WATER HEATERS: Do you wait longer for hot water when going tankless?

You will most likely go back and forth and debate the benefits of a tankless hot water heater over a conventional one in your remodel – many of us at GetWithGreen.com have during our remodels (we all went tankless ).  

The space savings will be a big draw for those of you living in smaller homes, and for some it will be the energy consumption of the tankless vs. a conventional model, or which one pays back faster? Tankless water heaters deliver hot water “on demand”, without storing it.  They circulate water through burners or coils which heat the water.  Therefore, a tankless unit never runs out of water in theory, but they do have limitations on flow should too many family members try to consume hot water at the same time – although design of your system should limit this.

One debate that rages on across the internet is the time you will be required to wait for hot water.  Will a tankless get your hot water faster, or do you get it faster with conventional?   The LA Times’ Pardon Our Dust blog posted one perspective on the topic, and we think it is a good quick read.  The article is written by Bill Doering, and it outlines a little test he performed on his own to see which type of heater delivered hot water the fastest.  On-demand water heaters: A homeowner’s experience

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ENERGY STAR: New podcast offers tips for efficiency of your remodel

ENERGY STAR® Shows Simplicity of Home Energy Efficiency in New Video Podcast.  This short podcast goes room by room and offers you easy tips to incorporate in your home today, and your remodel!  You can watch it online, or on your iPod.

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire – February 19, 2008) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ENERGY STAR program today released its first ever video podcast, At Home with ENERGY STAR. The video podcast is hosted by Tom Kraeutler, the voice of the nationally syndicated radio program The Money Pit and the Home Improvement Editor for AOL. Kraeutler takes viewers on a room-by-room tour, pointing out areas for energy-efficient improvements. The podcast also brings to life ENERGY STAR’s interactive tool, ENERGY STAR @ home (http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.es_at_home), which offers energy saving tips for every room of the house.

GetWithGreen.com found the podcast under the Products section of the Energy Star site.

“This podcast is an invaluable resource for anyone looking to make green improvements to their home while saving money,” said Kraeutler. “Homeowners can use it as a step-by-step guide to improving their home’s energy efficiency. The tips we discuss are incredibly simple yet make a great impact on energy bills and the environment.”

Filmed at a home in Seattle, Washington, At Home with ENERGY STAR gives real life examples of easy tips that homeowners can use to help save energy. For example, if every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR-qualified compact fluorescent light, we would save enough energy to light more than three million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

“Most Americans do not realize that the average home produces twice as much greenhouse gas as the average car,” said Denise Durrett, communications manager for ENERGY STAR. “By making a few small changes at home Americans can join the fight against global warming and make a real difference.”

Tips offered in the video podcast include how replacing an older refrigerator can cut energy bills in half, installing a programmable thermostat, ensuring a home has adequate insulation and unplugging cell phone chargers when not in use.

The video podcast is available for viewing on the ENERGY STAR Web site. The podcast is also available on iTunes, the AOL Real Estate Web site at www.realestate.aol.com and The Money Pit Web site at www.moneypit.com.

Make sure you look into the GetWithGreen.com categories to your right for appliances, insulation, and ceiling fan products that go a long ways toward improving efficiency in your home! 

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FLOORING: What does it take to install a Marmoleum floor? Look and see!

Lot’s of video this past week or two here on GetWithGreen.com! 

Today we are bringing you this Marmoleum informational nugget from FOX 12 in Oregon.  This four minute video clip discusses Marmoleum, what it is composed of, and how it installs.   Really great information for those of you considering this very popular “greener” alternative flooring.

Watch the: Marmoleum video

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