Energy Efficiency

Hotangry is The New Hangry, And Energy Savings For Your Home is The Perfect Way to Cool Down

By Brenda Masse / August 2, 2023 /

If this image makes you as irrationally angry as it makes me, today’s Upon Closer Inspection is for you. I hate being hot. I enjoy summer, don’t get me wrong. But this is just punishing heat. When you work from home as many do now, and your kids are still home from school, and it’s…

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HVAC Home Maintenance You Really Can DIY

By Brenda Masse / June 14, 2023 /

Last week, we shared some tips for HVAC home maintenance to keep your system running efficiently this summer. It turns out there are more than one column’s worth of tips that you can do yourself – that’s right, we are actually recommending you DIY! Twice! If you missed last week’s Upon Closer Inspection, our golden…

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Housing Prices And Rising Rents Got You Down? Score a Small Cottage For Less Than $50K

By April Towery / November 17, 2022 /

As Dallas begins to embrace accessory dwelling units, tiny homes, and alternative construction materials, another cost-effective housing solution is now on the market.  South Carolina-based ECLIPSE Cottages is building 128-square-foot, solar-powered, energy-efficient homes with off-the-grid capability.  Like the tiny homes and the 3D concrete-printed models we’ve featured recently, they’re not for everybody, but they offer…

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Inflation Reduction Act’s Solar Rebate is Great, But One Builder Says It’s Not a Green Building Magic Bullet

By April Towery / August 18, 2022 /

The Inflation Reduction Act represents the most ambitious climate spending package in U.S. history, but will it fix our energy woes?

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A Higher Quality Home Battery Takes Off in Texas, But is it a Green Energy Winner?

By Daniel Lalley / May 16, 2022 /

For years, home energy storage has been rife with dangerous mechanisms and wasteful materials. With both lead-acid components and lithium-ion technology, going off the grid held uncertain side effects. Overheating, over mining, and inherent toxicity were top concerns. However, innovation has led to an evolution of this technology, and it’s taking off right here in…

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