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12 Best Tips for Keeping Your House Cool without AC

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Summertime may bring many wonderful things but the extreme heat is not one of them. For many, using air conditioning is not affordable nor available. Here are some tips for keeping your house cool in the summer heat, with or without AC. We use these techniques in steamy South Carolina to reduce our air conditioning bill. Scroll down to see 12 ways to keep house cool without AC.

Note: See the post “Heat Stroke – Symptoms, Treatment and Prevention” for more tips on staying safe in high temperatures.

Kid cooling off with a fan [Read more…]

ICF Construction – What You Need to Know About an ICF Home

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ICF Construction (Insulated Concrete Form) - building with ICF, ICF energy efficiency, ICF cost, living in an ICF home and ICF durability. #ICF #greenhome
Back when we were researching our “forever home”, we chose ICF construction for a number of reasons. It's tough, energy efficient and should last a lifetime with minimal upkeep. In this post, I'll discuss:

  • what ICF construction is
  • how it differs from conventional construction
  • why we chose Insulated Concrete Forms
  • how much energy is saved (for heating and cooling) by using ICF construction
  • how an ICF home performs during emergencies
  • ICF costs
  • whether it's suitable for the do-it-yourselfer
  • what it's like living in the house
  • recommendations for potential ICF problem areas

Let's get started! [Read more…]

Aging in Place – Making Your Home Livable for a Lifetime

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We built our home to be a “lifetime” house, serving our changing needs throughout our lives. We planned to have the option of aging in place. In this post we'll present our Aging in Place Design Checklist, and then highlight how to apply this checklist to different areas of the home.

We built our home to be a “lifetime” house, serving our changing needs throughout our lives. We planned to have the option of aging in place. From children, to injured family, to possibly multiple families or live in relatives, we tried to cover likely scenarios. In this post we'll present our Aging in Place Design Checklist, and then highlight how to apply this checklist to different areas of the home. [Read more…]

What You Need to Know About Masonry Heaters for Radiant Heat

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Pros and cons of masonry heaters, plus the things you need to consider before adding a masonry heater to new construction or remodeling project.

Masonry heaters store heat from wood, gas or electricity in brick, concrete, ceramics or stone, and releases the stored heat via radiant heat transfer over time. Our unit burns at over 1500°F, but the flue gases that go up the chimney are only around 300-350°F. That heat is absorbed by the thermal mass of the masonry stove, and then transferred to the house – not up the chimney.

This is an ancient heating technique used for thousands if not tens of thousands of years. Masonry heaters were used long before the Romans, with some underground and cave masonry heaters dating back well over 5000 years.

Masonry heaters include masonry stoves or masonry ovens and even the modern cousin the rocket mass heater. Larger masonry heaters can have benches or seats built into them. Some also include a baking oven or even a full cooking stove. We will focus on wood fired masonry heaters, but most of the concepts apply to other heat sources. [Read more…]

Best Ways to Keep Your House Warm – New Construction and Remodeling Tips

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The best ways to keep your house warm in winter combine preventing heat loss and generating heat. Building smart will save money for the life of the home.

We aren't at the North Pole, but we get plenty of cold weather here in Northeast Wisconsin. We're in USDA hardiness zone 4/5 and we have wind 9 days out of 10. (Our area is one of the windiest in the state.)  Our home is built with the local climate in mind. We did a lot of research before building, so we put together a post to share what we feel are the best ways to keep your house warm in winter.

This post is part of our Winter Home Heating Series, which includes:

Keeping Warm – Winter Prep Check List for You and Your Home

25 Cheap Ways to Keep Your House Warm in Winter

Emergency Heat During a Power Outage and other Winter Storm Preps
[Read more…]

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