Most people don’t know how easy it is to make their homes run on less energy, Drastic reductions in heating, cooling and electricity costs can be accomplished through very simple changes, most of which homeowners can do themselves.
Why make your home more energy efficient? Here are a few good reasons:
Federal, state, utility and local jurisdictions’ financial incentives, such as tax breaks, are very advantageous in most parts of the U.S.
Moisture intrusion can be the cause of building defects, as well as health ailments for the building’s occupants.
Some common moisture-related problems include:
structural wood decay;
high indoor humidity and resulting condensation;
expansive soil, which may crack the foundation through changes in volume, or softened soil, which may lose its ability to support an overlying structure;
undermined foundations;
metal corrosion;
ice dams; and
A home energy audit is often the first step in making your home more efficient. An audit can help you assess how much energy your home uses and evaluate what measures you can take to improve efficiency.
If you are interested in getting specific recommendations for improving the efficiency of your home, consider contacting a professional Home Energy Auditor. A professional auditor can use a variety of techniques and equipment to determine the energy efficiency of your home. Thorough audits often use equipment such as blower doors, which measure the extent of leaks in the building envelope, and infrared cameras, which reveal hard-to-detect areas of air infiltration and missing insulation.
Normal bathroom activities such as showering, bathing, etc. can significantly raise your indoor humidity levels. In fact, studies have shown that the typical family of four converts three gallons of water into water vapor every day, and it only requires four to six pints of water to raise the indoor relatively humidity of a 1,000 square foot home from 40 to 60 percent. In turn, this excess moisture is a complex problem that can cause a number of undesirable conditions such as the following:
If you’re a Seller, then you should be aware of several things that may make the inspection process more efficient. Home inspections usually vary in times from two to five hours, depending on the size of the house.
The following tips will help you be prepared for your home inspection.
Pets and large animals should be leashed up or transferred off site.
The Home inspector will operate almost everything in the house, so make sure they have access.
New construction – Builders often will not allow an “inspection contingency”. Once you sign a contract to buy the home that they are building, you are usually locked-in to the purchase, except for some instances when you cannot obtain financing. Such contracts are definitely slanted in favor of the builder, but the logic here is pretty easy to understand. Builders will offer limited warranties on their homes and any issues that surface during an inspection will likely be covered by such a warranty. They don’t need to allow a contingency, since they will be obligated to fix the issues anyway. Builders also allow you to do a punch list of final items during their walkthrough, giving the buyer an opportunity to have minor cosmetic issues resolved. Therefore, it is recommended that you use a independent trained Home Inspector to inspect your newly constructed home prior
Most real estate contracts in Illinois allow for a 5-day home inspection period and we suggest you take advantage of it. They will also outline a negotiation process. During that negotiation, you can ask the seller to fix items that need repair, you can ask the seller for a credit to compensate you for the future repairs, or you can request a hybrid of these two options. The seller then has X amount of days to respond to your requests. They can accept the requests, reject the requests, or offer an alternative proposal. Then there’s another X amount of days for the buyer to respond if the seller has rejected or made an alternative proposal. In most inspection contingency, the buyer maintains control of the process and does not lose their opportunity to purchase the home if they request repairs.
About 80 to 85% of the energy used for washing clothes is for heating the water. There are two ways to reduce the amount of energy used for washing clothes – use less water and use cooler water. Your clothes will be just as clean as using warm, or hot water and you’ll save money by not heating water to wash clothes. Costs are 26¢ per load using hot water and 11¢ per load using warm water.
Use natural gas for cooking, water heating and drying clothes. Natural gas can save up to 30% more in costs than using electric for these appliances and is better for the environment. GRU has natural gas rebates available.