As an Energy Advisor for Noble REMC since 1991, Rex Shisler knows that you can’t control the habits of the people around you. But you can take steps to improve your own energy habits, and these small improvements can lead to larger energy savings.

How’d you become an Energy Advisor?
The old boy before me retired, and I applied for the job. Part of getting the position meant I was sent to school for more training, but it’s an area I always cared about. Helping people avoid spending money they don’t have to is a passion of mine.

What’d you do before you became an Energy Advisor?
I worked for the right-of-way crew for the co-op.

What’s the first thing you thought of this morning?
I wondered whether or not I’ve lost any weight. We’re having a weight-loss competition at the office, and I’m part of a two-man team. Our weigh-in was this morning, so the first thing I thought about was whether I could afford to drink any coffee or eat any breakfast.

What’s the last hobby you picked up?
I’ll hunt just about anything, and I like to travel, but my latest hobby is hunting ginseng. Supposedly I’ll be able to find some, but I haven’t found it yet. To find ginseng you just set out into the woods and start looking around. Last fall I took my horse out for three days in the middle of the state and we still couldn’t find any.

In a world without electricity, what would you miss most?
Definitely running water.

What’s the best thing that happened to you yesterday?
I went to see a homeowner about his place, and he fixed me a big plate of fried fish.

How’d you change your energy habits at home after you took this job?
I think the most important thing I realized was that the only thing I can change is my own behavior, and that I couldn’t change my family. I realized it was fruitless to try to convince them to do different things, but that I could do them myself. So I try to watch how much I run old appliances, take shorter showers, turn off the television if I’m not in the room—those kinds of things.

What’s the number-one thing members want to know?
Why is my bill so high?

What’s the number-one thing you wish they knew?
That you should be grateful that you have electricity.

If you weren’t an Energy Advisor, what would you be?
I would be trying to trap or hunt, probably in Alaska or the Northwest Territories.