ASK THE EXPERTS
Thomas Hellhoff
Mike Greer
Energy One America
Michael Greer Pools
If a person already has insulation or siding installed, are they still a good candidate for spray foam insulation?
What are some steps to making pools as maintenance free as possible?
Anybody can be a candidate for the most part, unless you have completely vaulted ceilings. When I come into a home, I typically go straight to the attic because that’s where you’ll get the most bang for your buck. That’s where you get all of the radiant heat coming in from the roof. It’s the air entering from the outside through the soffits and going up to the ridge that affects the rest of the air in your house. That air that comes in will travel throughout your home through interior walls all the way from your crawl space to your attic creating what is known as the stack effect. We want to stop as much of the air penetration to your home as possible. Spray foaming your attic underneath of the roof sheathing and closing off the soffits will encapsulate it, bringing it to a very comfortable condition, and giving you better energy efficiency. For more information, call Energy One America at (843) 388-6260 or visit energyoneamerica.com.
Creating a low-maintenance pool is a definite possibility, especially with today’s technology. I’m the exclusive dealer for Paramount’s PVR3 in-floor cleaning and re-circulation system; this is the latest technology in in-floor cleaning. I’m working with UV and ozone options to cut down or even eliminate the use of chlorine. We are trying to do everything we can to minimize the impact of chlorine on a pool system. We would like to focus on UV and Ozone as being the primary sanitizer while making salt our backup system; this is truly the best of both worlds. The way homeowners can check their pool water is becoming easier as well. Gone are the 'old-timey' liquid test kits. Now the pool owner can use a single test strip to determine their chemistry readings in one simple fashion.
For more information, call Michael Greer Pools at (843) 607-4739 or visit michaelgreerpools.com.
Mike Thompson
Outdoor Lighting Perspectives
How energy efficient and “green” oriented are lighting systems and are retrofitting options available to help a homeowner in that regard? The systems we use to illuminate the front and landscape features of your home are incredibly energy efficient because we use LED lighting systems. For example, a home can run a 60-light system and only see an increase of about $.50 on their power bill per month at the most even if they are running it from dusk until dawn every day. That same system using halogen bulbs instead of LED ones at the same rate of usage would cost somebody around $10-$15. If a homeowner wants to go green, he or she can look into updating any system through our company; it is better for energy efficiency and savings to upgrade to LED in the long run. Our team can clean and upgrade an existing system regardless as to whether or not we originally installed it. It’s one of my pleasures to go into a system and really clean it up and make it look beautiful again. For more information, call Outdoor Lighting Perspectives at (843) 412-5874 or visit charleston.outdoorlights.com.
These questions originated from our radio show: now in our eighth year, Talking About a Home, a home show on the radio, airs every Saturday from 1pm to 2pm on 94.3 WSC-FM and online at 943wsc. com. You may also listen to archived radio interviews on our website, charlestonhomeanddesign.com.
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CH+D • Spring 2017