Energy Use Yardstick

The energy bill comes every month - and you pay it. That's just how it works. But have you ever wondered if your energy bill is too high? Have you thought about easy changes that your family could make to significantly improve the energy bill's bottom line? AND even if you have...how do you figure out what you should change? Well, energystar.gov (R) is here to help. They have a home yardsticking feature that helps you to compare your home's energy use with what a super efficient home the same size as yours would use. Then you can decide which repairs/upgrades/changes will work best for you and your budget. Visit the home yardstick initial page here: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=HOME_ENERGY_YARDSTICK.showGetStarted It is an easy and interactive website where you enter some simple information and then the website provides information based on your answers. The first input is the zip code where the home is located. Make sure you have an electricity bill from the previous month to get an accurate count. You just input how much electricity and other types of fuel you have used during the month. It is a good idea to know how much energy your home is using.

Got Air Flow?

Since we all can't live in beautiful spaces where the temperature is always perfect and there is a soft sea breeze blowing in the afternoons.

Most of us...just move to southern California, and while we can't complain too much about the weather this year (while it has been strange, it hasn't really been all together too hot OR too cold...) most homes aren't being heated or cooled sufficiently. If there are hot or cold spaces in your house, there are tons of suggestions I have given you over the course of this blog to diagnose/fix them. Here's to one more... (but let us recap a bit first) If you have hot and cold spots in your home, consider:

• performing a home benchmarking exercise in which all of the 'orifices' in your home are checked for 'leakage.' If you can't/won't/are too lazy to do this, you can always contact a heating or air specialist or even expert company to do this for you.
• making sure that all parts of your home are "Weatherized" - meaning that everything is insulated properly, weather-stripped, sealed...
• making sure that your ducts are fully functioning and not leaking or anything. This can also happen if you have recently had work done on the house that required workers to go up into the attic - more often than not they knock something loose unknowingly - that's why you don't have your rat guy fix your ac - they are horses of completely different colors.
• making sure your system is running at the government mandated efficiency level. This may mean replacing a dinosaur of a unit or as easy as asking for a tune-up.

If you have tried (or at least considered the options above) then head over to ehow.com and try their remedies.

"step3 Check to make sure that all of the air registers are open throughout the house. Air registers are the grill-like vents that are in each room to release the warm or cool air. Air supply registers have a small lever to open or close the vent. Air return registers don't have the lever, but it's important to make sure that all registers are unobstructed by furniture, drapes or clutter. Step4 Try simply adjusting the lever on the air register in any room that is too hot or too cold. Sometimes partially closing a vent on a register in a small room that needs less air flow will force more air into a larger room, making it more comfortable."

Wishing all a happy breeze in your home...or something like that.

Inspected?

If you aren't planning on having your heating and air conditioning equipment inspected this year, you might want to consider having a whole house inspection. These inspections aren't just for possible home buyers anymore. If you have lived in your house for awhile, it is a good idea to have your equipment checked out. That way you can avoid costly repairs of things you didn't even know were wrong. This video explains the benefits of having a home inspection as well as possible resources. It's better to be prepared than to be scrambling to fix something.