There are many steps you can take to prepare your home for the winter season, but one of the most beneficial and cost-effective ways is to plug all of the air leaks in the home’s interior and exterior. Most people don’t realize how much energy they are wasting each year due to these small air leaks.
You might think that a small hole in your siding, the size of a pencil eraser, couldn’t result in significant energy loss, but it can and will. Energy experts claim that the average home in the United States has enough of these small holes that, when compounded, will add up to a nine square foot hole in the home’s exterior. In other words, it is like having a three by three foot hole in your wall that is open year around: spring, summer, winter and fall.
One of the best ways to determine where your leaks are is to inpect your home on a windy day. With the help of a lighted incense stick, move around the home’s interior and check and common places such as around electrical outlet covers, recessed lighting fixtures, doors, windows, baseboards, and even cracks in the dry wall. The smoke from the burning incense stick will make it easy to determine where exactly the air is entering the house. As you move through your house checking for drafts, be sure to keep notes as to where they are so that you can easily return to seal them.
Now that you have found all of the areas where air is entering the house, the next thing to do is start sealing the leaks. Leaks around doors can usually be addressed with very little effort, by even the least experienced do-it-your-selfer. Simply purchase and install weather stripping around your door and install door sweeps.
As for windows, if they are older, single-pane windows, there will be very little you can do to to seal out the leaks, so you might consider installing new vinyl replacement windows or storm windows. When you take into consideration how much energy you are wasting with older windows, new replacements or storms can pay for themselves quickly. If you can’t afford to make these types of window improvements right now, there are other solutions that will stop the problem, temporarily, such as wrapping your windows in plastic. You can buy these window wrapping kits at nearly every hardware store and/or department store. These plastic window films are very easy to install and well worth the effort.
As for drafty electrical outlets, rubber gaskets can be purchased at your local hardware store and installed between the wall and electrical cover.
Most other leaks around the home can be taken care of with a simple caulking gun and a few tubes of any type of weather resistant caulking. If the area that requires sealing is concrete, brick, or block, be sure to use a masonary sealer. Masonary sealer can also be found at your local hardware store and comes in tubes just like caulking.



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Most people would agree that natural light is more pleasant and more comfortable than artificial light, but does everyone really understand the benefits of natural lighting?
Natural light produced by the sun can benefit the body in many ways, and it has been proven that natural (full-spectrum) lighting is healthier than artificial lighting.
For example, natural lighting sources trigger your body to produce Vitiman D, which boost the immune system and builds strong bones and teeth. Vitiman D has also been proven to treat a variety of disorders including some cancers.
Everyone can benefit, in one way or another, from the effects of natural lighting, so why not consider bringing more sources of natural lighting in to your home.
The easiest and most affordable way to add natural lighting to your home is to replace your existing light bulbs with natural, full-spectrum, light bulbs. These bulbs can be purchased at most of your local home improvement warehouses, and are highly effective at bringing the benefits of natural light indoors and work wonders at reducing eyestrain as well.
Full-spectrum light bulbs work great, but if you really want to take advantage of all of the benefits of natural lighting, you should consider installing tubular skylights in your home.

Skylights are a great way to bring natural light into your home. However, traditional skylights are a significant source of energy loss, and they often don’t distibute light evenly enough and can cause UV damage to carpets, wood floors, and home furnishings. But tubular skylights, on the other hand, will bring natural light into your home without all of the disadvantages associated with these traditional skylights.
Tubular skylights distibute light evenly. They are energy effecient and will cut down the cost of your electric bills.

Tubular skylights have a roof-mounted light collector with a highly durable acrylic lens positioned inside a rust-proof metal frame.

Most tubular sky lights have a highly reflective sun scoop in the roof assembly that directs the sunlight into a metal tube which has a mirror-like reflective interior coating. This reflective tube guides the captured sunlight to a diffuser lense, mounted on the interior ceiling surface, that distributes light evenly throughout the room.

Installing tubular sylights is the best way to bring the benifits of natural light into your home, and they are suprisingly inexpensive to install.


Contact your local home improvement specialist today and ask them if they install tubular skylights.
If you live in Blacksburg, Christinsburg, Radford or surrounding areas of Virginia, contact Profixes Home Repair and Maintenance for your free tubular skylight estimate www.profixes.com

Installing replacement windows is the, single, most important investment that you can make for your home. In fact, a replacement window will actually pay for itself over and over again, and the savings will start accumulating the moment that they are installed. Replacement windows will, effortlessly, keep your house cooler in the summer months and warmer throughout the winter season, and therefore reducing your energy cost. In addition to lower utility bills, replacement windows will also increase the resale value and overall look and comfort of your home. No matter how you look at it, you can not lose when it comes to installing new replacement windows.

If you are considering installing new replacement windows, you may also qualify for the U.S. 2009-2010 energy tax credit. All you have to do is purchase a qualifying replacement window and you could recieve a tax credit up to $1,500 on your 2009 or 2010 federal income tax return. Replacement windows that qualify for this tax credit must have a U-Factor equal to or below 0.30 and a Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) equal to or below 0.30 in all climate zones. This credit is only available on replacement windows installed before December 31, 2010.



If you live in Christiansburg, Blacksburg, Radford or in the New River Valley, and you are considering installing new replacement windows, you can contact Profixes Home Repair and Maintenance of Virginia for your free, affordable quote. To contact Profixes, visit our website Profixes.com