Nobody likes to get their energy bill. Many times it is very high with all the things we use in out home that use energy. There are many things that you can do in order to conserve energy usage. One of the main things that you can do has to do with your air conditioner. There are a lot of things that are simple to do that will lower your energy usage, which will lower your energy bill.

Going to the hardware stores can sometimes be frustrating if you do not know exactly what you are looking for. A lot of people are surprised to know how many types of nails are available. You need to know what type of nail you need for the job in order to make picking them easier.

One of the major contributors to the wasting away of our environment is the automobile. The best way to promote the green environment is to conscientiously change the way you maintain your vehicle. Here are a few tips on how to care for your car the green way:

Try to wash by only using a bucket. If you were to travel to other countries you would find that many take nothing but a bucket with light soapy water to wash the car and then another bucket of clear water to rinse. After the rinse, just polish and buff. This helps care for the green environment by not wasting water (you use only what you need) and no excessive dumping of harsh detergents down city drains.

Just give your car a quick wipe if that is all it needs. If all your car has is some spotting from rain or puddle splashing then all it should take is a quick wipe with a clean, damp, and soft rag. This helps care for the green environment by using very little water if any.

When you care for your car by waxing the exterior, it is much easier to clean. That way the water that accumulates overnight can just be wiped off quickly. No need to get the garden hose.

Change all filters at regular intervals. The important ones are the fuel and air filters. Proper maintenance and care of filters keeps your car running efficiently and helps the green environment by saving fuel.

Keep your car tuned up. Although newer cars do not need tune-ups quite as often as their predecessors, you still need to do it per the manufacturer’s specifications. Newer cars have computerized control systems and tune-ups are best done by a certified mechanic.

Buy re-treaded tires. If you buy re-treaded tires from a reputable company, you can get quality at a fraction of the price. It takes oil to make tires and you obviously help care for the green environment by re-using them. Re-treads are best if most of your driving is in the city. In other words, you don’t do a lot of high speed highway driving.

You don’t need to change oil every 3,000 miles. That oil change place you took the car to last time probably put a sticker on your windshield saying to come back in 3 months or 3,000 miles. Take a look at your car’s owner manual and you might see that the recommendation is to change oil every 5,000 miles. You save money plus you help care for the green environment by using less oil.

Use green oil. Petroleum-free oil products for your car’s engine are beginning to appear on the market. You might want to read a little on the product and get all the information you can before using it but it appears to hold promise for the green future.

Care for your tires by inflating to the correct levels. When your tire pressure drops too low, you may not notice it visually but you will feel it as harder steering. The low pressure makes it harder for your engine to move your car resulting in fuel waste. Plus, if tire pressure is too low, you will notice that the outer edges of the surface that touches the road begin to wear first. That abnormal wear can mean that you have to replace tires sooner causing waste and not helping care for the green environment.

No matter what job you are doing having the right tool is important for the successful completion of the job. Many times good tools are very expensive. Knowing where to find cheaper tools will let you have more money on the project you are working on.

Seems like space is always a problem no matter how big your home or yard is. We’re constantly looking for places to put things and it’s even better to have a place to hide things away that’s nice looking!

A storage bench is a great item that will serve two purposes! You’ll have some where to store things and you’ll have a great looking bench to add to your yard, flower garden or deck!

A rustic bench is the perfect design especially is you’re a beginner. Why? Well, because the whole idea of rustic is that it looks old and is pretty much meant to not be perfect! So, slight flaws and imperfections won’t be a major deal!

Of course, if you’re a little more experienced with making things, you can add cut-outs, scallops or whatever you want to the bench!

You can build a heavy duty bench out of 2 X 4’s or you may want to use 1 X 6’s. I prefer the 1 X 6’s because the 2 X 4’s add a lot of weight to the bench and will make it harder to move.

First of all you need to decide how long you’d like to make the bench. A bench that is four feet long is a great size, it will easily accomadate two people. Just remember the longer you make it the heavier it will be to move.

I also recommend that if you’re going to place the bench in an area where it will be open to the elements, make sure you either buy treated wood or treat it yourself.

You’ll also have to decide how high you want the seat of the bench to be. If you’re using 1 X 6 boards and don’t want to do any extra cutting, then you’ll have to leave the height at either 12 or 18 inches.

You also have to consider that you’re going to be putting legs on the bench and the lid will add another inch. But, your storage space will depend on the height of the bench, so you have to weigh the options.

I’m going to give you the directions for a bench that is 4 foot long, 2 foot wide and and the storage area will be 12 inches deep. No matter what size you want to make yours, the basics are the same. You’ll just need to add the extra inches when you cut your boards.

You’ll need to cut two boards for the front and two for the back that are four feet long. Then you’ll need four boards that are each one foot and ten inches long for the ends of the bench.

The reason the end boards aren’t cut at two feet is because you’ll be using some one inch boards for the legs and this will make the width two feet.

These boards will be put together just like a box. You can either use nails or screws, either will be fine because they will be covered with the legs. You can also use wood glue to strengthen the joints.

Once you’ve gotten your bench frame together you’ll need to cut some of the boards in two inch strips. Measure along the outside of the bench and cut enough boards to attach all along the bottom.

Attach these strips all around the bottom with wood screws or nails. Once the bench is done you’re going to attach a heavy duty wire mesh to them. This will allow you to store water hoses or anything else and keep the bench from holding water.

Now that you’ve gotten all of that done, you’re ready to attach some legs. The legs are just made of strips cut from the 1 X 6’s. Decide how high you want the bench to be and cut eight pieces that are three inches wide.

Remember that the bench we’re making is going to be 12 inches deep. So, if you want it to be 18 inches high, your leg boards will need to be cut at 18 inches.

You will need to attach one piece to the front and on piece to the side of each of the four corners of the bench. These pieces can either be left squared on the bottom or if you’re brave you can angle the bottoms for a more finished look.

Now it’s time to make the bench lid! We need to add a few inches to the lid to make it match up evenly with the legs. So, the lid boards will be four feet and two inches long and you need to cut four of them.

The best way to make the lid is to cut some bracing boards to attach it to. These braces should be cut eight inches long and need to be at least two inches wide. For a four foot bench three braces should do just fine, but you can add four if you’d like.

What you are going to do is lay the boards for the bench lid on a flat surface, lay them out against each other. If you’re using three braces, you’ll lay one right in the middle and screw it into each of the four lid boards. Then do the same with the other two braces towards the ends of the lid.

Make sure that you don’t put the braces right on the ends, you won’t be able to shut the lid. Also, make sure that you don’t attach them in the place that you’re planning on adding your hinges.

Measure the little ledge that you made around the inside bottom of the bench and use wire cutters to cut the mesh to fit. You can  attach the mesh with half inch long heavy duty staples, the kind that holds electrical wiring in place.

Now you’re ready to attach your hinges! This is where you have to be sure to make exact measurements, if the hinges aren’t attached right the lid will end up offset on the bench.

Just decide where you want the hinges, on a four foot bench hinge placement should be around twelve inches from the ends. Measure exactly and mark where the end of the hinge will fit with a pencil. Attach the hinges to the lid and then attach them to the inside back of the bench.

All that’s left to do now is to decide whether you want to just stain your bench or if you want to paint it. Just make sure that if you didn’t purchase weather treated wood that you buy some weather treatment and apply it yourself before painting the bench.

Now, you’ve got a wonderful bench that doubles as a storage place for a water hose, garden tools or any other items you want to hide away! And, you’ve also got a great spot to sit and enjoy your flower garden or the view from your deck!

This type of storage bench is also great for a kid’s room to hold toys. You may even want to add one to a hallway, it’s a great place to hide jackets, hats, gloves or anything else!

If you have an old home, more than likely it is a leaky home causing water waste. It does not help the green environmental goals. Plus, it can get expensive on the wallet. There are obvious potential leak points in your home and those not so obvious. But you want to be aware of them and repair them as quickly as possible so as to avoid water waste and help your home go green.

In an older home not built for green, there is more than likely much water waste occurring behind the walls. The most common place for waste to occur is around the bathroom which makes sense because they are fed so much water. Many times there is an access panel located on the other side of the bathroom or shower that will expose the water feed pipes. More than likely, these feed pipes are made of copper which has a tendency to corrode indicated by a green color and tiny pinhole leaks. It will have to be replaced.

It takes a little patience to solder copper piping. You’ll need to purchase a propane soldering torch, copper pipe cutter, copper piping, joints, tees, and elbows (depends on your pipe arrangement). You will first cut out the leaking section and replace with a new copper pipe section. Use the joints, tees, or elbows as necessary.

To solder the joint, coat the surfaces with flux and then super heat the joint once you have inserted the replacement. Place the solder on the superheated joint and the heat/flux should suck it in creating a good seal. There cannot be any water running inside of the copper pipes or else they will not get hot enough.

In older houses not built for green, a problem often exists where even though the water main is shut off there is still slow seepage into the line. The solution to this is to stuff some regular white bread into the pipe to stop the slow water flow. Solder in your replacement pipe and when you turn the water main back on, the bread will dissolve. Plus the bread is biodegradable keeping in line with your green goal. Also help the goal of going green by taking the old copper piping to the metal recyclers.

Go green and find those underground leaks. There are two good signs that you have an underground water leak between the main city water meter and the house. You’ll hear a constant sound of water running and your water bill will spike extremely high all of the sudden. It can be an incredible waste. Leak detecting cameras are not always 100% successful in finding the wasteful leak point. You can save a lot of money by just trenching the area where the line is yourself until the leak is revealed.

Then there is the problem of freezing. Some older homes not built for green have additions where the builder might have been the homeowner at the time and did not bury a water line or junction to a hose bibb deep enough resulting in it bursting and incredible waste each year during a hard freeze. This is simple to fix. Just get one of the frost-free hose bibbs, dig up the area where it leads to the water feed, and install the new hose bib. While you are at it, wrap some pipe insulation that you can find at any home store. Then, cover the area with dirt (assuming the bibb is going into the ground).

You can make your old drafty home go green and save on heating costs by installing a radiant heated floor. This is basically a floor with heated water tubing running underneath keeping the entire floor at a comfortable temperature level. The advantage is that the heat is evenly-distributed and boiler temperatures can actually be set at lower levels. This saves not only energy but reduces the stress on your boiler. Any time you save energy you make your home go green helping the environment but not at the expense of comfort. Let’s look at a typical installation of a radiant heated floor:

Make sure you start with a hard flat surface. The best way to start the installation of your floor is to expose the concrete foundation. You will need to remove carpet on the old flooring. If the old flooring is tile or some other hard surface, it will probably be okay to install the heated floor system over it without removing. This way you minimize the amount of old flooring that needs to be torn out thus reducing waste. It is in the spirit of green to re-use whatever you can.

Lay out the rubber tubing on the flat surface. The rubber tubing is the conduit to carry the heated water. You want to lay it out like a sine wave for the greatest coverage on the floor. It is the maximizing coverage that will reduce your heating costs and help your home go green.

Build the wooden frame for your heated floor using two-inch by four-inch lumber. The wooden frame is built so that a plywood raised floor can be installed over the rubber tubing. Using 2×4s should allow one to one and a half inches between the top of the rubber tubing and the suspended floor. You want to allow this space so that when people walk on the floor it does not but pressure on the tubing.

Install and test the boiler unit. You will have to follow the manufacturer’s instructions on this part of the installation as there are different models of heated floor boilers. Check the manufacturer’s specifications to make sure the boiler is energy-efficient and contributes to your home going green.

Fill space underneath the suspended floor with sand. Before mounting the suspended plywood sheet, fill all space between the tubing and the frame with sand. Sand is an inexpensive heat conductor and the effect is that the heat from the tubing will get absorbed by the sand and spread out evenly across the floor. If you don’t want to use sand, you can also use aluminum sheeting as it will spread the heat evenly too.

Lay your flooring on the suspended plywood. You can now install tile or hardwood over your heated floor. You can also install carpet if you like however you need to install carpet that is not too resistant to heat. This has to do with what is known as the R-value of the carpet. When a carpet has a high R-value it means it has a high degree of insulation. If you lay carpet with a high R-value on the heated floor then it is shielding the inside of the house from the external heat source. You will have to run the boiler at hotter temperatures which defeats the goal of going green for your home. If you lay carpet, it should have an R-value of between 2.0 and 4.0. Of course, at the lower end of the spectrum would be the best.

Many times people neglect their kitchen even though it is cleaned often. Too much moisture and possible water damage are overlooked all the time. If you inspect the following sources of moisture it can help you prevent water damage in your kitchen. By following these simple steps you can keep your kitchen looking good and also prevent damage to things such as your dishwasher, refrigerator, and the sink and countertop.