Overall

• The best indicator of a home’s energy efficiency is lower than expected year-round energy bills – ask the seller to provide 12 months of usage and billing history. Utilities will release this information with a signature from the seller.

Heating & Cooling System:

• Visually inspect the home’s furnace and air conditioner.
  • Is the air filter clean? Is there mastic sealant at the joints where the ductwork exits the unit? Is there a service sticker indicating that the equipment has been well-maintained?
  • Does the air conditioner look reasonably clean? How old is it? Units more than 15 years old will need replacement within 10 years or less.

Attic and Crawl Space (worth poking your head into):

• Attic – measure the amount of insulation…….is it spread evenly? If there’s ductwork, it should be connected, sealed, insulated and hung without kinks.
• Crawl space – should have a vapor barrier covering the dirt and the insulation should be held tightly up against the floor with the foil side hidden (against the floor). If there’s ductwork, it should be connected, sealed, insulated and unkinked.
• Confirm that dryer and kitchen vents are venting to the outside.

Insulation, Windows and Doors:

• Walls constructed with 2x6s are generally insulated better than 2×4 walls.
• Windows should be double-paned and sealed (no moisture between glass). Discoloration on the sill or wall indicates potential issues. Aluminum windows are a red flag for inefficiency.
• Are the bulk of the windows on the south (good) or on the east, west or north?(not as good)
• Look for awnings, overhangs or trees to provide shade to west windows in the summer
• Southern windows should have clear sun exposure during winter months

• Do doors close tightly and have weather stripping in place? Can you see daylight around the edges?

Appliances and Lighting:

• What’s the approximate age of the appliances? Newer appliances are generally more energy-efficient than older models due to more stringent manufacturing guidelines.
• Does the home have energy efficient lighting fixtures or bulbs? Dimmers and occupancy switches are also good options for reducing incandescent lighting usage.

Joe takes calls about repairing or replacing a frost proof hydrant, how to get water stains off a brick surface, and a listener asks about replacing a water heater element.  Joe asks the audience for suggestions on getting water spots off windows and gets some good feedback from a professional.  Also, a caller asks about soffit and facia leaks and possible causes related to the roof.  Joe also tells us about a new Channellock tool, the #369 Linesman Pliers.

One of the basic principles of thermodynamics is that “heat goes to cold”.  In other words, warm air is always seeking cooler air.  In the summer, this means that when the temperature is hotter outside, it’s trying to get into your house, (assuming it’s cooler inside).   Heat can be transferred through conduction, convection, or radiation.

An example of radiant heat is the solar gain that comes through your windows.  To reduce solar gain, concentrate your efforts on east- and west-facing windows because the sun angles are lower and the rays have a more direct path into your home.

• When replacing these windows, look for low “E” windows with a rating of .35 or less and  a solar heat gain coefficient less than .40
• Less costly options are solar shades, which are custom fitted and removable casings that allow you to see through the window.
• Window film is another option that provides visibility to the outdoors.
• At the very least, close the curtains
• Cheapest option:  aluminum foil, which blocks radiant heat very effectively.

An example of conduction is the heat transferred from your hot car into your garage when you get home.  Avoid putting hot objects in your home until they’ve cooled off, including autos, garbage cans, and indoor/outdoor furniture.

An example of convection is warm air coming into your home via open windows, poor weather-stripping and frequent opening and closing of doors.  Convection is also the phenomenon that occurs when the upper floors get warmer than the lower floors.

• You can use convection to cool your home in the evening by opening windows on opposite sides of and on different levels in your home.
• Set up a strong fan to blow air out an open window on the upper floor.  This will draw in cooler air below, which will force the warm air in the home to rise and exit upstairs via the open window.

The main idea is to keep your home as cool as possible in the first place, to reduce the need for mechanical cooling and increase overall comfort.  Once interior walls and furnishings have heated up, they will take a long time to cool back down.  This brings us to the final tip:

• Flush the home’s air in the morning before 8 a.m.  Open all the doors and windows and run fans for a half hour, then seal everything up tight.

Granite Transformations owner Joe Bianchi is in studio with Joe  to talk about the unique and problem solving products and services offered by Granite Transformations.  Counter tops, cabinet refacing, tub and shower pans and liners, wall systems and more are discussed.

Also, Joe interviews Mark Stypzynski from Liquid Nails about the new formulation of adhesives and usage.

Since some rooms in your house can be 15 degrees warmer at the ceiling than at the floor, ceiling fans are considered the most effective fans.  They circulate the air in a room to create a draft and can reduce the difference between the floor and the ceiling to only 3 degrees.

The biggest bonus?  If you use air conditioning, a ceiling fan will allow you to raise the thermostat setting 4°F with no reduction in comfort.  For each degree the thermostat is lowered (and held there for eight hours), you can save about 1percent on your cooling costs.

• So if you were able to reduce the temperature by 4 degrees around the clock, you’d save about 12 percent on your cooling costs.

Here’s what to look for when shopping for a ceiling fan.

• Shop for an ENERGY STAR® qualified unit.
• Choose a fan that’s reversible and has more than one speed.

- It needs to be reversible in order to provide heat disbursement benefits in the winter.

• Check to make sure the blades are angled at least 10 degrees.
• Match the size of your fan to the size of the room. For rooms 12 feet by 12 feet or less, you can use a 36-inch or 42-inch fan. For rooms up to 12 feet by 18 feet, use a 48-inch or 52-inch fan. If the room’s bigger than that, you’ll probably need at least two fans.
• Purchase a fan that is UL listed with a “damp” rating if placing it in a bathroom or other humid location.

But don’t forget to turn off fans when you leave a room; fans cool people, not rooms.  It’s our skin that makes the wind chill effect work.

Idaho Power’s Home Products program pays cash incentives for purchasing ENERGY STAR qualified household products, including select ceiling fans, appliances and light fixtures. To learn more, visit idaho power dot com slash home products.

If you are even thinking about a kitchen or bath remodel / project / or make over, you really need to check this product (s) out. I went on a tour of the showroom and fabrication areas and am quite impressed with the quality of the craftsmanship and the product itself. I had several misconceptions about their counter tops and am glad that I was taken through the ins and outs of their methods and options.

Joe is going to be on the radio show with me this weekend and you can call in if you have any questions. (336 3700 or 1-800-529-KBOI) He is also going to have a booth at the Western Idaho Fair if you stop by. Take a look, let him know you are a HomeFix listener. Even if you are not in the market for counter tops, take a look so you can be up to date on what is available when you talk to your friends.

Granite Transformations not only does the counter tops for you, they can re-face cabinets with new doors and drawer fronts, install new liners in tubs and showers, and do the walls of tubs and showers. They even have line of really good looking shower doors and are a Price Pfister faucet dealer. A very nice product all around, and the install time and disturbance to you home and lifstyle is very minimal. I can think of several jobs I have done recently that this would have been a perfect solution for.

www.granitetransformations.com is the website, and I will be adding their contact info to the HomeFix Resource Directory at the JoePrin.com site. Thanks for reading over this. A NEW NEWSLETTER for August is in the works so look for that in your inbox soon.

Inspiration for me comes from the goofiest places. I can be looking at a bottle of Salsa on the kitchen counter top and all of a sudden the answer to a truss modification will pop into my head. There must have been something on that label that sent a pulse through my brain and unleashed that missing connection between problem and solution. Or maybe it was just the salsa itself.

The point being that it is the little things that can lead you to solutions. Not just in home remodeling and building, but in our lives in general.

I am reminded of the analogy of a marble rolling across an unleveled floor. You can steer it by whacking it from side to side and waiting for it go get up to speed, or you can just nudge it as it rolls and it keeps going and gets to the end sooner anyway.

Inspiration is the nudge we all need to get us to the end. Where it comes from for you is up to you, but for me, it is often found in procrastination.

If I can put off forcing creativity for a while and just let it simmer, it seems I can usually come up with a solution, answer, idea or what have you that when I look at it from a distance I think “Wow, where did that come from. I wouldn’t have came up with that yesterday.”

Some of you might be saying, “Yeah Joe, I know what you mean. I work better under last minute pressure.” No, I don’t think we actually do. I think we have to put aside the issue for a while and even though our direct attention was not there, our head was hard at work while we were out. So, when we finally dive in… Boom. The ideas come.

The trick to this however is that you cannot specifically plan to selectively procrastinate. You can’t schedule it, you can’t assign it a date or time, or put it into your daily planner. If you do, you will zap out all the good karma and the inspiration will vaporize. Something about how the magic works. You have to fully intend to sit down and work on the problem or issue, and then say “Ah screw it, I’ll deal with this later. I’m going fishing.”

Then, when you least expect it, the inspiration will come. You won’t be ready for it and it did not warn you it was coming. You will be in the wrong place at the wrong time but the idea will come. The thought, the inspiration, your solution.

Is it prayer? I guess it sort of is. Because, you have to remain humble in your perceived greatness. Don’t get too cocky with this or again, the magic will disappear. You also have to be willing to listen to what you are being told.

People will often inspire me in a conversation. A bike ride around the block works now and then. Or just a song on the radio. I do not know why the inspiration comes, I am just thankful that it does.

Please excuse me, I just figured out how to get rid of that load bearing wall!

Joe and Vicki Prin own Joe Prin Remodeling LLC, Idaho Registered Contractor #RCE-23530, and can be contacted at 573-1082 or by email-joe@joeprin.com. Listen to the HomeFix Radio show hosted by Joe, Saturdays, 9-10 AM on 670 KBOI

“If we can not do something about this dust, I am going to go crazy!” Is what she said to me. “I have to dust this house a lot more than what I think is normal.”

What spurred this comment was me asking as I finished up a small project… “Is there anything else I can help with?”

My customer took me into her walk in closet and showed me a fine layer of white dust on the shelves and her hanging clothes. She said that this was a weekly event.

I asked about the furnace and the filters. Were they changed lately? I was told that in fact they do clean the filters quite often. I wanted to look at them and then I saw it. The Honeywell Electronic Air Cleaner.

These air cleaners are installed upstream from the furnace blower and as return air comes through the system, the electronic cleaner “zaps” the dust and cleans it. But here is the issue we are finding with these. After talking to my friends at the Filter Factory Outlet Store (658-1146), I learned about “clean dirt”.

These electronic cleaners do not do much for filtration. The electrocuted dirt while rendered inert and organics sterilized, allow particles to pass through the system and therefore showing up as the fine white dust in the house. Just look at the system. There is a mesh filter, much like a grease trap filter in your range hood or microwave, and then a finned cartridge like a radiator. You can see right through these! Of course particulates will blow right on through. The analogy was told to me as if you had a magnetized wall and threw ball bearings right at it. Sure they would stick. However, set your toss up parallel to the wall and the bearings will pass right on by when thrown. Some might curve over and stick, but not nearly all of them.

There is a simple cure to this and here it is. We will add filtration to the system and abandon the electronic cleaning. The electronic unit is switched off and unplugged. The front cover is removed and the cartridges pulled out. The mesh grills are pulled out. The space they filled measures 20x25x 4.25. A standard pleated Merv 11 filter is available in this size and is made just for this situation. The filter is slid in where the cartridges were and the cover snapped back in place.

Now the system will be filtering the air and the dust problem will go away.

There are several other types of filters available. Some with higher Merv ratings, some with anti-microbial and bacteria capabilities. You will have to discuss your specific needs with the filter supplier. Cost? About $35 per filter and you would want to change these every 3 to 6 months. The Filter Factory Outlet Store will even deliver to your door so you can’t forget to change them on time.

My customer is very happy with the results. A complete duct cleaning should also be part of the conversion as that dust is throughout the duct-work and should be removed. For most homes this will cost $300 to $400.

Was it worth it? This lady sure thinks so. Glad I could help.

Joe and Vicki Prin own Joe Prin Remodeling LLC, Idaho Registered Contractor #RCE-23530, and can be contacted at 573-1082 or by email- joe@joeprin.com. Listen to the HomeFix Radio show hosted by Joe, Saturdays, 9-10 AM on 670 KBOI

In the world of home improvement and remodeling of any type, by any one, there is a date that should now live in the minds of contractors and homeowners for all of future history. April 22, 2010. The day the “Lead Laws” went into effect. Earth Day.

If your home was built in 1978 or before, this law impacts it.

I’ll tell you right now that there is a lot of detail in this law. There is plenty to read if you want to absorb every word. There is also some miss-information floating around that is confusing some people, and there is downright fear in the construction community on what this may do to them and their businesses.

So in an effort to help you out and to let you read and understand for yourself, posted on my website, JoePrin.com, http://www.joeprin.com/radio-show-info/is some literature you can click and read or download. There is the EPA Lead Basic Facts sheet, the EPA Checking Contractors flyer, and the 30 some page Federal Register of the complete law text. You can also call the National Lead Information Center: 1-800-424-5323 for information or questions.

The issue? Out there in the world around us, a lot of lead paint was used on various surfaces: walls, trim, doors, windows, and furniture. When lead dust is ingested, say for example by a child crawling on dusty floor, fingers go in mouth, and if there was lead in that dust, it stays in their body forever.

From the EPA…FACT: Lead exposure can harm young children and babies even before they are born. FACT: Even children who seem healthy can have high levels of lead in their bodies. FACT: You can get lead in your body by breathing or swallowing lead dust, or by eating soil or paint chips containing lead. FACT: You have many options for reducing lead hazards. In most cases, lead-based paint that is in good condition is not a hazard. FACT: Removing lead-based paint improperly can increase the danger to your family.

So we know that elevated levels of lead can cause learning disabilities as well as other health issues. Therefore, lead dust needs to be handled properly to protect people.

The Federal law puts the responsibility of safe handling on the contractors working in your home. From the EPA brochure I mention above ”… federal law requires that contractors performing renovation, repair and painting projects that disturb more than six square feet of paint in homes, child care facilities, and schools built before 1978 must be certified and trained to follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination.” Read again, slowly, every word.

Idaho State Law requires Contractors to be registered with the State and to carry Liability Insurance. Most insurance companies require their insured contractors to comply with State and Federal laws. Therefore, I am assuming that most Contractors will need to be trained and certified by the EPA to maintain their insurance.

Personally, I was lead safe certified in 2002. WAS. My certification has expired. I guess if I want to work on houses built in 1978 or older, I better get back to class. And you the homeowner, better start asking some questions of your contractors.

Joe and Vicki Prin own Joe Prin Remodeling LLC, Idaho Registered Contractor #RCE-23530, and can be contacted at 573-1082 or by email- joe@joeprin.com. Listen to the HomeFix Radio show hosted by Joe, Saturdays, 9-10 AM on 670 KBOI