OK, so you want to save energy, live a greener lifestyle and all that good stuff at home, but you just don’t know where to start.
You’d like to scale down your electrical bill with a solar PV system, but you rent, live in a condo or don’t have enough money to invest in one at this time.
There are still plenty of simple, low-tech options. That’s what Pono Home, a startup green home consulting service, is all about.
Scott Cooney, an eco-entrepreneur and adjunct professor at the University of Hawaii’s Shidler College of Business, is the founder of Pono Home, which offers simple solutions to make your home more water- and energy-efficient.
"If you’re self-motivated you can do a lot of these things yourself," said Cooney, who lives a green lifestyle and was inspired to offer his expertise as a business. "We come into the home and package all of this in one giant service. If you can make sustainability convenient, people will pay for it."
The key difference between Pono Home and all the green educational services already out there?
"Rather than auditing and telling you what to do, we come in and do it," he said.
That might include cleaning out the condenser coils beneath your fridge, which could reduce its electricity use by 15 percent. Or cleaning out the lint screen and vent on your dryer, which can save about $34 a year.
Pono Home has a 180-point checklist that goes through your home from top to bottom, Cooney explained.
All your appliances will be tested for "vampire" loads (power consumed while not in use), and toilets and sinks are examined for leaks.
One of the simplest ways to save energy is to put a timer on your DVR, according to Cooney, because they are "huge energy suckers." Should you need it, Pono Home will also swap out incandescent light bulbs for more energy-efficient ones, saving you the time of shopping for the right ones.
"We come with 35 to 40 different types of light bulbs: dimmable, outside weatherproof LED floodlights, all sorts of different lighting technologies," Cooney said.
Cost of the service is based on size of the home, starting from $80 for a studio to $99 and up for a three-bedroom house or larger.
Just be aware that if you want a new light installed, the cost of the hardware (based on comparable retail prices from City Mill) is an additional charge on top of the $80 fee.
While hardware such as smart power strips and faucet aerators can take care of some inefficiencies, others have more to do with behavioral changes, which Pono Home educates the homeowner about.
"We basically try to encourage the greenest lifestyle possible," said Cooney, who believes that if people understand how much a certain habit costs, they will be motivated to make a change.
Pono Home also offers to go through your household cleaners and personal-care products to identify chemicals potentially hazardous to your health. Upon request, they will do a "GMO sweep" of your cupboard and show you ways to store food more efficiently. Many moms are interested in the service, according to Cooney.
Through the end of February, Pono Home’s indiegogo crowdfunding campaign allows you to get the service while contributing to an environmental nonprofit.
For $80 you get the Pono Home Service while donating $20 of that amount to groups such as the Surfrider Foundation, Blue Planet Foundation or Kanu Hawaii.
So far, Pono Home, which is slated to receive seed funding from Energy Excelerator, a clean-tech incubator in Hawaii, has serviced about 35 homes, with more scheduled. Cooney plans to franchise the business nationwide and, eventually, worldwide.
He offers a 100 percent money-back guarantee if you do not recoup your investments from its service in the first year, based on utility bills before and after service.
"That’s how confident we are that we can save you money," Cooney said.
———
ON THE NET:
» ponohome.com
Nina Wu writes about environmental issues. Reach her at nwu@staradvertiser.com and follow her on Twitter @ecotraveler.
