pumps or motors. Some really big houses might have a wine cellar or something like that with refrigeration, a lot of extra refrigeration.

Debi Lynes: 12:14 I actually remember you were looking at my thermostat and said we probably need to change this from 1958. We are not really… I do remember this one…I’m not sure it’s doing what it’s supposed to do.

Parrish Neville: 12:25 You actually got a new one.

Debi Lynes: 12:25 I did! I’m very proud of myself, but when you were talking about a new thermostat program.

Missy Santorum: 12:29 We have a Smart Thermostat Program, which is really exciting and I know Parrish is working a lot with the HVAC, you know, all of the contractors out here to come in and talk to our members about this and tell them a little bit about what the incentives in the program.

Parrish Neville: 12:45 Sure! Our program is really, again, designed to help us lower our demand during that peak hour. And so, in order to do that, we won’t lower the temperature a little bit during those peak hours. So we have a program design with smart thermostats, so when it’s installed, we’ll be able to adjust that thermostat. With your permission, we can adjust it for you during the peak time.

Debi Lynes: 13:08 You can do that? Because if I’m working…

Parrish Neville: 13:11 Or the manufacturer.

Debi Lynes: 13:14 Well, that’s amazing!

Missy Santorum: 13:16 But you do something else to make it a little more comfortable before you do that.

Parrish Neville: 13:18 Yeah! So, you know, part of our incentive includes the thermostat and the installation.

Debi Lynes: 13:24 Oh, we should have waited a year!

Parrish Neville: 13:29 We’ll give you a monthly incentive of $5, and but you have an option to participate or not participate. You can opt-out of the program if you need to.

Missy Santorum: 13:39 Oh my gosh!

Parrish Neville: 13:40 We hope you won’t!

Missy Santorum: 13:40 Yeah! For instance, if you had company come over and it was a time to control and it was just a little warm, you could, you could opt-out at that moment and change it back to what you need. So you could be comfortable. But Parrish, there is a time where you, like for instance, if it’s the summer you’re going to cool it.

Parrish Neville: 13:57 Oh.. That’s right! We’re going to before we go into one of these peak periods, so in the summer we’re going to pre-cool your house a little bit so that you don’t notice that we’re adjusting the temperature down so ahead of time. We’ll cool the house off a couple of degrees and then when we go into control we’ll reduce it a little bit.

Debi Lynes: 14:16 You know, because we’re talking about aging in place at any stage in life, I think that that would be such a godsend for a lot of people where they just wouldn’t have to deal with it. You know? And I know my dad’s 91 if he just knew someone again where you all were going to set it and forget it, it would be a whole lot easier. I know. Do you have a water heater program? Talk to me if you will a little bit about that.

Parrish Neville: 14:37 Well, the water heater program has been around a long time and it was our first program that really involved reducing demand during those peak hours. Water heater is like a battery. We can heat the water in there and then turn the water heater off and if you still have hot water for hours later. Matter of fact, sometimes if your water heaters a newer model that is well-insulated. It might stay hot for a couple of days if you don’t use it.

Debi Lynes: 15:01 Oh! I didn’t know that.

Parrish Neville: 15:03 And so when we have a big demand for energy, we just cycle your heater off. We’ve got a large tank of water ready to use. You’ll still have hot, adequate hot water, but it comes off of our peak time and saves all of us money.

Debi Lynes: 15:17 Okay, so here’s my question. I am an older adult or I’m a first-time homeowner and I need a water heater. Do you actually provide the water heaters? How does all this work with my contractor or my architect?

Parrish Neville: 15:32 Well, we can do it two ways. We have a program where we can give you an incentive, a rebate to get the right size water heater in or we’ll do everything for you. We’ll provide the heater, get somebody to install it, and then we spread the cost out for you over five years so it doesn’t cost that much upfront.

Debi Lynes: 15:53 Oh. Once again! I mean, talk about easy ways to save.

Missy Santorum: 15:57 Very easy and it just goes right on the bill.

Debi Lynes: 15:59 I mean, that makes so much sense to me. Another program. This is fun. We could talk about these all day. I want to know what a Champ program is. Missy is like mouthing over here. There is a Champ program.

Parrish Neville: 16:10 Well the Champ is not one of the load control programs. It’s a service program. We are started off many years ago and it’s just been updated recently. The Champ program is appliance repair service at a reasonable, affordable cost. You pay a small amount added to your bill each month and then we cover appliances and other utilities in your home.

Debi Lynes: 16:35 Okay. Help me understand what that means.

Parrish Neville: 16:37 So if your refrigerator stopped working, you just have one phone number to call. There’d be a small, trip charge and then the cost of repairing the item would be covered.

Debi Lynes: 16:49 How do I get to be a champ or part of the program?

Parrish Neville: 16:55 You just have to sign for this.

Missy Santorum: 16:55 You just give us a call. We’ll sign you right up.

Debi Lynes: 16:57 Do people take advantage of these?

Missy Santorum: 16:59 They do. We do? Yes.

Debi Lynes: 17:01 Oh, I tell you, it’s like you need your own show.

Missy Santorum: 17:06 We’re just so happy to be here with you, Debi and get the word out.

Debi Lynes: 17:09 because there’s so much.

Missy Santorum: 17:11 A lot of times if you’re a new homeowner and you’ve got new appliances and all, you’re not going to need it. What about five years down the road. And that happens before you know it, all of a sudden it’s like, oops, okay, now this is out and the ice maker is out. You know, something’s got to be tweaked or not working. And it is so easy to make that one call.

Debi Lynes: 17:29 I’m so impressed. So all I really need to do… what were you going to say?

Parrish Neville: 17:33 I was just gonna say, in addition to the appliances, our new plans have coverage for the electric lines inside your house. So the switches and the breakers as well as the water faucets and water lines in the house water breakage in the line.

Debi Lynes: 17:52 Well, I’m kind of a keep it simple girl. And again, as I get older it is much more difficult for me, to be honest with you, to keep track of everything and to know that I had one call to be able to manage all of that, it would be priceless quite frankly.

Missy Santorum: 18:10 And it’s appliance is in HVAC. Yeah.

Debi Lynes: 18:13 Now say that again.

Missy Santorum: 18:13 Your appliances, like your range, you know your dishwasher, refrigerator, washer, dryer.

Debi Lynes: 18:22 your heating and air system, your water heater, all those can be covered under the champ plan.

Debi Lynes: 18:27 So let’s assume that you come in and my, which is true, my speed queen, it can take up to 10 grandchildren’s beach towels… Dies after seven years. So then what happens then? Can you help me repurchase or…?

Parrish Neville: 18:47 Well, yeah, if you’re under the plan and your item fails and can’t be repaired, there’s a claim… Well, there’s a claim at least. I mean there’s a limit to how much claims you may have made during that year and if you hadn’t exceeded that you can actually get a nice size check to help you go purchase one.

Missy Santorum: 19:06 The residual to help you purchase.

Debi Lynes: 19:08 Because I’m paying attention, I’m saving energy and I’m working for the good of the whole community.

Missy Santorum: 19:14 It’s part of the program.

Debi Lynes: 19:16 Pretty amazing! We’re going to take another quick break, although I don’t really want to because we’re kind of on a roll here and we’re going to come back and we’re going to talk about some other programs. I’d like to ask about re renewable energy. Talk a little bit about that and solar energy, some of the cool things you’ve got going on. Stay with us here on Aging in Place Podcast.

Henrik de Gyor: 19:33 Hi, I’m Henrik, the producer of Aging in Place Podcast. If you’d like more information and transcripts of this podcast, visit aginginplacepodcast.com. And now, back to Debi Lynes with the next segment of Aging in Place Podcast for every stage in life.

Debi Lynes: 19:52 We are back here on the aging place podcast. Once again, we are with Parrish, we are with Missy and we were going to talk about renewable energy but really first we wanted to talk a little bit about solar energy, which is really interesting,

Missy Santorum: 20:08 Right? Solar and also we have a Surge Guard Program.

Debi Lynes: 20:11 That’s what we want to hear.

Missy Santorum: 20:11 Well, let me tell you. You know in the summer, you’re on Hilton Head Island, you’ve got this unbelievable hot humid day and then about four or five o’clock, what happens? The clouds roll in and have a big thunderstorm. So in, because we’re an Island surrounded by water, we’re very susceptible to lightning. So Parrish just going to tell us a little bit about the Surge Guard Program because it is fabulous and we have a lot of our members on it.

Parrish Neville: 20:37 Yeah, surge protection is, well I tried to tell people is like a seat belt for your house. Surge protection is going to help keep you safe, just like a seat belt would, but you can still be injured just like with a seat belt in car wrecks. And so that’s the way you got to think about surge protection. It’s a smart thing to do. It’s not very expensive and it may save you a lot.

Debi Lynes: 21:04 What does it look like? What does that even mean?

Parrish Neville: 21:07 Well, a power surge can come from a lot of different things. Lightning is the most devastating thing. But when lightning or other things disturb the power lines, you can have a sudden spike in the electrical voltage.

Debi Lynes: 21:20 Which is bad for my computer. Bad for everything.

Missy Santorum: 21:24 And there are other ways it can come into your house. It not only through, you know, the power line but also with your irrigation, through your cable. Think about all the things that are plugged in, you know, with your television and other ways. So we have two steps in this program.

Parrish Neville: 21:39 Yeah, the, there’s first there’s surge protection we can put on the outside on the primary electric line. So at the meter, we can put some surge protection there and that stops the big stuff from coming down on the power line. We have other surge protection we can put on some of those other lines come into your house like the phone or the cable or the internet line. But the other step that’s important is to have point of use protections for those most vulnerable electronics, your televisions, computers, and that type of equipment. You can put a surge protector right where it plugs in and protect both the electric side there as well as those data lines that are coming into your equipment.

Debi Lynes: 22:19 And I’m gonna go back really quickly to how do people find out about these programs? I’m assuming the website has all of these.

Missy Santorum: 22:26 Website and we are big with social media. Okay. palmetto.coop.

Debi Lynes: 22:31 I went on Facebook, your Facebook.

Missy Santorum: 22:32 I will tell you, social media became a thing at Palmetto Electric after Hurricane Matthew. In 2016 and that’s a fabulous way that we communicate with our members. We get the word out. We’re on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Palmetto.coop is the website. So yes, we have all of that information out there.

Debi Lynes: 22:52 Very interesting. Talk to me, if you will, now a little bit about the kind of energy about renewable energy, also about solar energy.

Parrish Neville: 23:00 Well, Palmetto Electric has available to our members and net metering rates. So if you decided to put rooftop solar on your house, you can sell back the amount of energy up to the point that you consume during the year.

Debi Lynes: 23:15 He’s so going to have to say that again in real words.

Parrish Neville: 23:19 Ok. When you put a solar panel system in, your house uses part of that energy, but sometimes you produce more energy than you need and so that energy can be sold back.

Debi Lynes: 23:31 Oh that’s a good thing. Okay.

Parrish Neville: 23:31 Now you won’t get a check from us, you can just sell back. You’ll get the sell back what you use so you can net out to zero during the year. and that, you know, so that’s good. A lot of utilities offer net metering, but not everybody does.

Debi Lynes: 23:51 Are you finding that people are taking advantage of putting solar panels up? Is it difficult to do? Is that something that you helped much do?

Parrish Neville: 23:59 It’s very expensive,

Debi Lynes: 24:00 Okay, so on the front side it’s expensive,.

Parrish Neville: 24:02 It is very expensive. And it’s not for everybody for sure. And frankly, with our co-op, we have very affordable power. Okay, So it’s not necessarily economically.

Debi Lynes: 24:20 feasible here. And you know, we were talking about yes, we are in Hilton Head, South Carolina, but we go nationally and so a lot of the information we’re providing may feel local, but I think again, you don’t know what you don’t know some of these…

Parrish Neville: 24:33 Yeah. And some in some places in the country that cost power is very expensive and so there, solar may be a very good fit. But you know, there are things to consider when you put it, you’re going to put rooftop solar on. You have to, first of all, have not had any shade, so you don’t need any trees in your yard. One shadow will stop the production of solar across the whole panel. You need to remember that there was maintenances involved. So these panels, in our area, we have lots of pollen every year.

Debi Lynes: 25:03 Oh yeah, good point. I never thought about that. If it’s not about shade, it’s about pollen.

Parrish Neville: 25:07 Yeah. So they’ve got to be cleaned. We have lots of trees in our area here, so we have lots of squirrels. Squirrels can damage solar panels. I know that you probably had some eat some irrigation lines or things in your yard so they can cause damage.

Debi Lynes: 25:24 They’re like family now, the squirrels.

Parrish Neville: 25:26 Missy mentioned the hurricane we had that damages…

Debi Lynes: 25:29 Everything

Parrish Neville: 25:30 Of course, the systems. that you want to make sure that you’ve got insurance to cover these.

Missy Santorum: 25:34 Every now and then we’ve got hail. Can you imagine what hail is going to do to solar?

Debi Lynes: 25:38 I never even thought about that. So it is, it is a wonderful source of power, but it comes with an inherent set of…

Missy Santorum: 25:44 Yeah and you have to have sun. Yeah. That, so there are places in our country, you know, in the United States that we do get a lot of sun, you know and really humidity’s not great either.

Parrish Neville: 25:57 And one important thing about the hurricane, a lot of people felt that they were going to have power when the power was out because of the hurricane.

Debi Lynes: 26:05 Yeah, I would if I had solar power.

Parrish Neville: 26:06 Not true. If you don’t have power to your house, solar panels will not work. That’s the way they’re designed for safety.

Debi Lynes: 26:13 See? You learn something every day. What is renewable energy?

Parrish Neville: 26:18 Well solar would be, yeah.

Debi Lynes: 26:20 Oh solar is what it is.

Missy Santorum: 26:22 It is. And also we have landfills in our area that produce methane gas that is part of renewable energy.

Debi Lynes: 26:31 It’s funny because you guys all know what that means and I’ve heard the term, but I think there are a lot of people really don’t know what it is.

Parrish Neville: 26:38 Well that would, it would include solar production like Missy said, from generate power from landfill gas, hydropower. There is a couple of other sources… wind. Those are all examples of renewable power.

Debi Lynes: 26:55 When you buy power and you said hydro is one that you do buy special kinds of power, go to special to go to different places or is it all accumulated and then just dispersed? I don’t know if that sounds like a naive question or….

Parrish Neville: 27:11 Heard of the grid?

Debi Lynes: 27:13 Yeah.

Parrish Neville: 27:13 Just think of it like a big bucket. Everybody’s topping something in the bucket and everybody’s taking stuff out of the bucket. So that’s the way it is. More or less.

Debi Lynes: 27:23 What are some of the most asked questions about Palmetto Electric or about things that you do?

Missy Santorum: 27:30 Well, one thing that we do that’s fabulous, it really gives back to the community, is Operation Roundup. And we are celebrating 30 years.

Debi Lynes: 27:37 So what is that?

Missy Santorum: 27:38 That’s where members in 1989, our president and CEO came up with the idea where you round your bill up to the next dollar and literally it’s about $6 a customer a year averages. And we are now at $7.8 million that we’ve collected in 30 years. And we give back to the community, to organizations and individuals in need.

Debi Lynes: 27:59 Wow.

Missy Santorum: 28:00 And we’ve allowed other co-ops in the country to adopt it. So over 300 if done that. And now we even have some local businesses that have picked up on that idea. Those you’ll hear them say, would you like to round up to the next dollar to give to this charity or that.

Debi Lynes: 28:14 Do you all have conferences that you go to where you actually go and collaborate, idea swap, here is what’s new, what’s trending, what the future is holding for us?

Missy Santorum: 28:24 Absolutely. We do marketing, we have national conferences, key accounts.

Debi Lynes: 28:29 What are some concerns or what are some things you’re really excited about?

Missy Santorum: 28:35 Well, concerns of course. We’re always trying to stay on top of technology. We’re trying to be efficient. And so just like the way we market and send out our public relations. People are like, “well, you’re member-owned. Why do you advertise?” Because we have these programs and services that benefit our members and we want them to know about it.

Debi Lynes: 28:54 I really appreciate you all coming today. I think it’s been extremely helpful. Very, very educational. We’d love to give you the opportunity to share a little bit about how we can connect with you all.

Missy Santorum: 29:07 Okay. Through palmetto.coop is the website. We have a Palmetto Electric Cooperative. We are in, like I said, Hardeeville, Ridgeland, Hampton, Hilton Head Island, Bluffton, South Carolina. The website is Palmetto.coop. That’s P-A-L-M-E-T-T-O dot C-O-O-P. The one 800 number is (800) 922-5551.

Debi Lynes: 29:32 That makes so much sense and they are extremely user-friendly so don’t hesitate. Thank you both so much for joining us here on aging in place.

Debi Lynes: 29:42 I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine, Tracy. Tracy is naturally curious and always creative and when we were doing the Aging in Place Podcast, she said there are so many quick tips that I can think of offhand. My response, who knew. She’s gonna be with us every week, giving us a quick tip and a hint that is a practical application.

Tracy Snelling: 30:10 Thanks Debi. Who’s sitting on the remote? We’ve reached the age where everything has a remote and usually the universal remote is not the answer to our problem. Right now I have four remotes on my coffee table because that universal just isn’t working in my world. The grandchildren come to visit. It ends up being just one remote on the table and it’s “not that one.” Elderly persons with a table completely full of today’s necessities will also appreciate this “Who knew”. To eliminate the current coffee table shuffle or controllers, take Velcro with the self-sticky tape and put it around the edge of the table on the side that faces the couches or their favorite chair that will be the best. Place a small piece of Velcro on each of your remotes and attach. If your table has an overhang top, the remotes will be hidden out of plain sight. Who knew we would be such a controlling generation?

Debi Lynes: 31:08 We are back and what a fantastic episode with Palmetto Electric Cooperative. Talk about takeaways. I’m sitting here with a friend of mine and she has 17 takeaways. We decided that we’re going to leave you with one and one that will be good for all of us and that is two numbers, 68 and 78. Keep your thermostat set at 78 in the summer and 68 in the winter and what a great way to save money. We want to thank all of you for joining us here on the Aging in Place Podcast. Have a wonderful week.

Henrik de Gyor: 31:49 Aging in Place Podcast is hosted by Debi Lynes and produced by Henrik de Gyor. If you have any comments or questions, send an email to debi@aginginplacepodcast.com. We would love to hear from you. If you’re interested in advertising or sponsoring this podcast, email us at pr@aginginplacepodcast.com. Thank you for listening to Aging in Place Podcast.

Category: Aging

8. Ryan Herd

Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Ryan Herd of Caregiver Smart Solutions about using sensors for any stage in life on Aging in Place Podcast

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7. Betsy Miller

Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Betsy Miller of Billy Wood about appliances for any stage in life

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6. Missy Santorum and Parrish Neville

Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Missy Santorum and Parrish Neville of Palmetto Electric Cooperative about electrical service for any stage in life on the Aging in Place Podcast

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Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Ryan Herd of Caregiver Smart Solutions about using sensors for any stage in life on Aging in Place Podcast

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Resources

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Lynes on Design

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Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Betsy Miller of Billy Wood about appliances for any stage in life

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Lynes on Design

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Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Missy Santorum and Parrish Neville of Palmetto Electric Cooperative about electrical service for any stage in life on the Aging in Place Podcast

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