5 Tips for Winterizing Your Home

Drafty fireplaces, cold windows and doorways, an uninsulated attic - all signs of a not-so-cozy winter.


Today on Good Morning America we walk through 5 Key Tips to Winterizing Your Home. Some of the projects like caulking are easy to do yourself and cost less than $100. Others - like a new furnace -- you can take up and still qualify for Uncle Sam's lucrative $1500 Energy Efficiency tax credit. It only lasts through the end of this year, though, so don't miss out if you're planning a qualifying improvement in the near future.


See some of the latest products out there to help in the video and read more online here.

How to Fix Your Inefficient Fireplace

An open fire is beautiful - but it's typically an energy hog. Most open fireplaces are only about 10% efficient with 90% of the wood's energy going up the chimney. They also can suck warm air you've paid to heat with your furnace right out of the home.

Today manufacturers are pitching a range of new designs and energy-efficient replacements that are fueled by everything from wood and gas to pellets, bioethanol and sunflower seeds.

Learn more about how you can improve your fireplace and see a slideshow and video above of the latest designs in The Wall Street Journal.

Dear About the House, Whatever Happened to ...

Did the compost worms escape in the house over winter? What about the deck garden - did those potatoes ever grow? And the wood stove, how much money did it really save?

This week is readers week for the About the House column. I went back and updated reporting on several stories from the past year, from no-fuss composting and EZ gardening tools to gas-less mowers and other outdoor power tools.

What went right, what went wrong - read more here today and watch the video above.

Who Are the New "Ruralpolitans?"

While urban and suburban real estate is still generally under pressure, the rural market is holding up better in many areas, thanks in part to "ruralpolitans," as I report in WSJ. These city and town dwellers are looking at land as their new safe investment, one they hope could prove more stable than their jobs and 401(k)s—and provide a better lifestyle.

Typically there are three groups: young people buying land as an asset or investment, with vague hopes to live on it someday; exurban commuters who have jobs in big towns or cities but want to escape the sprawl; and back-to-the-land types who want to dabble in hobby farming.

They're also driving sales in the outdoor equipment market -- small compact tractors and utility vehicles being among the biggest sellers. I tested the new eco-friendly Polaris Ranger EV (all battery-powered) in this video. And P.S., I'm a relatively new ruralpolitan myself. You can read about my conversion in "From Versace to Chainsaws."

ABC News Video: "Winter-Proofing" Your Home

There are good tax incentives available now for "winter-proofing" your home now through 2010. Among them, a 30% federal tax credit up to $1500 for certain energy efficient home improvements including:

Windows and Doors
Insulation
Roofs (Metal and Asphalt)
HVAC (heating and cooling equipment)
Water Heaters (non-solar)
Biomass Stove (wood stoves, pellet stoves)

For more details, we explore this on ABC News. Get the details and find out what qualifies at the government's Energy Star Web site.

Channeling Your Inner Lumberjack...

For the last month, I've been playing Paul Bunyan and learning to split wood. Good for the muscles, not so good for the fingernails.

But as I wrote in today's WSJ story, learning to split logs is a road to a bit of economic independence if you have a steady source of wood and a high-efficiency wood stove or fireplace insert. To get through the eight large trees that needed splitting, I tested a raft of tools from a 4lb maul to a gas splitter that cuts with 26 tons of force.

Judging from what retailers and manufacturers tell me, I'm part of a growing number of homeowners trying to ride out the economic storm by becoming more self-sufficient and tackling more complex home improvement projects. As Larry Kudlow points out on CNBC, even Ronald Reagan split his own logs sometimes.

Wear goggles and sturdy boots!

How Your Home Can Qualify For Bailout Cash

For those homeowners who feel they are falling between the cracks with the federal government's various stimulus efforts, my WSJ story today outlines some potentially lucrative tax credits available for various energy efficient home improvements.

The credits are available for everything from adding qualifying insulation and windows and hot water heaters, to solar panels and geothermal systems. However, some credits are available for a limited time period -- 2009 and 2010 -- so if you are in the market for some of these improvements or systems, now might be a profitable time to take the plunge.

GMA Video: Wood Stoves & Solar Water Heating

This morning I was down at the studios of Good Morning America discussing wood and pellet stoves as well as solar water heating. We shot part of the segment up near where I live in a small store called Home & Hearth in Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.

Here's a link to the video if you have trouble viewing here.

Retro Heat: the Wood Stove Returns

It's not your grandfather's pot-bellied stove. In today's Wall Street Journal, I talk about how high heating costs are sparking a rush to buy wood and pellet stoves -- as well as other heating appliances that burn corn, cherry and olive pits and hazelnut shells.

On the high end, there are soapstone masonry heaters with built in ovens and benches. (Pictured above from Tulikivi) They burn wood too but the soapstone absorbs the heat and then releases it long after the fire has burned out.

Personally, I'm retrofitting my own downstairs fireplace with a small HearthStone soapstone-plated wood stove that fits directly on the hearth. It burns far more cleanly (the EPA now regulates stove smoke emissions) and efficiently than the old 1970s fireplace insert I previously had. My house uses oil for its main fuel source, and prices have skyrocketed.

Want to figure out the most cost-effective fuel for your home? Try these two links, which have calculators:

U.S. Energy Information Administration
Pelletheat.org