I’m here in Atlanta and our company installs energy efficient windows every day to help people cut down on waste and improve their energy impact.

It’s sad that the IRS has ended the credit they were giving for installing energy compliant windows but there are still many reasons to get energy efficient windows installed in your home.

Great post!

I would love to see someone with some knowledge of ground source heating write an article that details it. I will likely start a post, but I hope someone far more knowledgeable than I will flesh it out. Energy and water are both such incredibly important topics that get overlooked as secondary issues, when they should be at the top of the discussion list in politics.

1. In cold climates, a tempering tank might still be desired – the water comes in from the city at 55 F and could be pre-stored in a tank so that it warms up to room temperature first.

2. Whole house (vs. for each faucet) tankless electric or gas may require an electric service panel or pipe upgrade. They can achieve these fast temperature increases because there’s a lot of energy going into them all at once. Add on top of that regular loads (like AC or your furnace)…

3. Whole house tankless heaters can get bogged down when using more than one source at the same time (shower and wash). It depends on the brand and model – ask the question.

4. If you use a whole house natural gas unit, there has to be the ability to get fresh air into the house that the unit is using (and exhausting outside) – the same as for your furnace and current water heater, but now the balance that may have previously existed, doesn’t any more and you’re at risk for carbon monoxide back-draft.

5. Nothing is as simple as it seems. If you have natural gas, that’s generally cleaner and cheaper than electricity (which is often coal), unless you’re in a high hydro area. I tend to want to migrate toward natural gas when possible (it’s still cheaper and cleaner than electricity, unless you get an off-peak rate of some kind).

6. I only use 10-15 therms of natural gas for cooking and hot water. Even if my stand-by losses were 25%, that’s 2-3 therms, or about $2-4/month, or up to $50/yr. We have two in our house, so adjust accordingly. The incremental cost of a tankless vs. tank could be $1000 when all it said and done (since they aren’t getting the volumes needed to reduce prices yet).

7. If the tankless has an electronic ignition and/or controls and your power goes out, you don’t have any hot water. Most tank systems have a pilot light.

Thank you for your comments. I appreciate you being the first one here. Listen, the first thing I want to make clear is I like Romney. I have no problem with him being a mormon in the least, and you are right, his religion should have nothing to do with whether he is elected or not. I also admire the mormon religion. When I look around any group of people I know in Arizona, the nicest people are invariably Mormons. I hope you don’t think I was attacking mormons, beacause that is not the case. I have great friends who are mormons, and I work with many others. They are very good people, as I am sure Romney is. I hold it as a positive about his religion, in fact, as look at the good grace he has. He has been hammered for a lot of stupid things, including his religion, as well as about his kids not being military, and he handles very well, in a very graceful manner.

I admire that he is a good businessman, and I think we may need that. I say all the time we need to run the country like a business. My comment about his mormonism is something you hear on Hardball, etc, when they talk about his chances to win. More specifically, I think the point is that great many southern protestant voters might have the same problem with him that they have with a catholic candidate. I am pretty new to this blogging thing, and if it appears like a slick attack I apologize for my ham-handedness. I like Huckabee; I like his support about tax reform; I don’t think he is going to get far, and if he exits, I will be a supporter of Romney. I will also tell you that I have family that works in the political industry, and she does work for a company that does work for Romney. may do some freelance for him eventually as well, if her company gets an oveflow of work. I honestly have zero problem with him, I was only pointing out the weaknesses that others might find in his campaign.

I haven’t looked at Obama’s Religion much, but mostly because I find him to be a little unseasoned, no matter how charismatic he is.

Thank you again for your spirited comments, this is a place for that, and I do apologize that I left some doubt about my thoughts about Romney. I don’t have him at the top of my list yet, but its a long election season, right?