Cardinal Home Inspections

Remember your big air conditioning electric bills last summer? For the average home, raising your thermostat by just 1 degree in the summer can save over $40/year. So even though it is only April, now is a good time to starting thinking about how you can begin to adapt your lifestyle to help reduce your energy bills for this spring and the coming summer. If you increase the thermostat for your air conditioning by just one degree, you can save between 1-3% of your total annual energy bill. So example, if your annual electric bill is $2000 per year, then you can save $40 by making this small change. According to Energy Star, the optimal temperature setting for air conditioning is 78 degrees. If you move it to 79 degrees, you may not even notice the difference. And for the few times that it is uncomfortable for your family, you may find that you can adjust to these periods by just making small changes in your lifestyle. In a typical home, your air conditioning system uses the most e

A gas barbecue grill is a great way for your family and friends to enjoy outdoor cooking. But according to the US Fire Administration, barbecue fires severely injure about 6,500 people each year, and cause over $27 million in property damage. This article and video provides gas grill safety tips that will help keep you, your grill, your food, and your home all safe. GRILL SAFETY Let’s start by looking at grill safety . . . which includes both operating the grill safely, and personal and child safety: Operating the grill safely Here are some tips for operating your grill safely: Open the lid prior to lighting the grill. This is to prevent any buildup of gas. Be careful of gas trapped under lava rocks. If you poke the lava rocks as soon as you light the fire, it may result in releasing pockets of flammable gas. Keep the grill stable. Be sure that all parts of the grill are firmly in place and that the grill is stable and can’t be tipped over (helpful accessory: grilling gloves

Lawn Mowing Tips for Nice Lawns & Personal Safety Done wrong, lawn mowing can damage your lawn, making it more susceptible to diseases. And lawn mowing also poses quite a few safety risks that you definitely want to avoid. This article and video gives lawn mowing tips that will help you to: 1) protect the health of your lawn; and 2) protect the personal safety of you and your children. Lawn Health For the health of your lawn, when you mow you will only want to cut down about one-third of the total height of your grass at any one time. The reason is that if you cut more off than this, it puts too much strain on the grass, since it is the green part of the grass plant that provides the energy for it to grow. You should also sharpen your mower blades after every 10 hours of mowing. Mowing dulls the blade, and when the blade is dull, rather than cut the grass, it instead tears it. And tearing the grass damages it, and makes it more susceptible to

Why Would I Ever Want to go Up In My Attic??? If you are like most people, going up in your attic is probably as far down on your list of things to do as you can probably put it. But for saving energy and protecting your home, it is important that you do the proper maintenance for your attic either yourself, or bring in a professional do it for you. And now is a good time to go up there, before your attic gets too hot. This article discusses the following for your attic: * Annual Maintenance Tasks * Operating Tips * Improvement Projects ANNUAL MAINTENANCE TASKS Doing the necessary routine maintenance tasks for your attic is important for: 1) maintaining the energy efficiency of your home; 2) protecting your home from pests and water damage; and 3) extending the life of your roof. The following are the maintenance tasks that you should do at least once a year for your attic: Vents and fans:  You should inspect your attic vents and clean out

They are lurking in your home, and they attack while you are sleeping, when you leave . . . well basically, they attack all the time. It's the devices which continue to suck power, even when you have their switches turned off. But are these really a big deal when it comes to energy savings? Or are "energy vampires" just an urban myth? Turning off your computer when it is not in use is a great way to save energy. But did you know that even when the computer is switched off, it can still continue to suck electricity from your electrical outlet? This phenomenon of energy still being consumed when appliances or gadgets are turned off is called "vampire power," or sometimes "standby power" or "energy leaks." Does My Home Have Electricity Vampires? There are two simple ways to see whether your appliance is drawing vampire power: If when you switch off the appliance or gadget there is a lit display on, then your gadget is drawing vam

Hello, Friends! Protecting Your Family and Home Recently there have been a number of home break-ins and auto thefts in our Charleston communities. Last week in Cane Bay, cars were broken into and one was even taken from the driveway of one family while they were packing for vacation. Thanks to law enforcement the vehicle was found, unfortunately for the owner of the vehicle their vacation money was in the vehicle at the time of the theft and was not retrieved. Home Security Monitoring There are lots of do it yourself options for home security that can save you money like the nest security doorbell monitor or the  SimpliSafe Home Security System . There are also professionally installed systems that may save you time and effort. Special Offer In light of recent events we have partnered up with ADT to offer all current and past Cardinal Home Inspection customers and agents access to exclusive Home Security offers.