The HTRC

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FAQ – Help, my water usage doubled?

It seems almost like a monthly occurrence; the water bills come out and someone asks something along the lines of – why did mine jump up so high? Do I have a leak? Did the water main break have something to do with it? Is my meter bad? Did anyone else’s inexplicably double or triple? […]

Filed Under: Consumer Awareness Tagged With: Water December 16, 2020 By SLS

Tuesday Tip – Check those Batteries

Batteries not included… no worries, I have plenty here in this drawer. Uh oh, are they all dead? Ahh, it must be Christmas time. In today’s tip we are going to show you a quick way to test those batteries because all it takes is for one bad battery in the set to leave you […]

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks December 8, 2020 By SLS

Tuesday Tip: 550 Cord & Sleds / Other Seasonal Toys?

The leaves are falling, which means for many of us up in the northern part of the country we are breaking out our winter gear & toys while stowing our summer gear. One issue we had while doing this, was we noticed that one of the plastic sleds had a broken handle. While we could […]

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks October 13, 2020 By SLS

Monday Musing: Don’t believe the Hype

Lately there is a lot of chatter & hype over a “new study” where many groups are going – wow, we got to ban gas cooking, Electrify Everything, or quite simply saying, see we told you so. They love showing charts similar to this one below (taken from said study) as all the evil attributes […]

Filed Under: Consumer Awareness Tagged With: Cooking, Ventilation October 5, 2020 By SLS

FAQ: How to Rescreen or Fix your Screens

In the August Homeowners Maintenance Checklist we mentioned checking your doors & windows which of course includes the screens. One good reason to do it now is this is the time when many of us like to throw open up the windows & let some fresh air in, preferably without the insects being able to […]

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks August 25, 2020 By SLS

Tips & Tricks: Failed a Blower door test?

Uh oh – your on the home stretch, trying to knock out this project so you can move onto another one & bam, you failed the blower door test. Unlike a normal failed inspection where you need to fix one or maybe more items that are clearly spelled out, you are now stuck trying to […]

Filed Under: Air Sealing & Insulation Tagged With: IR Testing August 11, 2020 By SLS

Tuesday Tip: Rewiring European Plugs

If given the chance, I will always buy local. With that, there are plenty of times when you can’t find what you need locally so “Amazon” here I come. In this case I needed a pool pump / filter for a pretty small pool. Unfortunately not everything sold on Amazon is sold or fulfilled by […]

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Electrical, Wiring July 21, 2020 By SLS

Tuesday Tip – 2 for Exterior Painting

Ahh summertime – time to knock out those pesky exterior painting projects. In my case, I have three & the trim around the garage door is first on my list. Yep I started scraping & then decided, just to be safe… Yep if’s it’s red it’s lead – drats. Granted it was built a few […]

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks July 16, 2019 By SLS

Monday Musings: Polar Vortex Lessons Learned

There is nothing like adding together some colder than normal weather & wind to see just how well designed your home or a building is. With all the news coverage leading up to this last polar vortex you would have thought we were going to see ships outside our front doors like in the movie […]

Filed Under: Consumer Awareness February 11, 2019 By SLS

Tuesday Tip: Fixing a common closet light chain issue

Unless you have a walk in closet or one with a light switch, one big issue is just where is the cord to turn on the light? Sure you could turn on the bedroom light, but waking up your spouse or sleeping kids… yeah not a good idea. Adding in a light switch? Yeah that […]

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks October 30, 2018 By SLS

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