What to do about Home Energy Lose and protect our Wallet!

With the Current weather here in the Midwest (Artic Vortex) with cold snow showers and 2 feet of snow in our front yards, you would think that 1 week from March our conversations would be what spring will bring right? Not in Michigan just yet, with the 2^nd snowiest winter since the 1800s and weather that is going to be interesting for the next few weeks my focus turns to energy consumption and what can we do to lower those heating and cooling bills. Yes fellow Do-It-Yourselfers cooling is in the subject line since summer is just around the corner where we will be cooling our homes! Take a look below at the photo for additional information on where we lose the most heat and cool air in our homes.






Check out the loss of energy this is where we concentrate our efforts to decrease the loss and save money!

I think the attached video from outside the USA can show that this is an issue in every corner of the world take a look and enjoy this very entertaining heat signature video:



What to do well here are some easy or somewhat easy ways to get the energy loss under control: Lets assume most people have some insulation in their walls and move to the attic. AttiCat an Owens Corning product available at my favorite store The Home Depot! Increase your R-Value to improve insulation properties of your attic/roof. My house was built in 1946 and when we opened the walls guess what we found Cotton seeds and all in the walls and ceiling. My wife also found a Times Herald newspaper published on November 22, 1963 with the headline Kennedy Slain in Dallas. So this can be a historical hunt for treasures that some prior owner was saving.

 

Here is a short video showing just how easy the Installation process is when using AttiCat. The video is about 11 minutes long but has some great insight on how the product works and the ease of installation.



 

So you have seen the videos and see the solutions but please remember that the roof is only the start and that the loss of energy comes from pipes, wiring, doors, windows, A/C units, cracks, and the list goes on. Attached I have included a couple of informational charts for insulation and a product called Great Stuff! let me know what you think and maybe next week we can talk about something Spring!

 

The map shows the different zones which correspond to the chart below and gives the necessary R-Values for your area - jealous of Zone 1?

 

 Remember to use the appropriate product for your area with the right R-Value for maximum savings!

 

 

 Great Stuff is a great foam product used to seal and create a leak proof insulated product to make sure your loss in minimal. A Dow product which has several flavors including Fire Block, Door and Window, Big Gap, and Pond and Stone sealers. So good luck and let me know what you think!

Plumbing Repairs and Sharkbite how easy is it?

Hello fellow home improvement project junkies! this week we will talk about plumbing leaks and how to repair them with several different options including: sweating copper pipe, gluing PVC and last but not least SHARKBITE!

SHARKBITE fittings are a product that takes the real work out of plumbing repair by taking the torch, solder, flux, and flame out of the process. How would you just like to sand the pipe slightly and simply connect the two pipes with very little effort? I am guessing you would and look at the selection of fittings below. Also you can connect Copper, PEX, Galvanized and PVC with themselves or interconnected using the same fittings. So get ready for a product that is more universal than any other product in the plumbing arena!   

 

So here is the video showing you all how easy this can be - a bit of folklore is that this system was developed by Cash Acme Corp. for use in submarines as a fast way of replacing or repairing pipes without the need for a torch.  



 



Now compare the SHARKBITE video with the video on sweating pipe below. Sweating pipe can be difficult and let's face it for some its dangerous and you may burn yourself or your house down if you aren't careful.

 

After those two videos you should be convinced that SHARKBITE is the way to go and that you can do this yourself. As always remember that you have resources out there to help - The internet is a great place to start. Remember when you have a question or want hands on training your local Home Depot is a great resource. As a manager at the Home Depot, I can assure you that we will take you through the steps and make sure you leave an expert! Please remember you will need a few tools to work on pipe - a pipe cutter for the appropriate material, wire brushes, sand paper and if you must go the route of sweating pipe due to building codes you need to check with your local hardware store or Big Box retailer for the materials list.

A few additional resources are found below so let me know if you need any further information or any help just comment or tweet me and I will get back to you right away!  

Gluing PVC Video: Click Here 



See how easy different materials go together: