Just about all commercial household cleaners contain all kinds of bad stuff. In spite of what the commercials say, these ingredients are bad for the environment and for people too. Here are some tips for making your own “green” household cleaners.
Have you ever wondered if it is practical to consider powering your house with solar electricity? Well, in a recent article at How Stuff Works they asked the question “How many solar cells would I need in order to provide all of the electricity that my house needs?”
If you’re an alternative energy skeptic the answer will not be surprising. Making a series of assumptions about electricity use and basing the hardware costs on today’s rates, the writers concluded that it would cost at least $30,000 to generate enough to provide the electrical requirements of a typical home. And that doesn’t even include the cost of space heating, water heating, cooking, and clothes drying – all of which it was assumed would be done by natural gas.
The numbers go like this. A “typical” home in the US requires an average of 600 watts per hour every 24 hours to run the lights, appliances, computers, refrigerators, TVs, and fans and motors on other appliances such as the furnace, clothes washer and dryer, and so on. That is approximately 14,400 watt-hours per day.
To generate that much electricity using solar cells you would need about 41,000 square inches of solar panels. At today’s prices that would come to about $16,000. And then, because the sun is not available for parts of some days or at all on other days you would need a battery storage system that would cost at least the same – roughly another $16,000. So that puts the price at about $32,000 for the system.
At today’s cost of electricity off the grid that much electricity would cost roughly $525 per year. To recover the up-front costs would take more than 50 years. Long before that time had passed the entire system would have to be replaced – making it even more expensive. And in fact the battery system would probably only last a maximum of 5 years. So it is no wonder that not very many “solar houses” are being built.
Even if we accept these numbers at face value it does not mean that solar energy has no place in the energy mix of the future. It just means that it is important to “get real” about where it is practical to use it.
The governmental structure of Laguna Woods, which incorporated as a city in March of 1999, consists of a City Council and Mayor chosen from within the elected Council. The council functions as most city governments do, contracting for police, fire and other public services administering city funds, etc.
In addition, the governmental structure of Laguna Woods Village currently includes three housing corporations and the Golden Rain Foundation (GRF). Each owner in Laguna Woods Village is a member of one housing corporation and the GRF. Between the GRF and the Housing Mutual’s, Laguna Woods Village has over $20 Million in reserves so we have a very fiscally responsible community.
The housing corporations are responsible for those things directly related to housing and the adjacent land.
The GRF is responsible for directing the operation of all “community” facilities such as the bus system, security, clubhouses, golf courses, stables, lawn bowling, etc.
Each of the Corporations contracts with Professional Community Management (PCM), a property management firm, to manage their respective area of responsibility.
The three Housing Mutuals are as follows:
Cooperative: United Laguna Hills Mutual 6,323 owners
Condominium: Third Laguna Hills Mutual 6,102 owners
Rossmoor Towers: Laguna Woods Mutual Fifty 311 owners
Each Mutual has a board of directors composed of residents elected by popular ballot of their peers. The Golden Rain Foundation is elected by the Directors of the three mutuals to manage, control and run the community facilities. In addition to the boards of directors, some 26 advisory committees exist to assist in the complex job of managing such a large community.
If you would like any further information about Laguna Woods Village, please contact me, Patrick McNamee of Century 21 Rainbow, via my web site: www.Leisureworldre.com
I just received the condo sales report for Orange County for the month of September and the average Condo in Orange County is listed for $315,528 while the median list price is $299,000. Just for comparison sake, the average condo in Laguna Woods Village is listed for under $200,000 – that is 1/3rd off what the “average” condo is listed for in Orange County. I have always said that Laguna Woods Village was a bargain!
Also out this week was the sales report for September. 30 condos sold in Laguna Woods Village for an average purchase price of $240,000. 839 Condos sold in all of Orange County last month for a median purchase price of $300,000. Once again, Laguna Woods Village comes in almost 1/3rd less in price on the “buy” side than any other condo in Orange County. BUT, prices are rising, especially the condos on the low end of the market. Average days on market has gone down to 102 days, a little more than 3 months on the market for the average listing… That is down from 150 average days on market 3 months ago. So we are seeing a trend develop! WE ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MARKET RIGHT NOW. I will put that in caps because I really believe it! Inventory is going down and there is pent up demand to purchase – at least in Laguna Woods Village – remember, Real Estate is very local, and what is happening here might not be happening everywhere… If you would like to purchase a home in Laguna Woods Village, call Patrick McNamee at 949-293-7814 or visit his web site at: www.leisureworldre.com
AgentMapIt Green Tips – You know all those gadgets you have that take small amounts of electricity? Things like cell phones, laptops, computer monitors, modems, flat screen tvs, wireless phones, ipods, game consoles, clocks, etc., etc. In 1980 a typical household in the US had just three of the these devices. Today it’s more like 25. And they all use electrical power.
In fact around the world these gadgets now account for about 15% of household electrical demand. In the 1950s and 60s appliances like washing machines, self-cleaning ovens, and vacuum cleaners were called “labor saving devices” designed to make it much easier to do household chores. Today’s gadgets tend to be entertainment or communication devices and usually they are left on all the time, each of them using small amounts of electricity 24/7.
Some experts estimate that over the next twenty years the amount of electricity required around the world to keep our gadgets running is going to triple. Without energy saving measures put into place that will require about 560 coal or gas fired power plants or 230 nuclear plants. Something has to give.
One way to save energy on these devices in your home is to shut them off when they are not being used. Most are designed to remain on because they store the time or date in memory, or like voip phones they have to be ready to receive incoming calls. But others like computer monitors and game consoles can be shut off with no loss of functionality.
Every computer has a power saving program built right in to the operating system. Set it up properly, or simply shut the computer down between uses. Another idea is to buy smart power strips that turn themselves off when the devices plugged into them are not in use. That cuts their power consumption when not being used to zero.
As a general rule filters should be inspected monthly in winter and monthly year round if you have an air conditioning system that utilizes the same unit. This is especially true if there are allergy sufferers in your family because a good filter can reduce the dust, pollen, and other allergens in the air.
Filters run the gamut from relatively cheap to fairly expensive. Check your furnace manual and buy a filter with the best specifications you can find. It probably won’t need to be changed as often, and will certainly cut down on colds and sniffles this coming winter.
When considering an upgrade to Energy Star heating or cooling systems in your home or business for Canton or Alpharetta Heating Repair or Cumming Air Conditioning see Comfort Zone Heating and Air in the Atlanta area.
Garages also provide shelter for our vehicles, especially in climates where the snow flies in the winter, or way down south where the summer sun can turn cars into ovens.
But how many of us actually use these spaces for our vehicles? With growing families and all the associated paraphernalia needed for sports activities, camping equipment, garden tools, bicycles, and of course a beer refrigerator, who has room for even one car. So what do we do with all this stuff?
We have garage sales, that’s what! The only problem is there’s no room in the garage, so we have a yard sale instead. What fun to get rid of things we no longer need and make a few bucks. There’s another solution to eliminating some of our mounting pile of seasonal items, things we aren’t currently using, and things that might still be needed sometime in the future.
Try doing an online search for self storage services. Space Station provides all the storage facilities you would expect of a leading provider of domestic self storage services. Self storage facilities include Slough self storage, and other locations in Windsor
when it comes to locks, contractors almost always prefer to go for the cheapest ones available. As far as they’re concerned, security concerns are yours, not that of the contractor. So ultimately it is up to you to select the most appropriate locks systems for your particular situation. Be sure to get the most appropriate and most secure lock you can afford.
It is best to use a lock with Grade 1 ANSI classification. The American National Standard Institute or ANSI has a system for classification of locks according to their durability and reliability. It is developed by the Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association Inc. Not all the locks in the same grade are the same. They differ according to their types. Each type is tested differently for its security and durability. This third party assurance makes it easy for the consumer to make a suitable selection.
For expert locksmith service in the Chicago area it’s the Discount Locksmith, a Chicago 24 hour locksmith with 10 mobile units providing 24 hour Chicago emergency locksmith service. Licensed, bonded and insured for all residential, commercial and automotive locksmith services. In Chicago call 773-735-1333 or in the suburbs 708-496-1333.
One of the most important problems with getting started in home-based internet marketing is that it is so undefined. Almost anyone with a website or even an email address can call themselves an “internet marketer”. That can include a wide range of things from marketing your company’s products on your own corporate website, to selling used items on EBay, to promoting ebooks on health, fitness or home renovations, to providing a service like web hosting.
Someone wanting to start an online business has to sift through all the alternatives, do his or her best to understand what they involve, then make a decision which type of business is best suited to their situation and objectives. In other words, there is no manual or college course that methodically lays out the steps involved in becoming an internet marketer.
That is why you need the kind of in-depth internet marketing training you find in Jay Kubassek’s CarbonCopyPRO. This is what Jay Kubassek calls an “educational” program aimed at giving new members all the tools they need to be successful.
Search activity for homes in Orange County increased by 58.9% over this time last year, according to a report by Realtor.com.
Sure, more people on the Web are hunting for homes in O.C. more than before, but how does it stack up to the nation’s other real estate markets?
Though 58.9% seems like a nice improvement, the Las Vegas housing market enjoyed a 140.4% increase in online search activity.
O.C. falls far behind in 113th place; L.A. takes 89th place with a 68.3% increase in searches over last year. So people are looking but that has not turned into widespread buying yet. Currently there are 379 homes for sale in Laguna Woods Village and sales are down 22% from the sales in the same month as last year!
O.C. housing is 6th least affordable in U.S.
While some folks cheer recently rising home prices, there is a price to pay: Orange County is a very challenging place to pay for a home!
O.C. was the 6th “least affordable” housing market in the nation in the second quarter. That’s according to economists at the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo Bank. This group measures local real estate and economic conditions to arrive at a measure showing what percent of new and existing homes recently sold were so-called “affordable” to a representative household income in that town.
BUT LAGUNA WOODS VILLAGE IS AFFORDABLE! We are the one ray of hope in a sea of expensive homes… We are ranked in the top 10% in the nation for affordability with an average sales price of $210,000. This figure is down 19% from the same month last year.
If you would like more information about Laguna Woods Village, check out my web site: www.leisureworldre.com or Call or email me today to find out more about how you can get in on “ground floor” in Laguna Woods Village. Prices can go nowhere else but up from here~!
Natural gas furnaces have become very popular for offices and homes over the last two decades. It is a cleaner burning fuel and a produces a hotter flame. There may be one slight drawback with these heaters, and that is fuel pricing. Natural gas prices have been rising so much recently due to the supply and demand effect. These units may not be available for all locations.
Of course we must not forget the newer high efficiency electric heaters. When you think of these you think of space heaters. But in fact today’s high efficiency electric furnaces are full blown home heating systems. This is the cleanest, safest and most reliable heating method today. The only drawback is that it will increase your electric bill slightly, but of course that increase will be offset by a reduction in your gas or heating oil bill.
In the Chicago area, Heatmasters of Chicago can advise you on the best high efficiency furnace options for your home or business. Heatmasters specializes in Chicago residential heating, Chicago commercial heating and Chicago air conditioning installations.
With all of the newer high efficiency furnaces out on the market there are plenty of choices. There is no perfect heating system – each has its advantages and drawbacks. So study the available systems and consider carefully how each can apply to your own heating requirements.
We’ve all heard about the usual alternative ways of generating electricity for our homes – solar, wind, thermal, biodeisel – but are any of these really practical?
We tend to think that we need scalding hot water to clean clothes, dishes, and for bathes and showers. If this was ever true, it isn’t any longer. Newer laundry and dish detergents designed to work with colder water work just fine.
You can also use cold water for cooking rather than running it from your hot water heater. Heating water for cooking on the stove or in a microwave uses much less energy than drawing it from the hot water heater.
You can also use cold water for washing your hands. Hot water really has very little disinfectant value because using water hot enough to kill bacteria would be too hot for your skin.
Another thing you might consider is using your dishwasher less frequently (or better, not at all), and if you are considering replacing it you might look into getting one with a built-in on-demand water heater.
Generally speaking, electric or gas hot water systems account for as much as 20% of a household’s energy usage. Of course this depends on the climate in your area, but you get the general idea.
A big problem is that we turn our hot water heaters up too high. Then to cool the water down to a temperature that is comfortable for washing our hands (for example), we add cold water.
That’s pretty wasteful. It would be better to just turn down the temperature on our hot water heaters. They would use a lot less energy keeping the water hot. It is estimated that for each 10ºF reduction in water temperature, you can save between 3% and 5% in energy costs!
There will also be less heat lost in the pipes when the taps are shut off. Normally hot water sits in the pipes after you’ve drawn some off, and it just simply cools down, wasting the energy it took to warm it up.
Hot water systems also last longer when they don’t heat water as hot, because they don’t have to work as hard, and the cooler temperature is easier on the system as a whole.
Many areas outside of our major cities do not have a municipal sewer system, and instead rely on individual septic systems to drain and treat their waste water. In some ways a septic tank is a pretty “green” system. But not if it is mistreated.
If you’ve lived in a home with a septic tank for any length of time you’re aware that proper maintenance of your septic system is important if you want to avoid some serious problems. If you have already had problems with your drainage system and you are in the Atlanta area you’ll want to call an experienced Atlanta plumbing repair service.
Of course not everybody knows how a septic tank works. They think it is a magical place where you can dump just any old thing and expect it to be “taken care of”. This is typical of an uninformed attitude towards the environment.
The truth is, septic systems don’t use magic to get rid of solid and semi-solid waste material. They use bacteria to break down waste matter – mostly human feces and certain types of bio-degradable paper – and they do an admirable job of it most of the time. But there are some things that the bacterial action in a septic tank will simply not break down.
In my childhood I lived in a small town where most of the houses in town were built within a short distance of a creek. From one end of town to the other sewer pipes and a good number of open sewer ditches connected the homes to the creek. Talk about an environmentally challenged system!
Some of these ditches carried the runoff from septic tanks. But in other cases the ditches were connected right up to the drain pipes from homes with no septic tank between the toilet and the ditch.
The result was pretty disgusting – raw sewage running in open ditches. This “system” was not all bad because the ditches themselves tended to act as cleansing agents. The solid matter in the sewage from the houses would settle on the bottom of the ditch and eventually break down into a black foul-smelling ooze. The liquid would either evaporate or run along the ditch and eventually flow into the creek. That is more or less what happens with a septic tank.
But not all was well with the ditch system. When I was a young boy of about 10 or 12 my friends and I spent a good deal of our time exploring the creek. Like good CSI agents we could not help but notice that stuff floating in the open ditches, and it often gave us clues about the lives of the people living in those houses.
You can use your imagination to picture what those people might have been flushing down their toilets. Some were made of heavy-duty absorbent paper materials. Others were made of rubber or vinyl. Some of them may still be floating in the river where the creek eventually drained.
This experience taught me two important things about life in a town with open ditches, and both of them can be summed up in the aphorism: “Be careful what you flush down your toilet.”
While it’s true that things have changed a lot since those days, the dynamics of sewage drains and septic tanks is still pretty much the same. Which means the next time you’re tempted to flush some greasy gooey stuff, or something made of cardboard or rubber or plastic or vinyl down your toilet, think of those open ditches with all that tell-tale stuff floating in them.
That’s exactly the way those things will look in your septic tank. Except they’re not going to float away into the river or settle to the bottom of the ditch. They’ll stay there until your tank stops working. And in some cases they’ll get into your weeping bed and plug that up too.
If you have been a bit careless about what you’ve been flushing down your toilet you may want to contact a septic tank specialist to have a look before you have real problems.
If you’re in the Atlanta area you should look for Atlanta drain cleaning on the web. For a small fee they will pump your tank and give the system a thorough flushing out, and both you and your septic tank will be given a fresh start.
Here’s a great video series about building and renovating with green objectives: to save energy, to use materials that have been made from recycled products and that have not taken a lot of energy to produce.
Green Tips for Homeowners is a free series of short articles available to AgentMapIt members. These articles can be used for publishing in newsletters, blogs and other promotional materials. This gives AgentMapIt members a way to promote themselves to contacts and prospects with an absolute minimum of work.
Green Tips are interesting, useful, and very much in demand. Members can use GTFH to provide useful information to customers and contacts while building their profile and growing their list.
You can use Green Tips in many different ways. To get the most out of GTFH you will need a a customer/contact/prospect list – either email or traditional postal mail (snailmail). If you don’t have a list, this will give you some incentive to get one going.
List building is changing. To some degree social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Active Rain, LinkedIn and many others have made list building both easier and less efficient. Some marketers claim using social media is the best way to build a list. I will discuss this further in future posts.
Remember, your list does not have to be large. Even a list of 5 names can be productive if you have something useful to say. So don’t let your lack of a large, organized list get in your way. You can create a list right now by beginning with your most recent clients and contacts, and then adding in a few family members and friends. If you have something relevant and useful to say 99% of your contacts will appreciate hearing from you.
Second, it is not necessary, but it is useful if you have a blog where you can post these tips. Blogs are trendy, but the truth is most blogs are under-utilized and are pretty much a waste of time. There are two reasons for this: first most blogs don’t get enough traffic to justify the work involved, and second, most bloggers run out of interesting things to say after about two or three posts.
We recommend the “Blog and Mail” system for creating a dynamic blog that gets traffic from the precise target market you are after. It is a very simple system. First you create a blog post, and then send a message to your list telling them about your post. In other words, your blog and email list work hand in hand in the Blog and Mail system.
Make sure when you send your email that you include a short summary of the post, and a link to post as it appears in your blog. If the post has an interesting title people will look at it. This will not only provide your people with useful information, but it will help shape your image as a knowledgeable, concerned agent. And it will keep you in front of your people on a monthly basis.
You can also use Green Tips as content for twitter (stuff you tweet about). There’s no doubt that one of the best ways to build a following on Twitter is to have lots of good content, and Green Tips gives you some very relevant, high demand stuff.
Green Tips for Homeowners provides you with the perfect type of information to publish in your blog. But even if you don’t have a blog, you can use GTFH by simply reproducing each article in the email message or newsletter itself. Either way this gives you something of substance to say in your communications, and helps you create regular, useful promotional messages that go beyond the usual “I am here to help you” type of message real estate agents usually send out.
One of the most obvious areas where a homeowner can go “green” is in the use of energy in the home. The biggest energy hogs are heating, air conditioning, electrical appliances, lighting, and water usage. Here are some practical tips for saving energy and money at the same time.
1. Do an “energy audit” – A good place to start is with an informal energy “audit” to reveal where you are using the most energy and where you are wasting it. The average US home uses 31% of its energy consumption on heating, 12% on cooling, 12% on water heating, and 29% on appliances, lighting, and electronics such as TVs and computers. So these are obvious places you can cut back.
2. Insulate, insulate, insulate – If 43% of the energy used in our homes goes for heating and cooling this is the place to start. Insulation in your attic, outside walls and basement walls is critical. New products such as blown in insulation have made it easier to insulate previously difficult areas. But be careful to get professional advice before tackling a project like this yourself.
3. Seal doors and windows – Usually the worst areas of heat loss are windows and doors. Check for holes or cracks around your walls, ceilings, windows, doors, light and plumbing fixtures, switches, and electrical outlets. All of these can leak air into or out of your home. Have a professional take a look at your home and make some recommendations.
4. Turn the heat down – Wear warmer clothes and shoes in the winter so your house feels warmer. Then turn your thermostat down a few degrees. Set it to automatically lower the temperature at night. You’ll save a lot of energy and you’ll probably get fewer colds too.
5. Use less hot water – Be sure to have a highly efficient hot water heater. In some climates a tankless water heater may save energy, but research it thoroughly. Then study your hot water usage carefully. You may want to turn the temperature of your hot water heater down a bit. Consider replacing some appliances with more efficient ones. Use warm rather than hot water for washing clothes. Don’t use the dishwasher for partial loads, shower for shorter periods of time, and don’t let the hot water run when washing or shaving.
4. Turn off appliances and lights – When appliances are not being used they should be turned off or even unplugged (because many appliances use electricity even when they are not on). Set the energy saving features of your computer to shut down monitors and hard drives when not in use. Or turn your computers right off if not being used for an extended period of time.
5. Control your lighting – About 11% of the average home’s energy usage goes to lighting, so this is an obvious area for significant savings. Replacing old incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) will save between 50 and 75% per bulb. And turning lights off when they are not required will (obviously) save even more.
