It would be pretty unfair of me to throw all these bad ideas onto the table, without leaving you with a few good ones.

1.) Wood Window Replacement: A homeowner will recoup nearly 80% of an aluminum-clad wood window replacement project when they sell their home. That’s pretty darn significant. Wonder why they’re so valuable? Not only are interior wood windows extremely attractive, their aluminum-clad exteriors offer the appeal of increased energy efficiency. They add value and they reduce energy bills – outstanding combination!

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As one of my Facebook Fans recently pointed out, “Going Green” can often be combined with “Going Practical.”  Some do choose to take the extremist route, but for people like me, we’d just assume ease into this one.  Here’s a very good example of how Green can equal Practical.

Here’s the 411 on home insulation:

The actual material that makes up an insulation product is not what provides the heat/cold barrier.  In fact, it is the air that is trapped in the insulation that provides the actual thermal barrier.  This barrier, in turn, cools your home in the summer and heats it in the winter.

Different types of insulation offer different varieties, sizes and numbers of air pockets within them.  The number of air pockets in a foaming product will differ from the number of pockets in foam batt, for example.  But since the pockets are what allow for the thermal barrier, you can see why it would be counterproductive to stuff or crush insulation into a crevice or space.

Now that you’ve got a general grasp on the whole insulation equation, allow me to stretch your thought process a little bit further into the world of insulated paint.

Based on the same concept as described above, a relatively new product is now available for homes.  The product provides air pockets within the actual paint and the paint can be applied to either the interior or the exterior of the home.

The gist of the product is this: A complex blend of microscopic, hollow, ceramic spheres exist within the paint formula – and each sphere has a vacuum inside of it (Think miniature Thermos bottles).  These little Thermos bottles, when mixed into the paint, offer outstanding insulation properties, thus saving energy and money.  The little, ceramic vacuums retract, reflect and dissipate heat.  Summer heat gain through a home’s exterior walls can be reduced by more than 20%.

During the winter months, this magical little paint additive can reduce exterior solar radiant heat gain into a home.  It is proven to decrease interior heat loss by over 20%.

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