ConstructionDeal.com Update

It's one of the best kept secrets to helping home owners live more comfortably and save money on their utility bills - radiant roof sheathing.

But let's not keep quiet about it anymore!

Radiant roof sheathing is plywood or OSB (Oriented Strand Board) with a thin layer of aluminum on one side to help reflect the suns radiant rays.

Radiant roof sheathing helps your attic stays cooler, your home stays cooler and that leads to a more comfortable living environment and lower utility bills. The product is Energy Star-rated and according to its website, "can lower roof surface temperature by up to 100-degrees" and "can reduce peak cooling demand by 10-15 percent."

Radiant roof sheathing used to cost more than standard plywood/OSB, but I recently installed the product on a new home we're building near St. Louis for the same cost as plywood. Lumber prices are down and product competition is up, making radiant roof sheathing an affordable option.

But, you don't have to be building a new home or a home addition to take advantage of the benefits. A radiant barrier can be installed in an existing attic. ToolBase Services offers helpful information and several installation options.

Don't keep it a secret anymore. My clients are learning all about radiant roof barriers and I plan on installing a lot more of it because of the performance and competitive price.

- Kim Hibbs, Hibbs Homes, LLC in Chesterfield, Missouri

There's more real advice from real home builders. Kim is a quality green home building contractor in the St. Louis area. If you're looking to go green, save money on utility bills, and build a home the right way for our planet, contact Kim at Hibbs Homes today.

Labels: Energy Efficiency, Energy Savings, Radiant Roof Sheating

Spring is here! As we're slowly crawling out from under the heavy blanket of winter, we'll soon want to prepare our homes for the warmer weather of Spring and Summer.

Summer heat usually means cranking up the air conditioner to keep your rooms cool and comfortable. And... that means higher utility bills.

Not only does your HVAC unit put a dent in your wallet, it can also harm the environment. The more energy your home consumes, the more oil or coal has to be burned to provide you with the electricity. Going green is on the tip of everyone's tongue these days and for good reason.

Would you like a tip on how to not only save money on your electric bill but also cut down on the amount of electricity you use?

The California Energy Commission states that 40% of all the heat that comes in to your home is moving through the glass of your windows. My suggestion is not to board up your windows. You want to let in natural light, of course. Natural sunlight keeps you from needing electricity to power your lights and it also can add warmth on cool mornings and evenings.

But, you can make a difference. And it's the same technology you use on your car. Adding window tint can dramatically reduce the amount of heat transfer while still letting in sunlight. There are different window films to choose from.

Some add a darkening tint, similar to your sunglasses to cut down on heat and light. Another type of tint has a reflective surface to push heat and light away from the windows. There are also clear window films that do not prevent as much heat gain as the others but will still allow the same amount of natural light into the room.

You can vary the window tint around your house based on which windows have more or less direct sunlight. Window tinting can be a do-it-yourself process or you can bring in a professional for a quality installation. The California Energy Commission says that the DIY kits may not last as long as the installed window tinting kits, but are more affordable.

Depending on the variety, the window films can cut the amount of heat entering through windows by 15% to nearly 40%! This can lead to lower utility bills because your air conditioner won't have to work as hard to cool your home. If you're building a new home, it could also mean the installation of a smaller or more efficient a/c unit for the house.

Everyone wants to do more for the environment. It's the only one we've got and we need to start doing every thing we can to protect it. Adding fluorescent light bulbs to every light fixture, replacing old appliances with energy-efficient ones, and tinting your home windows are just a few steps you can take to improve your environmental footprint and help your bank account.

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If you need to find a local window tinting service for your home, ConstructionDeal.com can help. Simply submit your window tinting project and get 4 quotes - at no cost - from installers in your area. It's that easy.

You're under no obligation to hire any of them, and there is no charge to find any contractors on our site. It's fast, free and easy to use.

Labels: Energy Efficiency, Saving Money

Imagine leaving a window open all winter long -- the heat loss, cold drafts and wasted energy! If your home has a folding pull-down attic stair, a whole house fan, a fireplace or clothes dryer, that may be just what is occurring in your home every day.

Drafts from these often overlooked holes waste energy and cost you big in the form of higher energy bills. Drafts are the largest source of heating and cooling loss in the home.

Drafts occur through the small cracks around doors, windows, pipes, etc. Most homeowners are well aware of the benefits that caulk and weatherstripping provide to minimize energy loss and drafts.

But what can you do about drafts from the four largest "holes" in your home - - the folding attic stair, the whole house fan, the fireplace and the clothes dryer? Here are some tips and techniques that can easily, quickly and inexpensively seal and insulate these holes.

Attic Stairs

When attic stairs are installed, a large hole (approximately 10 square feet) is created in your ceiling. The ceiling and insulation that were there have to be removed, leaving only a thin, unsealed, sheet of plywood.

Your attic space is ventilated directly to the outdoors. In the winter, the attic space can be very cold, and in the summer it can be very hot. And what is separating your conditioned house from your unconditioned attic? That thin sheet of plywood.

Often a gap can be observed around the perimeter of the attic door. Try this yourself: at night, turn on the attic light and shut the attic stairway door - - do you see any light coming through?

If you do, heated and air-conditioned air is leaking out of these large gaps in your home 24-hours a day. This is like leaving a window or skylight open all year 'round.

An easy, low-cost solution to this problem is to add an insulated attic stair cover. An attic stair cover seals the stairs, stopping drafts and energy loss. Add the desired amount of insulation over the cover to restore the insulation removed from the ceiling.

Whole House Fans and Air Conditioning Vents

Much like attic stairs above, when whole house fans are installed, a large hole (up to 16 square feet or larger) is created in your ceiling. The ceiling and insulation that were there have to be removed, leaving only the drafty ceiling shutter between you and the outdoors.

An easy, low-cost solution to this problem is to add a whole house fan shutter seal. Made from white textured flexible insulation, the shutter seal is installed over the ceiling shutter, secured with Velcro, and trimmed to fit. The shutter seal can also be used to seal and insulate air conditioning vents, and is easily removed when desired.

Fireplaces

Over 100 million homes, in North America are constructed with wood or gas burning fireplaces. Unfortunately there are negative side effects that the fireplace brings to a home, especially during the winter heating season. Fireplaces are energy losers.

Researchers have studied this to determine the amount of heat loss through a fireplace, and the results are amazing. One research study showed that an open damper on an unused fireplace in a well-insulated house can raise overall heating-energy consumption by 30 percent.

A recent study showed that for many consumers, their heating bills may be more than $500 higher per winter due to the drafts and wasted energy caused by fireplaces.

Why does a home with a fireplace have higher energy bills? Your chimney is an opening that leads directly outdoors - - just like an open window. Even if the damper is shut, it is not airtight.

Glass doors don't stop the drafts either. The fireplace is like a giant straw sucking your expensive heated or air-conditioned air right out of your house!

An easy, low-cost solution to this problem is to add a Fireplace Plug to your fireplace. Available from Battic Door, a company known for their energy conservation products, the Fireplace Plug is an inflatable pillow that seals the fireplace damper, eliminating drafts, odors, and noise. The pillow is removed whenever the fireplace is used, then reinserted after.

Clothes Dryer Exhaust Ducts

In many homes, the room with the clothes dryer is the coldest room in the house. Your clothes dryer is connected to an exhaust duct that is open to the outdoors. In the winter, cold drafts in through the duct, through your dryer and into your house.

Dryer vents use a sheet-metal flapper to try to reduce these drafts. This is very primitive technology that does not provide a positive seal to stop the drafts. Compounding the problem is that over time, lint clogs the flapper valve causing it to stay open.

An easy, low-cost solution to this problem is to add a dryer vent seal. This will reduce unwanted drafts, and also keeps out pests, bees and rodents. The vent will remain closed unless the dryer is in use. When the dryer is in use, a floating shuttle rises to allow warm air, lint and moisture to escape.

For more information on Battic Door's energy conservation solutions and products for your home, visit www.batticdoor.com or, to request a free catalog, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to P.O. Box 15, Mansfield, MA 02048.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark D. Tyrol is a Professional Engineer specializing in cause and origin of construction defects. He developed several residential energy conservation products including an attic stair cover and an attic access door. Battic Door is the US distributor of the fireplace plug. To learn more visit www.batticdoor.com

Labels: Energy Efficiency, Saving Money

Guess what today is?!

Okay, so you read my title already... But it's not what you think. I swear! Today is Vampire Awareness Day - this is true. What's not true is that it's Vampire Awareness Day because Halloween and Trick or Treating is upon us.

We're talking about a different kind of vampire. The kind that doesn't suck the blood from your neck, but the money from your wallet.

No, it's not a day to call attention to your ex-wife... although, that would be funny.

The folks over at Best Buy have declared an awareness of energy vampires to help save you cash on your utility bills.

What is Vampire Power?

• Vampire Power is the electricity that consumer electronics and appliances use while they are switched off or in a standby mode.
• It is responsible for wasting an estimated $4 billion in the U.S. annually and the Department of Energy notes that this figure could rise by 20 percent by 2010.

How Does Vampire Power Affect Me?

• The average American home has approximately 20 to 40 electronics devices plugged in that abuse vampire power.
• These appliances can cost you close to $1,000 in electricity costs per year at current rates (more in the future if energy costs continue to climb). Even when they're not on.

A Stake in the Heart Won't Work - How Can Reduce Energy Bloodletting?

• Use a power strip so multiple devices can be switched off at the same time
• Unplug your chargers from the wall when they are not in use

Just because your stereo is off or your computer is "sleeping", it doesn't mean that it's not draining power. When you see that little red light on, it means it's sucking money from your purse. And that's not cool.

Go to the Vampire Awareness Day page (.pdf) to read a Fact Sheet with more details and what you can do to help.

Killing the vampires in your house is a great way to save money, save energy, reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, and help save the planet.

It's the green thing to do. And keeping a little money in your checking account is nice, too.

Also, if you need to do an Energy Audit of your home, ConstructionDeal.com can help. We'll match you with a local Energy Auditor to review your home and determine if your home is wasting even more energy and money.

It's a fast and easy process - simply submit your request and get up to 4 quotes from Home Energy Auditors in a matter of hours. At not cost.

Labels: Energy Efficiency, Saving Money

If you're looking for energy savings in your home, there are a lot of easy and inexpensive ways to not only cut down on your electric bill but also do your part to help the environment. These days, everyone is looking to "green" up their home. I've got a great product for you to consider. And you may not have even known this product was energy efficient - it's the ceiling fan. A ceiling fan can be a great way to help you lower your environmental "footprint" as well as the monthly utility bill.

And don't think that a ceiling fan only helps in the summer time. You know that cold air tends to stay low to the floor and warm air tends to rise above your head. Did you know that a ceiling fan can help push all that warm air back down to your level? The room will feel warmer and your heater will not have to work as hard. A ceiling fan in use in the winter time can reduce your energy bill by 10 to 15%. The ceiling fan can also help prevent those "sweaty" windows during the winter months when condensation is eliminated by the quality air circulation. Naturally, the ceiling fan can be reversed to work hard for you in the summer, keeping your air conditioned air circulating and cutting utility bills by up to 15%.

The nice thing about these fans is that they require very little electricity to run. And they can easily be installed by a professional electrician or handyman, but if you've already got an overhead light in the room -- it's a project you can do easily on your own. The right fan can add a beautiful fixture to accentuate the decor of any room. A lot of ceiling fan models also come with a lighting option to help with overhead and accent lighting. So, what's not to love? Energy savings, aesthetics, easy installation, and additional lighting... All for a very low price.

And when it comes to price, consider shopping for your next fan online. More and more, people are going online for information and to find a better deal than they find in a brick and mortar store. And there are so much variety in ceiling fan styles and colors and sizes that the local home improvement store will probably not carry the right fan for you. When I bought my last ceiling fan for my bedroom, I purchased online from Littman Bros. Lighting. What I liked about Littman was they have an established store with experience near Chicago - and they deal with homeowners and builders alike (and to know you're getting the best product and price, always shop where the builders shop!)

What to look for in a ceiling fan?

• Prices vary, from $25 to $1000. Higher priced fans electronics that allow motors and lights to be turned on remotely, either on the wall or with a remote control, and can reverse direction automatically.
  
• Higher quality fans are more quiet, with stronger motors and balanced blades to allow for a long life.
  
• You'll notice that fans that list a pitch of 12 degrees or more usually have a highly efficient motor, because it requires more power to turn the blades at those angles. Avoid fans with less than a 12 degree pitch.
  
• In small rooms, go with a 29 to 36 inch fan; medium-sized go with a 36 to 42" fan; and a large room you can go with a 50 to 54" fan.
  
• Optimal placement is 8 to 9' in a room, so make sure the kit comes with rods to drop the fan down if you have 11 to 13 feet ceilings. Avoid fans that are too close to the ceiling - they're ineffective.
  
• Look for high quality fan motors that have heavy duty windings and sealed bearings.
  
• Finally, make sure you've got a good lifetime warranty on your fan choice.
  

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*sponsored energy savings blog

Labels: Ceiling Fans, Electrical Installation, Energy Efficiency, Home Improvement

I found a great post on Paul Thurst's Homeowner's Blog about his recent exorbitant electric bill and what he was going to do about. I thought I'd pass along his ideas and information - perhaps there are some things you can do here to cut your electric bill (and if you're incredibly rich and don't care about your high electric bill, at least you can do your part for the environment!)

"I just paid my electric bill yesterday. Yikes! It was a little over 15 cents a kWh. My biggest problem is I have an electric water heater. We seem to use a lot of hot water with showers, the wash, the dishwasher, etc. So I put together a list of things that can save money on the electric bill. Most of them are pretty easy, some are more involved."

He goes on to show various energy consuming appliances, with great information on how much each one draw while in use.

Paul continues, "Then I did a little research on how to save money and make the appliances more efficient.

With refrigerators and freezers, vacuum the dirt and dust off of the condensing coils (black coils, usually in the back) at least once per year. Make sure the unit has enough air circulation to cool the coils as needed. If the air is restricted by dirt or blocked by a wall, it can make the appliance work harder. Many freezers have a "condensation saver" setting. This is a heat strip embedded in the freezer door that uses quite a bit of power. Turn it off and wipe up the condensation with a rag every so often.

For hot water heaters, set the temperature to the minimum required. If you don't like to take very hot showers, then the temperature can be reduced further. Generally speaking, when I shower, I run all hot water and it is the perfect temperature. There is also less likelihood of being scalded.

Clothes dryers need to have the lint filter cleaned after every load. A blocked lint filter will cause the dryer to run longer. Also, it is a very good idea to clean the dryer vent every year or so to remove excess lint. I did this with a shop vac in about 20 minutes. I also put up a clothes line in the backyard, In the summer, we use this exclusively to dry the our clothes. It is a bit more work, but it does save electricity.

Air conditioners need to have the inside foam filter cleaned as well. This can be done with a vacuum cleaner. While you are at it, take a low pressure garden hose to the aluminum fins on the outside of the unit. This is where the heat that is removed from the inside goes out. They must be a clean and free from dirt, pollen, leaves, fuzz, and other debris to conduct the heat into the atmosphere quickly.

Dishwashers should be ran only when full. Use the "air dry" or "energy saver" settings for drying the dishes.

Don't use portable electric heaters if at all possible. Hair dryers? Blah, you are already beautiful, how can you improve perfection!

Well pumps use the most electricity when they first turn on. To keep your well pump from short-cycling, install a bladder tank or make sure your non-bladder tank has the correct air charge in it. See this post for an explanation.

Saving money on lighting is pretty easy. As your incandescent bulbs burn out, replace them with compact fluorescent bulbs. These use almost 75 percent less power than the incandescent bulbs and last four to five times as long. Look for inexpensive Compact LED bulbs in the future. Those will use even less electricity and last almost indefinitely.

Finally, many appliances have stand-by power usage. Many times those things with the little black cubes (wall warts) that plug into an outlet are prime users of power. You may want to limit the use of things with wall warts. Also, many items with remote controls such as TVs, VCRs and DVD players use power when in stand-by mode, waiting for the on command from the remote control. If you have any of these items that don't normally get used, unplug them.

There are small electric meters called a "Kill a Watt" meter. You can use this to measure your stand-by loads. A somewhat interesting statistic is that if everyone in the US turned off there stand-by loads, 28 large power plants would sit idle.

If you really want to get zealous, you can buy one of those outlet strips that turn off and on. Then you can plug all of your stand-by loads into that and turn it off at the end of each day."

Check out Paul's blog and bookmark it - it could be a great resource for you to learn as much as possible from someone who may have already gone through what you're yet to experience!

If you're looking to save money in your home, consider hiring a Home Energy Auditor. They can review where the money is flying out of your home and give you energy-saving recommendations.

ConstructionDeal.com has a network of auditors and you can find one in your area - at no cost. Simply submit your request and get 4 quotes fast - sometimes in a matter of minutes.

Labels: Energy Efficiency, Energy Savings, Home Energy Auditor