Archive for the ‘Money Saving’ category

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Chicagoans Can Still Save Big on HVAC!

February 1st, 2012

The thick of winter in Chicago didn’t show up until January. For many of us the mild winter meant less use of the furnace and odds are the system really hadn’t been put to the test until the first big snowfall of this year. Now you may be faced with the need to replace that old furnace. For many this is their current predicament and they are kicking themselves for not acting sooner. The federal tax credits and rebates ran out at the end of 2011. Many homeowners have accepted the fact that they are going to have to pay full price, but wait a second! There are still substantial savings out there to be had, but you need to know where to look!

Two Ways to Save:

  • Gas Company Rebates: The local gas companies in Chicago, Nicor and People’s Gas, are still offering rebates on high efficiency furnaces and air conditioners. Replacing both units can get you up to $800 in rebates, and even if you can only afford to replace the furnace, you could still get up to $200 back on your purchase. Every penny counts and the savings could be enough to make buying that high efficiency furnace worth it.
  • Lennox Home Comfort Systems: If the furnace and air conditioner you plan to purchase are from Lennox Home Comfort Systems, you could stand to save even more! They are currently offering manufacturer rebates up to $1450! » Read more: Chicagoans Can Still Save Big on HVAC!

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Posted in Air Conditioning, Go Green, Heating, Money Saving, Value

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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?

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Posted in Air Conditioning, Furnace, Go Green, Heating, Information, Money Saving

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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

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Posted in Boiler, Heating, Information, Money Saving, Safty

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Going Green and Eliminating Water Waste

January 9th, 2012

If your home was built before 1990 and you haven’t replaced any of the original fixtures, odds are you are wasting tons of water with every flush of a toilet and turn of a dial. Old toilets and faucets use much more water than truly necessary for the needs of the home. An old toilet alone will waste around 17,300 gallons per year! That amount of waste not only takes a toll on your wallet every month, it also takes a toll on the condition of our planet. These appliances need to be upgraded to new low flow fixtures.

Traditional Vs Low Flow

The traditional toilet will use between 4 and 6 gallons with every flush, and that is way more water than is truly necessary to get waste out of your home. Nowadays, toilets must meet a government regulation that requires them to use only 1.6 gallons or less per flush of the toilet. You may have heard the many rumors that claim that these new toilets can’t handle the waste that they are intended to get rid of, but that is simply not the case. Early low flow toilets did have their fair share of problems, but these days, low flow toilets function as well if not better than your traditional wasteful toilet. » Read more: Going Green and Eliminating Water Waste

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Posted in Go Green, Home Services, Money Saving, Plumbing

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Furnace Outage Quick Fix

January 4th, 2012

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could avoid having to call a professional every time your furnace broke down? Well, in many cases there is little that you can do to prevent the need for a professional assessment, but there are a couple steps you can take on your own that may get the unit to kick on again. With any luck, you will be able to get the unit to heat the home at least until you can have a maintenance check performed. Most homeowners don’t realize that the majority of furnace breakdowns are caused by a part of the furnace needing to be cleaned. If you could get the unit to start up again, you could avoid the cost of an emergency call and schedule a cleaning for the unit instead.

Reboot Your Furnace

When the computer freezes up, the only thing you can really do is shut it down and reboot. Nine times out of ten this will solve the problem and this could also solve the problem with your furnace. Sometimes the system’s cycle is thrown off or maybe a breaker will pop and the unit will not kick on like it should. One of the easiest things any homeowner can do is shut the unit down completely, flip the breaker, and then turn the system back on at the unit switch. This is how you can quickly and easily reset the system, and sometimes it is enough to get the unit going. » Read more: Furnace Outage Quick Fix

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Posted in Boiler, Furnace, HVAC Repair, Heating, Maintenace, Money Saving

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Don’t Turn Off the Furnace!

December 28th, 2011

As you head out the door this holiday season to visit family and friends for an extended period of time, there is one crucial mistake that you must not make. Do not turn off the furnace. Many homeowners are looking for any way to save money, and you may assume that since no one will be home to need the comfort of the furnace, it won’t matter if it is shut down for a few days. However, you would be wrong! Leaving the furnace off during winter puts your home at serious risk for water damage, but it can be prevented!

How Your Pipes Will Freeze

When the furnace is turned off completely, the home has no protection against the elements. All you need is one extra chilly night to surround your home and suddenly you will have frozen pipes around the house. Within hours the temperature will begin to warm as the sun rises and those pipes will begin to thaw. The ice will have expanded the pipe and could have caused cracks that compromised the integrity of the pipe. As it thaws, water will begin to force its way through and the pressure may cause the pipe to burst! » Read more: Don’t Turn Off the Furnace!

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Posted in Boiler, Furnace, Heating, Home Services, Insulation, Money Saving, Plumbing, Safty

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Quiet Performance from a Variable Speed Furnace

December 19th, 2011

We have all had that feeling when we are home alone that someone else was sneaking around upstairs or in the basement. Every house makes noises that can trick the imagination into thinking something scary is lurking around the next corner, but for the most part, these noises can be ignored. However, if you have an old furnace with a traditional single speed motor in it, you may find that the sound of the furnace kicking on is one noise you simply can’t ignore. It is a whooshing, whistling noise that rattles through the ducts until your mind can tune it out. For many, the noisy furnace even interrupts their sleep, and at some point they decide they have had enough!

Why is My Furnace So Noisy?

The reason why furnaces with these types of motors are so noisy is because they only run at one speed: high speed. There is no in between and there is no time wasted working up to top speed. Instead the fan immediately starts up and a sudden blast of air is pushed out into the home creating the noise that wakes you in the night. This problem can be solved with a simple fan upgrade or you would make sure that your next furnace is built to not experience this problem. » Read more: Quiet Performance from a Variable Speed Furnace

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Posted in Furnace, Go Green, HVAC Repair, Heating, Money Saving

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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

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Posted in Furnace, Heating, Information, Money Saving

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Outdated Duct Work

October 10th, 2011

So you are purchasing a new HVAC system for your home, and you have already found the perfect furnace and air conditioner to replace your old outdated units. You have the systems installed, but once you really start using them, you don’t notice much of a difference between the way the old units worked and the way the new systems work. Sure the energy bills are a little bit lower, but did you really get the return on the investment that you were expecting? If not, the problem may not be with your new systems. The problem is probably located in the most commonly neglected portion of the HVAC system: the duct work.

Assessing the Ducts

            The duct work is more important most homeowners think. Sure, the ducts may not have any fancy gadgets, but their ability to transport air effectively is crucial to the efficiency of your heating and cooling systems. If the air they are conditioning cannot get to the target rooms effectively, you will pay more every month for wasted energy that could have been saved by simply caring for this part of the system. The first step towards getting your ducts working the best that they can is to have them inspected by a professional. A true pro can give you an honest assessment of your ducts, and if they can be salvaged, the repair job is simple. If some parts need to be replaced, it may take a bit more effort, but it is necessary to complete so you can get the most out of your new heating and cooling units. » Read more: Outdated Duct Work

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Posted in Duct Cleaning, Furnace, Go Green, Home Services, Insulation, Money Saving

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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

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Posted in Go Green, Information, Money Saving

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