Home Improvement

Keeping your Heating Bill Low with Heated Tile and Other Tips

The winter wonderland is a fantasy ideal, but this year’s winter has brought near-arctic temperatures to the Midwestern United States. There are several precautions families have to take in these conditions just to keep pipes from bursting. Keeping your power bill low is difficult in these severe conditions, but not impossible. Heated tile and sealing caulk can go a long way in heating your home while keeping costs low.

Best Low-Cost Fixes

The cheapest things to fix can have a huge impact on the warmth in your home. Start by covering your pipes with some insulation, which helps protect against freezing water that bursts your pipes. Insulation won’t cost more than about $30, and it looks like a pool noodle. Wrap this around your pipes to keep the flowing water warmer, especially near walls that have no insulation. A low-flow shower head can also reduce warm water usage by 25% daily, a huge boon when added up over time. For less than $100, you can have your furnace inspected, maintained and repaired by professionals. Far less expensive than a full on replacement.

Radiant Heat

Infloor heat can provide a solution for the problem of cold feet in winter. Set the floors to warm up while you sleep, then wake up to a pleasant morning. Installation is easy as well! Space heaters can also provide ambient heat that drains your power bill, but may be lower cost than running heating for the entire home. Never under estimate dressing in layers either. Thermals and light sweaters trap body heat and keep your insulated.

Replacing Appliances

If you must replace appliances, go for the big ticket items to have the greatest effect. A new water heater, for instance, may be more energy efficient than your old one. Double-pane window systems last a long time, add to the value of your home and lower energy costs. Also don’t forget to replace your furnace. Most homes have a furnace that is years old, and it’s probably costing more to use it. Using these energy efficient appliances may also qualify some home owners for a tax credit.

Other Cost Savers

Low-income seniors can get aid from the state in most cases. Aside from the state, utilities may offer discounts or rebates on products that meet energy star certification. Call your utility company first before you plan to fix the heating system in your home. They may have some thoughts on reliable brands that will give you tax breaks for purchasing.

 

Moving isn’t So Bad

There are currently a lot of Bergen county homes for sale today, not because nobody wants to live there anymore, but because of the fact that the area is currently experiencing an fast rate of development and real estate owners are currently on a mad dash to build up homes and sell them to interested households. It is definitely a good place to live if you’re thinking about settling down and starting a family. The neighbourhood is quiet and the infrastructure available in the area is perfect for raising a child.

The New Jersey area is indeed, being developed as the perfect area of good homes, for those looking for Ramsey real estate, there’s no better time to find a good home for you than right now. Finding the right real estate agent is not difficult as many homes are available and not to mention, very affordable.

If you’re looking for Ridgewood New Jersey Real Estate, then look no further than online, Ebergen County Homes is the website for you.

A New Take On Traditional Equipment

Whenever you hear the word “farm”, a very common notion is that you are an uncivilized redneck from some never heard of town with gravel roads and no electricity. But that really isnt the situation on farm lands these days, with the advancements in recent technology, you’d be surprised  to know that some farms have equipment to harness renewable sources like a micro hydro plant or windmills to generate power for its operations. Moreover, other farm equipment has been improved taking traditional methods to adapt them to suit modern needs. One of these is farm fencing.

                Fences are very important in farms because they are what keep the livestock within the confines of the land. Traditionally, posts would be set up and wires or planks would surround the posts and create a barrier to prevent livestock from getting out. Of course, this wouldn’t prevent persistent ones from trying to break free. This brings me to electric fence wire; this is simply a conductive wire that you can use to replace old farm fencing and run electric current through it resulting in a slight electric shock to the livestock upon contact. The voltage is just right such that it will make the animal avoid contact in the future with no serious harm inflicted.

Three Key Features of Home Access Controls

Having a home access control system makes sense if you are concerned that a simple door doesn’t provide you and your family with enough protection from intruders. Your front door is your first line of defense and a home access system is an ideal way to fortify your security system. Plenty of systems offer enhanced support, but there are certain features that add significant value to any home access control system:

Combination Entry Systems: Key, numerical combinations and card readers are just three of ways that a system can control access to your home. But what happens if someone gets a copy of your key, password or card? You can increase your security by combining entry methods. For example, you can purchase a deadbolt that requires a password entered into a keypad along with a key to open.

Video Systems: Heading to the front door to peer into a peephole to see who is knocking on your door isn’t safe. It’s hard to see who a person is, and walking to the door alerts the person on the other side that you are home. You can eliminate this problem by installing a video surveillance camera that is hooked up to your front door. When someone rings the bell, the video camera is turned on and you can view it from different points in your home.

Intercom Systems: Installing an intercom as part of your front door system allows you to talk to people at your door without leaving your home. Many video systems also have the ability to act as an intercom, although standalone intercoms are also available.

 

Points of Comparison Between Front Doors

Choosing the right front door for your home can seem difficult at first glance. After all, there are plenty of different types of materials and construction details to consider as you review different doors. It’s important to know what to look for before you start looking for new or replacement entry doors. Here is a review of some of the most important points of comparison between different doors:

Energy Efficiency: Much like windows, HVAC units and water heaters, doors are a part of the home that can be energy efficient. Partially this is done by making sure that they are properly weather stripped to keep heat from being lost, but the construction of the door can also play a major factor in its energy efficiency. The most energy efficient doors are made of steel or fiberglass because they have a foam core at their interiors that help with retaining heat.

Security: The most important thing that a front door does is to keep people who you don’t want outside of your home. You’ll want to look for front doors that have added security features. This can include having a deadbolt lock or a door chain. Metal doors offer the most protection but you can increase the level of security of wooden doors by adding and exterior metal screen door.

Durability: You want to make sure that your front door will last for years. Steel doors are resistant to problems such as cracking and warping that are prevalent with wooden doors. You can extend the life of wood doors by selecting ones with higher-quality finishes and performing routine maintenance.

Bamboo Flooring is a Great Choice for the Environment

Like most people, you probably put a lot of thought into what goes into your home. Before you paint, you probably consider several samples and even apply it to small portions of the wall to see how the finished product will appear. You probably also spend at least as much time trying to figure out how your flooring will look when you plan on replacing it.

If you’re considering bamboo wood flooring, you’ve probably put some time into imagining how it will look. While that’s important, here’s some bamboo flooring information you should consider: it’s great for the environment.

This might seem counterintuitive given that you’re taking bamboo from nature. But bamboo grows faster than just about any other plant out there. Furthermore, it can grow in extremely depleted soil. So by the time your floor is installed, a new shoot of bamboo will have already started growing in soil that other plants simply couldn’t.

Furthermore, bamboo flooring is good for your home’s environment. Unlike other organic options that can let off VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds), essentially polluting the inside of your home, where you happen to spend 90% of your time, on average.

For a better environment both in and outside of your home, elect to install bamboo flooring. You’ll get a truly unique look the earth will thank you for.

Picking the Right Bedding

Picking the right bedding for a room can be a tough decision. On the one hand, you want to choose something that will match the rest of the décor. On the other, it’s bedding; it has to be comfortable.

As most people don’t decorate a room around the bedding, it’s unlikely you have the freedom to choose your bedding first and then simply decorate around it. So more than likely, you might have to simply go with your best bet. If you can’t find the exact style a room calls for, get a color that goes along with it. You can always add pillows (even if it means custom made ones) to help tie the bedding to the rest of the room.

Comfort should never be lost when choosing a room’s bedding. No matter how good a bed looks, if the bedding makes it uncomfortable, you might as well have no bed at all. Fortunately, your mattress can always carry the heaviest load when it comes to a bed being comfortable. Add on some nice sheets below the bedding you favor and people will sleep well no matter how the rest looks.

Lastly, don’t break the bank trying to get the look right. Nautica bedding and Tommy Hilfiger bedding are great products. But chances are most people won’t ever check the label and you’d be just as well off buying a discount brand.

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Article submitted by BeddingStyle. The website is dedicated to all things bedding including sheets, pillow cases, duvet covers and more.

Own Your Space

With the ever rising population that every country faces these days, real estate is became harder and harder to find. The few properties that are on the market are of course not as good as what used to be offered a few years back. The quality may not have decreased by much in some cases but the size of these houses and apartments are getting a lot smaller. The sizes of these houses, apartments, and living spaces are getting smaller but the number of things that we have to put into them does not really change. We have to put in several appliances within our homes to make suit our daily needs. We need to place a refrigerator, freezer, microwave, stove, and dishwasher in our kitchens, and we fill up our bedrooms with dressers, drawers, and of course a bed. Some of us even dedicate a large area of the house for our laundry.

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Article submitted by The Laundry Alternative, trusted providers of the alternative septic system.

Modern Garage Doors

It used to be a garage door was nothing more than one large plank of wood that would draw back from vertical to horizontal often partially hovering over the drive way. Nowadays, the most common version is an offshoot wherein the garage is made up of panels that can separate and reform, to tuck away neatly into the garage. But if you’re in the market for garage doors, you have more choices now than ever before. Continue reading to consider the options you have with modern garage doors.

Glass doors have become very fashionable within the last few years. There are a few options in this variety. You can get panels of actual, see-through glass or you can opt for a more frosted, more opaque look. This is a great choice for a home of modern architecture.

You can also consider a wood garage door that has a much more visible grain to it. This kind of door resembles a hard wood floor running across the front of your garage. It’s a great way to stand out, well still being traditional.

Unfortunately, if you need a door for your commercial garage, there haven’t been many advancements. Commercial roll up doors are still king and probably always will be. You can add a vinyl screen nowadays to function as a screen door of sorts. This way you can let  air circulation in without all the bugs.

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Article submitted by Main Garage Doors. The company offers Los Angeles Garage Doors in just about every style for the home and commercial garages.

Cooling Alternatives for Work and Home

Even though it’s winter now, most of us still remember how hot it was at one point. It’s never too early to begin planning for those hot summer days again. The traditional model for keeping cool is using your home’s air conditioning system, but modern technology now offers a much better alternative. Keep reading to find out what this is and why it’s so great.

The old way of keeping cool used fan coils which helped cool the air around it thanks to a fan. Although this method may have worked to some degree, there are now much better options to be used.

Depending on your needs, for example, it might make sense to opt for an industrial air conditioning system. This is ideal for a business, for example, where more cooling is needed than just the room of a home. However, it’s also great for keeping a cool temperature around sensitive computer equipment. Whether you’re offering colocation services or you simply have a large amount of equipment, keeping a comfortable temperature is necessary to ensure your system doesn’t crash.

Another great, modern alternative is outdoor cooling. Whether your restaurant has a patio or you simply want to keep guests cool when they’re enjoying the backyard, these systems are ideal for enjoying the outdoors at  your leisure.

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Article submitted by movincool. The company offers portable air conditioning that works far better than traditional systems for keeping any area of your home cool, even the outside.

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