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by Piper Electric Company, Inc.

In these tough economical times, you can save yourself money by taking a few steps before you call an electrical contractor out to your home. They may just solve the problem for you!

• Do you have power to your home or building? Does your neighbor?
• Is the GFCI receptacle, an outlet that has the button in the middle, that is closest to your problem tripped. Try pushing the button in to see if that fixes the problem.
• Is the correct light fixture switch on? Have you double checked to make sure the bulb isn’t burned out?
• If you have an appliance that is not working, try plugging it into a different outlet. Confirm that the appliance hasn’t stopped working first!
• Do you have a tripped circuit breaker? To reset it you must first make sure it is completely off, then turn it on again..

Safety first, always have a professional look into issues that could be dangerous in any way. When selecting an appropriate electrician to perform any services for you, it should be one with integrity. They should provide a concise estimate for the work, not a "flat rate." This is an estimate that is usually marked up high enough to cover the worst case scenario.

This article provided by Piper Electric Company, Inc. Visit us at www.piperelectric.com.

by Quality First Plumbing

After this latest cold spell here in Colorado, many of you may be recovering from the thaw of frozen water pipes.

Ben Franklin said it well: “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean much when you’re facing water damage and a foot of standing water.

If you have a frozen water pipe, try running a little water through it. Is there any flow? If so, keep the flow going to help thaw out the pipe faster. The quicker you can get things back to normal, the better.

While water is your first step, you can also use heat. Try setting a space heater directly facing the pipe. Don’t have a space heater? Try a hair drier. Both will point heat directly at the problem.

After the pipe has been thawed, check carefully for any leaks or cracks. Freezing can stretch and change the pipe, and might produce tiny flaws that aren’t visible at first, but can lead to bigger problems in the short term.

This is also where a good plumber can help. They are trained to look for these tiny problems, and can help evaluate if you have a problem-in-waiting, and how to prevent a future freeze.

If you have one freeze, you may choose to evaluate the rest of your pipes as well. One problem indicates you may have others. Insulate pipes well, and keep a close eye on everything, especially during these cold, winter months.

This article provided by Quality First Plumbing. Visit us at www.PlumbingHelpToday.com.

by Dave Logan

Crawling out of bed on a cold, winter morning and having your bare feet gently meet a toasty warm floor sounds pretty good, huh? Of course it does! So maybe it’s time to consider some radiant floor heating (RFH) for your home.

There are two types of RFH: electric and hydronic. One nice advantage of RFH is consistent, constant heat throughout an entire room or home. If you think about it, radiant heat can be much more efficient than a typical forced-air system; where heat is forced through ducts in your home, rises throughout your home, finally cools, and then drops.

Another nice advantage? Better efficiency means better economics, too. Our own team members and customers have reported savings of more than 30% by using an RFH system. Even if you live in an older home, you may find that an RFH system can be easily installed. Look into it and see if it will work for you. The long-term cost savings are absolutely worth it, even if you only elect for an RFH system in one or two rooms.

The costs can vary significantly, depending on which RFH system you choose: electric or hydronic. We recommend having a pro come out to your home and talk to you about the pros, cons, and overall costs of RFH systems.

by Dave Logan

Coloradoans are no strangers to cold weather. When a winter storm hits, we all bundle up and prepare ourselves for the bitter cold. But do we adequately prepare our homes for this weather?

Our “Top 10” list of easy and effective tips can save you time and money this winter, as well as keep you warm. Before you begin, however, it’s important to do your own home energy audit so you know which energy challenges to prioritize for the year. Or, you can likely get your own trusted professional to perform an audit for you for a few hundred bucks.

1. Buy some door sweeps (or draft stoppers) and put them underneath exterior doors to seal the gaps and keep the cold where it belongs: outside. You can pick them up for $10-$20, and they’re easy to install.
2. Install a storm door. This can provide a great (and cheap) way to keep your home insulated.
3. Buy some “peel and stick” weatherstripping for doors and windows. Insallation is easy: measure the space that needs the weatherstripping and apply! For doors, make sure you apply the weatherstripping all the way around the door jamb. For windows, apply to the bottom of the window where the window meets the sill.
4. Replace your windows. Keep in mind that you could be losing better than 20% of your home’s heat through windows. If your windows are old, it may be worth it to replace them with energy efficient ones.
5. Insulate all your exposed pipes that carry hot water.
6. Make sure your attic is fully insulated; otherwise the heat rising from the living areas in your home will escape. This forces your furnace to work much harder than it should.
7. Service your furnace every year. This will improve efficiency and lower your utility costs.
8. Replace your furnace filters every couple of months.
9. Install a programmable thermostat. They’re inexpensive and allow you to dictate the temperature in your home at different times during the day. This simple effort can yield big savings for your utility costs!
10. Pay attention to your utility bills! It’s helpful to know that the efficiency upgrades you’re making are working effectively. The largest energy consumer in your home is the obvious target for improvement.

Use the above as your “winter checklist” if you like. For just a little bit of time and money, you can protect your home in severe weather and ensure that you and your family will be warm and comfortable all winter long. And those are investments that will return positively for years and years to come!

by Quality First Plumbing

Knowing what your carbon footprint is isn’t the only way to start conserving. Knowing your water footprint can also help you learn more about your home water usage, and begin to look for ways to conserve.

Let’s start by asking the question, “how much water do use on average every day?” According to WaterFootprint.org, the average person on earth uses 328.366 gallons of fresh water each year for things like drinking, cooking, cleaning and flushing. Yet for the average American, that figure almost doubles to 655,939 gallons per person per year. While its easy to look at current reservoir levels, or annual rainfall amounts and think we may not have a water shortage within Colorado, what’s also important to keep in mind is sustaining these levels and having enough of a water supply for our future consumption, 10, 20 even 50 years into the future. Your water footprint is a way to show the average person an easy way to think about how much water they use over the course of a year. It encompasses the amount of water required to produce food, goods and services used by you as an individual.

By becoming aware of how much water you are using per year, you’ll also become aware of how important it is to start thinking conservation, and coming up with ways to reduce your own personal water footprint as much as possible. So what are the best things for you to do to begin reducing your own water footprint? Start with the obvious. Fix leaks immediately. Purchase energy savings appliances, and put in water saving toilets, faucets and showerheads. Then learn all you can about water conservation. As your premier local green plumber, we offer a water use analysis to help you identify leaks and offer advice in the area of water loss prevention, conservation and purification.  

This article provided by Quality First Plumbing. Visit us at www.PlumbingHelpToday.com.