Energy Tips for Heating and Cooling Your Home

This week I’m featuring Energy Saving tips, save some money by conserving energy!

Heating and cooling your home uses more energy and drains more energy dollars than any other system in your home. Typically, 61% of your utility bill goes for heating and cooling. What’s more, heating and cooling systems in the United States together emit over a half billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, adding to global warming. They also generate about 24% of the nation’s sulfur dioxide and 12% of the nitrogen oxides, the chief ingredients in acid rain.

No matter what kind of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system you have in your house, you can save money and increase your comfort by properly maintaining and upgrading your equipment. But remember, an energy-efficient furnace alone will not have as great an impact on your energy bills as using the whole-house approach.

By combining proper equipment maintenance and upgrades with appropriate insulation, air sealing, and thermostat settings, you can cut your energy bills and your pollution output in half.

Heating and Cooling Tips
• Set your thermostat as low as is comfortable in the winter and as high as is comfortable in the summer.

• Clean or replace filters on furnaces once a month or as needed.

• Clean warm-air registers, baseboard heaters, and radiators as needed; make sure they’re not blocked by furniture, carpeting, or drapes.

• Bleed trapped air from hot-water radiators once or twice a season; if in doubt about how to perform this task, call a professional.

• Place heat-resistant radiator reflectors between exterior walls and the radiators.

• Turn off kitchen, bath, and other exhaust fans within 20 minutes after you are done cooking or bathing; when replacing exhaust fans, consider installing high-efficiency, low-noise models.

• During the heating season, keep the draperies and shades on your southfacing windows open during the day to allow the sunlight to enter your home and closed at night to reduce the chill you may feel from cold windows.

• During the cooling season, keep the window coverings closed during the day to prevent solar gain.

Heating & Cooling Ducts
One of the most important systems in your home, though it’s hidden beneath your feet and over your head, may be wasting a lot of your energy dollars.

Your home’s duct system, a branching network of tubes in the walls, floors, and ceilings, carries the air from your home’s furnace and central air conditioner to each room. Ducts are made of sheet metal, fiber glass, or other materials. Unfortunately, many duct systems are poorly insulated or not insulated properly. Ducts that leak heated air into unheated spaces can add hundreds of dollars a year to your heating and cooling bills. Insulating ducts that are in unconditioned spaces is usually very cost effective. If you are buying a new duct system, consider one that comes with insulation already installed.

Sealing your ducts to prevent leaks is even more important if the ducts are located in an unconditioned area such as an attic or vented crawl space. If the supply ducts are leaking, heated or cooled air can be forced out unsealed joints and lost. In addition, unconditioned air can be drawn into return ducts through unsealed joints.

In the summer, hot attic air can be drawn in, increasing the load on the air conditioner. In the winter, your furnace will have to work longer to keep your house comfortable. Either way, your energy losses cost you money. Minor duct repairs are easy to do, Here are a few simple tips to help with minor duct repairs.

Energy Tips for Ducts
• Check your ducts for air leaks. First, look for sections that should be joined but have separated and then look for obvious holes.

• If you use tape to seal your ducts, avoid cloth-backed, rubber adhesive duct tape, which tends to fail quickly. Researchers recommend other products to seal ducts: mastic, butyl tape, foil tape, or other heat approved tapes. Look for tape with the Underwriters Laboratories logo.

• Remember that insulating ducts in the basement will make the basement colder. If both the ducts and the basement walls are uninsulated, consider insulating both.*

* Note: Water pipes and drains in unconditioned spaces could freeze and burst in the space if the heat ducts are fully insulated, because there would be no heat source to prevent the space from freezing in cold weather. However, using an electric heating tape wrap on the pipes can prevent this.

• If your basement has been converted to a living area, install both supply and return registers in the basement rooms.

• Be sure a well-sealed vapor barrier exists on the outside of the insulation on cooling ducts to prevent moisture buildup.

• For new construction, consider placing ducts in conditioned space—space that is heated and cooled—instead of running ducts through unconditioned areas like the crawl space or attic, which is less efficient.

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Save on Your Energy Bill With These Home Insulation Tips

This week I’m featuring Energy Saving tips, save some money by conserving energy!

Checking your home’s insulation is one of the fastest and most cost efficient ways to use a whole house approach to reduce energy waste and make the most of your energy dollars. A good insulating system includes a combination of products and construction techniques that protect a home from outside temperatures—hot and cold, protect it against air leaks, and control moisture. You can increase the comfort of your home while reducing your heating and cooling needs by up to 30% by investing just a few hundred dollars in proper insulation and sealing air leaks.

Insulation
First, check the insulation in your attic, ceilings, exterior and basement walls, floors, and crawl spaces to see if it meets the levels recommended for your area. Insulation is measured in R-values—the higher the R-value, the better your walls and roof will resist the transfer of heat. DOE recommends ranges of R-values based on local heating and cooling costs and climate conditions in different areas of the nation.  State and local codes in some parts of the country may require lower R-values than the DOE recommendations,

Where to Insulate
Adding insulation in the areas shown below may be the best way to improve your home’s energy efficiency.

-Crawl space
-Basement
-Attic
-Walls
-Floors

Types of Insulation
For customized insulation recommendations check out the Zip Code Insulation Calculator, which lists the most economic insulation levels for your new or existing home based on your zip code and other basic information about your home. Although insulation can be made from a variety of materials, it usually comes in four types; each type has different characteristics.

Rolls and batts – or blankets – are flexible products made from mineral fibers, such as fiberglass and rock wool. They are available in widths suited to standard spacings of wall studs and attic or floor joists. 2×4 walls can hold R-13 or R-15 batts; 2×6 walls can have R-19or R-21 products.

Loose-fill insulation – usually made of fiberglass, rock wool, or cellulose comes in shreds, granules, or nodules. These small particles should be blown into spaces using special pneumatic equipment. The blown-in material conforms readily to building cavities and attics. Therefore, loose-fill insulation is well suited for places where it is difficult to install other types of insulation.

Rigid foam insulation – foam insulation typically is more expensive than fiber insulation. But it’s very effective in buildings with space limitations and where higher R-values are needed. Foam insulation R-values range from R-4 to R-6.5 per inch of thickness (2.54 cm), which is up to 2 times greater than most other insulating materials of the same thickness.

Foam-in-place insulation – can be blown into walls and reduces air leakage.

Insulation Tips
• Consider factors such as your climate, building design, and budget when selecting insulation R-values for your home.

• Use higher density insulation, such as rigid foam boards, in cathedral eilings and on exterior walls.

• Ventilation plays a large role in providing moisture control and reducing summer cooling bills. Attic vents can be installed along the entire ceiling cavity to help ensure proper airflow from the soffit to the attic to make a home more comfortable and energy efficient.

• Recessed light fixtures can be a major source of heat loss, but you need to be careful how close you place insulation next to a fixture unless it is marked IC—designed for direct insulation contact. Check your local building codes for recommendations.

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Reducing Your Home Energy Usage

This week I’m featuring Energy Saving tips, save some money by conserving energy!

The first step to taking a whole house energy efficiency approach is to find out which parts of your house use the most energy. A home energy audit will pinpoint those areas and suggest the most effective measures for cutting your energy costs. You can conduct a simple home energy audit yourself, you can contact your local utility, or you can call an independent energy auditor for a more comprehensive examination. For more information about home energy audits, check out these free tools and calculators.

Energy Auditing Tips
• Check the insulation levels in your attic, exterior and basement walls, ceilings, floors, and crawl spaces. Visit www.energysavers.gov for instructions on checking your insulation levels.

• Check for holes or cracks around your walls, ceilings, windows, doors, light and plumbing fixtures, switches, and electrical outlets that can leak air into or out of your home.

• Check for open fireplace dampers.

• Make sure your appliances and heating and cooling systems are properly maintained. Check your owner’s manuals for the recommended maintenance.

• Study your family’s lighting needs and use patterns, paying special attention to high-use areas such as the living room, kitchen, and outside lighting. Look for ways to use lighting controls—like occupancy sensors, dimmers, or timers—to reduce lighting energy use, and replace standard (also called incandescent) light bulbs and fixtures with compact or standard fluorescent lamps.

Formulating Your Plan
After you have identified where your home is losing energy, assign priorities by asking yourself a few important questions:

• How much money do you spend on energy?

• Where are your greatest energy losses?

• How long will it take for an investment in energy efficiency to pay for itself in energy cost savings?

• Do the energy saving measures provide additional benefits that are important to you (for example, increased comfort from installing double-paned, efficient windows)?

• How long do you plan to own your current home?

• Can you do the job yourself or will you need to hire a contractor?

• What is your budget and how much time do you have to spend on maintenance and repair?

How We Use Energy in Our Homes
Heating accounts for the biggest chunk of a typical utility bill. Once you assign priorities to your energy needs, you can form a whole house efficiency plan. Your plan will provide you with a strategy for making smart purchases and home improvements that maximize energy efficiency and save the most money.

Another option is to get the advice of a professional. Many utilities conduct energy audits for free or for a small charge. For a fee, a professional contractor will analyze how well your home’s energy systems work together and compare the analysis to your utility bills. He or she will use a variety of equipment such as blower doors, infrared cameras, and surface thermometers to find leaks and drafts.

After gathering information about your home, the contractor or auditor will give you a list of recommendations for cost effective energy improvements and enhanced comfort and safety. A good contractor will also calculate the return on your investment in high efficiency
equipment compared with standard equipment.

Tips for Finding a Contractor
• Ask neighbors and friends for recommendations

• Look in the Yellow Pages

• Focus on local companies

• Look for licensed, insured contractors

• Get three bids with details in writing

• Ask about previous experience

• Check references

• Check with the Better Business Bureau

I’ve had good experiences with the contractors I’ve found on Angies List. You can save money on a membership with these Angies list promo codes.

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Quick & Easy Energy Saving Tips

As energy costs continue to rise the monetary payback for time, effort, & money spent on energy conservation goes up as well.  This was brought to my attention as I looked over our latest heating bill and realized that the only place energy costs have to go is up.  I started doing some research and decided to run a series on energy conservation for the home while I’m away at a conference for a few days.  Below are the topics that I’ll cover:

• Home Energy Usage
• Home Insulation
• Heating & Cooling Your Home
• Energy Efficient Windows
• Conserving with Your Water Heater

Here are a few quick energy saving tips to get you started! Stay tuned for the rest of the series and help reduce your energy costs.

• Set your thermostat comfortably low in the winter and comfortably high in the summer. Install a programmable thermostat that is compatible with your heating system.

• Use compact fluorescent light bulbs.

• Air dry dishes instead of using your dishwasher’s drying cycle.

• Turn off your computer and monitor when not in use.

• Plug home electronics, such as TVs and DVD players, into power strips; turn the power strips off when the equipment is not in use (TVs and DVDs in standby mode still use several watts of power).

• Lower the thermostat on your hot water heater to 120° F.

• Take short showers instead of baths.

• Wash only full loads of dishes and clothes.

• Look for the ENERGY STAR® label on home appliances and products. ENERGY STAR products meet strict efficiency guidelines set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Selling on eBay – Keeping Up with eBay Changes & Leveraging Their Tools

You may have heard in the news about eBay’s latest fee changes which have led to quite a bit of unrest with eBay sellers, some are even looking for alternative selling platforms.  Some sellers are sticking around but are boycotting eBay this week, not listing their inventory in protest of the changes. With fewer items being listed this week, there may be less competition out there so if you have stuff to sell, take advantage of it and list today!

One of the changes is that sellers with good detailed seller ratings (DSRs) will get an advantage in Best Match search results. Below are my current ratings:

• Item as described – 4.7
• Communication – 4.9
• Shipping time – 4.6
• Shipping & handling charges – 4.6

I’d like to get all my scores above 4.6 so that I can take advantage of the new search results. I do know why my shipping time ratings are at 4.6.  I say items will ship within 3 business days of purchase, I could cut that down to 1 or 2 days and bump up that score.

I’m not really sure why my shipping & handling charges rating isn’t higher, my rates usually seem to be some of the lowest.  I charge whatever the USPS or UPS fee is plus $1–2 to cover shipping materials, labels, ink, gas.  I’m puzzled as well why the Item as Described isn’t higher, 99% of the things I sell are brand new and they have a picture and model number in the listing.  Can’t get much more specific than that.

ebay Advertising
As an eBay seller I get their periodic newsletter and the most recent one announced that the spring eBay catalog is going out the first week in March to more than 2 million eBay buyers. Even though many people are complaining about the fees eBay charges, I think this newsletter is an example of the value they provide for their fees.  How else could a small business owner reach 2 million people with a catalog?  They’ll advetise a variety of items across several different categories.

• Sports
• Motors
• Home
• Fashion
• Techology
• Art, Antiques, Collectibles

ebay Partnership
I got another check this month from my eBay partner, it wasn’t as big as last months but I’m not going to complain about a $450 check : )  He’s been busy expanding his business, finding more product sources. He’s listed and selling the first pallet of items and has already had another pallet delivered. It will be interesting to see what kind of ROI he gets from the stuff at Liquidation.com.

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Online Bill Pay Your Way to a Four Hour Work Week

My cheap friend at work thinks I’m crazy to pay a monthly fee for an online bill pay service.  I’m pretty tight with money so when I call him cheap that’s really saying something.

He’s thinks it’s even crazier still that I pay $20 annually to have them mail me a CD that contains all of my bills for the year.  He has a whole system of bill filling, paying, and spreadsheet tracking that he uses instead of paying for a service like mine.  Of course, he and his wife just had their first kid, we’ll see how long it is before he switches to my easy system : )

Our bill pay service puts all of our bills online.  They scan them in, then shred all of the paper documents so I don’t have to mess with opening and filing the bills. 

These documents, in addition to the ones that are delivered and paid online, are all available through our user account.  Once a year, they’ll send you a CD containing 12 months worth of bills if you’re willing to pay $20 for it.

The benefits are totally worth the amount spent in my opinion.  I just setup payment rules so every bill is automatically paid as long as it’s not over an amount I specified for that payee when I setup the account. 

What I love about the service is that I don’t have to spend any time on it. The service takes care of making the payments for me and I don’t have to do any kind of tracking or data entry, it’s all available via the web interface or annual CD.

Of course, I have to make sure there are funds in our bank account to cover the bills but that’s what direct deposit is for right?  I log into the site once every 2–3 weeks for a few minutes to make sure everything looks good and that’s it.

I can easily access spending summaries by category or payee or pull up bill detail in just a minute or two.  The best part is, I don’t actually have to do any work to make all this information available.  It automates and tracks our bills so I can spend my time enjoying friends or family or pursuing my goals. 

This automation of is one step towards achieving my version of a Four Hour Work Week.

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Can a Working Vacation Be Better Than a Relaxing Vacation?

Every time you go away on vacation you spend weeks and months beforehand looking forward to the big trip.  The anticipation reaches a peak the night before you leave and the next day you’re off in a flurry of fun. 

Unfortunately, all vacations come to an end. Inevitably, you come back to the grind and get a little down and out to be back to work.  Suddenly you’re typing away in your cube when just the day before you were at the beach or in the mountains. Right away you start mapping out your next big trip in your head.

Does this mental cycle of anticipation, crescendo, and crash sound familiar to you?  It’s something I go through every trip but I’m hoping the next one will be different. I’m heading out pretty soon for a “working vacation”, a trip to a conference that is a step in my plan for quitting my job.

Although I’ll definitively be thinking about “work” on my trip, I’m actually looking forward to it more than I would a week on the beach.  I’m going to be learning new things and forming new relationships that will benefit me long after the trip is over.

When I return, I’ll be happy to be back, excited to put my new knowledge to the test. I’ll look forward to the first night I’m home when I can start to apply what I’ve learned, rather than having to daydream for about the next chance I’ll have for vacation many months away. I must say, I’m rather looking forward to my “working vacation”!

In my preparation for my trip, I didn’t get a chance to share my links of the week with you last weekend so here they are:

–This is the Time that Fortunes are Made @ Lazy Man & Money

–Identity Theft again Tops Consumer Complaints @ The Suns Financial Diary

–Slashing Our Budget By 25%: Our Latest Frugal Moves @ The Digerati Life

–Redefining Risk: Your Investments Aren’t as Risky as You Think @ Generation X Finance

–Paying For Three Kids To Go To College Is Going To Be Expensive @ No Credit Needed

–Making money with an eBay Store, Part 6: Streamlining your listing process @ Mighty Bargain Hunter

–If You’re Not Warren Buffett, Index Funds are for You  @ Free Money Finance

Cost of Living Increasing Faster Than Inflation Estimates? @ Five Cent Nickel

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Flood Insurance, Flood Plains, & Elevation Certificates

I wrote last fall about our flood insurance saga, we’ve had some new activity in the flood insurance arena recently.  As a recap, the government redrew the flood maps a while back so it appears our house which didn’t use to be in a flood zone, is now considered to be in a 100 year flood plain.

Flood Insurance Research
Our neighbors share the same flooding concerns that we do so one of them used what she knew as an appraiser to do some digging.  First she ran a Uniform Residential Appraisal Report, the flood map legend reported that our property was not in a FEMA special flood hazard area, however, it was within 250 feet of a FEMA special flood hazard area.

Then she contacted an engineer in the city offices who sent us some more detailed information.  The document he responded with had different information, which wasn’t good for us:

A portion of the above referenced property does appear to be within the Special Flood Hazard Area, SFHA, 100-year floodplain as indicated on the current panel.  The structure appears to be within the 100 year floodplain.

We recommend that if necessary a licensed land surveyor be engaged to determine if the subject property is in or out of the 100-year floodplain.  If the parcel is within the boundary and your mortgage holder requires Flood insurance.  An elevation certificate may be prepared by a licensed surveyor which may eliminate the mandatory flood insurance requirement. 

Elevation Certificate
At this point, both the city and our insurance company had suggested we have an elevation certificate prepared.  The insurance company would not give us any kind of quote without the elevation certificate so we bit the bullet and spent the $500 to hire a surveyor.

One tip on hiring a surveyor, it’s best to contact them directly rather than through a company like First American.  Their website quoted us $650 to pair us up with a licensed surveyor and have the elevation certificate done.  We were able to find a survey company that’s actually a partner with First American who charged us $500 directly.  So we saved quite a bit going right to the survey company.

We’re waiting on the results of the elevation certificate.  Once we get it back we’ll ask for a flood insurance quote from our insurance company. We also have the option of working with a company like First American to try and get the flood map adjusted so that we’re back out of the 100 year flood plain.

Of course, all the paperwork and zoning won’t have any impact on whether our house ever floods but it does make a big difference when trying to buy flood insurance and also when we try and sell our home someday.  We’ll see what the elevation certificate shows; hopefully we’ll have some good news.

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Are You Making One of these Tax Mistakes?

Below are a list of tax mistakes from J.K. Lasser to look out for this tax season.  Make sure none of them apply to you:

Not filing because you cannot afford to pay – If you don’t file because you can’t pay the entire tax due, you will only increase the amount you will have to pay later with additional and increased penalties. If you enter into an installment arrangement with the IRS, and your return was filed on time, the late payment penalty you pay monthly on the outstanding balance will be reduced from .5% to .25%.
 
Not making Estimated payments – Estimated tax for payers with income above $75,000 for single filers/ $150,000 for joint filers has significantly increased over the past two tax years.  For 2007 you had to remit 110% of your 2006 tax liability.
 
Paying the Kiddie Tax – You don’t have to wait for a savings bond to mature to report the interest.  You can periodically report the interest.  This is especially favorable for children in years where they have no income or are below the threshold.
 
Missing, duplicate or incorrect Social Security Number – The IRS will issue a partial refund until they can verify the information on the return.  They will recalculate your tax liability based on the information they have and you could wind-up with a tax bill instead of a refund.
 
Wrong filing status – Choose the best filing status for your circumstances.  Some overlook head of household status, which is a more favorable rate of taxation. Qualified widows (ers) can file at joint rates for the two years following their spouses’ death.
 
Not claiming moving expense for first job. Moving expenses to get to that first job are deductible. And you get this write-off even if you don’t itemize. If you moved more than 50 miles, you can deduct the cost of getting yourself and your household goods to the new area, including 18 cents a mile (and parking fees and tolls) for driving your own car.
 
Not qualifying for the residential sale exclusion – If a seller fails to reside in a house two out of the last five years that fat $250,000 ($500,000 if filing jointly) exclusion could be lost. A prorated exclusion may be available.  Under certain circumstances you can add-up the occupancy period of spouses and /or if the sale is due to unemployment, military deployment or other unforeseen circumstances.
 
Not claiming student loan interest paid by mom and dad – Until recently, if parents paid back a student loan incurred by their child, no one got a tax break. Now there’s an exception. If mom and dad pay back the loan, the IRS treats it as though they gave the money to their child, who then paid the debt. So, a child who’s not claimed as a dependent can qualify to deduct up to $2,500 of student loan interest paid by mom and dad.

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Peer Lending Lessons From the Dating World – Lending Club CEO Interview

Bill Griffeth interviewed Renaud Laplanche the CEO of Lending Club on CNBC’s Power Lunch yesterday – Video.

Laplanche answered questions on how peer to peer lending sites have lower overhead than traditional banks and how they’re able help borrowers and lenders find better rates than they could get at a bank.

Peer Lending & the Economy
Griffeth made two comments that I thought were particularly interesting. At the very end of the interview he mentioned that you tend to get a lot more economic bartering and peer to peer interaction as the economy slows down.  As we’ve seen economic growth take a hit lately, that may drive more people looking for money to sites like Prosper & Lending Club, especially as financial institutions tighten credit standards.

Peer Lending & Dating
The second comment Griffeth made was that peer to peer lending seemed kind of like a dating service for money.  I had to chuckle thinking about in these terms. Here are some peer lending “dating” tips:

-You can recover from getting your heart broken with a loan default but it will definitely make you gun shy.

-Playing hard to get by chasing good quality loans is a good thing.

-If none of your friends are dating a borrower, there’s probably a reason why.

-You may go on 10 good dates but that one bad one ending in default can really ruin the whole lending experience.

-Don’t court a lender unless they’re ready for long term commitment. You shouldn’t be wooed by high interest rates into one night stands with high risk borrowers, you’ll regret it in the morning.

What are some more dating tips for person to person lenders?

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