This marks a turning point in my mindset towards the environment and my home’s energy efficiency and carbon footprint.

I have decided that I have spent too many years not worrying about the impact that I have on the natural environment.

This isn’t just about how I am with recycling and reusing things for multiple purposes, it’s also an attempt at taking a frank look at how much energy I use and the waste I produce in every aspect of my life. Even though we lack sufficient recharge stations in my state, I still decided to get an electric vehicle. I am not driving to a job everyday so I don’t have to rely on getting around places far away from my home. Instead I simply charge the car whenever it’s sitting in my garage and it’s ready to go by the very next day. This is one way in which I can both save money and the environment at the same time. One other perfect example of this is with energy efficiency in heating and cooling systems. Finding machines that are better on the environment often entails saving more money yourself whenever you go to heat or cool your house. This is definitely the case with geothermal heat pumps because they let you harvest energy from deep within the ground where temperatures are consistent throughout the year. Although you spend a fraction of electricity to reach the same cooling and heating capabilities of a standard HVAC system, the installation cost can exceed $10,000. That’s why I’m getting a tax credit from the government to have a new geothermal heat pump installed. It’s in place to encourage people to take the plunge in transitioning to a more environmentally friendly approach to heating and cooling while offsetting some of the start-up costs.

 

air quality

When I was a child, I wanted a house with wall to wall windows and skylights in the ceiling in every room.

I loved everything about sunlight, regardless of the burns in the summer when we took trips down to the lake. It’s a cool look, but it’s not feasible in some climates. In places that get a lot of severe weather, having your home guarded with walls of thin windows is dangerous. Hurricanes throw projectiles through the air at extreme speeds, and many people who live near the water have to put metal shutters over their existing windows for protection. With more windows comes more vulnerability during tropical cyclones. But it’s also a problem for energy efficiency wherever there is heat. People don’t realize that radiant heat is present wherever there is sunlight. Even if your window is shut, if there is sunlight coming through the window you’re getting a little bit of radiant heat in the process. With dozens of skylights and windows, your home will get warmer quicker. I can’t imagine dealing with a home like this, because right now I already have enough windows as it is and my energy bills are crazy during the summer cooling period. I love the natural sunlight, but some days I feel like I would waste less electricity by shutting the curtains and turning on the lights inside. This seems absolutely crazy in theory, but with LED lights being so cheap to run it isn’t a stretch of the imagination. Hopefully I can afford double pane windows at some point in the next 10 years. They might improve my situation and allow me to let in more daylight during the hot afternoon hours in the summer season.

 

AC filter

It’s hard maintaining a clean indoor environment when you have three dogs and two cats.

It wasn’t always this way, but we got one pet after the next as we had children and our family naturally grew.

We had one cat and one dog at the beginning, which were easy enough to handle between my wife and I. Now that we have five pets, a lot of the care and responsibilities fall on the shoulders of our children who were the ones who asked for more pets as the years went on. Even if they do all of their chores and clean up after our cats and dogs daily, it doesn’t totally remove the pet odors from our indoor air. Even after I had all of the carpet removed and replaced with laminate flooring throughout, we still notice pet odors when we come home and open the front door. One of my coworkers shares a similar problem as he owns two fish tanks and a lizard. He told me that he managed to get his odors down significantly in his house by simply putting an odor blocking filter in his air conditioner. These filters have a coating of activated charcoal crystals that absorb airborne odors as they move through your air conditioning system. Although I was skeptical a single filter could make a difference, I decided to buy one and give it a shot. Within an hour of the air conditioning running with the new filter inside, I was already noticing an improvement in the pet odors inside the house. After a day, it got even better. Now I buy these new odor blocking filters exclusively and I replace them every three weeks.

 

Washable filter

Smart technology is beginning to envelope every industry that sells consumer products.

I was amazed when I saw a smart refrigerator for the first time when I was browsing the appliance store for a new washer and dryer combo.

When I bought my air purifier, the model I wanted also has the ability to connect to your home’s wifi and can be controlled with an app on your phone. If you want to change the fan speed or turn the UV light on or off, you can do it on your phone wherever you have internet access. But there are other interesting smart devices as well, like smart watches, smart cars, and smart keychains. The ability to seamlessly weave your life into the digital network is advancing every year. Since I’ve struggled to maintain my energy bills with my HVAC system running all year long, I decided to give it a shot and purchase a smart thermostat. I was excited at the thought of having lower electricity bills in the summer from the thermostat telling the air conditioner to run for the proper length of time. If you aren’t wise enough to adjust the temperature throughout the day to reflect temperature changes outside, you could leave the air conditioner running for long cycles to maintain a lower temperature. This will put stress on the a/c while burning through electricity in the process. I love how my new smart thermostat determines a smart and energy efficient cooling cycle and enacts it. I don’t have to do all of the thinking alone, and I’ve seen a significant drop in my electricity bill since I had this new smart thermostat installed.
SEER ratings

I’m not looking forward to rolling into the summer season this year. Since I live in the south, it’s hot for most of the year unfortunately. This year we finally got discernable winter and spring seasons instead of 12 months of heat. Temperatures in January and February were as low as 45 degrees some days, while March and April saw pleasant weather with 60 to 70 degree days. It was nice spending more time outdoors this year since the weather wasn’t so miserable. But now that it’s getting towards the end of May, the weather is really warming up. Yesterday the high was 90 degrees; today the high is 95 degrees. As you would expect, my air conditioner is running constantly. I was in my attic yesterday when I realized that it isn’t insulated from the outdoor climate. There is insulation above my ceiling, which is the floor of the attic. However, the air conditioner is in the attic and it isn’t insulated either. I realized that I could buy reflective foil sheet insulation and put it along the underside of the roof to reflect radiant heat from the sun during the summer. This will prevent the attic from getting nearly as hot, but it won’t impede air circulation either. The foil insulation has the added benefit of retaining indoor heat during the winter season, but this isn’t as important in this climate. I am hoping that the cost of the insulation will be reimbursed with lower energy bills this summer. To do the entire attic, it will cost roughly $150.

a/c workman

When I started to chart my expenses last year, I didn’t expect to see so much of my money going to eating out all of my meals everyday.

• I was spending close to $40 each day between meals and coffee, which is roughly how much I spent each week when I was broke in college and at ramen noodles constantly.

Since I am a decent cook, I realized I could completely change my financial situation if I could just cook all of my meals instead of eating restaurant food each day. I started watching cooking videos on Youtube and was soon investing in new knives, pots and pans, and appliances like an electric mixer, a bread maker, and a blender. I love the healthy food that is coming out of my kitchen, as well as the money in my bank account that isn’t being spent on carry-out food everyday. Unfortunately, there has been one side effect of my constant cooking that hasn’t been so great. I have to keep replacing my air conditioner filters every three weeks because they’re full of grease and smoke residue from the perpetual cooking. It has an off-yellow color and smells like the burnt residue you find at the bottom of an oven. Since I use odor absorbing filters, they need to be replaced more often as they retain the odors that they absorb. Before you know it you’ll be smelling the dirty filter over anything else in your house whenever the air conditioner is cycling. I keep several on hand because I get them in bulk on the internet. This way I can replace them more often than I would normally.

Heating and cooling provider

It has taken me years to realize how much sunlight has been hitting my house during the late afternoon hours. The entire yard is illuminated and there isn’t much shade. This is in part why I’ve struggled to grow flowers and herbs in this environment. Between the constant direct sunlight and the large amounts of sand in our soil, it has never been a conducive place for gardening. It’s also easy to get a severe sunburn after only 30 to 40 minutes of direct sun exposure to open skin. My kids have that rare condition often called “devil’s itch” where they get excruciating pain during the healing period for a bad sunburn. That’s why I have to be so vigilant with them regarding sunscreen. My wife and I have had the habit of leaving the curtains open in the afternoon hours to let in sunlight, but I was reading on an energy saving blog that this heats up your house a lot faster compared to leaving the curtains shut. The radiant light heats the objects inside your home that are in its path, making things harder for your central air conditioner. After I purchased and installed light blocking curtains, our energy bills dropped significantly. Unfortunately, it makes our house a lot darker during the day. We get around this downside by shutting curtains in windows getting direct sunlight while opening the curtains in windows on the opposite side of the house. This way we still get daylight without getting direct radiant heat from the sun. When you have a family to support, you have to look for every possible way that you can save money without making many changes.
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When I was a kid, I used to play around with electricity without realizing the dangers.

At one point I learned that I could cause tiny wires to heat up and melt by running a positive and electric charge from a power drill battery.

It’s simply, you take two alligator clips and attach one end of each to both terminals on the battery, exactly like you would with jumper cables on a car battery. Then attach the other ends of the alligator clips to opposite ends of the tiny wire. When you make a connection, the wire glows red and melts in seconds. I used to wrap these little wires around the fuses on fireworks so I could remotely detonate them from 20 feet away using long extension wires from the battery. Obviously I was dumb and shocked myself more times than I would like to admit. These days I’m a lot more careful with electricity. When a fuse blew on my central HVAC system, I was tempted to replace it myself. I saw videos on the internet showing detailed instructions for replacing these fuses. However, it requires messing with the HVAC system’s power supply and I don’t want to get electrocuted. It’s dangerous dealing with high voltage, especially when it’s alternating current from a house. Instead of risking my injury, I called my HVAC supplier and told them about the fuse. Thankfully they sent someone out the same day and I paid nothing because it was covered by my maintenance contract. I would have wasted money buying a fuse and risking my safety trying to do the repairs myself.

 

a/c corporation

When my parents passed away last year, they left me their house in their will.

As much as I wanted to keep it, I live across the country and cannot afford to use it as a vacation home.

I have been working less hours over the past year and have had to budget every single purchase I make. It’s saddening to sell a home you grew up in and have so many amazing memories with, but I just don’t make enough money to pay the property taxes and the minimal utilities to maintain the humidity level inside. The home also needs repairs that I don’t have the money to afford. With much deliberation, I decided to put the house on the market. I didn’t want to deal with a real estate agent, but I didn’t know how to do it alone. Unfortunately, I realized quickly that I wasn’t going to get as much money for the house as I had initially hoped. Part of the issue was all of the repairs that needed to be made. The roof was getting old, there was damage to walls in several rooms, and the bathroom shower needs to be retiled. The worst thing making me lose money on the house is the old air conditioner. Since it’s 22 years old, it needs to be replaced. That means that whoever buys the house will be looking at that charge right at the outset. If I purchase a new air conditioner, that will raise the value of the house. But unless I make the other repairs as well, it won’t raise the value enough to offset the costs of replacing the HVAC system. It’s a tough quandary that I’m finding myself in with trying to sell this house.

Indoor comfort business

My mom is starting to get weaker now that she is in her 60s. Since my father has been out of the picture for years now, she relies on herself to do everything around the house whenever her neighbors don’t volunteer first. It’s hard when I visit and see my mom teetering on a ladder while attempting to clean her rain gutters. That’s why I decided to move back to her area so that I can be closer to help her several times each week. I love the arrangement because I get free meals from a woman who is known for her delicious cooking. Last week I helped her install a new refrigerator. Since I have a pickup truck, I picked it up from the appliance store and brought it into her house without needing a delivery crew. If you ever lay a refrigerator on it’s side, you have to be careful and leave it sitting upright for at least 24 hours so the coolant inside the compressor can settle again. This week I’m installing a brand new window air conditioner in her living room. Her home is fairly old and never had a central air conditioner. She has a ductless mini split in her bedroom but has been using a window a/c in the living room for years. When the old one stopped working last week, I offered to buy her a new one and install it myself. Since I’ve installed a few window air conditioners in the past when I was living in apartments, I’m not too worried about getting this done without any other help. I’m eager to see my mom getting on demand cooling in her living room again.

 

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