Rock Wool Insulation
With winter here - as well as the heating bills - it's important to understand how a home uses its energy. In particular, it helps to understand how
your home uses its energy. Essentially, there are two different ways: efficiently and inefficiently. If your home isn't up to snuff in its energy efficiency, you'll want to keep reading this article. It won't only save you headaches, it will save you money.
One of the first principles in energy efficiency is keeping the energy you're producing, and this is often done through insulation. Much of the energy your home is using is for generating heat. If you're losing heat to the outside world all the time, then your energy bills are going to stay sky-high. You'll essentially be using more energy to keep the same amount of heat other people have. If your home is old, it will help to check the insulation you have in your walls, learn about crucial points in which you can save much of your heat, and learn ways to test for "heat leaks."
Consider installing more energy-efficient windows and doors to amp up your home's ability to insulate, as well. If you're buying a home, ask about having these installed right off the bat.
Another way to change how energy efficient you keep your home is to purchase equipment that will simply use less energy off the bat. New, modern heaters, air conditioners, and washers/dryers will be able to do much of the same job using less energy, helping you save on your monthly bills. Of course, these appliances can cost a heavy sum upfront, so it might take a keen eye for shopping and perhaps a bit of sacrifice in order to make your home energy-efficient. Key appliances like refrigerators, washers/dryers, water heaters, and dishwashers are some of the appliances to think about. If you want to upgrade to a more energy-efficient appliance, you might consider selling the old one, as well, in order to offset the costs.
Optimizing your home's insulation and the equipment that use energy are great places to focus on reducing your energy uses. You can also use conservation as a way to stave off your energy usage, but if you want to maintain your lifestyle with less energy, you can do that, as well. For many people, simply utilizing both strategies reduces the most energy use possible.
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Posted by Fix Handyman on January 26, 2010 in
Energy, Handyman, House, How to Fix
Red House covered in Snow
When it comes to winter-time activities around the house, many homeowners think of one thing: snow, snow, snow. Clearing snow out of the driveway and making sure it doesn't weigh too heavily on the roof are definitely the right activities, but what about making sure your home is prepared for the cold? Here are some quick tips and strategies that will help you run a home with an eye on maintaining it through the winter and saving money.
Keep an eye on your pipes. Pipes can freeze during the winter, so you'll want to stay on top of your plumbing system as soon as you can. When you find a relatively warm day, go out and check the pipes for any freezing, and make sure you know where to locate all of yours. It will help to read up on solid pipe safety as well as how pipes generally work.
Make sure to winter-proof your home. Winter-proof? Yes; be able to keep snow and cold outside, where it belongs. You can do this by making sure your insulation is working properly, both on a larger level (are you preserving as much heat as possible?) and on a specific level (are there any areas you need to better insulate?). Make sure that your doors are weather-proof and that your windows stay tightly locked and closed.
Prepare your mud room for maximum moisture. The mud room often gets the worst treatment during winter, especially if you have children who love playing in the snow and love bringing that snow back indoors with them. Make sure you keep your mudroom as the focus of where you'll be bringing in all of the moisture from outside, and that your mudroom is able to handle it. The better organized and clean you keep it, the better the rest of your house will handle the winter. It's generally a good idea to focus as much of the ucky winter stuff in one room, as this will allow you to control it in one place.
If you're a new homeowner who isn't too experienced with winter, you may find yourself a bit overwhelmed at first. But if you work on tackling one problem at a time, and actually take action to prevent many problems winter can cause, you'll be well on top of it. Use failures as a learning experience, and you should be just fine.
Photo Credits: Allen McGregor
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Posted by Fix Handyman on January 19, 2010 in
Handyman, House, How to Fix
Be prepared for emergencies.
With winter just around the corner, now is the time to get your car ready for the possible dangers of running a car in the cold of winter. If your car shuts off and you find yourself stuck in the snow for a certain period of time, you'll need to make sure your basic needs are taken care of. You can do this by building a winter car kit. Here's how.
Have a way to contact the outside world. Always carry your cell phone with you into a car when you go driving, as you're never sure what might happen, and have some phone numbers of local authorities and AAA help programmed into your contacts list. You'll also want some way of contacting the outside world for help, which can include emergency lights - be sure you have emergency lights packed and that you'll be able to power them (this might include having the right batteries handy). Always have a flashlight with batteries handy, as well.
Keep a cooler full of food freshly stocked. Every month or so during the winter, include a "winter car kit" section on your groceries list - foods like nuts, granola, and dried fruit are calorically dense and don't take up a lot of space. After a month, buy the replacements for this food, and move the old food into your house so that you can eat them like any other food.
Keep plenty of water stocked. Water is also key - you can live a lot longer without food than you can with water, so be sure you have clean water ready to drink, and plenty of it stored somewhere in your car. You can keep it in a large cooler.
Have warm blankets and insulating materials handy. Sleeping bags are made for insulation, so include at least one in your car at all times during the winter. It won't hurt to have a couple of extra blankets - blankets that are designed to trap in serious heat, not blankets that are comfortable only around the home.
That should get you started for a winter car emergency. Remember that this article is about fixing an emergency before it happens - this is also know as prevention. In order to prevent your car from breaking down, keep it full of fuel, fresh oil when needed, and well-maintained. This will help your car function well in the winter.
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Posted by Fix Handyman on November 17, 2009 in
Car, How to Fix, Mechanic
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