Being a cat fan when I saw this little wind up rechargeable LED flash light, it was on my “must buy” gift list for every friend I have who is also a cat lover like me. It is absolutely adorable and actually gives off a decent amount of light. When the lights went out in our offices recently it was this little cat LED flash light that saved the day when I wanted to visit the Ladies Room! It is small enough to fit in a purse and can save you fumbling on a dark night when you are trying to fit your front door key in lock. Starting at $14.99

http://www.greenandmore.com/greenandmore-blackcat-rechargeable-LED-flashlight.html

Before you rush ahead and install a tankless water heater (starting at $177 for a Mini Tank Heater) in your home you need to do some investigation to decide whether indeed it is the right option for you and your family. Let’s be clear, I am a great fan of tankless water heaters and grew up with them 40 years ago in England and they are the wave of the future, but like every appliance they have their pluses and minuses.

On the Plus Side:

 

• You never need to worry about a water heater failure and flood while you are out for the day - let alone away on vacation. That peace of mind is worth quite a bit in my book.

 

• A tankless water heater can easily last 20 years and we have heard of some lasting over 50 years, so over the long haul they can yield enormous replacement water heater cost savings.

 

• Hot water in a family accounts for about 10-13% of their total energy bill. Using tankless water heaters, an average family can save about $250 a year in energy costs.

 

• Both federal and state governments are promoting the use of tankless water heaters so you might get as much as $100 credit for purchasing one. We predict that in the future all new homes will have tankless systems in them.

 

• Hot water on demand is literally endless, so if the unit is properly sized, there is never a possibility of running out of hot water even if everyone in the family is using hot water for showers, dishwashers and laundry at the same time.

 

On the Minus Side:

 

• While the cost of the tankless water heater is about the same as a conventional water heater, the installation is often much more expensive with the break even point at five years of more out. So if you are not planning on staying in your house very long this might not be a good choice for you. The plumbing part of installation is quite simple but most home owners will have to spend quite a bit of money on electrical upgrades to their breaker box to bring in several dedicated 220 volt lines. Herein lies the installation cost which can run as much as $500-$1500.

 

• While tankless water heaters last so much longer than their conventional counterparts, they are not without some maintenance costs every 5 to 7 years. There are electric heating coils inside the water heater and this is its point of failure especially if air gets into the water pipes. This may happen more often than you think because the mains water can get shut off outside when road repairs are taking place and you may or may not get notified that this is taking place. Also if you shut off your water when you are going on vacation then you will have noticed that it “spits and sputters” on your return and you need to let the COLD water run for 5 to 10 minutes before turning on the hot water. The good news is that the element only costs $35 and can be easily replaced by the home owner. This is a spare part that we recommend having put aside somewhere so you never have to be without hot water.

 

• You need to decide what is the perfect water temperature for your house, which can be a bit difficult if you have bathrooms on 3 different levels. The bathroom on the highest level will always have water which is slightly cooler than downstairs. We all typically run the water hot then mix it with cold to get the perfect temperature. Stands to reason that you do not want to spend money heating up water only to then cool it down afterwards. Relearning that behavior will take some getting used to.

 

• If you have the kind of furnace which is designed to “free heat” your water heater, then you are only heating up your hot water in the summer months, which would make your payback period much longer and may give you pause to consider whether it is a viable project for you.

 

This being said I gamely volunteered to be the corporate guinea pig to install a tankless water heater in my house. My conventional water heater was 11 years and due to burst any day, so I was taking a chance in keeping it going. I chose a top of the line Eemax system and opted for external digital controls to regulate my water temperature. I have an oil based system and it was 10 years old and is an accident waiting to happen. My house is 25 years old so I do have a modern circuit breaker panel system but it was too small to accommodate any more breakers.

My Results:

 

• In all I spent $200 on a circuit breaker upgrade parts and $300 for the labor. Probably not too different than regular water heater installation costs. There were no problems in the installation- it worked perfectly from the get go.

 

• The wonderful thing that I found about the tankless system, is that whether it is for a long hot soak in the bath or prolonged shower, which I do twice a day to loosen up my back. Guess what? The hot water never runs out!

 

• I found that the hot water takes about 10-12 seconds more to run hot than my conventional hot water heater, but not enough to be annoying. And then the water can really be as hot as I want.

 

• We have had some very frigid weather in the Northeast this winter and it was so nice not to worry about frozen or burst pipes when we were away on vacation.

 

• In winter, my oil heating system partially heats my hot water, but nevertheless my electricity bill was $15 less in the first full month of use. In the summer months, the savings will be much larger as I will not be using my oil furnace at all. I reckon I will save $15 each month for 9 months and then a minimum of $100 in oil over the summer for a total annual savings of $235 in energy savings in the first year. Given that a tankless hot water heater can last 20 years ,it will not be long before I am ahead of the game.

 

Starting at $177.99

http://www.greenandmore.com/tankless-hot-water-heaters.html

Many years ago, I had an energy audit done in a townhouse I live in during the work week, and one of the first things they did was recommend the installation of an attic tent so that we did not waste either heating or cooling costs through leaks to the attic. It is not without significance that this house which has been “energy proofed” is significantly lower cost to run than our newer summer home which is of similar size. Energy conservation is all about doing a bunch of little things but they all add up. I recommend getting yourself an attic tent or another form of attic insulation cover so you can save on your energy bill and help the environment by reducing your energy use.

We have a bunch of these hygrometers scattered throughout our house as I like to make sure that the humidity level is being kept under control, preferably no more than 50% humidity. Above this humidity level is when both mold spores and dust mites can start to breed. By using these hygrometers I have peace of mind and so can you. Priced at $39.95 and it also features a thermometer and clock.  

http://www.allergybuyersclubshopping.com/thermometer-hygrometer.html

As company president, I am often asked which dehumidifier do I use in my own basement? I use two dehumidifiers one of them being the Comfort-Aire low temperature dehumidifier which I have hooked up with a pump to my furnace in a room which abuts the finished space of about 800 square feet. I have been using the Comfort-Aire for four summers without any problem at all. It has been amazingly reliable and most certainly gets the job done. I set it at fifty degrees and monitor its performance throughout the space with a humidistat. We routinely have power outages each summer and because of Auto Restart, as the saying goes the Comfort-Aire keeps going and going. For the price, I do not expect it to last forever but I certainly think it gives good value for the money. Starting at $319.95 for the 50 pint low temp dehumidifier.

http://www.allergybuyersclubshopping.com/comfortaire-lt-45-65-dehumidifiers.html

Our latex pillows come in three levels of firmness and when checking around to our staff, I found that “Latex Soft” is by far and away the outright winner. I have fallen in love with these pillows, which are wonderfully scrunchy and as a side sleeper, I like a nice responsive pillow. I like these pillows so much I have put them in every bedroom of our home and am confident that they will last at least 10 years which makes them an outright bargain. Coupled with that they are dust mite resistant which means I do not have to purchase dust mite encasings for them. Before I bought these pillows I was somewhat skeptical of a “rubber pillow” having slept on down for my entire life - but these latex pillows made a believer out of me. A perfect pillow does not always have to be made out of down. Starting at $169.99

http://www.allergybuyersclubshopping.com/latex-foam-pillows.html

Both my husband and I have come to the age where we no longer want to peer in semi darkness to read, and in fact enjoy a lamp that gives us an agreeable amount of full spectrum illumination. The Bluemax full spectrum lamps are the best we have found to date and my husband uses the desk lamp at work and will read his scientific journals under the floor lamp. I on the other hand, I swear that the font size on all publications gets smaller every year, and the bright but non-glare illumination of these lamps makes reading a pleasure again. I grant you that they are not the highest styled lamps in the world, but they are actually quite pleasant looking, and when we have compared lamps they definitely give off more light than their competitors. So for that reason alone they are worth your consideration. Starting at $179.95

http://www.allergybuyersclubshopping.com/bluemax-full-spectrum-lighting.html

When you sell luxurious silk bedding like that made by Kumi Kookoon, you run the risk of spoiling your spouse forever. These silk duvet covers are without doubt a little bit of wonderful decadence and when a customer changed their mind about an order, I was first in line! And so it was that a Kumi Kookoon silk organza duvet cover made its way into our home. “Is this silk?” queried my husband as he ran his hand over the cover approvingly. On learning that indeed it was, he urged me to get another one, so we would have one always ready for changeovers. I have to admit that it is really handsome and the workmanship is simply superb. You would never think that a man would be so in love with a silk duvet cover but you may well be as surprised as I was. Starting at $738.00

http://www.allergybuyersclubshopping.com/silk-organza-collection.html

Here is the Five minute ABC video that was shot at my home. It provides some quick tips on what you can do to reduce allergens in your home. Sorry about the ads.