The solution is kindergarten simple. Here's some facts though to ease your mind. Every square foot of sunlight carries almost 100 watts of heat. It's really about 88 watts but say 100. We'll subtract 12% (100-88) later. So imagine you have windows 24" x 36" . That's about 6 sq feet. And they can let in 100 watts per sq foot. how many watts of power = 600 watts. Here's where that makes sense: An electric floor heater is about 1500 watts. So imagine in the Summer turning on a floor heater and leaving it on for 1/2 hour then turn it off for 1/2 hour all during the day. That's about how much heat can come through that one window. Will putting something to keep heat out help. --- Next on the roof. Insulation doesn't keep heat in or out. Is slows down how long it takes to come. So it's going to come in no matter what unless. You block it. Imagine your roof is 20 feet x 40 feet and you have a 2 story house. That's a 1600 sq foot house. 800 on the top floor = 20 x 40 and 800 on the bottom. that's no matter. So 100 watts x 800 = 80,000 watts of heat It's going to get through. So will it help to shade it? Let's be real. If only 1/10th of that heat gets into the house that's still the same as 5 x 1500 watts of heat on all day in Summer. Would you turn on a heater in those examples above. Then don't let the heat come in How to do it cheap. Anything on the windows help. Foil is ok. it will last for years if you fit it to the window first and then glue it down on cardboard. Then you can place it into the window. Maybe even make it so it flips down , etc , for the view. Roof. Painting the roof white helps a lot compared to black roofs. Is the cost worth it? It's probably not compared to other choices like planting tress but a. Tress can ruin a roof. Chinese elm puts tiny leaves which keep water on a roof no matter what. That rots and so some tress avoid. b. Trees take time to grow but you can buy them 'fully' grown. And install them fully grown. b2) Palm ? They're not going to shade much but you just calculate what they'll shade , the cost, the cost per sq ft of shading and pick the tree with the lowest cost per sq foot of shading. c. Other roofing choices. Foam roofing is not hard to do yourself. You must read up on it. Practice. Then you can do it yourself. Pull a permit from the city. The equipment used is $15,000. You can sell it again for probably the same price if you clean it. That cleaning IS a part of reading how to maintain it. Cost for 2000 sq foot roof in materials is about $3000 for everything. Foam and the white latex coating that's reapplied every 10-15 years. As long as it's reapplied the foam should last a 'lifetime' (50 to 200 years) Without reading any of the posts there's are other ideas probably. Have a flat roof? here's an idea. Put up trees on the roof. Be sure to have a registered architect or structural engineer. But you could have a garden on the roof shading within a few weeks. put a lot of trees in containers and you could make some money selling them as they got too big. And birds lvoe it if there's grass and wild plants. it's a real viable 'way to do business' now a days in old and new construction. KEYWORDS To search Coolroofs Green roofs Attic insulation. It's easy and cheap. If you can put it under the actual roof rather than on top of the attic 'floor' it will do more for the amount. In fact that under the actual roof is an ideal place to practice when you buy the foam machine. Again you must read and study before you do it. But it really is 'stupid simple' You can foam the under roof for $2000 and put an r-8 or r-12 where it will do a lot of good. Cost is about $1500 for 2000 sq feet. You can't rent the foam equipment from my research but buying it is not a bad choice. It's simple well designed equipment nearly identical to airless spray paint sprayer. do both. under actual roof and top of attic floor. THere's no reason not to. Here's an FYI. Making your own insulation is 'easy' . 5 layers (about) of paper, foil, paper, foil, etc is exactly what was used in the commercial building trade for under the roof insulation. The paper can be from newspaper end rolls. Fireproofing it can be done with a couple of cheap, safe to use, easy to buy chemicals. Read up by reading about fireproofing for theaters and stage productions. If you have a community theater ask the director or stage production manager where they buy fireproofing liquids. Or make your own as was done for hundreds of years. To save money always. Go to a Chinese bulk product site. Look up the price they sell a TON of something for. Then look at what you pay. You'll soon figure out a decent multiple, say 10x , their price and then never pay more than that. in the case of fireproofing sodium silicate also called 'water glass' is $250 / ton or 10c / lb. Buy 50 lbs for $10 and you've got yourself a deal. Mix it with water, spray it on , let it dry and try to burn the paper or cloth. It won't burn. Ok that's my dump. Enjoy and keep it cool. Putting up a few solar panels to heat water will keep heat off that part of the roof. Just a thought.

you don't need utility company power to get through the wiring and drywall stage. When they are running wires they need to drill through studs. They can use portable gen sets or battery operted drills for that. I ran all the wire for the second story and basement and never used a plug in electric drill - all done with battery tools. My electrician used a gen set to not only run their drills but also to run their microwave to heat up lunch - how civilized is that! For the drywall - they need to run screw guns to secure the drywall and dremmel tools to make the cuts around boxes and recessed lights. We did have utility power for that stage - but I can't see why they could not run the power gen set to run those - or use battery operated tools. You will need power to run the well pump if you have one. If you need water then you will either need to truck in the water or wait for the power. If the electrical is not in yet, then waiting 4 weeks for the power is probably ok. You still have to run the wires, get the electrical inspection, get the building and close in inspection, install the insulation, hang the drywall, tape and finish the drywall. In our case - this was a lot more than 4 weeks of work.

Tina, don't spend too much time being disappointed in yourself. First, that's just a waste of time, if you spend very much time on it. It's OK to be a little disappointed; that's what motivates you to improve in an area you value. But spend MORE time dwelling on the idea that the work you put in, in the past, made it easier to get caught up again. Let THAT idea roll around your brain, instead of the disappointment part. Then, next time you think , "Oh, I'll file that later, it takes too long to do it now," you will trigger the "last time, filing it made life easier later; it won't either take that long, and I'll be paying it forward," instead of "I'm such a crumb for not filing." Sometimes I think we need to treat ourselves the way we treat our children. Sure, we make them come back and pick up their own jacket and put it away. But if we're smart, we also point out their successes and encourage them. I walked DS to school today, and pointed out to him that he is very good at studying, at reviewing the material he's learned, and drilling, and memorizing, and thinking about it. And I pointed out that he sees a very big payoff. He studied hard for a multiplication-tables test, and got 100 out of 100 right! And he studied the rules for dividing words, and his entire row got to eliminate one homework assignment bcs they recited them back w/ no errors. True, there are times he didn't study, and got a 67 on his test. But every time he has studied, he gets a 97 or a 100. So THAT was what I pointed out. Not the goofs, just the successes. I kind of blew off paperwork this weekend (though I did take care of an envelope full of receipts this morning--can I count that as 8 instead of 1? I'll do more tonight, but I'm out tomorrow until midnight, so I'll have to pick back up on Thursday.

The recycling warm air from the dryer vent is a great idea. Growing up, my parents house has the washer/dryer hookups in the basement. There was a metal pipe that connected to the dryer tube and carried the air outside to vent. But it also had this option where you could pull on a switch and it would cap off the pipe and vent the air indoors. The lint was caught by a screen lint trap as the air blew threw it. This device always helped with energy costs and the house always smelled wonderful on laundry days! As for the website in the first post, I always take these things with a grain of salt. We all know that these things help with energy savings but most articles online don't give correct savings estimates - especially since most of these people don't live in your home town or even your home state. For example, a few years ago, my husband and I lived in a 800 sq ft apartment in Omaha, NE. After 2 years, we decided to move closer to family and moved into a 750 sq ft apartment in small town Iowa. The heating costs in small town Iowa are much higher even though we used gas in both places and the apartment in Iowa is smaller. Now, we have a huge house and a 2 yr old and we're just trying to figure out ways to keep our bills low.