Tom Kraeutler's Home Improvement Tips & Tricks

I have an AC condenser on the roof of my townhouse that I want to demolish to prepare for a new HVAC system. Can I simply disconnect the existing refrigerant lines and let the refrigerant dissipate into the air? The existing system was installed in the early ’90s, before we owned the house, so I’m not sure which refrigerant was being used.
Nash Hays
Washington, D.C.

The answer here is “absolutely not”! Not only will this move be dangerous for you, your neighbors and the already dwindling ozone layer, but you could get hit with a steep fine from the EPA (at up to $25,000 per day) as a result of ozone layer protection provisions in the Clean Air Act. Passed by Congress in 1990, this law prohibits the release of ozone-depleting refrigerants into the atmosphere during the service, maintenance or disposal of air conditioners and refrigeration equipment. And as of July 1, 1992, refrigerants must be recovered from such appliances before disposal.

Only a qualified professional with the right equipment should disconnect and dispose of your old AC condenser. Your local municipality, waste hauler, landfill management or scrap metal recycling company may be able to help, but if they aren’t, contact your city’s or county’s public works department and ask about home appliance recycling or CFC/HCFC (a.k.a. Freon) recovery programs. Local home appliance retailers or your HVAC contractor should also be able to give helpful direction to keep you and the environment safe.

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I’m cleaning out my workshop and have come across several orphaned rechargeable batteries. Are these recyclable like standard batteries?
DamonC 04-01-08 3:42 p.m.

Yes, they are, and there’s probably a drop-off location just minutes from your home. The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation has established a network of collection points with national retailers, and all you have to do to find a local participant is visit www.call2recycle.org or call 1-877-2-RECYCLE. Old cell phones are welcome, too, and every item you bring in for recycling goes out to a state-of-the-art facility where the reusable contents are harvested for the production of stainless steel and new batteries.

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How do I know if I’m getting truly green, sustainable wood flooring products?
1965daughtry 03-31-08 12:24 p.m.

The clearest signal is a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification right on the packaging of the flooring in question. The FSC is a non-profit organization devoted to encouraging the responsible management of the world’s forests, and if you see its logo on a wood or paper product, you know that item has met strict forestry standards that ensure environmental responsibility, social benefit, and economic viability.

Other sustainable wood options include wood materials reclaimed from construction demolitions and other salvage situations, and/so with a little local research, you can find several options. Also consider such rapidly renewable options as bamboo and cork, which are beautiful, sustainable and durable alternatives to traditional hardwoods.

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I’m in the market for a new room air conditioner. Got any tips on what to look for?
shelaghE 04-02-08 8:11 a.m.

The main thing to look for is the Energy Star label, which tells you a unit uses at least 10 percent less energy than conventional models. Energy Star qualified room air conditioners come in a range of sizes (you can browse the program’s list of qualified room air conditioners for the right match), and often include timers for even better control over room temperature and the energy you’re using.

Also, before going shopping, follow the Energy Star room AC sizing guidelines to accurately calculate the unit size you’ll need, because going too big or too small can lead to an uncomfortable indoor climate and reduce the energy savings you were after in the first place. 

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I’m interested in building a super environmentally friendly home.  I’ve seen and read about homes that claim to have energy efficient and earth friendly features, but have not seen one total example of a home that delivers both.  Are you aware of any such homes?
Todd 04-02-08 10:00 a.m.

Absolutely.  Green building is all about being earth-friendly, but the strength to safely withstand whatever Mother Nature can dish out is a smart expansion on the theme in Florida’s Showcase Green Envirohome. Contractor Mark Baker and his wife, Nonnie Chrystal, vice president of Mark Baker LLC, were inspired to create this innovative house for Mark’s mother Betty Baker-Farley after hurricanes Frances and Jeanne left her seaside home ravaged by wind, water and mold damage in 2004. They decided they could rebuild the home to be better, stronger, smarter, safer and greener, and that’s exactly what they’ve been up to since construction began last year.

Now nearing completion, the 3,500-square-foot Envirohome’s stated goal is to resist hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, fire, mold and termites while being ecologically friendly. Mark and Nonnie are also going for a result that’s near-zero-energy and near-zero-runoff, with lowered costs benefitting the resident as well as the environment.

“We want to demonstrate that safe, efficient homes can be affordable and rewardable,” says Nonnie.

For a look at the plans for and progress of this innovative new build, click over to the Envirohome site.  It is a great example of what you could aspire to for your own home.

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We’re gearing up for a kitchen remodel, and feel pretty confident about every aspect except lighting. What should we be prepared to discuss with a kitchen lighting designer?
PaulZ 03-01-08 7:18 a.m.

Before you even get to the point of choosing fixture styles (and there are a lot of them), you and your lighting designer will be talking about the different lighting “zones” in your kitchen.

First, there’s task lighting, installed above the surfaces where you’re most likely to do food prep and cleanup. These fixtures can be wall-mounted, pendant or under-cabinet styles, as long as they’re shedding sharply focused light where you need it.

Next comes overall fill lighting, usually shed by track lighting mounted on the soffit in order to control shadows and create moods in your kitchen space. And finally, there’s overhead lighting in incandescent or fluorescent forms to lend light for utility purposes. Together, these components will form a lightscape that makes your kitchen an enjoyable place to cook and entertain.

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Now that the heating season is drawing to a close, I’d like to figure out how to improve my home’s efficiency so that summer cooling bills don’t knock me sideways. Where should I start?
kt403 03-28-08 11:19 a.m.

Good thinking, especially while we’re in the “shoulder season” of heating and cooling use. A home energy audit is the first step toward energy and dollar savings─it’ll give you a clearer picture of how much energy your home uses and what you can do to improve efficiency. For a do-it-yourself audit, grab five minutes and your utility bills from the last 12 months and click over to the Energy Star Home Energy Yardstick. This online tool will compare your home’s energy efficiency with that of similar ones around the country, and give you improvement recommendations for your spring to-do list.

For more specific recommendations, you can arrange an assessment from a professional Home Energy Auditor. A pro will be geared up with a variety of specialized equipment and techniques to expose inefficiencies in your particular abode. Check with your local utility to see if they offer free or discounted energy audits to customers; if not, you can return to the Energy Star site and its Homes Partner Locator to find a local Home Energy Rater to help you.

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What do you get when you combine two popular rackets these days—identity theft and mortgage fraud? A totally new kind of crime: house stealing.

According the the FBI, here’s how it generally works:

… The con artists start by picking out a house to steal—say, YOURS. 

… Next, they assume your identity—getting a hold of your name and personal information (easy enough to do off the Internet) and using that to create fake IDs, social security cards, etc. 

… Then, they go to an office supply store and purchase forms that transfer property. 

… After forging your signature and using the fake IDs, they file these deeds with the proper authorities, and lo and behold, your house is now THEIRS.

There are some variations on this theme…

… Con artists look for a vacant house—say, a vacation home or rental property—and do a little research to find out who owns it. Then, they steal the owner’s identity, go through the same process of transferring the deed, put the empty house on the market, and pocket the profits. 

… Or, the fraudsters steal a house a family is still living in…find a buyer (someone, say, who is satisfied with a few online photos)…and sell the house without the family even knowing. In fact, the rightful owners continue right on paying the mortgage for a house they no longer own. 

It can get even more complicated than this, as evidenced in a recent case the FBI investigated with the IRS out of Los Angeles.

Last year, a real estate business owner in southeast Los Angeles pled guilty to leading a scam that defrauded more than 100 homeowners and lenders out of some $12 million. She promised to help struggling homeowners pay their mortgages by refinancing their loans. Instead, she and her partners in crime used stolen identities or “straw buyers” (people who are paid for the illegal use of their personal information)to purchase these homes. They then pocketed the money they borrowed but never made any mortgage payments. In the process, the true owners lost the title to their homes and the banks were out the money they had loaned to fake buyers.

So how can prevent your house from getting stolen? Not easily, says the FBI. The best you can do at this point is to stay vigilant. A few suggestions:

If you receive a payment book or information from a mortgage company that’s not yours, whether your name is on the envelope or not, don’t just throw it away. Open it, figure out what it says, and follow up with the company that sent it.

From time to time, it’s also a good idea to check all information pertaining to your house through your county’s deeds office. If you see any paperwork you don’t recognize or any signature that is not yours, look into it. 

According to the FBI, house-stealing is not too common at this point, but they’re keeping an eye out for any major cases or developing trends. If you think you’ve been victimized, contact the FBI or your local police.

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After last summer’s high water bills, I’d like to make some changes to my landscaping that’ll preserve its good looks without wasting water and costing me a bundle. Got any suggestions to get me started in my water-saving quest?  GP 3-20-08 12:33pm

As you’ve discovered the hard way, keeping your lawn and garden lush adds up to one of the biggest annual household water expenses. And even worse, a lot of that water ends up getting wasted─to the tune of about 1.5 billion gallons every day in America’s great suburban outdoors. One way you can avoid waste and save bucks is by installing a water-wise irrigation system, operated by an adjustable, reliable timer and integrating special sensors that can tell when Mother Nature has taken care of the watering and your sprinklers aren’t needed. For great savings and results, work with a WaterSense-certified irrigation professional to design, install and help maintain a smart system or audit your existing one─you could end up reducing your outdoor water use by 15 percent or 9,000 gallons a year!

Also consider making changes to the landscaping itself. Less turf and more native, water-wise plantings can greatly reduce irrigation needs while enhancing your home’s outdoor impression year-round.

Finally, be accurate with your placement of sprinklers.  The only thing that grows when you water your sidewalk is the size of youir water bill!

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Tags: lawn spinkler, saving water, epa, water sense, tom kraeutler, the money pit

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A few members of my family are allergy-prone, and I’d like to add air cleaning systems to our home. Are individual units okay, or is a whole-house units a better value?
Nanc521 02-29-08 12:16 p.m.

When you consider that, in addition to naming indoor air pollution as one of the top five risks to public health, the EPA has found that indoor air can be up to 100 times more polluted than the air outside, an effective air cleaning system is good for everyone in your family!

Individual air purifiers and ionizers can make a dent here and there, but for more effective results, a whole-home unit is worth the bigger investment. For example, top-ranked Aprilaire Whole-Home Air Cleaners can be installed as part of your home’s HVAC system,  and remove several amazingly tiny, otherwise hard-to-stop contaminants such as pollen, mold spores and harmful bacteria. Look into these smart air quality solutions, and your whole clan will be breathing easier.

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