April 16th, 2010
UPDATE: As of around 12:30 p.m. half the rebate funds are gone. Do NOT wait until tonight to buy!
Illinois residents: if you’ve been thinking about taking advantage of the 15% Energy Star appliance tax rebate that starts today and ends on the 25th (or until funds run out) RUN, don’t walk to a participating retailer. [...]
January 27th, 2010
About a year-and-a-half ago, we signed up for Residential Real Time Pricing (RRTP) with Commonwealth Edison, our electricity provider. Many utility companies across the country offer similar programs, so please check with your local provider for energy-saving opportunities on utility bills.
RRTP uses ComEd’s Basic Electric Service Hourly Energy Pricing. With it, the price of electricity [...]
June 30th, 2009
Earlier last week I talked about our decision to go with Icynene®, a low-density, open-cell foam for our attic insulation. Insulation Day finally arrived on Thursday, a day I had been anxiously anticipating.
Unfortunately for the guys, the HVAC wasn’t yet up and running, and it was going to be a hot, hot day. By [...]
May 8th, 2009
I started looking into adding some recessed can lights in the kitchen before the attic floor becomes inaccessible. There are a number of options from either Juno or Halo, both quality lighting manufacturers.
I knew that LEDs (Light Emitting Diode) were available in recessed lighting now and I wanted to look into that option over incandescent, [...]
October 24th, 2008
With all the doom and gloom hanging over our heads on the state of the economy, we’re looking for more ways to save — but sometimes that means spending a little money first.
We had the folks from Informed Energy Decisions over a couple weeks ago to perform an energy audit/condition survey of our bungalow.
We [...]
June 6th, 2008
With the temperatures rising, my thoughts have turned to ceiling fans to to lower energy costs by (somewhat) reducing our dependence on central air. We particularly need a ceiling fan for our family/TV room, which although facing east and north, has six windows and quickly heats up in the morning. In winter this is also [...]
April 30th, 2008
As Earth Month comes to a close, there are still plenty of things we’d like to do to reduce, reuse and recycle, such as:
Replace showerhead and faucets with low-flow units
Replace the toilet with a dual-flush, low-flow unit, like the Aquia from Toto or the selection from Caroma
Finish replacing all lightbulbs with CFLs. Research shows that [...]
April 4th, 2008
Last Saturday we were the first delivery of the day from Abt, THE place to go in Chicagoland for appliances and electronics.
Good-bye crappy old Caloric-brand “Heritage Series” range — you’re not going to turn yourself on whenever you want any longer.
Hello, beautiful new Frigidaire slide-in range.
The fried eggs came out perfectly, and [...]
December 6th, 2007
It’s already quite cold here in the Windy City: 21° F. Since this is our first winter in the bungalow it’s taking some time to get warm. We were in our previous house for so long, it was a no-brainer: flip on the heat switch and let it go.
With a new (old) house, it’s [...]