![\"Soo](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SUT-L-ENERGY-HACKS-003.jpg\")
Soo Hom holds a foam panel that he uses to cover his windows to regulate temperature and keep his energy bill down at his University City home. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nThere are the people who turn the light off every time they leave a room and try to run appliances at off-peak times to save energy.<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s Soo Hom, a 59-year-old systems administrator who works for UC San Diego. He has run the air conditioner in his 930-square-foot townhome for 24 hours.<\/p>\n
Not in the past day. In the past year.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust a few times,\u201d Hom said, \u201cfor just one to two hours a day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hom doesn\u2019t like his home toasty. He doesn\u2019t love humidity. But he has hacked his space to make climate control using gas or electricity (almost) irrelevant.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all started out when I was a kid,\u201d he said. \u201cMy parents are from China. And they didn\u2019t have much money, so they\u2019re used to living frugally, with no A\/C and hardly any heat.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Homs ran a Chinese laundry downtown, on E Street, \u201ca block away from the San Diego Public Library.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I kind of carried on the traditions,\u201d Hom said, \u201ceven though with global warming, it\u2019s getting hotter. So it\u2019s been hard to live without A\/C.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soo Hom holds a foam panel that he uses to cover his windows to regulate temperature and keep his energy bill down at his University City home. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Since 1970, when Hom was a young boy, San Diego County\u2019s average summer temperature is 3.2 degrees higher, according to Climate Central<\/a>, a non-partisan, evidence-based climate change research nonprofit.<\/p>\n Actually, he said, he is even more frugal today, \u201cbecause I know the things I can do to not use the heat.\u201d<\/p>\n There is one more reason Hom does not want to run up his utility bill: He has strong feelings about San Diego Gas & Electric. He is concerned with the utility\u2019s incentives, its profit model, and how it operates. His critique amounted to this: \u201cThey are way overcharging people.\u201d<\/p>\n The average SDG&E electric bill for a bundled customer, who uses gas and electric, was an estimated $166 in February, according to SDG&E. The average gas bill was projected to be $68.<\/p>\n Hom pays around $90 in the winter and $100 in the summer. The $10 difference is because he uses fans.<\/p>\n Hom would rather give his money to Home Depot or Amazon, for the cost of the materials he uses to keep his energy bill low.<\/p>\n A third reason why he\u2019s made these upgrades: He is a remote worker. Before the pandemic, he would walk in the door after work and it would be hot, and he would open the patio umbrellas to keep the living room shaded.<\/p>\n \u201cBut working from home, that\u2019s when my projects went into overdrive, and I would just walk around the house and find all the hot spots and figure out some way to stop the sun from heating up (that) part of the house,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The materials<\/p>\n Over the 25 years or so he\u2019s lived in his three-story University City townhome, Hom has invested several thousand dollars into his energy efficiency upgrades. Here is what he bought, with prices at the time of purchase unless otherwise noted:<\/p>\n Low-E3 and low-E4 windows and a sliding glass door.<\/strong> These cost him around $12,000. They are more useful in the winter to keep the heat in, than in the summer. \u201cI bought all that stuff and I was still hot,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re rated to reduce the sun\u2019s heat by 80% but that other 20% will still get you. It just takes longer.\u201d<\/p>\n Foam insulation.<\/strong> He has spent around $60 on three large foam boards<\/a>, which he custom cuts and places against doors and windows, depending on the season or time of day.<\/p>\n Front security door.<\/strong> This cost around $500, including installation. He sometimes leaves the wood front door open and lets the cooler outside air in through the sturdy screened metal security door. In the mornings, when light streams into his kitchen, he also puts one or two layers of foam insulation between the security door and the main door, which keeps his kitchen much cooler.<\/p>\n Car sunshields.<\/strong> He bought 20 of these shields, which are designed to help car interiors from heating up. At around $20<\/a> apiece, that comes out to around $400. He puts these on the patio umbrellas\u2019 undersides to keep the sun from hitting the patio even through the umbrella.<\/p>\n Patio umbrellas.<\/strong> This got him started on thinking about blocking out the sun\u2019s heat. He has two, and replaces them at most every five years. Pricier ones made of better fabric do last longer. \u201cNow it\u2019s hard to find good umbrellas that aren\u2019t expensive,\u201d he added. The two he has now<\/a> are priced at $529 and have \u201cvery durable\u201d Sunbrella fabric. Together they are big enough to \u201cblock 92% of the sun in that part of the patio,\u201d he said. Hom had also bought umbrellas from Costco and World Market.<\/p>\n Three \u201cHurricane\u201d brand box fans.<\/strong> He puts these 20-by-20-inch fans on windowsills and between rooms, to pull the cooler air from outside. These are most useful upstairs, where \u201cit gets really hot from the sun heating the roof during the day.\u201d Hom compared brands and found that this brand, Hurricane, has a higher wind rating than comparable ones made by competitors. They are around $40<\/a> on Amazon.<\/p>\n