Come and join us at the 32nd Annual San Antonio Home & Garden Show February 24th-26th, 2012.  This is the home show you wait for each year! The show will be at 100 Montana St., San Antonio, TX... better known as the Alamodome. 

Consumer Reporting Companies

If you decide that you don't want to receive prescreened offers of credit and insurance, you have two choices:

1. To opt out for five years: Call toll-free 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688) or visit www.optoutprescreen.com. The phone number and website are operated by the major consumer reporting companies.
2. To opt out permanently: You may begin the permanent Opt-Out process online at www.optoutprescreen.com. To complete your request, you must return the signed Permanent Opt-Out Election form, which will be provided after you initiate your online request.

When you call or visit the website, you'll be asked to provide personal information, including your home telephone number, name, Social Security number, and date of birth. The information you provide is confidential and will be used only to process your request to opt out. If you don't have access to the Internet, you may send a written request to permanently opt out to each of the major consumer reporting companies. Make sure your request includes your home telephone number, name, Social Security number, and date of birth.

Telemarketing

The federal government's National Do Not Call Registry is a free, easy way to reduce the telemarketing calls you get at home. To register your phone number or to get information about the registry, visit www.donotcall.gov, or call 1-888-382-1222 from the phone number you want to register. You will get fewer telemarketing calls within 31 days of registering your number. Telephone numbers on the registry will only be removed when they are disconnected and reassigned, or when you choose to remove a number from the registry.

Mail

The Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) Mail Preference Service (MPS) lets you opt out of receiving unsolicited commercial mail from many national companies for five years. When you register with this service, your name will be put on a "delete" file and made available to direct-mail marketers and organizations. This will reduce most of your unsolicited mail. However, your registration will not stop mailings from organizations that do not use the DMA's Mail Preference Service. To register with DMA's Mail Preference Service, go to www.dmachoice.org, or mail your request with a $1 processing fee to:

DMAchoice
Direct Marketing Association
P.O. Box 643
Carmel, NY 10512

Email

The DMA also has an Email Preference Service (eMPS) to help you reduce unsolicited commercial emails. To opt out of receiving unsolicited commercial email from DMA members, visit www.dmachoice.org. Registration is free and good for six years.

CPS energy announced that it would no longer offer rebates to consumers in regards to solar screens.  For the past four years, CPS has offered a variety of rebates for solar screens.  It is not clear the reasoning behind this decision.  Solar screens have provided a reduction in energy use, especially during peak usage.  There are still a number of utility companies offering rebates for solar screens in the San Antonio Metro area.  

Protect Yourself

If you live in the San Antonio area and are thinking about purchasing solar screens for your home, choosing a competent contractor is the most important step.

• Deal only with authorized contractors. Make sure that any contractor you’re considering has been approved by CPS or GVEC to offer energy rebates.  For you own protection, salespeople that require and accept payments before the job is completed bear much closer scrutiny. Don’t assume that all companies who advertise in the Yellow Pages have are able to process the necessary documents for your energy rebate or that they’re reputable. Check out solar screen companies with the Better Business Bureau. You’ll find out if there are any unresolved consumer complaints on file.
• Ask your friends, relatives and co-workers to recommend a solar screen company that they themselves have used.  Ask solar screen companies if there’s a fee charged for an estimate before allowing them to come to your home. You should get at least three written estimates. Ask the salesman to explain price differences. Don’t automatically choose the lowest bid, consider factors such as quality, installation and warranty. 
• Be skeptical of solar screen salesmen who come to your door unsolicited.
• Beware of solar screen salesmen who ask you to pay up front.
• You have cancellation rights. Under Federal law, you have three business days to cancel a contract if you sign the contract in your home or at a location that is not the seller’s permanent place of business. The salesperson must give you two copies of a cancellation form  and a copy of your contract or receipt. The contract or receipt must be dated, show the name and address of the seller, and explain your right to cancel.

Check Out Your Contractor

Ask the solar screen salesman for the following information. Use it to check out the company with appropriate authorities and previous customers. If the contractor is reluctant to give you this information, consider doing business with another company.

• An unsigned copy of the contract
• A copy of the estimate
• Contractor’s name
• Street address (no P.O. Box)
• Telephone Number
• Number of years the company has been in business 
• Names, addresses and telephone numbers of previous customers. Ask them about their experiences with the company. If possible, visit a completed job.

There is only one source that makes a house hot... the sun. Doors, windows, walls and ceilings insulate your home, and your heating and cooling expense is directly related to how efficiently they insulate. The better the insulation, the less energy is consumed keeping your home cool and comfortable.

Windows

Windows produce almost half of your home's heat build up in the summer. You should shade all east and west windows with solar screens, awnings, solar shades, trees or shrubs. Shaded windows can save you 25% on your air conditioning cost. 

Weatherization

What you want to do is seal up all the cracks around exterior doors, windows, pipes, vents, electrical boxes, chimneys and pet doors. Any opening that allows outside elements to enter your home should be sealed. 

Ceiling

The two main contributors to heating up your ceiling is insulation and ventilation. It is not uncommon for attic spaces to reach temperatures in excess of 150 degrees. To prevent that heat from radiating into the living space below, you will want to have an R-value of 30 for your ceiling insulation. You should have a balance of intake and exhaust vents. The intake vents should be lower than the exhaust vents. 

Walls & Doors

With just a little work and a few dollars you can significantly reduce your electric bills, add life to your air conditioning system and enjoy the comfort of your energy efficient home.

Make an appointment with a StarShade professional for a no obligation, free estimate.

New home builders increase the tonnage of air conditioning by one ton for every one hundered square feet of glass that's on a homes surface. Most new homes average around 300 sq ft of window glass. An extra 3 tons of air conditioning is needed because of lost insulation from the window glass area. 

Not only must the capacity of the air conditioning be increased, the actual system must cycle on more often and for longer time periods.  Solar screens will save electricity and air conditioning system maintenance and repair bill costs.

The temperature in a garage can climb well over 100 degrees.  Rooms over and adjacent to it will get very warm.  A steel garage door will radiate heat just like a toaster.  Even in early morning, the temperature will be 10-15 degrees warmer than the outside temperature.  

Driving, in the summer months, heats up almost all mechanical parts on an automobile.  Now park that puppy in a warm garage, close the doors, put in the cake and bake for 45 minutes.  Ok, we know it gets hot in there!  What can we do about it, without having to take out a second mortgage?  Short of spending $500 a month on air conditioning to cool down your easy bake oven, here are several ideas that can help with the problem without raiding the kid’s college funds.  We will look at insulation, exhaust fans and screening.

Insulation

Automobiles radiate heat  for hours after they are parked.  You do not want to close an insulated garage door after placing a hot car inside.  An insulated door becomes a big problem in the summer months.  The space above your garage, especially if you have a living area above, can always do with extra insulation. This applies to the walls that are shared with the home.  This is a resonably inexpensive way to keep adjoining spaces cooler.

Exhaust Fans

To cool your garage as efficiently as possible, you need to install one or two powerful sidewall ventilation exhaust fans.  There are many varieties and price ranges of fans designed to pull air through and exhaust it back outdoors.  Don’t get you expectations up too high because with just a fan, your temperature will still be higher than the temperature outside.  Leave the garage door up about 4-5 inches to insure plenty of air flow from the outside. Fans will do better if located high on the wall, opposite the garage door.  Look for high quality motors, well balanced fan blades, a timer or thermostat control and weatherproofed, self closing louvers.  As with anything, you get what you pay for.

Screening

For anyone who spends a good deal of time in their garage screening in front of the garage door offers several advantages.  The cost for a professional to install a motorized roller shade could be expensive.  I am concluding that if you spend serious time in your garage, you have to be pretty handy.