Tricks to Keep Your House Cool this Summer

Courtesy of RISMEDIA   

By Paige Tepping

RISMEDIA, July 3, 2010--As the temperatures continue to rise this summer, so does the cost of keeping your home cool. While homeowners across the country come to depend on air conditioners to keep the temperature down during the warm summer months, there are other options that will keep you cool while keeping your energy bill low.

Fans and ceiling fans
-If you’re looking for ways to beat the heat, a ceiling fan can be a great investment for your home. This one appliance can make a room feel 6 or 7 degrees cooler, and even the most power-hungry fan costs less than $10 a month to use if you keep it on for 12 hours a day. Good fans make it possible for you to raise your thermostat setting and save on air-conditioning costs. Fans don’t use much energy, but when air is circulating, it feels much cooler. Ceiling fans are best, but a good portable fan can be very effective as well.

-You should remember that even mild air movement of 1 mph can make you feel three or four degrees cooler. Also, make sure your ceiling fan is turned for summer – you should feel the air blown downward.

Shades, drapes or blinds
-Install white window shades, drapes or blinds to reflect heat away from the house. Close blinds, shades and draperies facing the sun (east-facing windows in the morning and west-facing windows in the afternoon) to keep the sun’s heat out and help fans or air conditioners cool more efficiently. Always remember that the best way to keep your home cool is to keep the heat out.

Internal Heat
-The most common sources of internal heat gain are; appliances, electronic devices and lighting. Be aware of devices in your home that are generating heat and if you have air conditioning, use it wisely.

-Don’t put lamps, televisions or other heat-generating appliances next to your air-conditioning thermostat, because the heat from these appliances will cause the air conditioner to run longer. The heat they produce will make the thermostat think your house is warmer than it really is, and your system will run harder than it needs to.

-Unless you absolutely need them, turn off incandescent lights and heat-generating appliances. Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents; they produce the same light but use a fifth the energy and heat.

-You should also try to avoid heat-generating activities such as cooking on hot days or during the hottest part of the day. If you are cooking, use your range fan to vent the hot air out of your house. By reducing the amount of heat in your home, you will use less energy to cool it.

Plants
-Plant trees or shrubs to shade air conditioning units, but not block the airflow. A unit operating in the shade uses less electricity. Deciduous trees planted on the south and west sides will keep your house cool in the summer and allow the sunlight to warm the house during the winter.

Roof and Walls
-Paint your roof white – If you’ve got a flat roof, paint it with a specially formulated reflective paint or just paint it white. The reflective effect will help to keep the rooms under the flat roof much cooler.

Other things to remember
-Humidity makes room air feel warmer, so reduce indoor humidity. Minimize mid-day washing and drying clothes, showering and cooking. When you must do these things, turn on ventilating fans to help extract warm, moist air.

-Avoid landscaping with lots of unshaded rock, cement, or asphalt on the south or west sides of your home because it increases the temperature around the house and radiates heat to the house after the sun has set.

-If the attic isn’t already insulated or is under-insulated, insulate it now. Upgrading from 3 inches to 12 inches can cut cooling costs by 10%.

Mortgage Applications Drop, Rates Stay Low

Source:  REALTOR®Mag

Applications for mortgages to purchase homes declined 5.7 percent last week compared to the previous week on an adjusted basis that takes into account Memorial Day, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association weekly survey.

On an unadjusted basis, the purchase index decreased 16.3 percent compared with the previous week and was down 30.4 percent from Memorial Day week last year. This is the fifth straight week mortgage applications have declined.

“Purchase applications are now 35 percent below their level of four weeks ago, as home buyers have not yet returned to the market following the expiration of the home buyer tax credit at the end of April,” says Michael Fratantoni, MBA’s vice president of research and economics.

Mortgage rates continue to be historically low:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.81 percent from 4.83 percent;
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.26 percent from 4.24 percent;
• 1-year ARMs decreased to 6.94 percent from 6.96 percent.

Source: Mortgage Bankers Association (06/09/2010)

Copyright National Association of REALTORS®. Reprinted with permission

New Treatment for Melanoma

Having lost a dear friend many years ago and a 34-year-old cousin just two years ago to melanoma, it's a subject that's close to my heart. Living in the desert, of course, makes it a constant concern. In our house, SFP 50 is the sunscreen of choice... and I nag my children (who grew up under the Arizona sun) and my husband to make annual visits to a dermatologist for a head-to-toe body check. When I was teaching, I taught my young students about sun safety and brought the SunWise Program (http://www.epa.gov/sunwise/kids/index.html) into our school.   
My old friend, Dr. Howard Young, who does cancer research at the National Cancer Institute recently wrote on Facebook that cancer is actually many diseases, not one, and said that rather than finding a single cure, the hope is to find a treatment that will allow people to live with and manage their condition with a good quality of life. That being said, it was with great excitement that I heard the news of a new treatment for melanoma on the news on Monday monring.  The drug has not yet received FDA approval, but is being offered on a compassionate basis to people with advanced melanoma.  This new drug also provides hope for other forms of cancer.  In this time of seemingly endless bad news, how wonderful to hear something so positive!! Below is a link to the NBC report about the new drug.  I have also included a link to a great organization called the SHADE FOUNDATION (http://www.shadefoundation.org/), founded by former baseball player Curt Schilling and his wife, Shonda, which is dedicated to melanoma education. I encourage everyone to learn more about skin cancer prevention and hope that today's news will brighten everyone's day.

NBC Report

Memorial Day 2010

NATIONAL CEMETERY - PHOENIX, ARIZONA

I have always found it strange to wish someone a Happy Memorial Day.  I can never bring myself to say those words.  Yes, we all look forward to the first long weekend that marks the beginning of summer (albeit a few weeks shy of the actual summer solstice).  When I lived in New York, Memorial Day marked the beginning of the planting season, though here in Arizona it's a little late to start planting!  It also marked the date you could start wearing summer white... again, Arizona folks know that we start that much earlier, too.  For many folks, Memorial Day means the first barbecue of the season... picnics, trips to the lake, lots of beer and chips.  Yes, all of those things make Memorial Day weekend a fun time.  But, I sincerely believe that we need to remember the real meaning of Memorial Day. 

I am greatly impressed by the way Israel honors its fallen heroes.  On Yom Hazikaron, the Israeli Memorial Day, a siren is sounded twice throughout the country during a 24 hour time period, from sunset to sunset. The first siren marks the beginning of Memorial Day at 8:00 p.m. and the second is sounded at 11:00 a.m, before prayers are recited at all military cemeteries.  When the siren is sounded, the entire nation observes a two-minute standstill of all traffic and daily activities.  For the entire day, all places of public entertainment are closed and all radio and television stations play music appropriate to the mood of the day and broadcast programs honoring fallen soldiers.


Enjoy your holiday weekend, but please take some time to honor the memory of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice to give us the freedoms we cherish.

Thanks to all our Veterans for your service to our country!

Warmest regards,
Pook

War Casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq

Source:  CNN.com
Thanks to the folks at CNN.com for creating an incredible site to honor those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice while serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.  While it is actually one website, I have created separate links below to separate the casualties of Afghanistan and Iraq.  When you go to the website through either of the links below, you will be able to get to the LIST and MAP views for both Afghanistan and Iraq.  The Map View is amazing... be sure to check it out. 

U.S. AND COALITION CASUALTIES IN AFGHANISTAN: 
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/table.afghanistan.html
This list includes the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen, and sailors whose deaths have been reported by their nation's government. The list also includes two U.S. Defense Department civilian employees. The troops died serving in the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom or the NATO-led International Security Assistance force in Afghanistan. At least 5,917 U.S. personnel have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon. In addition to the military deaths, one Jordanian and 11 U.S. intelligence operatives have died in Afghanistan. 

U.S. AND COALITION CASUALTIES IN IRAQ:   
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/table.iraq.html
This list includes the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and Coast Guardsmen whose deaths have been reported by their country's governments. The list also includes 13 U.S. Defense Department civilian employees. At least 31,822 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon. 

An Excellent Teacher

Thanks to Dr. Lanny Knell for passing this email message to me.  One never knows if these emails are true or not, but the message is a good one, so I'd like to share it with you.

A lesson that should be taught in all schools ... And colleges!  Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High School   in Little Rock , did something not to be forgotten. On the first day of school, with the permission of the School Superintendent, the Principal and the Building Supervisor, she removed all of the desks out of her classroom. When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there were no desks. 'Ms.. Cothren, where're our desks?'  She replied, 'You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn the right to sit at a desk.'  They thought, 'Well, maybe it's our grades.' 'No,' she said. 'Maybe it's our behavior.'  She told them, 'No, it's not even your behavior.'

And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third period... Still no desks in the classroom.  By early afternoon television news crews had started gathering in Ms.Cothren's classroom to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.  The final period of the day came and as the puzzled students found seats on the floor of the desk less classroom, Martha Cothren said, 'Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just what he/she has done to earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell you.'  At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it.  Twenty-seven (27) U.S. Veterans, all in uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall... By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned..  Martha said, 'You didn't earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you. Now, it's up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education. Don't ever forget it.'

By the way, this is a true story.

Please consider passing this along so others won't forget that the freedoms we have in this great country were earned by U. S. Veterans.

SGM David Carmel US Army Ret.

Housing Trends Newsletter

I'm excited to share a fabulous new monthly Housing Trends eNewsletter.  It is filled with local and national real estate sales and price activity provided by MLSs and the National Association of Realtors, and includes U.S. Census Bureau key market indicators, housing market video reports, blogs, real estate glossary, maps, mortgage rates and calculators, consumer articles, and information on 50,000 neighborhoods.  You will be able to see what's happening in your local market.

Please check it out!  I would love your feedback!  

http://pookbellini.housingtrendsenewsletter.com/default.cfm