Now that we’ve improved the energy efficiency of our cars through Cash for Clunkers, President Obama has proposed helping us improve our homes through Cash for Caulkers.  The proposal would provide a tax credit of up to $12k per home for 50% of the cost of projects that improve the energy efficiency of existing homes.   Unfortunately, Congressional funding to enact this legislation seems to have stalled.

Improving the energy efficiency of a home is more complicated than buying a vehicle. Each home is different and requires a thorough energy audit to identify and prioritize problems to deliver the best bang for the buck. The first challenge, of course, is to find a reputable and unbiased company to help you. Ask a guy who specializes in window replacement and just guess what he’s going to recommend.

Speaking of windows, it turns out that it may not pay to replace old single-panes with new double panes. In many cases, heat is lost primarily through lack of insulation around the frame and poor weatherstripping. It may be more cost effective to do a window tune-up rather than a replacement.  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Cash for Caulkers, energy, energy audit, Massachusetts, tax credits for energy efficiency

I’m always interested in what we can learn from other cultures.

I really don’t know much about feng shui, but I remember that when Dana and I were trying to sell our home in New Jersey, we had several propsective buyers who liked the home except that the main staircase was straight and was aligned with the front door, making the house unacceptable. I do think there should be an addition to the MLS to indicate whether a property was designed with feng shui principles in mind; it must be difficult to house hunt if this is an important issue for the buyer.

I was in San Francisco last week at a convention at the Moscone Center.  I frequently took lunch by visiting the Whole Foods on 4th St., near Harrison.  It has the best salad bar I’ve ever seen.  Highly recommended, should you happen to be in the area.  You can take lunch to go and walk over to the Yurba Buena Gardens.  On a sunny day (and San Francisco does have several such days each year) it’s a great way to lunch and frugal, too.

But in addition to the salad bar, I was quite taken with the entryways at Whole Foods.  There are the usual motion-activated sliding glass doors, but these open into a small antechamber.  To continue on into the store you must go left or right around a glass wall.  Initially I thought it awkward to maneuver around it, especially at the busy lunch hour, but then I realized that it also prevented gusts of cold air from having direct flow into the store.  While San Francisco certainly isn’t the coldest city in the States, it is frequently chilly, and it can be windy.  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: energy conservation, feng shui, frugal lunching