How To Save Hot Water & Money - Energy Saving Tips
At Abundant Home Inspection Services we enjoy making sure your home stays one of your most valuable assests. The best way we know how to do that is to share some simple home maintenance tips that most people don't know could save you thousands of dollars.
Today I want to talk about your water heater. Water heating is the second largest energy expense in your home. On average it accounts for about 18% of your utility bill.
1. Repair any leaky faucets. Leaking faucets waste gallons of water and cost hundreds of dollars.
2. Put a timer on your electric water heater and set it to turn off while you are asleep. You can also keeps it off during peak hours.
3. Turn down the thermostat on your water heater. It is recommended that the temperature be set at 120 degrees. At 120 degrees there is less of a chance of hot water burns and it helps to slow down lime buildup.
4. Where there are water supply pipes like in basements, garages and crawlspaces, insulate your hot and cold water pipes. This will saves both energy and water because water coming from your water heater to the appliance stay warmer. Insulation also helps bring hot water to your taps and showers faster so less is wasted while you wait for your water flow to heat up.
5. Washing clothes in cold water helps to use less hot water. Also, install low flow shower heads, take shorter showers, only wash full loads when running your dishwasher or washing machine.
6. As recommended by the manufacturer, drain a quart of water from your water tank every 3 months to remove sediment that impedes heat transfer and lowers the efficiency of your heater.
7. Insulate your Water heater and make sure the thermostat is accesible.
8. Install heat traps on the hot and cold pipes at the water heater to prevent heat loss. Most new water heaters have built-in heat traps.
9. If you are in the market for new (dishwasher, washing machine) be sure to buy efficient, water-saving ENERGY STAR® model to reduce hot water use
10. If you are in the market for a new water heater, buy an energy efficient water heater, consider a tankless water heater or consider a solar water heater.
These tips will help you same energy and money. And are good for the envirnment. If you'd like more weekly tips, subscribe to this blog and/or like us on facebook Abundant Home Inspection Services, LLC.
Talk to you soon,
Simone On Homes
Yes! PreMarket Home Inspections for Sellers Work.
When you live in a home for a long time, you begin to loose your objectivity about the house. The longer you live there, the less you see it's little imperfections. Benefits of an Abundant Certified PreMarket home inspection
A certified premarket home inspection by Abundant Home Inspection Services helps to identify any issues prior to putting the house up for sale. If something significant arises, Sellers then have adequate time to make repairs, using their own choice of contractor, negotiating a good price, and making sure the corrections are done right. This is a much better approach than waiting for the Buyer’s inspector to find the same issue; the Buyer getting to select the contractor; the Seller paying for this contractor; and rushing to get the work completed before closing.
Once you put the house up for sale, the inspection report is at your showings for the buyers to see and you can detail all if any repairs that were made, along with copies of the receipts from the contractors. In addition, Abundant will help market your house and send marketing emails to all the buyer's agents in our data base, welcoming them to bring their buyers to your house. 
For the minimal cost of hiring our experienced, certified and licensed, inspectors, Sellers can eliminate a lot of the hassle and stress that many times occurs in the home selling process. Homes that SOLD with Abundant's PreMarket Inspection
Talk to you later. Simone On Homes
After The Storm. Checking Your Roof
Furnaces are expensive and a missing rain cap on the vent stack can shorten the life of the heat exchanger by more than half. Note that not all pipes sticking up on your roof need rain caps, some of them are plumbing vent pipes.
We encourage you to look at your roof as you are driving up to your house, since you can get a good view of the roof that way.
Natural Air Fresheners, So Fresh & So Clean
Are you looking for different ways to make your house smell good without using the toxic store bought air freshners? Once a fan of commercial air fresheners, I now use natural ingredients. The commercial air fresheners are not only expensive, they use harsh chemicals. Here are some natural air freshener ideas:
Mmmmm....can you smell the fresh orange rinds? Your house could be filled with this clean citrus smell. Keep filling up your water so you don't burn the rinds. BONUS: It might clear your sinuses too!
Try these other natural ways to clean your air:
A couple of drops of lemon oil in your vacuum filter or bag will scent wherever you vacuum with wonderful lemon scent
Sprinkle your carpet with plain baking soda to absorb odors before vacuuming
Reuse a dryer sheet by placing it in your vacuum bag to scent your home with the smell of fresh laundry
Fill a fine mist spray bottle with white vinegar to remove any odors, once the vinegar smell goes away, so do the odors
Use essential oils like lemon, lavender, orange, etc throughout your home. You can place a few drops on a cotton ball and hide them. Or mix oils with distilled water in a spray bottle and spray through the air.
NOTE: Plants also clean the air, they take in pollutants with carbon dioxide and give back oxygen.
What natural fresheners to you use? I'd love to hear your ideas.
Clothes Dryer Fire Prevention
In order to clean the dryer, disconnect the dryer from the power source. If you have a gas dryer, be sure to shut off the gas valve to the dryer prior to cleaning. Pull the dryer away from the wall and disconnect the dryer vent duct. If you have a corrugated plastic duct, you should completely replace it with a metal duct. Plastic duct has been the cause for many dryer fires.
Take a long handled bristle brush, clean under the dryer. You can brush or vacuum to clean the lint build up from the rear of the cabinet housing of the dryer. Be sure to run the bristle brush through the wall ducting to clear and lint that has accumulated there. Reconnect the dryer ducting and move your dryer back into place after re-connecting the power supply and for gas dryers, turn the gas valve on.
Why I Became A Home Inspector
While working as a Public Insurance Adjuster I would often get phone calls from young single mothers hoping I could help them get money for repairs to their homes. Unfortunately, when I would arrive I would find that they were improperly insured but most often the damages they had weren't insurable damages but major defects to the property. What made this even worse is these young mothers usually had just purchased their homes within the past year or two through some kind of "First Time Homeowners" program, and those that did get inspections, the inspection was performed by a contractor friend of the seller who usually was an investor flipping the property.
I visited one house and from the dining room could see that the kitchen floor had a major slope towards the outside of the house. The homeowner told me she doesn't go in the kitchen because it felt like it was about to fall off the rest of the house. Another house had one strip of paneling on the wall, not one wall with paneling, just one strip of paneling. When I looked behind the panel I could see straight outside. Then there was the house I visited one August, it hadn't rained for days. The minute I walked into the house I could smell the mold. When I went into the basement the walls were soaked, the floors were damp, the joist and subfloors were wet, we could barely breathe while down there and she had an elementary school aged son. This house had electrical issues and her porch roof was beginning to collapse from wood rot. (which is why she called me) I gave her some suggestions but couldn't really help her. She had only been in the house for 6 months. With tears in her eyes she says "I hate this house".
Oh boy, I wished I was Oprah and could knock the house down and just build her a new one. But, I'm not Oprah and can't buy people new homes. So becoming a Home Inspector was the next best thing.
Foundation Wall Cracks
While a stair-step crack is less important than a vertical crack either one with an opening of 1/8" to 1/4" (like in the picture) may be cause for concern, of course smaller cracks may also be a con...cern depending on the circumstances.
The key to load bearing wall cracks is to insure that there is no further movement. To do this you should fill in the crack and then over a period of 6 to 12 months check for reappearances or separation between the filling and the wall.
If there's is additional movement then it would be advised that you call a specialist (structural engineer of foundation/basement contractor). It may be anything from a simple matter regarding the property or something as expensive as underpinning the foundation.
Remember, cracks frequently appear around windows and door frames which are places of inherent weakness.
