Around this time of year, a lot of people (at least in the USA) turn their attention to their taxes. Its the wonderful time when all your expenses and income gets examine and run over with a fine tooth comb. Its also when people realize that they can take deductions or get credits for things they never knew about. In this first article of a series, we’ll look at possible tax credits for buying/installing a new furnace for your home.

The single most cost effective way to make your home highly energy efficient is to have the right insulation
selected and installed correctly in your home. Doing this will make everything else work better. The design, money invested in your windows, and a better return on solar panels.

There are plenty of cheap and common insulation materials available on the market today. Many of these have been around for quite some time. Each of these insulations have their own ups and downs. As a result, when deciding which insulation material you should use, you should be sure to be aware of which material would work the best in your situation.
Recently, materials like aerogel (used by NASA for the construction of heat resistant tiles, capable of withstanding heat up to approximately 2000 degrees Fahrenheit with little or no heat …

Maximising the efficiency of your heating system is one method of ensuring of reducing the costs of your heating bill and cutting down on the environmental impact of heating your home.
However, there is another method which is just as effective at reducing costs and increasing warmth around the house.
Heating your home is as much about stopping heat from escaping as it is about maximising the output of your radiators and heaters. By reducing heat escape, you use less energy in heating the rooms.
The number one place to start with insulation …

By: Christiane Perrin
Maximizing the insulation for your green home is the most important step you can take towards reducing the heating and cooling energy requirements of your home and conserving energy. Many options are available to you, such as fiberglass batt, rigid or blown-in insulation. Let us look at cellulose blown-in insulation, which, in my opinion, is one of the greenest options available today.
The University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Building Material and Wood Technology, Department of Natural Resources Conservation, considers cellulose insulation a smart choice and recommends its use.
Why Use …

By: Muna wa Wanjiru
If your home is freezing cold in the winter and blistering hot in the summer, then you need an effective insulation system for your home. Many homes have old insulation system or no insulation at all. Old insulation system looses some or complete effectiveness with passing years. There are many different types of insulation systems are available, cocoon insulation is one them.
Heat enters in or out of your home walls through cracks and crevices around electrical sockets, windows, light fixtures and cracks at wall –ceiling junction. …

Insulation terms can be quite confusing to anyone outside the industry. If you’ve ever bought insulation for your house, you know that insulation with a high R factor is better. But what, exactly, does that mean? Did you know that the R value depends on other factors?
When it comes to buying more specific insulation products like removable insulation jackets for pipes, understanding the particulars of the three measures of insulation is key.
The K Factor
In order to understand the well-known R factor, it is important to understand the factors upon which …

I was recently called to consult on an energy problem in a home with a portable, oil-filled space heater in the master bedroom. The owner was complaining that the room was still cold even after running the unit all night. Plus, he was concerned the unit was costing too much money to run every night for 12 hours. So…how much energy does the unit use? Let’s find out.

Summer is winding down, and the seasons aren’t the only thing in transition. Your energy bills are about to change too. For those of us with cold winters, the nights will get chilly and soon the leaves will be falling. For those in warmer climates, well, you’ll be experiencing a more pleasant transformation, where you’ll see your air conditioner usage decline and your energy bills go down somewhat dramatically.
No matter where you live, a change in season means a change in your energy usage. Since the biggest change right now …

So the last experiment was disappointing, because it appeared that plastic did very little to prevent heat loss for your leaky hallway window. Things aren’t looking so good for the thin plastic as insulation.
Luckily, we have another scenario. Plastic over part of a window has come “undone” giving us the perfect side by side comparison of surface temperatures over a window with and without plastic – without interfering sunshine and the heat from solar convection.