Reduce Your Heating Bills This Winter - Overlooked Sources of Heat Loss in the Home

Written by Mark D. Tyrol, P.E., www.batticdoor.com


Imagine leaving a window open all winter long –repparttar heat loss, cold drafts, and wasted energy! Well if your home has a folding attic stair, a fireplace, and/or a clothes dryer, that may be just what is occurring in your home! These often overlooked sources of heat loss and air leakage can cause your heat pour out andrepparttar 100077 cold outside air pour in – costing you higher heating bills, causing cold drafts, and wasting energy. Air leaks arerepparttar 100078 largest source of heating and cooling loss inrepparttar 100079 home. Air leaks occur throughrepparttar 100080 small cracks around doors, windows, pipes, etc. We apply caulk and weatherstripping to these areas to minimize heat loss and cold drafts. But what can you do aboutrepparttar 100081 three largest “holes” in your home –repparttar 100082 folding attic stair,repparttar 100083 fireplace, andrepparttar 100084 clothes dryer? Here are some tips and techniques that can easily, quickly and inexpensively seal and insulate these holes. Attic Stairs:

Do you have a folding attic stairway in your house? When attic stairs are installed, a large hole (approximately 10 square feet!) is created in your ceiling. The ceiling and insulation that were there have to be removed. And what is installed to cover this opening? A thin, unsealed, un-insulated sheet of plywood!

Did you know that your attic space is ventilated directly torepparttar 100085 outdoors? Inrepparttar 100086 winter,repparttar 100087 attic space can be very cold, and inrepparttar 100088 summer it can be very hot. And what is separating your conditioned house from your unconditioned attic? That thin sheet of plywood!

Often a gap can be observed aroundrepparttar 100089 perimeter ofrepparttar 100090 door. Try this yourself: at night when it is dark, turn onrepparttar 100091 attic light and shutrepparttar 100092 attic stairway door - do you see any light coming through? These are gaps - which add up to a large opening where your heated/cooled air leaks out 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year! This is like leaving a window open all year round!

An easy, low-cost solution to this problem is to add an attic stair cover. An attic stair cover provides an air seal, reducingrepparttar 100093 air leaks. Addrepparttar 100094 desired amount of insulation overrepparttar 100095 cover to restorerepparttar 100096 insulation removed fromrepparttar 100097 ceiling. Fireplaces: Approximately 100 million homes in North America are constructed with wood or gas burning fireplaces. Unfortunately there are negative side effects thatrepparttar 100098 fireplace brings to a home especially duringrepparttar 100099 winter home-heating season. Fireplaces are energy losers! Researchers have studied this to determinerepparttar 100100 amount of heat loss through a fireplace, andrepparttar 100101 results are amazing! One remarkable research study showed that an open damper on an unused fireplace in a well-insulated house can raise overall heating energy consumption by 30%!

Decorating with rocks, the beauty of rustic decor

Written by Joseph Lewitin


Rocks are dirty, crude, hard, and just plain nasty. But there is another side to rocks. They are also durable, beautiful, and come in a huge variety.

When a piece of stone is cut from a mountain, it is cut into a giant slab. This slab looks like a giant landscape. The stone can be any color that exists in nature, red, green, yellow, and these colors are streaked acrossrepparttar face ofrepparttar 100076 stone. When it is cut or broken down, each piece becomes a tiny unique item that can then be turned into any number of beautiful decorating items.

The most common stone household item are stone tables. Stone tables match stone and ceramic flooring. They are one of a kind, and beautiful. They can easily be set up indoors or outdoors, and they dont stain, because rocks dont stain.

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