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While many people feel that home improvements are best done in the spring or fall, when folks are outside involved in activities and looking at their homes, winter is often overlooked as a time when improvements can be done to prepare your home to look it’s best come spring. A simple, and energy efficient improvement is vinyl siding.

Vinyl Siding for the Winter

Now, many people have preconceived images in their head of somewhat ugly, cheap looking siding, those are visions of the past. DEEP offers three different vinyl siding options for our customers in Dallas, Plano, and surrounding counties: Weatherbarrier, Weatherbarrier Plus, and Weatherbarrier Max. What are the advantages of vinyl siding? Aside from improving the appearance of the home and being nearly maintenance free, vinyl siding offers many other advantages. Vinyl siding is an affordable alternative to other types of siding which offers style, easy care and durability. Because it requires fewer resources to manufacture and maintain, and because it is recyclable, vinyl siding is also an environmentally friendly option, decreasing your carbon footprint and making your home more “green” in the process.

Vinyl siding is comprised of PVC (Poly Vinyl Chloride) resins, combined with other elements to increase durability, flexibility and color retention. Acrylic components help vinyl siding resist denting and exposure to extreme weather conditions, such as colder climates. Titanium dioxide and other chemicals are added to protect the color from sun exposure and to prevent fading and chalking.

Because pigments are mixed with the PVC resins, vinyl siding has a deep, penetrating color that goes all the way through the material, rather than paint on the surface. This keeps scratches and blemishes from becoming noticeable. With wood or aluminum siding, a scratch removes the pigment, allowing the original color to show through the surface color.

Another benefit of this color process is the fact that vinyl siding never needs to be scraped or painted like other materials do. An occasional washing with a hose or sprayer and mild detergent is all that is needed. The water won’t damage vinyl siding, or vinyl downspouts and gutters. Vinyl does not rot, rust or crack the way wood and metal do. With proper installation and occasional cleaning, your siding should last and look great for many years to come.

Perhaps one of the most important advantages of vinyl siding outside it’s relatively maintenance-free good looks is it’s cost effectiveness, usually 25% to 50% that of wood or aluminum.

To see how affordable our three options of siding are for your home in the metroplex, please call us at 972-398-6105.

Dallas Energy Efficient Products is located in Plano, Texas and we serve the entire metroplex, from Dallas to Frisco, Fort Worth to Mesquite. We offer quality products at affordable prices in an entire line of energy efficient “green” products, from replacement windows and doors to radiant barrier systems to reduce your carbon footprint even further.

Treat your home to new products this holiday season, increasing your property’s value and beauty all at once.

Most of us now know what it means to be living “green” and trying to conserve our natural resources.  We want to leave a smaller carbon footprint and be less dependent on fossil fuels.  We want to make this a better world for our children and grandchildren.

We encourage the development of solar and wind power but for most residential use it is still too expensive and space prohibitive.  What we really need to do is CONSERVE what we aleady have and quit wasting our natural resouces whether it be water, gas or electric.  Most tract homes aren’t really built to save energy but to control cost many builders continue to use cheap aluminum frame double pane windows with minumum solar heat gain control and minumum attic insulation and ventilation.  Both that will cost the new homeowners thousands of energy dollars during their stays. Most can’t change everything but we can still make a differance one step at a time.  Changing out a few windows, adding 6-12″ of insulation, updating your a/c system from a 10-12 Seer rated system to 16-18 seer rated.

Using compact flourescent bulbs that use 75% less energy and last 10 times longer. Use of programmable thermastats to reduce usage during the day when we’re not there are just a few of the ways you can make a differance.  Call us at Dallas Energy Efficient Products and we’ll be glad to come to your home and show you how you can save money and have the government help pay for it.  Call us at 972-398-6105 to set an appointment.

Gregg Graham- Owner

Plano, Texas

When getting ready to purchase a new item like windows it is important that you understand the terms and differences in styles of windows.  For instance when someone says U-Factor is important, what do they mean?  U-Factor has to do with the ability of the window to keep heat in the house during winter months.  From a scale of 1-100 the lower the number the better.  The new tax credit requires a U-Factor of 30 or better.  This means that the window as a whole is able to keep at least 70% of the heat inside the house.  Solar Heat Gain Coefficiency is another term you will hear.  It has to do with the ability of the window as a whole to keep solar heat from coming through your window into your house.  Obviously that would be very important here in Texas.  Again, the minimum rating for the tax credit is 30.  Both factors must be met.  You also only get 30% of the cost of materials only up to $1,500.

Windows can be Single Hung meaning that only the bottom sash operates as opposed to a Double Hung where both sashed can operate and tilt in for easy cleaning.  There are Sliders where the sashes operate horizontally rather than vertically. This is typically for a opening that is wider than it is tall.  Picture windows can be helpful to minimize the number of units by combining two units that are side by side and improve visibility.  Picture windows can’t be used in Bedrooms unless there is an operating window also for egress (excape). Casement windows are window in which crank open to the outside. These can be used where maximum visibility is desired and yet ventilation is desired.

There are vinyl windows, aluminum windows, fiberglass windows and wood windows. Most people already have aluminum windows.  They are highly conductive of energy and not energy efficient.  fiberglass windows are strong and can have energy efficient glass but are typically more expensive. Wood windows like Peachtree, Pella and Anderson offer can be a beautiful choice if one wants the look of wood inside and aluminum clad for protection on the outside.  Again, these are on the high end and are usually in upper end homes.  That leaves vinyl windows.  These are energy efficient in their frames and can have high energy efficient glass systems.  They can range from anywhere from $300 a average window to well over a $1,000 a window depending upon the vendor you choose.

Storm windows and solar screens are on the low end of the price range but typically do not add resale value to your home and are stop gap products to help but not completely take care of the problem of energy efficiency in your home.  Replace the glass when fogged is also a get by way of reducing the visibility problem but not really improving the energy efficiency at all.  Also, you are just putting back in rubber seals that will again rot and have to be replaced. With the current tax credit available it only makes sense to invest in something that will not only increase the energy efficiency of your home but improve security, control noise pollution, minimize ultraviolet light damage and build value in your home.  Call today for your free estimate. 972-398-6105.

Gregg Graham- Owner

When you start a new business, a bank requires a business plan for your business for the current year and for the next five years.  Most successful businesses have goal plans to which they work toward. What is the government’s energy goals and plans for the next 5 years???? What plans to they have to wean us off oil and onto alternative energy sources? Does anyone out there really know?  It is not surprising to me that we haven’t made any more significant gains in this area when those leading in the battle can’t agree or work together to meet specific goals.

We might not be able to make a difference at the national level but we can make a big difference on the personal level.  First we need to understand why we need to change before we’ll be motivated to change.  Global warming is not a joke or theory, it is a reality.  This is directly tied into the amount of Carbon Dioxide that is being released in the air.  This is affected by factories and gasoline burning cars that emit carbon dioxide into the air. It is affected by the amount of energy use we consume.  The kind of energy we use in our homes.  It is your Carbon footprint you hear about.  Saving energy consumption isn’t just about saving money it is about controlling waste on natural resources.  Each time we turn off a light before leaving a room or hallway we control waste. When we use programmable thermostats that turn down the use of energy while we are gone. We save.  When we put current energy conservation technology to use in our windows, doors, attics, and A/C systems we start making a difference.

With change comes effort and cost.  That is why so many don’t. They think that they can’t afford to upgrade or take the time to be conscious of developing a plan on how to get there.  They just keep on doing the same old things expecting others to make the sacrifices necessary to make a difference. Start somewhere and create good habits of conservation and recycling. Get an ENERGY AUDIT done to see where your greatest loses are and how to start attacking them.  You’ll be surprised by the difference YOU can make. Let’s make 2009 a fresh start and let’s make a difference you and I.

Stayed tuned as in the next installment I’m going to talk about what I learned from my 15 years at Sears Home Improvement and what I have improved on.

Gregg Graham-Owner Plano,Tx

I recently read an article in the Times Magazine written by Michael Grunwald by the name, “Wasting our Watts.” In the article he speaks about the fact that we don’t need new drilling or new power or nuclear plants. What we need is to get efficient.  We already have a perfectly clean,remarkably cheap,surprisingly abundant and immediately available source of energy.  This miracle juice goes by the distinctly boring name of ENERGY EFFICIENCY. When we had our last energy crisis in 1973 we start working towards implementing new energy ideas that have reduced current use by about 50%.

When our children and grandchildren look back 20 years from now will they be able to say that you and I made a difference in saving energy and resources and making this a better, cleaner world?  Do you still want your children and grandchildren to be hooked at the wallet with the Middle East and dependent on oil?  There are numerous ways that we can start making a difference and they are not all expensive.  Like using those pigtailed fluorescent lights that use 75% less energy and last 8 times as long. Using programmable thermostats and motion detectors in rooms that automatically shut the lights out when no one is there.  Properly inflating our tires to reduce drag and improve mileage.

Other ideas might be more expensive like driving fuel-efficient cars rather than gas guzzlers or new state of the art appliances that use a third of the energy than 20 years ago.  Putting in energy efficient windows that utilizes the most recent technology to save the maximum energy year round.  High efficient AC systems. Today’s can be almost twice as efficient as those just 12-14 years ago.  Radiant Barriers and increased attic insulation are also ways that can make a big difference.  The increase cost is only temporary.  The savings will pay for the changes.  NOT to change will cost you and perhaps those you love in the future much more.  Please feel free to call for a free energy audit of your home and let us see how we at Dallas Energy Efficient Products can save you money.

Gregg Graham-Owner Plano,Tx.