As a new member to HomeESP, I checked out the Savings Center to find discounts, both online and for stores where I shop.  Frankly, I always look for a good deal.
And saving money with the HomeESP Savings Center just got faster, easier and even more rewarding. This Product Search, the latest benefit in the Savings Center gives you one place to discover savings on millions of great products. Simply enter the item you want, and enjoy top deals from the world’s best brands.

I needed a couple of things and found the Saving Center's Product Search tab where I could easily compare what was available and at what price.  Maybe there would be some discount coupons as well...

Our automatic garage door would not close and I was sure that the track had been dented or the bolts had loosened.  That seemed to be the only way to explain how the door would begin to close and the garage door would come within 6 inches of the ground before it would catch, stop its decent and then start back up and open. 

This is a minor inconvenience until you are racing to work in the morning and you pull out of the garage and in your view mirror you see the door shutting… until it stops and opens up, essentially leaving your house open to anyone who wants to come in the usually un-locked side door.

I am not the most handy DIY home maintenance-type but  I tried a few things by poking around and imagined having to call the garage repairman before I thought I would give good ole WD-40 a shot.  A couple of sprays on the garage door’s wheels and the track was all that was needed.  It’s been days now and all is well.  This was just another of the many successes for WD-40.   There are thousands of uses for WD-40 all over the house, indoor and out.  Some of the garage uses that have been described on the wd40 website include:

Any time is a good time to perform an easy DIY Electrical Safety Audit.  The more entertainment systems, computers and kitchen top appliances taking up more electrical outlet space and electricity, the more important it becomes to periodically step back and do a full house inspection.

We sometimes take for granted our electrical products and most certainly forget the potential fire hazards that faulty wiring or an overloaded system can cause.  The numbers are staggering and worth getting a bit frightened about.  

In homes with forced-air heat, indoor air becomes very dry without a duct-mounted humidifier, so they're a pretty common accessory with minimal but important maintenance needs.  Most homeowners know that the humidifier water panel needs to be replaced every heating season.  But what happens if you forget to replace the water panel?

We recently found out.  I went down into the basement to get some tools and noticed water on the floor near the basement air handler.  Since it hadn’t rained recently (and our basement doesn’t get wet from rainstorms) I figured that something had to be going on with the humidifier waste pump, humidifier itself or (worst case) the air handler’s heating coil which passes air over a hot water coil from the boiler.

There are five questions you need to ask before you move forward with a prospective contractor on any major home repair or remodeling project.  One of our HomeESP members did not use our Contractor Locator service and found out the hard way what happens when you don’t pre-screen your Contractor and ask all the questions.  She wants us to share her experience with you so you will avoid her mistakes.

Maria from Illinois asked this question of Bruce, our Ask the Contractor expert:  “How can I find out if a contractor has purchased windows? The contractor would not give me the place he ordered windows from, when I asked for a refund.” 

(It turned out that Maria’s question was related to a bigger issue with her contractor. Maria gave us additional background enabling us to get to the root of her problem.) 

I just bought a Slingbox Solo for the times that I travel and just absolutely positively have to access my TV for things like sporting events.  Not only will I be in a foreign country when the big football game is on but I will be in transit during the hours the game is being televised so I cannot even find a sports bar with a satellite dish to satisfy my needs.  I will need to tape the game via my DVR (my cable companies TIVO) and then watch the game later that night on my computer from the hotel room.
(I will tell you how it works out.)

 It got me thinking about the growing trend of people watching TV Video on anything but a TV.  People love their video whether it’s an episode or clips from their favorite TV shows or whether it is the overnight sensations like the cat playing piano while riding an elephant that a friend just emailed you.  More and more of the internet enabled are moving away from watching digital media from TVs to other screens, such as their computers, tablets or phones. ---

According to eMarketer (February, 2011), 60.5% of Internet users were also online video viewers.  This number jumps to 65% in 2010 and 76% by 2015.  Will there be no need for TVs in the future?  Cable companies were concerned about the trend and forecasts.  However, surprisingly (or maybe not), consumers who have said they wanted to cut their pay-TV service, according to surveys, have not actually done so.

A Harris Poll survey (released October, 2010) asked Internet users in the US where they watched their TV shows.  As one would expect, 95% of Internet users age 55 and up said they watched their shows either primarily on TV or mostly on TV but sometimes on computer.  More interestingly, 70% of the Internet users in the age group 18-34, they still watched primarily or mostly on TV.  12% said they watched mostly or primarily on their computer. An Opinion Research Corp survey done for Accenture (March, 2011) listed the leading frustrations when watching online video according to Internet users worldwide.

• Time required to buffer/download/play video
• Advertising during the program
• Poor video quality
• Poor navigation/search/EPS
• Increased broadband/high-speed data costs from downloading video

I think the cable TV companies are safe for the moment but as technology improves, we will likely see TV video viewing continue its migration to other devices.  So hold onto that TV of yours and enjoy the big screen… or like me, use the TV for the DVR capabilities so I can Slingbox things to my computer and me around the world.

I was in my home office last week, when I heard a rustling and scratching sound that could only be a bird or squirrel in the chimney.  It was right on the flue damper.  While it was tempting to ignore it, and let the critter die in the chimney, this is neither humane nor when I thought about it, the least smelly option.  (Who wants a decomposing squirrel in the chimney?)

Since I had no idea how to proceed, I called in the experts.  Using the contractor locator on HomeESP, I plugged in my requirements and within an hour had two calls from qualified animal removal experts.  One asked for a $275 fee, the other was $125 to $175, depending on whether or not they had to climb the roof.  I don’t always go for the lower price, but in this case I got a better feeling on the phone from the lower bidder (All About Bats & Wildlife of Norwalk CT).

After my initial call with the owner of All About Bats (where we agreed we'd wait and see if the squirrel indeed could climb out of the chimney), it seemed that the noise had abated – did the critter get out?  

Funny how as a kid, all those injuries felt like minor aches and pains that could be fixed by "walking it off."  My how things have changed for me.  Like a fine wine, I get better with age... well, except for the aches and pains part.

Over the years, I have been prescribed plenty of wonderful and expensive (thank goodness for insurance) medications to help me heal.  Many of the drugs, like my antibiotics for strep, I needed to take for all 10 days.  But most of the drugs prescribed were on an as needed basis.  I have amassed quite a collection, a veritable mini-pharmacy, of those seriously strong narcotics.  And they now need to be disposed of. 

We should think safety first and must take care when disposing of drugs.  Different drugs should be disposed of differently.  Where we toss the drugs could pose a danger to our children or pets.  If we flush drugs down the toilet that shouldn't be, we could be dangerously tainting our own drinking water.

You get what you pay for.  It’s as true today as it’s ever been.  When you buy an inferior product, it will cost less at the outset, but often has a short warranty.  Sometimes a lesser brand will add a long or lifetime warranty to improve its image and ability to sell its products, which can make a purchasing decision a little more complicated.  Buying a product with a lifetime warranty can mean a higher cost at the outset, but provides a measure of comfort and reduced total cost of ownership over time.  Higher quality can mean lower cost, when you take a long view.

Recently we had three product failures that required us to make a claim on lifetime warranties.  Here’s what they were and what we experienced:

Child’s trundle bed frame from Charles P. Rogers.  We have a Marseilles iron trundle bed that is 10 years old.  A weld on the headboard broke as a result of years of kids bouncing on the bed.  The tab that holds the headboard onto the frame rails separated from the headboard.  The people on the phone at Charles P. Rogers were very nice, service-oriented and helpful.  They pledged to honor the warranty and gave me instructions to drop off the frame or ship it (at my cost).  It took me about six weeks to get around to shipping the headboard, and they actually called me to find out if I still needed service.  Finally, I got my tools and took the bed apart, and after  $100 or so in packing and shipping expense and about a week and a half later, the headboard was returned, major (kid inflicted) paint chips touched up and with a bottle of touch up paint.  I feel compelled to give this company an “A” for overall performance and good customer service experience.  http://www.charlesprogers.com/

Down comforter from The Company Store.  Linens manufactured in this catalog merchant’s La Crosse, WI facility are covered by a lifetime warranty.  Our seven-year-old down comforter’s fabric became brittle over the summer and ripped as we made the bed one morning.  A call to The Company Store 800-number (800-323-8000)

I lost electricity again.  It was a beautiful partly sunny unusually warm day for early winter and we lost power.  There are many reasons for power outages and this one was a “transformer fire” somewhere far away but on our line.  Thankfully, it lasted for only a couple of hours but it was inconvenient and a reminder of the more damaging and costly blackouts of the previous few months.  We lost power for 6 days during Hurricane Irene with its high winds and flooding rains and then, soon after, nearly 75% of our town lost power for days during the recent freak late October snowstorm.  This blackout was a reminder to buy a generator that can supply emergency power to our house sparing us the loss of lights, water for toilets and showers, and heat and importantly help us avoid the cost of replacing spoiled food and drink that needs to be thrown away if not refrigerated.

Need a generator?  Good luck!  You are not alone and you should expect to find long waits for out of stock portable generator inventory to be replenished and completely booked up contractors who can do the professional installations necessary to outfit your house and enable the emergency power supply to find your lights and appliances etc.   Find someone now and get on their list immediately for installation in a month or so and maybe you will have a generator in place before the next big power outage.

During the snowstorm, we miraculously did not lose power. Families escaped to relatives or friends’ homes if they could.  Two of my daughter’s friends stayed with us for the week that school was out.  It was a fun adventure for the girls and ok with us blessed with uninterrupted electricity but it was no fun at all for those without power.  Those with generators were generous and gracious hosts and those without generators swore they would finally buy an emergency power supply so they wouldn’t have to face power outages without an alternative. 

Whether your neighbors decide to buy a (relatively) simple generator that they could run extension cords to or a bigger portable unit that plugs into a separate fuse box to sends electricity to only the most critical areas in the house like the refrigerator to keep perishables fresh, well pump to keep the water flowing and sump pump to keep the basement dry, they will be better prepared for the next blackout event.  If they can afford to, they should even consider purchasing a big whole-house unit that starts up automatically and powers the entire house and, somehow, is barely audible above the hum it emits.  In certain areas of the country, generators are just not a luxury but an insurance policy against perishable products.  And with more and more people working from home, a loss of electricity can be more than a minor inconvenience.  You can only be so productive while sitting and working in the local coffee shop or library.

So what kind of generator should you purchase?

After you determine how much of the house you need or want to power and how much you can afford to invest to do so, you can begin looking at the many shapes, sizes and types of generators.  Be sure to ask