 | A Guide to Making Energy-Smart Purchases
Being more energy efficient can be as simple and inexpensive as buying and installing caulk and weatherstripping or as complicated and expensive as building a state-of-the-art,energy-efficient house. However, whatever you do to reduce energy costs will usually require the purchase of goods or services.
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 | Air Duct Cleaning
If not properlly cleaned and maintained, air ducts can become a breeding ground for molds and other air polltants.
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 | Asbestos In Your Home
Once a common element in a wide range of building materials, asbestos is now known to be a serious health risk. Before you start a serious remodel on an older home, study these facts from the Environmental Protection Agency and the American Lung Association.
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 | Automatic and Programmable Thermostats
In our modern, high-tech society, we don't think much about some of the electronic gadgets in our homes. Take, for example, the ever-present thermostat—a staple of American households for decades. It usually takes the shape of an unassuming box on the wall, but that modest device controls the comfort of your family on the coldest day in January and the hottest day in July.
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 | Avoiding Flood Damage Protecting Your Property
Flood protection can involve a variety of changes to your house and property–changes that can vary in complexity and cost. You may be able to make some types of changes yourself. But complicated or large-scale changes and those that affect the structure of your house or its electrical wiring and plumbing should be carried out only by a professional contractor licensed to work in your state, county, or city.
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 | Avoiding Flood Damage: A Checklist for Homeowners
Are you looking for ways to protect your home from flooding? There are many things you can do, depending on the flood hazard in your area, the characteristics of your property, and the zoning and building codes in your community. Some methods are fairly simple and inexpensive; others will require a professional contractor.
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 | Blow-In-Blanket Insulation Increases Thermal Efficiency
Insulating a home to an R-value of 15 can bring energy savings of up to 50 percent. Custom Blow-In-Blanket Systems deliver seamless fiberglass insulation that will not settle or deteriorate over time.
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 | Carbon Monoxide Detectors
Carbon monoxide poisoning is the leading cause of accidental poisoning deaths in America. Carbon monoxide detectors are available, but you need to understand how they work and what their limitations are in order to get the best protection.
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 | Caulk and Weather Strip
Warmed or air-conditioned air mixes with outside air through gaps in your home's thermal envelope—exterior walls, windows, doors, the roof, and floors. Such air leaks can waste large amounts of energy.
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 | Cooling Your Home Naturally
There are several methods to reduce or even replace the use of an air conditioning system by using nonmechanical ways to keep your home cool when it's hot outside.
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 | Electric Fireplaces for Beauty and Flexibility
New technology and smart packaging bring fireplaces to small places. These electric fireplaces are upscale furniture pieces that can be assembled with ease and plugged in anywhere for warmth and beauty.
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 | EnergyWise House: Energy-Efficient Air Conditioning
Many people buy or use air conditioners without understanding their designs, components, and operating principles. Proper sizing, selection, installation, maintenance, and correct use are keys to cost-effective operation and lower overall costs.
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 | EnergyWise House: Maintaining Existing Air Conditioners
Older air conditioners may still be able to offer years of relatively efficient use. However, making your older air conditioner last requires you to perform proper operation and maintenance.
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 | EnergyWise House: Using Plants for Sun Control
Landscaping is a critical element in building an energy efficient home. A few simple strategies can add up to big savings on your monthly electric bill.
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 | EnergyWise House: Using Windows to Beat the Heat
Here comes the sun! Properly planning a home's window layout can frame scenic vistas while preventing solar rays from pushing energy bills to the boiling point.
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 | Evaluating Insulation Projects
Insulation projects entail several variables. The initial purchase price for any insulation product can be boiled down to an R-value cost per square foot, with a higher R-value equating to a higher price tag.
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 | Exterior Doors and Storm Doors
Exterior doors are necessary for physical access into and out of a building, and may provide ventilation and illumination too. They may, however, contribute to high amounts of undesirable air leakage and related energy losses.
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 | Fireplace Safety
More than one-third of Americans use fireplaces, wood stoves and other fuel-fired appliances as primary heat sources in their homes. Unfortunately, many people are unaware of the fire risks when heating with wood and solid fuels.
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| Forced Air Heat: How It Works
Immediate heat with the flick of a switch, a rush of warmth and the gentle whoosh of moving air are the hallmarks of forced air heat. Run through ducts to registers located in the floors or baseboards in each room, forced hot air is easily distributed and controlled in any home.
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 | Garage Workshop Foundation and Slab
Check soils, permits, and structural requirements before laying a foundation for your new garage workshop. As with any new building, it’s only as strong as the foundation it’s tied to.
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 | Getting Connected: Controlling the Home
Imagine a home where turning off a forgotten bedroom light doesn't mean running back up the stairs. Today, controls for a home's main systems, such as lighting, heating and cooling, and home entertainment can be consolidated into a single device or accessed individually.
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 | Heating With Water
Heating with hot water is becoming increasingly common in the United States as more and more homeowners recognize the convenience, versatility, and cleanliness of hot water heat.
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 | Heating Your Home with an Active Solar Energy System
Active solar heating systems consist of collectors that collect and absorb solar radiation and electric fans or pumps to transfer and distribute the solar heat in a fluid (liquid or air) from the collectors. They may have a storage system to provide heat when the sun is not shining. An active system may be more flexible than a passive system in terms of siting and installation.
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 | Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning: An Overview
Heating your home turns on three simple concepts: How you make heat; how you distribute it; and how you control it.
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 | Home Air Pollutants
There is a wide variety of indoor pollution contributors - radon, tobacco smoke, household chemicals. Use this guide to evaluate your home.
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 | Home Buyer's and Seller's Guide to Radon
Whether you are buying or selling, it's imporant to test the home for radon.
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 | Home Energy Audits
A home energy audit is the first step to assess how much energy your home consumes, and to evaluate what measures you can take to make your home more energy-efficient.
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 | Home Maintenance Checklist
Here's a simple bi-annual "Top to Bottom" checklist to keep your home in shape year round.
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 | Home Safety - Fire & Carbon Monoxide
Home is a haven, a calm place, safe from harm. So, whether you live in a house, apartment, condo, dorm, or residential community, you'll need to tackle safety concerns, especially fire and carbon monoxide.
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 | Indoor Air Pollution - Biological Pollutants
Biological contaminants are all around us—molds, pollen, pet dander, the list is long. However, with a little preventitve maintenece they can be kept at a healthy distance.
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 | Indoor Air Pollution - Formaldehyde
Formaldehyde is an important chemical used widely by industry to manufacture building materials and numerous household products. It is also a by-product of combustion and certain other natural processes. Thus, it may be present in substantial concentrations both indoors and outdoors.
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 | Indoor Air Pollution - Organic Gases
Organic chemicals (Volatile Organic Compounds - VOCs) are widely used as ingredients in household products. Paints, varnishes, and wax all contain organic solvents, as do many cleaning, disinfecting, cosmetic, degreasing, and hobby products. All of these products can release organic compounds while you are using them, and, to some degree, when they are stored.
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 | Indoor Air Pollution - Pesticides
According to a recent survey, 75 percent of U.S. households used at least one pesticide product indoors during the past year. Products used most often are insecticides and disinfectants. Another study suggests that 80 percent of most people's exposure to pesticides occurs indoors and that measurable levels of up to a dozen pesticides have been found in the air inside homes.
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 | Indoor Air Quality - Additions
Before starting your addition remodel or conversion project you should understand and address the various air quality factors that can arise during construction.
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 | Indoor Air Quality - Attic Remodels
Before starting your attic remodel or conversion project you should understand and address the various air quality factors that can arise during construction.
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 | Indoor Air Quality - Basement Remodels
Before starting your basement remodel or conversion project you should understand and address the various air quality factors that can arise during construction.
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 | Indoor Air Quality - Bathroom Remodels
Before starting your bathroom remodel or conversion project you should understand and address the various air quality factors that can arise during construction.
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 | Indoor Air Quality - Carbon Monoxide
Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas. It results from incomplete oxidation of carbon in combustion.
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 | Indoor Air Quality - Flood Cleanup
Standing water and wet materials are a breeding ground for microorganisms, such as viruses, bacteria, and mold. Failure to remove contaminated materials and to reduce moisture and humidity can present serious long-term health risks.
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 | Indoor Air Quality - Home Ventilation
If too little outdoor air enters a home, pollutants can sometimes accumulate to levels that can pose health and comfort problems. Likewise, one approach to lowering the concentrations of indoor air pollutants in your home is to increase the amount of outdoor air coming in.
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 | Indoor Air Quality - Kitchen Remodels
Before starting your kitchen remodel or conversion project you should understand and address the various air quality factors that can arise during construction.
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 | Installing a Wood Stove
Wood stoves are a great way to bring warmth, ambience, and relief from heating bills to your home, but they must be properly sized and installed to provide safe, efficient heat.
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 | Insulating Ducts for Efficiency
There's more to efficiency than tuning the furnace. Homeowners must insulate ducts to prevent heat or cool air loss.
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 | Insulating Old Homes: Blow-In Insulation Options
You can't cram the pink stuff into a closed wall. However, blown- or sprayed-in insulation can make a leaky old home an energy miser. Fiberglass, cellulose, and foam can all keep the cold at bay.
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 | Insulation For Home Comfort
Proper insulation choices are the first steps in giving your home that warm and fuzzy feeling.
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 | Loose-Fill Insulations
Whether you are increasing the insulation levels in your current home or selecting insulation for a new home, choosing the right insulation material can be challenging. Fibrous loose-fill insulations such as cellulose, fiberglass, and rock wool are options you may wish to consider.
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 | Mold Basics
Molds are an essential part of the natural environment. The key to keeping mold in check is moisture control.
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 | Moving Heat from Room to Room
There are pros and cons to all heating systems. Issues of air quality, control, flue gas condensation, effective distribution, venting, and ventilation surround all heating decisions. Knowing your needs, the characteristics of your heating system, and the variables that impact its efficiency will help you stay warm?safely and wisely.
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 | Natural Ventilation
Natural ventilation relies on the wind and the "chimney effect" to keep a building cool.
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 | New Air Conditioning for Old Houses
Think beyond the window unit when looking for a creative way to keep your classic home cool. Alternative systems perfect for retrofits can be sized for a few rooms or an entire home.
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 | Passive Solar Design for the Home
Your home's windows, walls, and floors can be designed to collect, store, and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design or climatic design because, unlike active solar heating systems, it doesn't involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices, such as pumps, fans or electrical controls to move the solar heat.
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 | Prevent Damage from Carpenter Ants
Carpenter ants damage wood by hollowing it out for nesting and, unlike termites, wood damaged by carpenter ants does not contain mud-like debris.
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 | Radiant Floor Heating and Cooling Systems
Radiant floor heating has been used for centuries. The Romans channeled hot air under the floors of their villas. The Koreans channeled hot flue gases under their floors before venting them up the chimney. In the 1930s, architect Frank Lloyd Wright piped hot water through the floors of many of his buildings. Some home builders' surveys have shown that, if given a choice, most new home owners prefer radiant floor heat over other types of systems.
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 | Radon Basics
Radon causes an estimated 14,000 lung cancer deaths each year. It is the earth's only naturally produced radioactive gas and comes from the breakdown of uranium in soil, rock, and water. You cannot see or smell radon, but it can become a health hazard when it accumulates indoors.
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 | Radon Testing Checklist
Regardless of the type or radon test you choose, there are a few steps you need follow to ensure an accurate reading in your home.
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 | Reduce Radon Levels - Hiring a Contractor
Reducing radon levels in your home is serious business. Here are a few pointers on what to look for in when hiring a contractor to do the job.
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 | Renewable Energy: An Overview
Renewable energy uses energy sources that are continually replenished by nature—the sun, the wind, water, the Earth's heat, and plants. Renewable energy technologies turn these fuels into usable forms of energy—most often electricity, but also heat, chemicals, or mechanical power.
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 | Replacement Chimney Liners
As chimneys age, they begin to deteriorate and threaten the safety of the home. Relining an existing chimney can be tricky, but a flexible steel lining system makes difficult applications easier.
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 | Residential Solar Heating Collectors
Solar collectors are the heart of most solar energy systems. The collector absorbs the sun's light energy and changes it into heat energy. Solar collectors heat a fluid, either air or liquid.
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 | Residential Solar Heating Retrofits
Adding (retrofitting) a solar space heating system to your home is one way to combat increasing energy costs and to raise your home's market value. The two major types of solar retrofits are active systems (requiring mechanical energy and hardware such as pumps and fans to distribute heat) and passive systems (which depend on the natural circulation of a fluid for heat movement).
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 | Rural Fire Safety
A move from an urban center to a suburb or rural area requires you to rethink fire safety. First, you must be aware of special fire hazards near wooded areas. Second, geographic location may create longer response times for fire and rescue services.
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| Saving Energy with Electric Resistance Heating
Electricity is a versatile but precious energy source. Because it is needed for refined power equipment such as computers and medical machinery, when it is used for less-refined needs such as heating it should be used as efficiently as possible.
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 | Sealing Air and Moisture Leaks
Air leaks between your home's interior and the outdoors can be a constant drain of energy and money. The air leakage in a typical U.S. home is equal to leaving a window wide open. To stop these air leaks, all doors and windows should be weatherstripped; all seams, cracks, and openings to the outside should be caulked or sealed.
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 | Selecting a Water Heater
Many homeowners wait until their water heater fails before shopping for a replacement. Because they are in a hurry to regain their hot water supply, they are often unable to take the time to shop for the most energy-efficient unit for their specific needs. This is unfortunate because the cost of purchasing and operating a water heater can vary greatly, depending on the type, brand, and model selected and on the quality of the installation.
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 | Sizing Residential Heating and Air Conditioning Systems
Older space conditioning systems (more than 10 years old) are often unreliable and much less efficient than a modern system. When it's time for a new replacement, choosing one of the correct size (heating and/or cooling output) is critical to getting the best efficiency, comfort, and lowest maintenance and operating costs over the life of the new system. Some national surveys have determined that well over half of all HVAC contractors do not size heating and cooling systems correctly.
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 | Skylights for Residences
Skylights and roof windows can provide interior building spaces with the warmth and brightness of natural daylight. Their ability to enhance almost any interior has made them increasingly popular. However, installing a trouble-free, energy-efficient skylight can be very difficult. In order to gain the maximum benefit from a skylight, it is important to understand designs, materials, positioning, and proper installation.
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 | Solar Heat Gain Control for Windows
Before innovations in glass, films, and coatings in the past decade, a typical residential window with one or two layers of glazing allowed roughly 75-85% of the solar energy to enter a building, which has a negative impact on summertime comfort and cooling bills, especially in hot climates.
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 | Solar Water Heating
Solar water heaters, sometimes called solar domestic hot water systems, may be a good investment for you and your family. Solar water heaters are cost competitive in many applications when you account for the total energy costs over the life of the system. Although the initial cost of solar water heaters is higher than that of conventional water heaters, the fuel (sunshine) is free. Plus, they are environmentally friendly. To take advantage of these heaters, you must have an unshaded, south-facing location (a roof, for example) on your property.
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 | Storm-Ready Home: Mold Clean Up
Mold growth is likely to occur in homes after flooding. It's very important to clean and thoroughly dry any areas of the home that have gotten wet from floodwaters.
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 | Sunspace Basics
Anyone who lives in a home with a sunspace will tell you that the sunspace is the most enjoyable room in the house. Many times the homeowner's only regret is that the sunspace is not larger. Although aesthetics often drive the decision to add a sunspace or include one in a new home design, sunspaces can also provide supplemental space heating and a healthy environment for plants and people. In fact, a well-designed sunspace can provide up to 60% of a home's winter heating requirements.
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 | Sunspace Orientation and Glazing Angles
A properly designed sunspace can provide a bright, invigorating, and useful alternative to the typical space within a house. It also functions as a solar heater, augmenting the home's winter need for space heating. There are two basic considerations for optimizing the solar heating potential of a sunspace: the directional orientation and the angle of the glazing.
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 | The Inside Story: A Guide to Indoor Air Quality
Pollutants inside your home are especially dangerous as they are with you through the day and night. Understanding the causes and effects is an important step in mitigating the damage they may cause.
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 | The Right Caulks and Sealants
Caulks and sealants are your home's best defense against the elements. They are intended to seal gaps around the exterior of your home to keep out moisture, which can cause rot and structural damage, and air, which can deplete heating and cooling energy.
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 | Use and Care of Home Humidifiers
Humidifiers can alleviate common nuisances brought on by winter heating, but without regular maintenece, they can promote the growth of biological organisms in the home.
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 | Vapor Diffusion Retarders and Air Barriers
Vapor diffusion retarders, air retarders, and air/vapor retarders all relate to the interaction of temperature and moisture in and around the building envelope. A vapor barrier or vapor diffusion retarder (VDR) is a material that reduces the rate at which water vapor can move through a material.
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 | What is Asbestos?
Asbestos is a serious health risk—and it may be in your home. Educate yourself with this helpful asbestos fact sheet from the Environmental Protection Agency.
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 | Window Properties and Design
The doors and windows that are right for you will depend on the climate you live in and the design of your house.
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