Tausi Insider

Photo : Serkanyalcinkaya ( Shutterstock ) With energy costs continuing to rise, ceiling fans are becoming an increasingly popular way to make homes more energy efficient. As we’ve written about in the past, not only can ceiling fans keep your home cooler in the summer— with or without air conditioning —but they can also help your home stay warm and toasty in colder weather. 02:15 How to Steam an Egg Wednesday 11:19AM But when it comes to choosing a ceiling fan, it’s not solely a matter of finding one to match your decor: You should also consider the room’s square footage in order to ensure that the fan is able to get the job done. Here’s what to know. How to buy the right size ceiling fan for a room First, you need to figure out the square footage of the room where you’re going to hang the ceiling fan. Find the square footage of the room You can use an online square footage calculator , or do the math : Measure the length of the room (in feet) Measure the width of the room (in ...

Photo : Micha Weber ( Shutterstock ) Air conditioners are life-saving appliances. If you live in an area where the temperatures can soar into the 90s—or higher — you know how crucial it is to have some sort of climate control in your home. Window air conditioner units are terrific because they’re relatively affordable, easy to install, and work very well cooling down small areas. Yes, you sacrifice some light and fresh air, but being able to sleep at night without bathing in your own sweat makes it worth it. But when the cold weather arrives, we face an age-old question: Do you have to take your window AC units out and store them, or can you leave them in place? The answer is pretty straight-forward : If you have a way to store them, you should absolutely remove your window air conditioners for the winter. Here’s why. A window AC unit is not well- insulated If you installed the air conditioner unit yourself , you know how poorly they tend to fit in your windows. The “accordi...

Photo : Lindsey Ellefson/TausiInsider I’m here today to make the case for a unique space-saving technique I have employed in my apartment for two years: Mount your TV to the ceiling. Do it. You don’t need a bulky entertainment center taking up valuable wall space; y our TV can simply float above your head, and look cool doing it. (But don’t tell Reddit, which will lambast you for placing your set above eye level . Live for yourself, not for the approval of mean people online.) What you need to mount your TV from the ceiling To get that “doctor’s office waiting room” look at home, you will need: A ceiling mount ( here’s the one I have , which cost about $28) An under-shelf wire basket like this one A drill Four to six hefty toggle bolts About 10 hole straps A bunch of s crews (I’m very technical) The key to success Follow the mounting instructions that come with your mount, and make sure you secure it well into a joist. I hired a pro for this step because I wasn’t sure of my a...

Photo : Kitawit Jitaton ( Shutterstock ) Keeping track of interior and exterior home maintenance schedules, landscaping, and emergency contacts for repairs can be overwhelming, especially for new homeowners. Even for experienced owners, help with organization and a centralized place to keep information can be a struggle—and no one wants to be digging in a desk drawer or searching through a file cabinet for a repair history when you need your homeowner’s insurance information for an emergency repair. But creating a well-organized system to keep records and information handy is as simple as starting a maintenance binder. In your binder, you should have sections for indoor, outdoor, and emergency information, keeping track of any work done on your house in each section. If you’re not sure where to get started, begin by taking stock of your household systems. You’ll need sections for HVAC, electrical, appliances, plumbing, roof and gutters, landscaping and garden, and exterior checks ...

Photo : Mike Fig Photo ( Shutterstock ) While dryer sheets are often touted as being versatile odor absorbers, they really only belong in the dryer. It might seem like a simple and cost-effective way to cut down on smells coming from vents in your HVAC, but that’s a bad idea. Some claims have even been made that dryer sheets will extend the life of your air filters, but this is sadly not the case. There are several reasons you shouldn’t be using dryer sheets in any of your HVAC vents. The chemicals in dryer sheets can negatively affect your health According to the National Institute of Health , chemicals used as scent in laundry products can cause asthma attacks and migraines, as well as eye, skin, and throat irritation. Because dryers vent to the outdoors, these scents travel mostly out of the air supply in your home. However, if you’re intentionally circulating them inside, they will be present in higher concentrations. Manufacturers aren’t obligated to reveal the ingredients i...

Photo : Parilov ( Shutterstock ) If you live in an area that gets blessed by snow every winter, you’re probably pretty used to it. But no matter how experienced you are with snow, there’s one aspect of snow removal that most people aren’t prepared for: Your roof. If you’ve ever shoveled snow, you know it can be really heavy; it’s easy to heft a load of heavy, wet snow and then glance at your roof and imagine it quivering under the load. The obvious solution is to take that shovel in your hands and head up onto your roof to clear it off—but that can be very dangerous . So how can you safely clear snow off your roof so you can sleep peacefully and not worry about a collapse? When to worry about snow on the roof First things first—do you actually need to worry about snow on your roof? Sure , snow is heavy stuff—three feet of fresh snow or one foot of packed snow weighs approximately 30 pounds —but you have to remember that most building codes anticipate snow load, and your roof...

Photo : Lost_in_the_Midwest ( Shutterstock ) A sump pump is an incredibly useful item to have in your basement: Unsophisticated but essential. It’s basically motorized pump in a bucket, buried below the floor of your basement or crawlspace ; as the groundwater seeps up, it collects in the bucket, the pump activates, shoots it back outside, and your basement stays dry . Sump pumps are designed to run intermittently on an as-needed basis, cycling on only when there’s enough water in the bucket. Though they will run constantly if your basement floods, in non-flood conditions, these “cycles” should be steady—if your sump is cycling on and off every few minutes (or even every few seconds) for a long period of time, especially when there doesn’t seem to be a reason for it, that’s a problem known as “short cycling.” Short cycling will wear out your pump, and most likely indicates a problem with your sump system. Here’s what to do if your sump pump short cycles or never stops running even...

Toronto-based Hydrostor Inc. will employ the company’s advanced compressed air energy storage technology in a proposed energy storage project in California. Handout A California community electricity distributor has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with Toronto-based Hydrostor Inc., a deal worth almost US$1-billion that moves a long-duration energy storage project closer to fruition. Under the agreement, Central Coast Community Energy will contract for 40 per cent of the offtake from Hydrostor’s Willow Rock Energy Storage Center, a proposed development near Rosamond, in Kern County, Calif. The project will employ the company’s advanced compressed air energy storage technology. Willow Rock is one of two planned Hydrostor developments in California. The plants, which can store energy longer than lithium-ion batteries, will allow more renewable energy onto grids by smoothing out the inherent supply variability of wind and solar farms. The company is also developing a project in...

Photo : Shawn Hamilton ( Shutterstock ) Most roofs constructed after modern regulations were passed in the U.S. in 1988 are built to withstand a certain amount of extra weight in the form of snow. Even older roofs usually have some extra capacity to allow for snow. But sometimes, larger amounts of snow, or wet or compacted snow can exceed the capacity of your roof. Luckily, you can calculate your structure’s snow load, and if you think you’re getting close to the brink, take some precautions. Here are some helpful steps to take to keep snow from damaging your roof. Use a snow-load calculator There’s some information you’ll need to collect before you can make the calculations for your particular structure. First the length, width, and pitch of your roof will determine most of the calculation. Feed that information—along with your state, and the depth and type of snow—into this snow load calculator from OMNI, and it will tell you whether you’re in danger of exceeding the recommende...

Photo : virgmos ( Shutterstock ) A car’s “check engine” light is so mysterious. “Something is wrong!” it visually screams. What is wrong? Is my engine about to explode? Or did I just forget to tighten the gas cap again? The light just sits there, shining at you. “ Check it! ” Fortunately, there’s an easy way to find out what it’s trying to communicate —for free. Since 1996, new cars sold in the U. S. are required to have onboard diagnostics (OBD) systems that allow mechanic can plug in a device and receive a code from the car’s computer that narrows down the source of a problem . If you did bring your car straight to the garage or dealership to get checked out, this is likely the first thing they would do. The device—called an OBD2 or OBD-II scanner—will give them a number they can then look up and find out what might be wrong. This isn’t just for the check engine light, either; the OBD system can provide a wealth of information about what is going on inside your car. You c...

Photo : Kitawit Jitaton ( Shutterstock ) Keeping track of interior and exterior home maintenance schedules, landscaping, and emergency contacts for repairs can be overwhelming, especially for new homeowners. Even for experienced owners, help with organization and a centralized place to keep information can be a struggle—and no one wants to be digging in a desk drawer or searching through a file cabinet for a repair history when you need your homeowner’s insurance information for an emergency repair. But creating a well-organized system to keep records and information handy is as simple as starting a maintenance binder. In your binder, you should have sections for indoor, outdoor, and emergency information, keeping track of any work done on your house in each section. If you’re not sure where to get started, begin by taking stock of your household systems. You’ll need sections for HVAC, electrical, appliances, plumbing, roof and gutters, landscaping and garden, and exterior checks ...