Insulating a basement can save hundreds of dollars per year in fuel costs. With a wide variety of options to choose from, a homeowner should weigh both their needs and the specific details of their property carefully, in order to make the most informed and appropriate choice for insulating their home. Local building codes and requirements for the R-value of insulation must also be taken into account before any insulation installation commences.

Insulation is graded by its ability to retain heat. This grade is called its “R-value” and different regions of the country will have different R-value requirements written into the building code. Finding the appropriate R-value for your region is imperative, not only for optimal heating of the home in that particular climate, but also for the installation job to pass a home inspection.

Basement walls can be insulated from the exterior or the interior. Insulating from the exterior is sometimes impractical for an existing structure and is more appropriate for homes still under construction. Retrofitting a home with exterior insulation can also be quite costly. Most exterior insulation options can invite insect infestation. In addition, if the surrounding soil happens to contain radon gas, the homeowner will need to install a radon mitigation system.

In spite of the drawbacks, there are also advantages to insulating exterior walls. Insulation applied to the exterior will not take up valuable square footage inside the basement. It will also help to serve as a moisture barrier, protecting the interior space from leaking or weeping walls. It may also protect the home`s foundation from the rigorous effects of freezing and thawing in extreme climates.

Most homeowners find insulating their interior basement walls to be the most cost-effective option. There are also far more insulation materials to choose from. While insulating the basement ceiling is also a good way to improve a home`s thermal value, insulating the walls can be cheaper because walls have less overall square footage, while still providing the same amount of thermal value.

Typically, basement interior walls are insulated with blanket insulation. This can be woven from substances such as fiberglass and have a variety of different backing materials, such as paper or foil. This is the most common form of insulation, as well as being the cheapest at $.75 per square foot. It can be trimmed easily and installation can be managed by non-professionals.

Slightly more expensive is foam board insulation, at around $1.00 per square foot. Thin sheets of polyurethane or polystyrene can be quickly mounted to walls, providing excellent insulation properties with less space than blanket insulation. Another option is to use loose-fill insulation. At $.50 per square foot, it is cheap, but the labor cost can run up to $5.00 per square foot, making it the most expensive of the three. Small pellets of foam or fiber are poured or blown into a space between the foundation and the drywall. The main advantage of loose-fill insulation is that it will conform to any shape and is the most efficient of the different insulation types.

Installing some forms of interior insulation is a job requiring few specialized skills or tools. Installation of blanket or foam board insulation requires little more than a staple gun or a drill and masonry screws. The combined factors of being low-cost and using non-specialized labor make installation of insulation in a basement an attractive and practical DIY project for many homeowners. Not only will it pay for itself over time, but it will also provide a valuable selling point to prospective buyers.

Most home appliances have become more efficient over the past 30 years, but those gains have been offset by the influx of personal computers, televisions and related devices, according to data released today by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

In the latest update to its Residential Energy Consumption Survey, which is has updated periodically since 1979, EIA found that:

• 58 percent of U.S. homes had energy-efficient, multi-pane windows, up from 36 percent in the 1993 survey.

Energy efficient window curtains keep a home’s temperatures idea year round. In the cold months these curtains may be insulated. This is in order to keep the cold air out of a home.

In the summer, energy efficient window curtains should keep the hot rays of the sun out of a home. This will help to keep the interior of a home at a stable and comfortable temperature.

Tight, super-insulated houses need some kind of mechanical ventilation to keep indoor air healthy. Installing exhaust fans in the kitchen and bathrooms is the simplest option. More often, energy-efficient builders install either a heat-recovery ventilator (HRV) or an energy-recovery ventilator (ERV). Both systems incorporate a heat exchanger that moderates the temperature of incoming air, which helps ease the energy penalty in both summer and winter. But ERVs also are designed to transfer some of the humidity in the air stream.

So why would anyone want to convert a perfectly good gasoline engine to propane? There are a few good reasons, which we’ll go into here. First, though, I want to put out the standard safety and disclaimer information that anyone who wants to start this conversion should know.

Safety:
Propane is a flammable gas under pressure. Observe all manufacturer recommended safety precautions as seen on the propane bottle while completing the installation of this kit. Check for leaks before operating the mower using a soapy water solution. If you are operating the mower and smell propane, immediately shut off the engine and leave the area. Propane is heavier than air and will pool in low areas, which can cause flash fires or explosions. Work on this conversion outside and do not store the mower inside with a propane bottle attached.

Reducing your home energy use is the best of win-win deals — not only does it reduce your carbon footprint, it also saves you big bucks on your energy bills. That’s especially exciting when you consider that many home energy improvements are fast, easy and inexpensive. Often, the savings from an individual project are small, but when you start putting them together they add up quickly.

Radiant heat can provide a warm, even heat for your home. The floor radiant heat system consists of a series of plastic piping. This under floor radiant heat can be divided into zones so you can control the heat in various sections of your home.

Warm-floor radiant heat is nothing new. Archaeological excavation years ago uncovered evidence that Romans used radiant floor heat to keep the stone floors toasty warm in the large Roman hot baths. They discovered that stone retains heat for a long time and that it distributes the heat uniformly. It only makes sense that we’d utilize this time-tested technology with our own artificial stone – concrete!

Older toilets use about 3.5 to 7 gallons per flush. Low flow toilets use only 1.6 gallons per flush and save your family between 8,000 and 20,000 gallons of water per year, per toilet. Dual-flush toilets take savings to the next level, because they have two buttons – one for a light flush at 0.9 Gallons and the other for a heavy flush at 1.6 gallons.

Dual-flush toilets have been very popular in Europe and Asia for years. They save an average of approximately 26 per cent more water than single-flush ‘Low-Flow’ models, and you can control when you need more or less water.

Most experts and program managers agree that financing is necessary to encourage homeowners to participate in weatherization programs and meet the goal of reduced energy consumption.

Organizers working with local governments to set up programs that provide homeowners with loans for energy-efficient improvements are choosing a variety of formats. Some are considering low-interest loans; some are using PACE (Property-Assessed Clean Energy) financing, where homeowners pay back the loan through their property taxes; others are opting to use the PAYS (Pay As You Save) system where homeowners pay loan installments through utility bills.