Fall Home Energy Savings Tips

Fall Home Energy Savings Tips: Preparing for the Winter.

Whether you like it or not and whether you come prepared or not, winter is coming. So better not sit on your couch and wait for it to come like a dooms day, move and be prepared!

Winter means one thing: cold air. But for those who are conscious enough to notice, winter means larger electric bills. Yes, it is true. Aside from summer, winter is the season of the year where your electric bills skyrocket to digits that cost you financial burden. Why? Because we need to warm our home. Our home should have the right temperature to give us comfort. And the modern way to do it is by turning on our heating system. This consumes the biggest portion of our electric bill. Fortunately, we have the whole Fall to prepare for it. And to prepare for it means that we must have the right tool and proper information on how to save during the coming season.

The fireplace – Getting our fireplace ready will certainly yield to better savings; and fall is the best time to clean and repair our fireplace. Make sure that the dumper is tightly sealed when not using them. A small space would let the cold air rush in and send the warm air out. If you were using electric heating system, an opening on the fireplace would mean bigger work to maintain the place warm. Let professional contractor to do the proper maintenance. They are certainly more capable in securing your fireplace.

When you decide to use the fireplace, you can turn down your heater. This will save you as much as 8% on heating cost.

The furnace – The furnace will work extra effort if the filter is full of dirt. This will equate to energy waste since the furnace will consume more power against the service it brings. To avoid this, make sure that your filter is clean. The owner’s manual will tell you how to clean the filter. A clean filter will let you breath clean air around your house. A clean filter saves you 5% on heating cost.

The duct – Small leaks on duct will certainly result to lost heat so make sure that this is regularly checked. Usually ducts are located on unheated places. This is another reason why heat is lost. Insulate the ducts by wrapping it with R-6 or higher fiberglass. Never use cloth-backed tapes. You can also wrap them with UL-approved metallic or plastic tapes and mastic sealants. The note that leaking ducts work 30% more on your heating system so make sure they are sealed and secured.

The solar heat – You need not have solar panels on your roof to use the sun as the source of heat. All you have to do is use open your drapes during the day to warn your room without using electricity. Just close them at night to keep the warn air inside. Reduction of the use of heating system during the day will let you cut as much as 10% on your electric consumption

The openings – Openings on your doors, windows, joints and sills will let the cold air outside to go in and the warm air from the inside to go out. Make sure that these openings are sealed with either sealant or weatherstripping. It will help reduce the work of the heating system immensely.

The thermostat – A programmable thermostat or a centralized heating system will let you save on the heating cost. The programmable thermostat will let you set your desired room temperature on a specific period of the day. This is much useful if you are leaving your home or are going to sleep overnight. The centralized heating system on the other hand will give you the ultimate control on the temperature of every room. These 2 will let you decide how warm a room could be. One interesting thing to note is that a centigrade lower on your heating system will let your save uas much as 5% on your heating cost.

The water heater – Households can set the heating system between 120 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. This range is ideal on both mobile homes and regular homes.

Brick Stone Home Energy Efficient

How Can Brick Stone Make Your Home Energy Efficient.

A home that’s energy-efficient is actually healthier and cost effective. Energy efficiency modifications in your home can eliminate or at least lessen the poor quality of air that’s brought in by various weather conditions. One way to make your home energy efficient is to pay attention to the building materials and to the house design.

In Australia, bricks have long been recognized as commonly chosen building materials. In fact, nearly 90% of the built houses in the said place are constructed using bricks. Because of the campaign to decrease energy consumption in its entire forms, there are building regulations these days that require the newly built houses to be more energy efficient. Well there are some things you need to know in order to come up with an informed choice.

Think about the amount of energy that’s usually consumed in your home. Maybe, you’ll be surprised to find out that a large part of the home energy is used up in cooling and heating. Cooking and lighting, even when put together, comprise only a few percent. Hence, anything which can help lessen the cooling and heating bills of your home will be a good investment, right? But the question is, do you think it is possible to cut down cooling and heating energy consumption while keeping up a practical thermal comfort inside your home? It is in this case that passive design comes into play.

Passive design handles the energy coming from the sun to improve the house’s cooling and heating in a natural way. There are actually four major principles in passive design. These are orientation, insulation and thermal mass.

· Orientation. The huge glass portion in the north part allows the low winter sun in. And to block the high summer sun, simple shading like eaves is applied.

· Ventilation. When the crest of summer time has already passed, air is permitted to get in and go out of the house in order to make it cool in a natural manner. To optimize cross ventilation, the either side of the building or the house have generous openings with almost negligible internal obstructions.

· Insulation. The insulation in the wall and ceiling serves as the obstacle to heat transportation. Insulation efficiency can be calculated by means of its R-value but it doesn’t present the whole issue. Various walls may have the same R-value but may not work the same.

· Thermal Mass. Wall materials that are dense and heavy, like bricks, suck up heat and hamper its conveyance through the walls. Through these, temperature changes become moderate and the heat absorption during summer is significantly hampered. Compared to brick walls, the lightweight materials have very low thermal mass. And because of this thermal mass, brick walls turn out to be more capable of moderating home temperature even if they have similar R-values.

Now come to think of thermal mass and consider brick stone. The first two techniques in the passive design, which are orientation and ventilation, need to be set up into the house. And your home material preference has a major effect on the quantity of thermal mass in a house or a building. One of the simplest and most economical ways to put up thermal mass is through bricks. Those bricks that are made from clay contain very high thermal mass. They are available to make your home well ventilated, comfortable and more energy efficient.

There is a research proving the idea that Brick stone homes are energy efficient. The said research has revealed that a large part of the heat is bounced back to the outside environment via the brick’s exterior panel. Another conclusion that came out is that in summertime, the temperature inside a home that’s constructed from bricks remained favorable and comfortable in spite of the changing temperature outside.

The US Department of Energy stated that thermal mass stores up heat by means of converting its temperature. It can be achieved by storing heat coming from a warm room or by means or transforming direct solar radiation into heat. And since brick stone has more thermal mass than other building lightweight materials, it is a very useful element that can be used up in making your home more energy efficient.

To sum up, brick is a very simple and inexpensive technique in putting up thermal mass in your next home. Therefore a brick stone home is more energy efficient than those that are made from other materials.

Feng Shui Home Energy

How Feng Shui Influences Home Energy, Business Life and Office Reply Time.


Many people know about the ancient tradition of Feng shui.


In a nutshell, Feng Shui is the Chinese tradition of manipulating energy in order to produce harmony within a certain place.



So how does Feng Shui affect home energy, business life and office reply time?



Well, the principle of Feng Shui operates on the basic principle of Yin and Yang: harmony between the dark and the light.


In order to have true harmony, practitioners of Feng Shui try to arrange things around them in such a way that they can manipulate the energy to a balance.



The most recognizable symbol of Feng Shui is the octagon.


The octagon or Ba Gua represents the eight directions of chi that must be balanced in order for you to have good fortune.


Recently, it has been discovered that octagonal houses are actually more energy efficient. Quite a coincidence, wouldn’t you agree ?



Feng Shui influences home energy because of the theory that placing the different parts of a house such as the stairs, the furniture and the door can influence the flow of chi energy through your home.


This would lead to different effects.



In Feng Shui, it is believed that blockage to the chi can cause pretty big problems concerning business.


In this world today, many people are learning how to respect each other’s beliefs on what affects business.


We live in a global community.


Hence, we all should know how to do business with each other.



Right now, many westerners are researching Feng Shui because of the simple fact that many Asian businessmen would stop a deal if they feel that something is not right with the energy of the environment.


Thus, Feng Shui influences business life by allowing people to relate to each other in the terms of business.


When you observe the proper Feng Shui of a place, you show people that you have a respect for every tradition.

This would put you in the forefront of your business community.


But how does Feng Shui affect office reply time ?



We all know that in order for an office to function properly, communications must always be in order.


This means that people should be able to talk to others within the office itself. Thus, office reply time is very crucial to every person working inside the office.



As mentioned before, Feng Shui has a lot to do with the placement of objects within the area.
When designing a place, you not only consider the time factor but the Feng Shui as well. In many cases, these two are often conflicted.



Some Feng Shui experts, when noting building plans, often have stairways change places or even have steps added in order to have harmony.


This means that your plans for speedy office reply time may be put on hold in favor of Feng Shui.


Have you ever walked into a place and right away get a bad feeling? Some practitioners say that it is one manifestation of a place having bad Feng Shui.



Placement of objects is not the only factor that influences Feng Shui.

The colors and materials used for certain objects also influences the way chi energy moves around the house.
For example, wood furniture can enhance chi in the south, while ceramic or clay calms it.


Chi energy flows everywhere.


However, you can actually make certain modifications in order to gather more chi and promote good fortune.



Water promotes chi, that’s why you’ll see that in every Chinese restaurant they always have an aquarium. Certain types of fish, like a koi, actually helps promote good fortune.



The concept of Feng shui affecting home energy, business life and office reply time may seem to be pretty fat-fetched to the westerner.

However, you need to understand that some Asians take this stuff pretty seriously, and if you intend to have harmonious business relations with Asians, you may want to brush up on the different concepts of Feng Shui.


Here’s a final word: many things happen without any explanations. Feng Shui is one of those things that have neither been proven nor disproved.


Thus, a person must properly respect another’s beliefs in order for them to maintain a harmonious relationship.



After all, you do not want to be judged as you judge other people, do you ?