Archive for the ‘Information’ category

Can You Afford to Go Green?

January 16th, 2012

When energy efficient home improvements first exploded onto the home improvement scene, many of them were excessively expensive. Yes, they offered beefy long term savings but not many homeowners could afford the initial investment that it took to have these improvements installed. Nowadays, things are different. Green improvements are more popular these days, and manufacturers are bending over backwards to give the consumer what they want. This results in the ability to go green on a budget. One of the bigger investments that you could make in your home is the replacement of the HVAC system, and most of the major HVAC manufacturers have put out energy efficient systems that nearly anyone can afford.

Get More than the Minimum!

Replacing the furnace or air conditioner with a high efficiency system could save you hundreds yearly on your energy bills, but to maximize the savings you need to upgrade to the highest efficiency unit that you can afford. In the past this meant going with the minimum efficiency requirements and right now that would mean that you would purchase an 80% efficient furnace. Just because you operate on a budget doesn’t mean you have to settle for the minimum standard. » Read more: Can You Afford to Go Green?

Boilers Teetering on the Edge of Replacement

January 11th, 2012

Boilers may be considered an alternative form of heating for the home, but for many homeowner that have had a boiler in their home for years would never switch over to forced central air. Boilers do have their perks over the more common forced air furnaces, and one of these perks is the ability to last for extremely long periods of time. Some boilers can even go up to 40 years before breaking down entirely, and if you have never replaced the boiler that is currently operating your home, ask yourself, “How old is my boiler?” Odds are the unit is getting on in the years and because everything has been working fine, you probably have not even thought to check the condition of the system. Doing so may have you leaning towards replacement in the very near future.

2 Big Old Boiler Problems:

  • Lack of Energy Efficiency: Boilers that are over 20 years old, even if well maintained, cannot hope to be very energy efficient. These old systems were simply not built for energy efficiency and in many cases, the unit is somewhere around 50% inefficient. Every time that old boiler kicks on it waste tons of your money, and unless you want to keep paying more than necessary, you should replace the unit with a new high efficiency model. » Read more: Boilers Teetering on the Edge of Replacement

Mounting Your New Flat Screen: Safety Concerns

December 14th, 2011

The hottest Christmas gift the past few years has been the flat screen TV. If you have not yet upgraded, you and your family are in the minority because these high tech televisions are not going away any time soon. If anything, they are just going to keep getting bigger and more popular. Whether you get one as a present or you invest in the upgrade on your own, our biggest concern when it comes to that television is safety. If you have small children in the home, the flat screen is a bigger hazard than you may have initially thought.

The Safety of Small Children

Flat screen televisions are very insecurely balanced upon their stands. One tip forwards or backwards could send that TV falling off an entertainment center and onto whomever may lie below. Small children love to climb on furniture and one moment of distraction could lead to a disaster in your home should your child decide to use the television for support. This is an accident that has been growing in frequency over the past few years, and falling televisions have cause very serious injuries and even death. » Read more: Mounting Your New Flat Screen: Safety Concerns

How Much Electricity Does Your Furnace Use?

December 12th, 2011

All furnaces were not created equal, and when it comes time to purchase a new system for your home, this fact will become overwhelmingly obvious. In the past, most furnaces were similar, but with all of the technological advances in the heating industry, furnaces have many different gizmos and gadgets to choose from. All of these advances are designed to improve performance and many are also made to increase energy efficiency. If you are looking for a new high performance furnace, AFUE ratings will tell you a lot about the systems energy efficiency, but they don’t tell the whole story. Gas furnaces don’t just use gas to heat your home. You need to consider how much electricity your unit will require as well.

The Furnace and Its Blower Motor

Many homeowners don’t even realize that gas powered furnaces use electricity, but if you have a unit with an inefficient blower motor in it, your furnace could be using a lot more electricity than necessary. The standard blower motor has one speed: high. The unit comes on and the blower forces air all over the home until the home reaches the desired temperature. If you have an air purifier, humidifier, or fancy air filter, you may keep the fan running between cycles as well. This helps improve air quality and evens out the temperature in the home. However, these old motors waste much more energy than necessary and there is a better option out there. » Read more: How Much Electricity Does Your Furnace Use?

Cleaning and Organizing Your Garage

December 7th, 2011

As the temperatures continue to drop, it is only a matter of time before the snow begins to fall. Those of us that have been using the garage as a dumping ground are going to find it very difficult to fit the car in with all of the other items in the way. Leaving the car out in the snow is not an option unless you want to dig your car out every morning before work. The only real solution is to get that garage cleaned and organized, and why not make improvements that will allow you to keep it that way for good?

3 Steps to Organization:

  • Sorting: The first step towards creating a cleaner garage is to look through and organize the things that are currently occupying this space. Assess which items you want to keep and which can be thrown out or donated. You will be surprised how many things you are holding onto that you haven’t used in years! Create two distinct piles: what you want to keep and what you want to go. Once you know what you are going to need to store, you are one step closer to a clean and organized garage.
  • Permanent Storage: There are two ways to tackle garage storage. You can either do it yourself or enlist the help of a professional. Slapping together wire shelves that can be purchased at nearly any hardware store is easy enough for most people to handle on their own. All you need are some plastic storage containers to place on the wire shelves and you are set to store the items you want to keep. For a more polished and professional look, you may want to consult a contractor. Professionally installed cabinetry, wall hangers, and work stations can truly transform your garage. These jobs are more complex, and if you are going to be hanging or storing heavy objects, you are going to want to make sure that these storage solutions are installed correctly! » Read more: Cleaning and Organizing Your Garage

Hard Water Hardships

November 16th, 2011

If you have had to deal with hard water in your home, you know the troubles that it can cause. However, there are many homeowners that come into a new neighborhood and a new home having no idea that their water supply consists of hard water. It isn’t until the home and the family begins noticing the symptoms of hard water damage that they realize something must be done. Having hard or very hard water is more obvious, but if the water in your home is only moderately hard, it may take more time to realize there is a problem. If you wait that long, you could have major plumbing problems on your hands that defiantly won’t be a cheap fix. Luckily, there is a solution.

Soap Scum and Hard Water

Brittle hair, faded grey clothing, and bitter tasting dishes are just a few of the ways that hard water will affect your family. Soap scum is what causes these symptoms and it is created when pretty much any type of soap comes in contact with hard water. The result is thick goo that creates a layer on everything your water touches and it can’t be easily removed. The real problems comes when you realize what the hard water and soap scum have been doing to your plumbing, water heater, boiler, and humidifier. » Read more: Hard Water Hardships

Garden Windows, Green Thumbs, and Brighter Homes

November 14th, 2011

For those of us that love to garden, Chicago’s weather isn’t exactly cooperative with this hobby. We may try to squeeze a few extra months in every year, but the first frost usually sneaks in and destroys our plants before we have any say in the matter. Some homeowners will move their hobby indoors and attempt to coax the sunlight in to keep their indoor gardens alive. However, older homes don’t have a lot of areas where the sunlight pours in, but you can change all that with one simple window replacement. Consider replacing an existing window with a garden window, and you can enjoy an indoor garden all year round!

Benefits of Installing a Garden Window

Garden windows are three dimensional structures that extend out from the home. They can fit in nearly any window opening and the larger the opening the better. Many come with shelving units that can hold the various plants you wish to grow indoors. Those of us that like to cook with fresh herbs can grow our very own herbal garden right in the kitchen and harvest our herbs as needed. Some homeowners will use the space to grow bright colorful flowers that bring spring-like beauty to the darkness of winter. Even those that aren’t big gardeners find uses for these windows. They are specially designed to bring more light into the home, and they could be just what your home needs to update the indoors. » Read more: Garden Windows, Green Thumbs, and Brighter Homes

Types of Furnaces and Choosing the Right One for Your Home

October 31st, 2011

Today consumers have many options when it comes to the type of furnace that they can purchase for their home.  Gone are the days of only having energy inefficient furnaces to choose from, and now is the time to really think about saving energy with a new system.  When choosing a new furnace, pay the most attention to the Gas Furnace Efficiency Rating, which is measured as AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency).  Furnaces of the past with an AFUE of 60-80% were very common.  Today, furnaces have reached 95% AFUE and some are even higher!

Understanding AFUE Ratings

AFUE ratings can be a little hard to understand for the average homeowner, but a good way to understand this would be to use the example of money.  An 80% AFUE furnace delivers .80 cents worth of heat for every dollar of natural gas that it burns.  The remaining amount is wasted through your flue or chimney pipe during the combustion process.  If you live in the Chicagoland area, you will operate your furnace for an average of 6-8 months per year.  Therefore, you should buy the highest efficiency unit that you can afford.  The initial cost may be more, but it will pay you back from month to month in lower utility bills. » Read more: Types of Furnaces and Choosing the Right One for Your Home

Quick Tips to Save Energy

September 28th, 2011

With the rising cost of energy, it is very important and practical to conserve electricity as much as we can. Conserving energy not only helps us lower our electric bills, but it also helps protect our natural resources as well. There are a lot of ways to conserve energy. Most of them are so simple, even your kids can do it. Here are just a few to get you started:

5 Tips to Start Saving Energy

1. Turn off the lights when leaving a room at night. Electrical lights consume a large amount of energy especially if you are using incandescent lights which are energy inefficient kind of lights. Make it a habit to turn the lights off and see how much you could save on your electricity bills.

2. Unplug your appliances when you’re not using them. Appliances that are plugged still consume energy even if they are turned off so to avoid this from happening, unplug everything that is not in use. » Read more: Quick Tips to Save Energy

Carbon Monoxide Safety Tips

September 12th, 2011

So much has been written about carbon monoxide it makes my head spin. Most everything you see on the internet is meant to scare you, but here are a few facts that I haven’t seen on the net.

4 Carbon Monoxide Safety Tips

1. Carbon monoxide detectors can have a life span of only a few years, and most are dead after ten. If you don’t have paper work on your CO detector contact the manufacturer to see what the life of your CO detector is. Just because it lights up and goes beep when you push the test button does not mean it is detecting CO. I have seen it a number of times where the customers CO detector does not go off and my meter shows elevated levels of CO. » Read more: Carbon Monoxide Safety Tips

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