All month we have written about the many, many, many different ways in which you can reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources in your home and by doing this significantly reducing  your monthly home utility bills.

Today we thought we would provide a listing of all of these articles to make it easier for you to find and directly access the ones of greatest interest for you at any time of the year.

Of course, if you have any other suggestions on how you reduce your utility bills that are not on our list, please drop us a line so we can continually update this list for everyone. And, sure, feel free to pass on this article to others so they can benefit as well.

Home Energy Conservation During a Recession or Depression

Tips Impacting All Energy Forms - Part 1

Tips Impacting All Energy Forms - Part 2

No Cost Heating Savings Tips - Part 1

No Cost Heating Savings Tips - Part 2

Cheap Heating Savings Tips

More Costly Heating Savings Tips

No Cost Heating & Cooling Savings Tips

Low Cost Heating & Cooling Savings Tips

Additional Heating & Cooling Savings Tips

No Cost Electricity Savings Tips - Part 1

No Cost Electricity Savings Tips - Part 2

No Cost Electricity Savings Tips - Part 3

Low Cost Electricity Savings Tips - Part 1

Low Cost Electricity Savings Tips - Part 2

Additional Electricity Savings Tips

No Cost Water Heating Savings Tips

Additional Water Heating Savings Tips

No Cost Cooking Energy Savings Tips

Low and More Costly Cooking Energy Savings Tips

No and Low Cost Cooling Savings Tips

Additional Home Cooling Savings Tips

Yesterday we wrote about ideas on specific to how you can reduce your air conditioning costs to keep your home cool in the hot summer months at no or low cost to you .

Today we finish looking at the different ways that one can use to reduce the need for the air conditioner to run as often in the summer to keep our homes sufficiently cool. 

Sure, these might be more appropriate to write about in the summer but January is energy conservation month here at DailyHomeRenoTips.com. So, be sure to bookmark this series of articles and return to them in the spring and summer.

Here is the Un-Official Guide to Home Energy Conservation ’s listing of home cooling related energy conservation tips:

Want to see the other home cooling ideas we have not already written about? Simply pull down the vertical scroll bar in the above table.

By far, our favourite home cooling energy conservation tip are to install solar window shades on the outside of your east, south and west facing windows (#16). They cost (at least the ones we purchased) less than $3 per square foot, can be installed by the average home owner (we did) and dramatically reduce the amount of the sun’s UV rays from entering the house through the window.

Why more people don’t purchase and install these in their home I really don’t know. Heck, we even purchased ours off the Internet. And, they do not block the view outside as shown in the picture below. You can read about our own experiences installing and using this wonderful energy conservation product here, including lots and lots of pictures on how we installed them ourselves.

As far as our interior window coverings go, make sure you pull them down during the day to prevent the sun from creating excessive heat inside the house through the windows which do not have exterior solar shades installed (#17).

You can also install interior solar blinds to reflect those UV ray’s (but be sure to install them sufficiently away from the window to prevent such excess heat buildup between the window and the interior blind from cracking the window pane (#18). 

Need to cook yet don’t want to create heat in the house? Purchase an outdoor BBQ (#19).

Consider installing retractable screens on your front and back doors (#20). These are an excellent combination of a device which can help keep your home well ventilated in the summer when it is cool outside (evenings and early mornings) yet when not in use you can have them retracted so you can see in plain view the door. They can even be installed for a double French door installation such as the picture below:

Consider climbing vines on the south and west walls of your home (#21). These provide excellent shade in the summer.

Need a new air conditioner? Make sure you spend the extra money to acquire a high efficiency air conditioner (#22). Yes, they do cost more than a non-high efficiency air conditioner. However, they are much more energy efficient and many government rebates tend to be only for high efficiency models.

Lastly, one of the best energy conservation tips with the fastest financial payback is to ensure that you have sufficient insulation in your attic (#23). This one works for both keeping the house warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

And, there you have it. All of our current 240+ energy conservation tips for the home.

Additionally, this and the energy conservation articles the next few days were written prior to our recent home energy and water energy conservation contest. In the next few weeks, we will be consolidating the new conservation suggestions we received and will be publishing both our expanced Un-Official Guide to Home Energy Conservation as well as writing about the many new suggestions we received.

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So far this year we have been reviewing the different ways in which you can reduce your utility bills at home and save money, while at the same time as saving the planet. Most of these ideas cost you nothing or next to nothing to do.

As part if this review, we wrote on the many ways of reducing both home heating (in the winter) and home cooling (in the summer) costs.

Today we review ideas on specific to how you can reduce your air conditioning costs to keep your home cool in the hot summer months at no or low cost to you .

A lot of places in North America are already experiencing daily highs of 80 degrees F, with the rest of us not too far behind. So what better than to review the last grouping of the ideas for home energy conservation, those related strictly to home cooling. To review our discussions earlier this year of energy conservation ideas which impact both home heating and cooling, simply select this link to No Cost Heating & Cooling.

Here is the Un-Official Guide to Home Energy Conservation ’s listing of home cooling related energy conservation tips:

First, remember to open your windows at night or when ever the temperature outside is cooler than the inside during the summer (#1). Simple enough. Remember to close them when it starts to heat up outside too!

Make sure your thermostat’s temperature is higher in the summer than in the winter (#2). In the winter you want a lower temperature combined with heavier clothing to reduce the amount of heat consumed to keep you and your family sufficiently warm. However, in the winter not only do you shed those heavy clothes but also raise the temperature setting on your thermostat to have the air conditioning come on only when you really need it.

Keep your air conditioning unit free from grass and weeds (#3) which can block the air from circulating into and out from the unit with sufficient ease, which will make the A/C unit have to work harder, consuming more electricity, and thus costing you more on your monthly electric bill.

When it comes to cooking, nothing more directly generates heat in the house than cooking inside. So, in the summer months consider using the barbeque in the summer (with charcoal) (#4) as well as using the microwave vs the stove (#5) in order to reduce the heat inside.

Want to keep the sun from entering past your window coverings on the inside of your home? One contestant in our home energy conservation tips contest last fall suggested using white (vs dark) window coverings inside the house in the summer (#6)

Next we have a lot of ideas on how plants on the outside can help keep the inside cool in the summer.

Plant one or more shade trees on the south side of your home to help shade your home from the sun (#7). When you do this, make sure you plant the trees according to how large they will eventually get, rather than planting them too close together (#8). It might take a few years before the trees are sufficiently tall and wide to provide you with the shade you want, but there’s no rushing Mother Nature. Otherwise you can get a like of shade trees looking like the ones beyond the fend in the picture below which are way too close together.

Plant your shade trees away from power lines (#9), away from sewers (#10) and away from underground cable / power lines (#11).

Consider planting climbing vines along the south wall of your home to help give shade in the summer (#12).

Some people plant a small bush or tree near the air conditioning unit to prevent the sun from heating the A/C unit’s components which might help to heat the air going inside the home resulting in the unit having to work harder to cool the home’s air (#13).

Lastly, those who have dogs or cats may also have the small opening in the back or side door through which the pet can freely enter or leave the house on their own. If this applies to you, every so often check to see that the doggy-door swings sufficiently freely so it will properly close after the pet had passes, other wise consider lubricating the hinges (#14).

Tomorrow, we look at ideas which might cost some money, but can result in significant electricity savings by reduced need to run your home’s air conditioner so much in the summer, including our favorite energy conservation device to help reduce (not eliminate) the need for an air condition throughout the summer.

Simply access our original article with the contest rules and entry form  for your chance to win a $100 gift card from The Home Depot.

Even though today is the last day of the contest, you can enter as many times as you wish as long as each entry is accompanied by a unique and real suggestion on how to reduce the consumption of water or home cooling, home heating, water heating and electricity energy resources.

A tip such as do laundry during non-peak hours does not qualify because such a suggestion, while saving money through consuming electricity during periods of time when rates are lower, does not make a difference in the amount of electricity consumption itself.

So, access the above link to the full giveaway rules and entry form.

Good Luck to all!

Regular readers of DailyHomeRenoTips.com know that we have participated in the ecoENERGY Residential Retrofit program whereby Canadian homeowners are given financial incentives to have two home energy audits performed on their home by accredited assessors and undertake prescribed energy efficiency improvements within their home.

To view our entire experiences, good and bad, under this program, simply select his link to our ecoENERGY page.

On February 11, 2009 we had the second, or ‘E’, Energy Efficiency Assessment (energy audit) under the ecoENERGY program. Below is the EnerGuide rating for our home which received shortly after this second energy audit:

On May 13, 2009, three months later, we received the ecoENERGY Residential Retrofit grant cheque from the Canadian Federal Government via Natural Resources Canada,the administrators of the ecoENERGY program.

The amount of the the cheque was $390, or $30 per ENERGY STAR replacement windows we had replaced between the first and second energy audits.

And then on June 11, 2009 we received a second $390 ecoENERGY grant cheque, this time from the Ontario Provincial government via the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure.

We would have received much more had we known about the ecoENERGY Residential retrofit program.

We added a whole bunch of insulation in our attic after the program was well under way but the company we used did not tell us at all about the program.

Same for our new air conditioner; the company through whom we purchased our new central air conditioner never told us.

Together, we lost out over $2,000  ($1,500 + $500 for the air conditioner + $130 for the low flow toilet) in Federal and Provincial ecoENERGY grants combined because we did not know and no one told us.

Hopefully through out experiences, you are now aware so it doesn’t happen to you and so you become motivated to participate.

Oh, and don’t forget there is now (until early this year)  the additional home renovation tax credit that is also available.

Natural gas prices will not be at these depressed levels for ever.

Take action now.

So, how does it look installed in our basement’s furnace room? How about this:

What you do not see in the above picture is the clear plastic tube coming out of the bottom on the other side of the SaniDry unit where the water will come out of the unit.  

You can see it in this new picture immediately above. This tube was wound behind the furnace and ends at the floor drain in our basement floor, the same drain where the water from the flow-through humidifier also ends up in the winter. 

Now, remember that most of the time the unit is simply placed in an unfinished part of the basement without any of this ducting that we did.

However, we wanted it hidden yet still drawing the air from the large finished area in our basement. That is why we wanted the ducting installed with our unit.

So, how does the wall in our basement’s rec room look in the picture below?

You barely notice the vent covers. Do you see them in the above picture? Again, the vent cover near the lower part of the floor is for the inflow of moist air while the vent cover near the top is for the outflow of the dryer air coming out of the SaniDry dehumidifier located behind the wall in our furnace room.

Finally, last time we mentioned something we called an audit checklist. We have all seen a quality or inspection signature on this product and that which we bring into our home. Here’s the one which was in the packaging of the SaniDry Basement Air System unit:

 Did you see how many different items are on this list? Eight. And, if you look carefully at the initials, they are all different; that is, eight different people were involved with certifying the quality of the SaniDry unit which according to the very top of the checklist is made in Madison, Wisconsin.

We will report back in the early summer once the air is sufficiently humid where we live to let you know how the unit is doing and if it is living up to our expectations.

It works very nicely, doing it’s thing without any fanfare. It uses less water and energy than our former top loading washing machine. Here is a picture of it, the Duet front loading washing machine from Whirlpool. 

However, for the past year or so we have noticed an odor coming from inside the machine. Why is this starting all of a sudden after several years of no issues?

We don’t think it’s anything to do with the plumbing.

So Cath, my wife, went on the Internet (imagine that, using the Internet for information )  several weeks ago and search for possible causes.

What she found was that we were not alone; others with HE washing machines seemed to have similar issues.

Even being sure to leave the door open after using the machine to let the inside air dry didn’t really seem to help.

In doing her research she found out above a new product called affresh, which is nothing more than a tablet that you place directly inside the washing machine on it’s own and run the normal cycle using hot water.

So, that is what we did. If you look closely in the above picture you can see the white tablet inside the washer in the upper part of the picture at the start of it’s usage.

Once the cycle finished, sure enough the odor was gone. According to both the packaging and the product web site, the tablet dissolves and removes the order causing residue, including what you can’t see with the naked eye.

Once the cycle was finished sure enough no more odor. It’s been 2 weeks since we first used it and the odor has not returned.

The package recommends using a tablet once a month.

The 3-pack cost us around $12 at our local big box building supply retailer. Cath found it not in the aisle with different cleaning products but right with the washing machine display.

Or you can order it directly from their web site affresh.ca or affresh.com.

The DailyHomeRenoTips.com third giveaway of the year has one more week left.

Select this link to the entry form and contest rules for your chance to win a $100 gift card from The Home Depot.

You can enter as many times as you wish , as long as each entry has a unique suggestion on how a household can reduce it’s consumption of non-renewable energy or water resources through reducing it’s electricity, home cooling, home heating, water heating or water usage.

It does not have to be complex; it can be a simple idea.

It does not have to be costly to do; it can be cheap or cost nothing.

It does not have to be hard; it can be easy.

You get the idea.

Hurry; the contest closes midnight on June 20, 2009.

We will contact the winning entry on Father’s Day June 21, 2009.

When we had our kitchen completely remodeled 18 months ago, we were not about to drill a hole into the new cabinets.

So, we have been using the handle on our stove to hold the tea towel.

Yuk. Very unsightly…..and potentially dangerous.

Well, this product line of removable adhesive products from 3M included one which is sufficiently large to hold one of our tea towels.

I simply placed the adhesive yet removable strip against the back of the large hook base and then held it firmly in place on the inside of the left cabinet door by our sink. Those tabs you see protruding beyond the hook base in the picture below are what you pull down to release the hook. 

After one hour (per the package directions) I then placed the hook part onto what was already on the inside of the kitchen cabinet door.  

Now we see the same tea towel resting nicely in place.

And, of course the tea towel is no where to be seen once the kitchen cabinet door is closed.

A nice finish. Oh and, yes, I know. We need new tea towels!

Here is what the before picture looked like under my desk. What a mess.

OK, here is what I did.

In thinking about it, I didn’t need to lift the entire surge suppression power bar off of the ground. Rather, I simply needed easier access to the power bar’s on / off switch.

So, what if I stood the power bar on it’s edge, i.e vertical? Sure, that would make the on / off switch a good 13 inches or so off of the ground which I could (and now do) easily reach when in my home office chair. And, the weight of the power bar would be on the floor, not on the cord bundler which is adhered to the side of my desk leg with a removable adhesive strip (so no drilling holes into my nice desk leg).

How do I keep it up right? Using the same 3M Command Cord Bundler product of course. 

In the above picture you see how I placed one of the cord bundlers horizontally approximately 15 inches off of the ground under the right side of my home office desk. With the one end  resting on the carpet and the other end held in place by this horizontal cord bundler, the power bar stays in place and its on / off switch reachable.

I then used two more of the 3M Command Cord Bundlers vertically to hold the cables and wires off of the ground as you can also see in the above picture.

The next picture below is the area under the part of my desk where my feet go. Speaking of ‘go’, where did all of the wires go? Compare it to the very first picture in this article.

Well, they are now held up along the wall with two more of the cord bundlers, as shows below.

Here is one last picture underneath my entire home office desk … nice and neat, don’t you think?

This solution is working so well, that I decided to use the cord bundlers to keep in place, again in vertical position, the power bar for our home computer. Dealing with the cabling and wires for my home office desk was really my own to do task. Dealing with the same issue for our family computer and desk was on the honey do list.