Hot Water Tank Maintenance Tips

When was the last time you had your hot water tank cleaned?  Do you hear a popping noise?  Do you seem to run out of hot water faster than before?  Does your water seem to not be as hot?  These can all be symptoms of a hot water tank in need of a cleaning.  It is also possible that your hot water tank needs to be flushed.  Hot water tanks are usually very durable and have a long life expectancy.  However, just like your furnace, your hot water tank needs to be maintained.  So when you are calling in to have your furnace cleaned also ask about having your hot water tank cleaned as well.  Spending a little money now, can save you a large repair or replacement bill.  Don’t wait until you have a problem or a leak.

Steps to Maintenance:

• Turn Tank Off
• Replace Anode- The anode protects the tank from corrosion and it should be changed every 4 to 7 years
• Check for Leaks- Leaks at the bottom of the tank typically mean that the tank has corroded through and needs to be replaced. Other leaks may be solved by tightening valves or having a pro take a look.

Go Green with this Winter’s Savings

Though the snow may be falling now, so far this winter has been very mild by comparison to years past. This has left many homeowners with much fuller pockets than usual and that money needs to be put to good use. That means that we need to find good investments to ensure that this money is well spent. Investing this money in your home is a great place to start and spending it in improving the homes energy efficiency is even better! Going green has many benefits for the environment and for your wallet. Take a moment to look at your last energy bill. Odds are the cost was much lower than you were paying at the same time last year. How would you like to pay that much on your energy bills every year! Making energy efficient upgrade could make that possible!

3 Wise Energy Efficient Investments:

• HVAC Replacement: Replacing the furnace and air conditioner could be your best bet at this time. Air conditioners are out of season and therefore at amazingly low prices, and if your furnace and air conditioner are in bad shape, replacing them could be all that your home needs to make low energy bills a common occurrence in your home.

Cheap Ways to Improve Comfort and Circulation

Circulation problems within the home are an all too common problem. They also often lead to temperature variances from room to room. This can disturb comfort and tracking down the problem could be difficult. What if there was a way to improve your problem without spending much if any money? Well, there is! These three simply steps could drastically improve the circulation and comfort in your home. Try at least one in your home and see if you notice a difference.

How to Boost Comfort this Winter:

• Ceiling Fans: Reversing the direction of your ceiling fan can help improve the comfort in your home. By having the fan pushing air clockwise, hot air that rises to the ceiling during each heating cycles will be pushed down back into the room. This will make the room feel warmer to its occupants and help eliminate temperature variances from room to room.

Pros Have the Time You Don’t Have

Many of us lead very busy lives. Between work, family, taking care of the home, and finding time to spend with friends, some things just have to wait. Far too often, the things that get thrown on the backburner are repairs and maintenance that need to be performed in the home. Ignoring these problems or letting them go for long periods of time often leaves you with a much bigger problem than you originally had. Clogged sinks won’t unclog themselves and cracked drywall won’t reseal without someone taking the time to perform these repairs. Many of us don’t have the time it takes to make these kinds of repairs, and that is where the pros come in handy. They can take care of those jobs you have been putting off for far too long.

Don’t Avoid the Pros

Many people like to avoid calling in the professionals at all costs. They automatically assume that the cost will be outrageous and therefore think that they would be better off attempting the repair on their own. In some cases this may be true, but many repairs are outside the talents of the typical handyman. The average homeowner attempting a repair that is beyond their reach could end up costing more than it would have to simply have the job done right the first time by a professional.

Green HVAC Made Affordable

When going green first became popular, everything that was made to be more energy efficient also cost the consumer more money. Much of the technology was new and not many people were taking advantage of the long term savings that could be had with an energy efficient upgrade. As time has passed, however, going green has become the standard. Nearly every homeowner is doing something to make their home more energy efficient and as a result, going green has become more affordable for those of us that operate on a tight budget. Now you don’t have to invest as much initially to save more in the long run, and the best part is that this fact now applies to the purchase of HVAC systems as well!

High Efficiency on a Budget

Many HVAC manufacturers like Lennox Home Comfort Systems have created furnaces that can reach impressive energy efficiency levels while still fitting into a budget. The Lennox G43 is one such system. This unit falls under the lowest price level for heating systems from Lennox, yet it still carries an AFUE rating of 92.1%. This unit is also Energy Star rated and can save you hundreds every year on your natural gas bills. The unit may not have every fancy technology that the high end units have, but when it comes to going green, the amount of fuel that the unit consumes is what is truly most important.

Three Very Good Reasons to Replace Your Old Boiler

Boilers have been known to last much longer than the average furnace, but this isn’t necessarily something to take pride in. Sure, it is great to get the most out of your investment, but when the unit is going on 30 or 40 years of age, you may be pushing your luck. You could be heading for a very inconvenient breakdown or even a home disaster. At the very least you are probably overspending by hundreds every year on your energy bills just to operate that ancient artifact! Now may be the time to replace that boiler on your terms instead of waiting for the worst!

Plan Your Boiler Replacement Now!

• Energy Inefficiency: Modern boilers are required to be over 80% energy efficient with the fuel that they use. This has been a somewhat recent requirement, and your old boiler probably has no hope of every reaching this level of efficiency even with the best maintenance. Older units are usually somewhere around 50-60 % efficient with the fuel they use and that is a huge waste. Think of the money you could save by simply upgrading to the new minimum! The higher the rating the bigger the savings and the faster you earn your money back!

Protecting Your Family from Carbon Monoxide

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a toxic gas, which is totally odorless, tasteless, and colorless. Many of us have probably heard the horror stories of exposure, but you probably think that something like this could never happen to you and your family. Unfortunately, it is this type of thinking that leads to carbon monoxide exposure disasters. Homeowners that aren’t on the lookout for the signs or that haven’t taken the necessary precautions to prevent an accident are the most vulnerable to this type of problem in their home. You first must know how to recognize the signs and second, you must have defenses in place to protect your home and your family from the dangers of carbon monoxide.

Symptoms of CO Exposure

• disorientation
• nausea
• headache
• dizziness
• flu-like symptoms
• fatigue
• chest tightness

Protect Your Home While You are Away

The winter season is a popular time to go on vacation with the family. You pack up your belongings, head to where it’s warmer, and leave the winter chill behind! You lock up your home and assume that all will remain safe, but you make one disastrous mistake. You shut off the furnace. Many homeowners do this to conserve a little energy and save some money on their energy bills. However, doing this will leave your home vulnerable in the icy cold weather. All you need is one extra cold night and you could experience an expensive home disaster.

Water Damage from Burst Pipes

When the furnace is off, there is nothing stopping the temperature in the home from dipping below freezing. When this happens, the plumbing system is at risk of freezing. Even one frozen pipe and be a major problem. This is due to the fact that once a pipe is frozen, it may burst! The pipe is forced to expand by the presence of the ice, but as the ice begins to thaw, the water pressure will burst through the pipe and cause a major water leak. If you are out of town, there is nothing there to stop the water from flowing into your home and causing major water damage.

Protecting Your Children from Hot Water Burns

Ensuring the safety of your children is not an easy task. When they are small children every inch of their bodies is susceptible to harm, but there are steps you can take to protect them from some of the worst dangers in the home. One of these dangers involves the temperature of the water in the home. Children can become easily scalded by water that may not even feel intolerably hot to the skin of an adult. That is why every parent must take certain steps to protect their children from this type of injury, and it all starts with a good look at your hot water tank.

Set the Tank Back

The first step is to turn the water tank back to 120 degrees. This is the lowest temperature where you can still get hot enough water when needed without allowing the tank to grow bacteria. Many homes have the tank set at high as 150 degrees. At this temperature an adult’s skin can burn in 2 to 3 seconds. Place a child in that water and it could cause serious damage instantly. Every degree you set the tank back is a degree safer for the members of your family, but as an added bonus, every 10 degree difference will translate into a 4% savings on the water heating portion of your energy bills!

Energy Saving Made Simple

With the rising cost of energy, it is very important and practical to conserve electricity as much as possible. Conserving energy not only helps us lower our electric bills, but it also helps in protecting our natural resources. There are a lot of ways to conserve energy, but you have to choose the ways that are easiest and best for your family and your home. Most of them are simple. So simple that even your kids can participate in making your home greener this winter season. Here are some of them the easy ways you can start saving.

Five Ways to Conserve Energy:

1. Turn off the lights when leaving a room. Electrical lights consume a large amount of energy. This is especially true if you are using incandescent lights because these lights are extremely energy inefficient. Make it a habit to turn the lights off and see how much you could save on your electricity bills.

2. Unplug your appliances when you’re not using them. Appliances that are plugged still consume energy even if they are turned off. So, to avoid this from happening, unplug everything that is not in use.