Re: Cost of living in Las Vegas?

It's Big Mikey wrote:


4. Invest in awnings, tint and solar covers wherever you can. They pay for themselves.

We installed solar screens and absolutely love them. The material of the screens blocks visible, IR and UV and the little that gets through is just enough to light a room. I have an IR indirect-reading thermometer and can "shoot" an object and get its temperature. My GOD- the difference the screens made on the inside of our house where sunlight would shine. My leather chair in the office is exposed to full sun through a window in the afternoons. Even with film on the windows, the chair would hit 115f in sunlight. After the screen went up, it was 78f. Besides savings, the comfort level increased a lot as well.



5. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER heat the pool. Get used to a cold pool in the winter months-if you even use the pool.

Pools in a desert climate are self-cooling through evaporation. Heating is for summer use- without it a pool is simply too cold to enjoy. We have solar heating panels on the roof and can maintain a comfortable 88f from March through October.


6. If you have a gas stove, keep the pilots clean. Or invest in electric pilots. Also CLEAN THE REFRIGERATOR and FREEZER and vacuum the coils.

.. . . and if you have a gas fireplace, for goodness sake turn the pilot off when you're not going to use the FP. Marsha's solution is even better- an electric FP. <Grin>


7. Inspect the roof once a year. Check for insulation for SUMMER as well as winter.


Using my same IR non-contact thermometer, I invested a couple hours time walking around the second story of my home "shooting" the ceiling on about a 2' grid on a very, very hot summer day. 81, 82, 80, 81, 80, 110, 80, 90, 81, 115. . . you get the drift. We had good insulation in the attic, but the folk doing the final work up there, such as the HVAC guys, "stirred" the insulation up. In other places, there were gaps and in other places there was no room to install batts. My solution was to have a company come out and blow an additional 10" on top. That filled the gaps and skips plus added more insulation, including under the HVAC handlers, in the corners etc. Afterward, I took my gas blower up on an extension ladder outside and blew the heck out of the soffit vents to clear them.


8. See how much light you really need. For example, in our bathrooms we can turn on 4 lights-but why when two work perfectly. If you have not switched to halogen, what are you wafting for?

Reliable compact florescents and LED's.


9. If you travel often, DISCONNECT your electronics. (Yeah I know it's a pain to reset, but does save money)

If I was going to build again, which I'm not, I think I'd consider THREE zones of power to the house, instead of two. Zone 1 would be powered by the incoming line OR a generator for continuous power for refrigerators, HVAC, essential computer etc. The second zone would be powered by the incoming line only and would be for anything I'd not want turned off during a long vacancy, such as summering in a different house, trips, cruises or other vacation/business trips. The third would be for the nonessential things that I would cut off when out of the house, such as wall warts, other computers, televisions and devices that draw power 24/7. It'd be simple to do when building a house. An alternative would be an X-10 like system where nonessential wall warts or similar power drawing devices could be shut off by pressing a button when leaving.


10. Work with your thermostat. See what you can tolerate for heat or cooling. Most people just do not give it any thought. I still think fans correctly put in places around your house will contribute to a lower cooling bill.

Nevada power has a load shedding scheme. You get a free Internet thermostat and they can bump your setpoint 4 degrees or so when temps are >100f and they need to shed load.


"Marsha L" <ThoseEyes48@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:gv1f5n$jnt$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"DocTCW" <doctcw@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:rtude6xdec.ln2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The "suites" at Venetian and Palazzo are 700 sq ft, and I don't think I
could live there comfortably more than a week at the most.

Tom

My entire house is 1112 sq ft, and it think the apartment I grew up in was about half that, so smaller than those suites. That said, I've seen some really small apartments since, and I wouldn't want to do that again.



--
Nonny
If you think health care is expensive now,
wait until you see what it costs when it's free!

- P.J. O'Rourke
.

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