Managing Home Maintenance Costs

Building energy use is becoming more and more important as the cost of energy is increasing. It does not seem to matter whether it is electricity, gas, oil or whatever, they are all going up by leaps and bounds contrary to what the government says.

The 13% on the circle on the left represents uncertainty in the data, or in other words it could not be easily attached to any of the other categories. The chart above is pretty interesting since it depicts how we use energy on average for our homes since the industrial sector is excluded from these calculations. It also tells us were to focus our energy in terms of reduction in the use of fuels to get the most bang for our investment in money and time.

Building Energy Use – List of Energy Use by Importance

Our total annual energy cost for 2011 was $2952.00 for electricity, heating and water. We decided to include water here since it is a form of natural resource that we are slowly using up.

Using the percentages from the chart above we calculated how much energy we used from last year in terms of a dollar amount. We assumed that we are an average user. You can see these cost amounts in the 3rd column below.

Next we assumed a 10% reduction, only for the big ticket items to assess how much we might save in dollar terms. Ten percent should be pretty simple to meet as an objective. These numbers are in the last column and were only calculated for anything 6% and over assuming we could take steps to reduce energy use in these areas, including the SEDS which is the unidentified energy use.

The total savings added up to $280 in savings over a year or 9.4% over all. This actually should be quite achievable for most people.

How can We Save 10%

The answer is pretty easy. These are just a few suggestion to help you get started saving energy.

In fact you will likely save much more than just 10% if you are able to get the entire family involved in reducing your energy consumption.

Building energy use is  only going to increase over time. It will help now to minimize the usage and the cost by employing some or all of these suggestions. These figures are for residential use and although important to the average home owner are far more important to any industrial building owner which we have not reviewed here at all.

We will list a few of  the potential areas that can save you energy and the associated cost,  as follows:

• Lights off when you leave the room
• Convert all lights to fluorescent or LED
• Turn down the thermostat by 5 degrees
• Convert to low flush toilets
• Shorter showers
• Install low flow shower heads
• Turn the temperature up on the fridge by 2 degrees
• Reduce the temperature of your water heater down by 5 degrees
• Turn off power to TV’s, computers etc i.e. unplug them
• Set furnace fan to auto rather than always on

These are just examples, which can be applied to almost any home! Get started now with identifying those areas that can reduce your energy use.

For more information about conserving energy and energy use in buildings, click here.

One of the questions that many people have these days is whether they should upgrade their furnace to a new more efficient model. There are lots of incentives that are being offered by the various companies that sell furnaces. There also might be incentives offered by local or state governments as well. One is trying to increase sales while the other is trying to reduce energy consumption.  In this post we are not going to recommend one furnace over an other. Instead we are looking at whether you should upgrade or not and what the financial impact might be. What should you consider re a Furnace Upgrade for Your Home

Furnace Efficiency

Our old furnace was approximately 60% efficient. Which means that 40% of the cost of gas that we used went up the chimney in terms of heat. This was heat that did not get transferred into the home or in terms of poorly burnt fuel. In 2002, we replaced this furnace with a new mid efficient furnace which at the time cost us approximately $3500. It  had a 83% efficiency rating. High efficient furnaces can get into the mid 90″s  which is a significant improvement. At the time we made our purchase a high efficiency furnace was running about $5000 installed.

Last year we paid $727 for the entire year to heat our home. did we save money and how long did it take?

Doing the math re Furnace Upgrade for Your Home

You can use our calculations as a model for your own, because everyone’s numbers are going to be different.  The $727 we quoted above was for 2011/2012 winter and using our mid efficient furnace. If we were still using our low efficient furnace the cost would have been 727 *.83 / .60 using the numbers that have quoted above, $1005 or a savings of $278 for that year.

We replaced the furnace in 2002 or 10 years ago and therefore we have saved 10 * $278 or $2780 over the ten years assuming that the price of natural gas has not stayed the same.  We will ignore this price change for the time being, so it looks like we have another 2.55 years before we break even.

If we had upgraded to a high efficient furnace, we would have saved $351 over the cost of our old furnace which was at 60% vs. 95% efficiency.  But our furnace was going to cost $5000, so we would have saved 10*351 over the ten years and we would still have another 4.2 years for the savings to pay for the high efficient furnace.

Payback Terms for Furnace Upgrades

These are pretty long payback time frames for replacing your furnace. If you can secure an incentive of some kind to decrease the cost of the furnace upgrade, or the cost of gas is higher in your area, you may get a faster payback. Aside from making a contribution to the environment, you are saving money as well on your monthly costs.

There are additional savings to be found. In our case we had an AC motor on our old furnace. The new one has a multi speed DC electrical motor which is supposed to be more efficient that the old AC motor. Unfortunately we could not quantify the savings from this change to our electrical bill. Rest assured that is significant and probably shaves at minimum a couple of years off the payback period.

Your vendor should be able to advise what the savings will be which you can then add to your overall gas savings and recalculate the payback term. We think it brings the payback down to less than 10 years time, which is not too bad at all.

All of these calculations apply if you are replacing your furnace because you want to decrease your monthly cost or take advantage of incentives offered by the furnace company or the government.

Your Furnace Breaks

On the other hand of your furnace stops working, then it is a question of how much do you put into repairs vs. buying a new one. Most of the time if you have to put more than $500 into repairs and it is an old furnace, it is time to replace it with a more efficient model.

You may also be faced with exhaust vent upgrades as well to reflect the change in the building code since the last one was installed.

Furnace Maintenance

We did not factor furnace maintenance into any of these equations.  They should all be checked once per year and cleaned as well. We assumed the cost is the same regardless of the furnace. However some people would argue that the parts for a high efficient furnace is more expensive than other furnaces.

Good luck with your furnace upgrade. We hope this has helped in your decision making process. Regarding to upgrade your furnace to either a mid efficient furnace or to a high efficiency furnace. For more information about furnace upgrades and renewal, click here.

Save

Auto tires go on sale at various times of the year. The consumer can save a great deal of money if they take the time to compare prices by comparison shopping. If they really want to purchase tires on sale that are at a good sales price, you have to shop around. Last summer I did just that. We found a huge difference in price and services for tires at various businesses which sell tires to consumers. It was surprising to see what a difference there was in the price for the tires. Also for the features or services they offered.

Still it took me quite a few hours to visit the places I was considering. I had already  eliminated a few by searching online for tires and making a few phone calls to discuss prices and services. If a dealer is advertising tires on sale, take the time to compare prices for the tires, balancing and installation. You may be surprised at how the total cost may not always be that great a price.

The first place I went to was a place that repaired a flat tire for me for free. I showed up at their store one day with a flat tire which I had already removed and replaced with my spare tire. I brought the tire into the store and although I had to wait my turn which is expected, they repaired the tire for free. No charge with the request that I consider them when I needed new tires. Of course this was the first place that I went too when it came time to purchase new tires.

Tires on Sale

America’s Tire

This was America’s Tire, and we were very impressed since we had not dealt with them previously. America’s Tire gave us a decent price. They provide free tire rotations and repairs for as long as we owned the car. America’s Tire have stores all over the USA. We can take them in to these other locations if we had a problem. They charge extra for balancing and filling the tires with nitrogen.

Walmart

We went to Walmart, however they were the worst both in terms of service and price. Surprising, but  the person I spoke to really did not now anything about tires. They could not offer us a deal either, so we gave up on this pretty fast. I think it was just the wrong guy on duty at the time, but still this looks bad for the store.

Costco

Costco had a sale on when we arrived that included balancing, nitrogen filled and free tire rotation at any of their stores in Canada as well as the USA. They were slightly more expensive, however with the services and the availability of stores to get service, we decided to go with them.

Several months later I went in to another Costco to have my tires rotated and rebalanced. We drive a lot and it does not take long to drive 12,000 miles which is when we needed to have our tires changed. All I needed to do was show my receipt and the work was completed quickly within 30 minutes of arriving. A great job and well worth the money to purchase tires at Costco. In fact we went into the store and purchased our groceries at the same time while the work was being completed.

So before you make a decision, check out all of the places that have tires on sale and compare price and service for exactly  the same tire.

For more information about tire sales, click here.

Are you receiving a lot of spam text messages? These messages could be causing you a lot of money on your monthly cell phone bill. You may not even know it! Let’s assume that you have 250 messages per month for incoming and outgoing messages. If you are beginning to receive a lot of spam text messages on your mobile phone, there is a chance that you could exceed your limit for the month. Every message that is over the limit can cost you extra. Extra messages can cost twenty five cents a message, depending on the carrier. If you have unlimited texting, then you may only about the time to read and delete these spam text messages, which can be annoying.

There are ways to deal with this problem. First select a plan were you have unlimited incoming messages, so that you will not care how many you actually receive. The second thing to do is to report the spammer to your carrier. Determine if it is possible to block the messages from ever getting to your phone. They take time to look at and they are annoying as well. If you can stop them from even getting to you at all it would be so much better. Your carrier can block specific messages that are sent from the same phone number all of the time. The carrier might charge an additional fee for this and the spammer may just change phone numbers.

Never reply to a spam message. It will tell them they have a real phone that the spam text message is being sent to. Once they know they are dealing with a real cell phone they are just going to send more. You may even receive an increase in spam messages. Plus they might sell your number to other spammers. Just ignore and delete them until your carrier can stop them.

Also, avoid giving out your cell phone number to people that you do not know on web sites. They all want contact information when you fill something in, however, try to avoid this at all costs. Most web sites are ok, but there are those sites that collect numbers plus other information and then sell it to text message spammers for example. suddenly you are receiving text messages from companies that you never heard of before. Keep your number off of Facebook and other social sites, unless you want to have more contact that you ever wanted.

Spam Text Messages Cost Money

Spam text messages can cost you a lot of money, so the best thing is that if you receive more than two or three from the same number, deal with it quickly to put a stop to receiving more text messages from this number. Learn how to block numbers easily by checking with your carrier who usually will provide this information on their web site.

You can also call their help desk to have someone at your carrier put a block on the numbers for you. Either way don’t waste time, do it quickly or you will be inundated with text messages.

For more about text messages, click here.

Consumers and investors are looking for a property management solution for their rental properties. They can always find some company to manage their property for them at various prices. These companies provide a variety of services. They include everything from renting their unit, collecting the rent, paying for advertising. Also managing the cash flow, paying for and managing repairs and upgrades if needed and so on. Many consumers like the idea of owning rental property as an investment. However they really do not want to have to deal with the details of renting and managing the property. This is where a property management solution comes in that can save you money. A management company can remove some of the headaches as well.

Property Management Solution and Rental Pools

One type of solution for multiple investors is a rental pool. This situation occurs when you have a condominium project with the majority of units owned by individual investors. It needs to be managed as a single properly to reduce the overall cost of the property management.

With a condominium, there is already a board of directors in place to manage the common elements of the property. All owners participate in the condo corporation. This board has nothing to do with renters or investor issues or with the interior of the units.

Establish a rental pool with a board made up from the investors. They have the responsibility of managing the renting of the units for the investors. Also interior unit cleaning and repairs and interfacing with the condominium board. This property management solution involves two separate distinct budgets, bank accounts and cash flows. There is also corresponding financial reports for both entities. It sounds a bit complicated, however if you keep both entities separate, a rental pool can work quite well.

Hold annual meetings for the rental pool. Make decisions with respect to rent increases and distribution of excess funds. Pay investors a monthly income from the rental pool. They would use this payment to pay their own personal mortgage on their units along with taxes. All other expenses for utilities etc would be paid either by the tenant or the rental pool.

Do Rental Pools Work Well as a Property Management Solution

The answer is yes provided that there is a commitment by the investors to make it work. In addition they follow an agreed structure similar to the condo. For example in terms of bylaws, running meetings, electing board members etc. All investors must sign an agreement form that documents all of the bylaws.

As a previous board member of a rental pool and a condo board, my experience has shown that once a condo and rental pool are running smoothly, you never hear from the owners and investors. The single issue that gets everyone’s attention is huge increases in the monthly condo fees. Or a cash call to pay for some repair that is not covered. Especially if it cannot be covered by the reserve fund. This is when owners get upset. It hits them directly in their wallet. With proper budgeting, an annual increase in the condo fees will ensure that there is always enough cash. This also assume that you are making contributions to the reserve fund every year. Based on an engineering study of the life time replacement of various elements of the condo building.

A simple example might be the paving of the parking lot. The engineering study may suggest that the parking lot needs to be repaved every 10 years. It could cost one hundred thousand or more. You had better be saving ten thousand a year to pay for this cost. A special assessment to pay for something that is known and planned does not go over very well with owners.

No Surprises

Property managers must communicate in such a way that there are no surprises for the owners. The same applies to condo and rental pool board members. If anything over communicate and let people know that the budget is going up by XX% and why. If you do it right, you may have all of the proxies at your meeting. Make decisions efficiently and correctly. They benefit all of the owners taking into account the practical issues of managing the building.

Hardwood floor installation cost varies a great deal depending on the layout of your home. How much cutting etc needs to be done while installing your floor is also a factor. Installation is the next biggest cost that you will need to consider. Installing hardwood in a rectangular room of some kind, is relatively inexpensive. On the other hand if there are hallways or curved walls the amount of cutting and fitting is going to increase.

Hardwood Floor Installation Cost – Issues to Consider

The following are a couple of issues to consider when deciding to install hardwood flooring.

Stairways are The most Expensive Per Square Foot

The same thing applies to stairs when installing hardwood flooring on stair risers. Stairs that are straight with each riser being exactly the same can be cut and installed relatively easily. The challenge comes when you install risers on a stairway that is curved. Each riser is a different size and will also be an odd size. The riser must be custom made to fit the step. Then it must be fitted into the step to match all of the other. This takes extra time to measure, manufacture and cut to the exact width and depth of the stairway.

Anyone who is planning to do their own installation may want to get help with a curved stairway. The measuring and cutting must be exact and you need to have the right tools to do this work. An experienced floor installer will be able to install the stairs faster. Select your floor installer with care. Confirm their experience before giving them the job of installing your hardwood floor on your stairs.

Minimize the Cutting and Improve the look of the Floor

Cutting and measuring is typically what takes all of the time when it comes to installing a hardwood floor. The choices you make in regards to which direction the flooring will run will play a big part in the labor cost. Let’s consider a hallway as an example.

To begin you must coordinate the direction of the floor with other rooms in your home, especially if all rooms and hallways will be hardwood flooring. Typically most people will run the floor along the longest direction. This has the effect of making the room look a bit larger from an optical perspective while at the same time minimizing the amount of cutting that needs to be done. Adjacent hallways may have the floor run in the same direction or they may run perpendicular to the room that the hallway connects with.

Consider Direction Carefully

Consumers will never want hardwood flooring to run across the hallway. It should always run parallel to the hallways length to make the hallway look larger and to also enable full appreciation of the floor.  This has the effect of significantly reducing the cutting and fitting required also. More cutting and fitting will take more time and increase your installation cost.

In situations where two hallways run into each other in a ninety degree corner, a choice should be made to decide which hallway will have the floor run parallel to the longest length of the hallway and which one will have the flooring run across the shortest width of the hallway. We had exactly this situation on our own home and chose to run the floor parallel with the longest hallway which was also part of the main entrance to our home. This gives a nice long view of the hardwood floor and makes the hallway look larger than it is. The other hallway leads to the laundry room and the garage and is not nearly as important in terms of the way the home looks. It is also shorter and did not impact the installation cost of the hardwood floor significantly.

Interfaces to Other Flooring Materials

You may have carpet in some rooms or tile or marble in entrance areas. Wherever the hardwood floor will meet these other flooring types and interface to this floor must be installed so that there is an easy transition from one floor to the other and the actual joint is seamless. These also take a little more time to install and require special materials to make them look perfect. Your hardwood floor provider can help you select these materials. Your installer will be able to install them with no problems. They do take a little more time and will add slightly to the cost of installing your hardwood floor.

When you request an estimate for installation, you may want the installer to break down all of these costs so that you can assess what is being charged for each area. Then you can make an informed decision regarding whether you want to proceed or not with your hardwood floor installation.