Paying for Energy Efficiency UpGrades

Most of us aware that green homes help make our home envirement healthier to live in and if managed correctly can be more economicial to operate than a trditional home.However,many people do not go foward with energy efficient upgrades due to the added expence of materials and labor involved in this process.Granted this argument has merit,but there are ways to help off set these expences. In Massachussetts we have a program funded by the utility companies called Mass Save(www.masssave.com) This program provides a free home audit of your home and in many cases their representative will provide free CFLS, a programable thermostate and other devises that help reduce your electric an dheating costs. In many cases,you can be eligable for up to $2000 worth of insulation per house with you paying only 20% of the projects cost. Multi family homes up to 4 apartments can recieve this work and material for each unit. Many energy star rated appliances not only save water and electric costs,but may have a rebate to save on the purchase price. Low on no interest loans are available as well for many projects. Many of the larger projects and other energy efficieny work can also result in a reduction of your Federal and/or State Income Taxes. For further information look up www.energystar.gov/taxcredits or Google Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency. Most projects still cost money but these programs,rebates,tax incentives and cost savings will help the projects pay for themselves

The Real Cost of Home Ownership

Most of us usually think of the cost of home ownership is how much we pay for the house. If we are lucky,we do not have to pay interest on the mortgage.But for the majority of home owners like myself,we have to pay monthly interest on our home loans.We also need to look at the cost of the home inspector and lawyer that help us purchase the house.The cost of applying for the mortgage and interest payments adds to the cost of housing.There is also real estate taxes that we must pay to our community.Add these fees together and we have a basic monthly amount that are our expences. However ther are ongoing costs to help main the house.These costs include,heat,insurance maintance remodeling,replacing roofs,appliances and landscaping the house.It is important to know these costs in order to know the true cost of owning and operating a house. Some of us can reduce heating/electric costs if we insulate our homes or have high efficiency heating systems. Depending on income,we might be able to reduce our income tax by deducting our interest payments. In the long run,all of the expences need to be considered when looking at the true cost of housing

Use of Credit Cards

The use of credit has been on the rise over the last few years. Between car loans and mortgages,people are using credit cards more often than using cash for purchases. These purchases are for mundane needs such as grocery shopping,gas to lunch and routine needs. Credit card bills can easily mount due to planned purchases,holiday gifts or unexpected needs.It is important to keep receipts of all credit card purchases,review your bill once you receive it and challange any purchases that you feel are not correct. Also think about paying the balance at the end of each billing cycle.The interest rates on unpaid credit card balances are very high and not having to pay interest on the cards can free up money for other needs. Also contact www.creditreport.com for your free annual copy of your credit reports. Carefully review the reports form all three reporting services. If they are not correct,contact the reporting agency and challange the part that you feel is not correct.Having a correct credit report can make a difference in being approved for a loan or credit card.

Low Hanging Fruit

There are a number of ways to help reduce the amount of water, electricity and energy useage in our homes,some of these techniques require us purchasing new hot water tanks,heating systems, solar panels or renovation our homes. However,there are some easy and cheap techniques that can be cost effective. WE can always set the heat in out hot water tanks to 120 degrees and drain about a gallon of water from the bottom of this tank once a month. This will help extend the life of the tank and help reduce fuel costs. Tuning the heating system once a year and cleaning the filters on a monthly basis will help it run more efficiently,cleanly, help increase its life span and lower fuel costs. Installing and using a programable thermostat will also help lower fuel costs. Placing insulation in the walls and attic while placing weather stripping on the outside doors are also a help. The nice thing is the thermostat,weather stripping and insulation in Massachussetts, can be free or obtained through Mass Save.Using CFLs and low flow shower heads are also good ways to go. These techniques are not a cure all for you heating bills but its a start.

Recycling

Recycling is usually seen as a limited task where we taking our used bottles,paper,cans and other used items and place them out on the curb with the trash.In not so recent past,these items were usually thrown out with the rest of the trash and placed in the town dump never to be seen again.This was a real waste(begging the pun) because many of these items could be shredded,melted down and refored into new things that can be used at home or in the office.This noy only saves space in the landfill,but saves the expence of having to cut down trees to make new paper products,having to process ore from mines or create pastic out of petro chemicals.Newspaper can be reused as insulation that helps keep drafts out of our homes and keep us warm. Most people realize that it uses less energy and other resources to recyle rather than start using virgin material. Recycled materials go beyond trash placed in office or home bins. Wood chips and saw dust can be combeined resin and formed into beams used in construction or wood pellets used to heat our homes and office.Used vegatable oil can be recycled,cleaned and be mixed together with heating oil to heat our homes. There are any number of other examples where products can be reused for our benefit while helping to save money and resources

Phantom Load

Electrical devises continue to play an increasingly large role in our lives at home and at work.These desvise help us keep our food cold,charge our cell phones operate our televisions keep the house/office light when its dark outside and a wide range of other roles that come with the lifestyle that has become common place.Most of these devises are taken for granted and most of us do not think about the cost of electricity and how much of it is wasted money and costs can be controlled. Many of use will leave lights on when a room is not in use,keep the computers,chargers on when we are not in use.This wasted energy use adds to our electric bill and is known as phantom load. Entertainment devices and other electrical devises left on standby mode can also contribute to phantom load. There are any number of ways that this load can be reduced.Use of smart power strips,timers and sensors can help to reduce phantom load.Learning to keep logs of electric use and learning to turn off electric equipment when not in use can also reduce our electric bills. Purchasing energy efficient appliances that are Energy Star Rated for older devises can also help bring down our energy use. While we will always be using electricial devises,we need to use more efficient devises and lights while using them wisely.

Getting Ready For the Winter

Many of us in the Norteast received a wake up call with the wind storm,Sandy. Communitues in the Norteast and further south suffered power outages, downed trees and power lines and other issues related to the storm. If we can believe the weather forecasters, we can expect more of the same problems that will be compounded by large amouts of snow and ice rather than by water.While we can not prevent the inconviences created by the weather,we can take some actions to limit storm related issues. While the weather is still realatively mild,we can trim trees and bushs. This can help avoid tree limbs causing damage to our or neighbors homes. Cleaning out gutters can help avoid ice dams and other water realated issues.Cleaning and tuning up our heating systems and help to avoid costly mid winter breakdowns and possible freezing of water pipes in the basement. Cleaning air ducts in forced hot air systems,cleaning filters in these systems can be helpful. If you have a hot water tank,try draining part of the water on a monthly basis. These actions can help avoid mid winter issues,help your systems run more economically and help pro long the life of the hot water tanks and heating system.