Energy Leaking Walls

Homes should be energy efficient because it saves you money and protects the environment. Unfortunately, most homes leak energy through all sorts of crevices and crannies. One of the most common reasons that homes leak energy is that they do not have adequate insulation in their walls.

When you think of insulation, you think of your attic, your floor boards, or you pipes if you live in the extreme cold. While it is true that poorly insulated attics will bleed energy badly, your walls need proper insulation as well.

The problem lies in the fact that most walls do not have the thickness to support the levels of insulation needed to stop energy from passing through them. Insulation is assigned an R value, the higher the value the more energy it insulates and keeps in the home.

Most attics should be at least an R25 or above. However, it can take six plus inches to reach that R value. Your walls just don’t have that kind of space. As a matter of fact, most walls don’t even make it past an R6.

One way of fighting this issue is to use exterior wall coatings with insulated value. These exterior wall coatings not only help insulate your home, they also provide water protection and help your walls last longer. The next time you need to paint, simply apply an exterior wall coating and you will not only improve the look of your home, but save you money, and make your home more comfortable.

What You Need To Know About Bay Windows

How much do you know about bay windows? Did you know that the main reason for a bay window was so that you could see in different directions from within your house? Bay windows have been around for over 100 years but it wasn’t until the 1870’s that more and more people started using them. What most people didn’t like about a bay window was they were too big and they took up a lot of room outside the house. The truth is a bay window gives the inside of the house more room so naturally it is going to make the outside smaller.

What you need to understand about bay windows is there whole purpose was to give the illusion that the room is bigger when in all actuality it was just a little bit bigger. The reason the room was bigger is because a bay window projects outward and because of that you have a little bit of space where the window is going out. Another reason why it make the room look bigger is because they brought in more light than a regular window which almost always makes a room look and feel much bigger. Read more

How to Save on Utilities Expense by Going Green

With greener living much more accessible these days, you can make some changes in your life and also save money by going green.  You can cut back on your utilities expense by also going green today.  In a time where environmental damage and pollution is a major and continuing concern, going green just makes sense and is also a cost effective method.

If you are thinking that going green may be tedious or even expensive, the truth is, that going green is actually quite easily accessible and affordable nowadays.  As a matter of fact, if done correctly, you can save a lot of money by going green and incorporating Eco friendliness into your lifestyle.

Below are some tips on how you can save on your utilities expense by going green :

1. You can lower you winter heating costs by some level if you can stand to live in a home that is at least two or three degrees lower in thermostat.  In the summertime months, just allow the air conditioning to cool down your house a little bit and this can enable you to avoid using air conditioning to cool your house.  Only open your windows in the evening or when there is a breeze outside if you would like to cool your house in the hot summer months.
2. Wash your clothes using cold water, this will also help you to reduce your overall utilities expense as you aren’t using water that will require heating before hand.  Washing your clothes with hot water takes a lot of energy and this will show up in your monthly bill.
3. Never dry your clothes using your dryer , this process uses way too much energy and it can be expensive to use.  The outside air is great for drying your clothes especially in the summer months you can get a clothes line in your backyard, here you can put out your clothes
4. Use compact fluorescent bulbs to light up your house, they only use up 10% of the energy as compared to regular light bulbs, these light bulbs also last 10 times longer.  If you would like to further decrease your utilities expense, you can use LED bulbs as they can be almost twice as energy efficient as CFL light bulbs.
5. Make sure that your home is much more environmentally friendly by incorporating green living such as heat controlled thermostat.  You can set the maximum and minimum heat you want the thermostat to warm up to in order to avoid any wasteful energy and rise in the furnace heat.

DIY Solar Panels – the Easy Way

The rising cost of energy forcing many to look for other cheaper source of energy. Solar panels offer cheaper alternative source of energy for saving money, cutting the household electricity bills. But the house owners with cash crunch find them beyond their reach when they consider solar panels installed by the professionals.  Of course it may cost you thousands of dollars if the system is installed by professionals. But you can save much, once you learn yourself making solar panels.

You must be thinking it is not that easy! Be sure that it is not so tough; you don’t need an engineering degree or special skill to make solar panels. Anyone can do it, sparing time in their weekends at a fraction of actual cost.

Another privilege of making solar panel is to have control over the size. That is, you make the panels for your simple appliances like TV, coffee maker, DVD player, computer or anything else or for the whole household consumption. You could even run off the grid supply entirely.

The key to make solar panels at home yourself is having a good manual. Once you have one, you will be surprised to find how simple it is.  Most of the things like plywood, glass sheets or copper wire roles you will find with your local hardware stores. It is quite easy to find photovoltaic cells of inexpensive varieties from local shops or over online stores.

Help of a superior quality manual is most important for making solar panel yourself.  It must provide the proper instructions. It should be written in such a way that even if you’re not accustomed to machineries, you can get encouragement with its guidance. So don’t look for cheaper variety, buy the best manual.

In fact the cost of making solar panels is very low when you make it yourself. So the cost of manual should not bother you.

Make your Home More Energy Efficient

People everywhere are more aware than ever of the damage that misuse of resources and creation of pollutants does to the environment. The great thing about “green” homes is that they not only make things easier on the natural environment, they also save you money in running your home. There are many things you can do yourself to make your home more eco friendly, and most of them are quite inexpensive. Some may earn you tax credits, even. So there’s no reason not to try to make your home more environmentally friendly.

Did you know that your windows can contribute to how eco friendly your house is? If you have drafty windows your heating or air conditioning system will have to work much harder keeping the inside of your house at the correct temperature. The harder your systems have to work, the higher your utility bills will be. Insulated well-fitted windows can make a huge difference in your utility bills. And the less electricity you use, the less coal has to be burned to create that electricity. In some instances you can get tax credits for outfitting your house with energy efficient windows, a particularly welcome bonus. Read more

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