Does your new or remodeled home meet the minimum energy codes for construction and design? If you’re like most consumers, Alliance to Save Energy (ASE) believes that you have no idea.
Last fall, the nonprofit agency reported that energy bills in an average new home that doesn’t meet the minimums are consistently higher. In fact, they’re [...]
Have you heard about smart meters? A smart meter connects homes with the electric grid. It’s a two-way communicator that helps homeowners truly examine their energy use and make decisions about how to operate their appliances, HVAC systems, and lighting.
Depending on your utility provider, your smart meter can help you determine the best hours (known [...]
If you’ve been watching your electric bills soar, welcome to the club. A new report from USA TODAY finds that we’ve endured five straight years of increases, making it the largest leap since the energy woes of the 1970s.
Even if your earnings have stagnated, the cost to consumers for electricity has kept on rising. We [...]
If you’re reading this, you already have a remote means of controlling your HVAC at home as well as monitoring your security. Using a smartphone or computer with web access, today’s homeowner can log into a secure website to check if their doors are locked or to turn on their heat [...]
Homeowners have until December 31 to buy materials and install energy efficient home improvements under the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Provisions of the bill, an extension of previous tax credits, mandate that you buy only ENERGY STAR-compliant biomass stoves, heat and air conditioning units, insulation, roofing, water heaters, [...]
Your refrigerator is toast. The compressor is on its last legs and would cost more to repair or replace than you want to spend. It’s been a long time since you felt any resistance from the door seal when popping it open. There’s a drip or, worse, a pool of water collecting. The unit runs [...]
There seems to be a hearty debate underway over the value of the newest generation of composite windows, I won’t jump into the mix with my own opinions, save to present the arguments posed by major manufacturers and ask my readers to weigh in on their own experiences.
I have found an easy way to distinguish [...]
When my family moved to the San Fernando Valley in the late 1950s, most homes came outfitted with evaporative swamp coolers. I remember that they worked fairly well until August and September when temperatures soared over 90 degrees. Then, it seemed, all that the cooler did was burn energy pumping water around the pads while [...]
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