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• Top 5 Reasons to Move to Renewable Energy

  With advancements in renewable energy technology, many people are starting to be turned on to its potential. If you’re thinking about going to renewable energy, here are five reasons that you may want to go ahead and make the move to this type of energy.

  1. Saving Money

  One of the reasons that you may want to make the switch to the renewable energy is to save money. In today’s market, regular forms of energy are getting much more expensive by the day. The way things are going, you may end up paying quite a bit more for electricity from the electric company than you would from a renewable source of energy like solar panels.… Read the rest

• SMA and Aurora Solar Inverters - Premium Solar Inverters

  Keeping the Lights on With High Quality Solar Inverters

  No matter the size of a solar photovoltaic installation, it requires a solar power inverter in order to convert the current provided by the solar panels into usable AC current. Due to this, hobbyists and industrial concerns alike should only select the highest quality inverters for their use. Fortunately, SMA and Aurora solar inverters are examples of premium inverters.

  The Importance of Quality

  When selecting a solar power inverter, quality should always be the most important consideration. Not only are premium solar inverters more efficient and cost effective, but they also are more reliable.… Read the rest

• Inspecting with a Moisture Meter

  A moisture meter is a device designed to measure the moisture content of various building materials, such as roofing, siding, insulation, drywall, plaster, wood, tile and fiberglass. Structural and safety hazards, such as mold, rot and decay are all potential consequences of elevated moisture levels in these materials. An inspector can use a moisture meter to locate moisture that would not otherwise be apparent.
  Here are a few ways that inspectors may find moisture meters useful:
  •A moisture meter can be used to determine whether a material is moist enough to allow mold to grow. Mold will begin to accumulate on surfaces that contain approximately 20% moisture, although this value varies based on vapor pressure and other factors.… Read the rest

• DIY Family Command Center

  If you find the constant scheduling of tasks or general chaos in your household is too much to handle, then perhaps investing in a family command center is good idea. There are many versions of a family command center and each one is specifically designed to fit different household and family needs. The best thing about creating a family command center is that it is a great DIY project, so it won’t end up costing a fortune to get your family’s duties back on track.

  How to Create a Family Command Center

  Materials & Location

  The general materials you will need to create a simple family command center are:

  • Bulletin/dry erase/chalk board
  • Nails/screws
  • Hammer/electric drill
  • Measuring tape
  • Writing utensils (markers or chalk)

  Depending on the complexity of your creativity skills or budget, you can also add decorative measures, such as ribbons, bows or picture frames of each family member, but feel free to be as basic as possible.… Read the rest

• Sloppy Evaporator Coil Install

  Came across this a/c systems evaporator coil today. It’s amazing how lazy some people are. If you pay a professional to do a job, you expect to get a professional job done. The coil was so off level, condensation was standing on the left side of the pan whenever the a/c was running. Here in Texas, that’s most of the year. After years of this happening, the pan finally rusted through and is now leaking into the secondary pan and beyond to the plenum. The plenum is leaking onto the ceiling and wall of the bedroom below. Now we have a huge mess with water damage and mold.… Read the rest

• Do You Have Bed Bugs

  When people think about blood sucking insects, they first picture a mosquito or tick. Did you know bed bugs are also blood suckers. The tiny, sneaky insects are spreading so rapidly across the United States that almost no region or area is unbitten, a new survey suggests. The United States has seen a 50-fold increase in bed bug infestations over the last five years, according to the National Pest Management Association. An entomologist told MSNBC, “It’s like the return of the wooly mammoth,” as many of his peers had previously never seen a single bed bug in their careers. The outbreak has affected most parts of North America and Europe, especially in urban areas.… Read the rest

• Draining a Water Heater

  Very few homeowners realize the need to drain a few gallons of water from your water heater twice a year. Regardless of the type of water heater you have, gas or electric, water heaters can develop a build up of sediment at the bottom of the tank. This build up can cause the water heater to operate inefficiently, shortening the life span of the appliance. Prior to draining water from your tank, you need to understand the proper way and safety concerns of performing this task. It is very important that when you are doing this maintenance to your water heater, you make sure the appliance is turned off and that you protect yourself from a potential burn.… Read the rest

• Carbon Monoxide Poisoning-Is Your Family Safe?

  If you have fuel burning appliances in your home, you owe it to your family to have CO detectors installed. Carbon monoxide detectors are great devices to use when fuel-burning appliances are used in the home. They can be very useful for keeping watch on the CO levels in the home.
  Carbon monoxide (CO) can be a sneaky killer, it’s colorless, odorless, poisonous gas that forms from incomplete combustion of fuels, such as natural or liquefied petroleum gas, oil, wood or coal.
  • 170 people on average in the United States die every year from CO produced by non-automotive consumer products.… Read the rest

• Preparing Your Fireplace Prior to Winter

  With Winter around the corner, now is probably a good time to get that fireplace in shape for this season of sitting by the fire with a good book, spouse or significant other.
  Even with our mild winters here in the Dallas Fort Worth area, the Chimney Safety Institute recommends that homeowners who light fires in their fireplaces three or more times a week during the heating season should have their chimneys inspected and cleaned once a year.
  If unseasoned wood is burned in the fireplace, twice-a-year cleaning and inspection may be necessary, because unseasoned wood usually burns at a lower temperature than seasoned wood, causing more smoke and therefore more creosote.… Read the rest

• Home Chore Chart for Spring

  1. Check gutters for leafs and debris and clean out if needed
  2. Low areas in the yard or next to foundation need to be filled in. Low areas (negative grade toward home) will cause water to pond and if not corrected could leave you with some unwanted foundation problems. All grading around house should drop 6 inches every 10 ft away from the home.
  3. If you used your fireplace over the winter, good time to have the chimney swept and cleaned and be ready for next winter.
  4. Look for exterior paint issues, cracking, buckling and etc. Look for areas that need caulking.… Read the rest