As your electricity bills increase, you might consider turning to alternative energy sources to lower costs. With solar energy making alternative energy sources more accessible, and manufacturers of wind turbines (aka windmills) developing new technology that makes them more practical for an individual home, it’s worth looking into if wind-driven electricity is right for you.

The different types of residential wind turbines

Residential wind turbines essentially come in the same configurations that you might see in industrial and commercial applications, but scaled down for individual homes. The most common design is the horizontal axis turbine with two or three blades, but there are also vertical axis turbines with a variety of designs that can be installed in a residential application. The vertical axis turbines sometimes take up less space, so they can be helpful if you don’t have the space for a horizontal axis windmill.

How much you might pay for a residential turbines

The average household can expect to pay $50,000 for windmill installation, since the typical price per kilowatt is between $4,000 to $8,000 on average, according to the Colorado State University Extension Service. While this is definitely not a small investment, there are various tax credits that can save you up to 30% on installation through the inflation reduction act, and you might also be eligible for state or local credits towards the purchase of a windmill. Check on your eligibility for the US Department of Energy tax credits as well as for local programs that encourage solar and wind energy source installation.

If you are using a wind turbine as a backup power source to charge a whole house battery or to supplement another power source like solar panels, you can find a small, 1.5 kilowatt, vertical axis wind turbine for as little as $500.

Are residential wind turbines efficient?

While windmills can be pricey, they're extremely efficient. To compare them to solar panels, which are about 20% efficient, windmills are about 50% efficient on average and can reach up to 59% efficiency in optimal conditions, according to the World Economic Forum. This can mean a significant savings on your energy bill—a wind turbine can pay for itself between six and 20 years from installation.

How to estimate the size wind turbine you need

Most residential homes use between 800 and 900 kilowatt hours of electricity each month, according to the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. To make a dent in your energy bill, you’ll need a wind turbine that can generate between five and 15 kilowatts. To get a more accurate idea of how much power your home usually uses, you can take a look at your electric bill and average your monthly kilowatt hours usage per month. Once you know about how much power your turbine will need to produce for your particular home, an expert will need to assess wind conditions in your yard to calculate the size blades you will need for your turbine. Residential turbine blades can range from four feet to upwards of 50 feet depending on the wind speed, so a wind turbine probably isn’t for you if your average wind speed requires, say, a 100 foot windmill.

Drawbacks of installing a wind turbine

Because wind turbines have moving parts, they tend to require more maintenance than solar panels. Since the blades can be damaged by storms and even by winds that are too fast, they need to be serviced more frequently than solar panels. Wind turbines only work when the wind is blowing, and although they will continue to produce power in the dark and on cloudy days, they can’t generate electricity if there’s no wind. This unpredictability makes them an impractical option as a sole power source in most situations. Wind turbines can also be noisy and some people don’t find them to be visually appealing, so that can be a drawback as well.

One of the major drivers of monthly utility bills is the cost of heating and cooling your home. While insulating your attic or crawlspace can improve the efficiency of your HVAC system, there’s another step you can take to keep your home cooler during the summer months as well as reducing your overall energy usage: a cool roof. A cool roof is an addition to your overall cooling efficiency system that can save you money on your AC bill.

How a cool roof works

A cool roof is designed to reflect more sunlight from the surface of your roof than a traditional roof, making it more efficient to keep your home cool in hot weather. Similar to how wearing light-colored clothing in the sun can keep you cooler, a cool roof can reflect infrared as well as visible wavelengths of light to prevent heat from being absorbed into the roof and heating up your home. There are a variety of materials that can reflect heat from a roof, sometimes involving lighter colored materials, but also incorporating materials that reflect infrared wavelengths without changing the appearance of your roof much.

The pros of installing a cool roof

A cool roof can reduce the exterior temperature of your roof on a hot day by about 50 degrees, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Cool roofs can cool down a home to safer levels even without air conditioning, and can give your existing air conditioner a boost, reducing your energy bill. In some cases, the exterior temperature reduction of a cool roof can extend the life of your roof by reducing wear due to heat on your roofing materials.

The cons of installing a cool roof

If you live in a cold climate, a cool roof can cause an increase to your home heating costs. In climates where what’s known as the "winter heating penalty" outstrips the energy savings of your cool roof, you should avoid installing a cool roof.

If you have an existing roof that’s in good shape, replacing it with a cool roof can be costly.

The types of cool roofs

There are a variety of materials that can be used to make a cool roof. The options available can depend on the slope of your roof, the climate you live in, and aesthetic choices.

For steep roofs (more than 2:12 pitch):

• Ceramic coated asphalt shingles

• Lighter colored wood shingles or shakes

• Composite shingles that are light in color or have IR reflective coating

• Light colored or cool coated terracotta or clay tiles

• Light colored of cool coated concrete tiles

• Light colored or cool coated metal shingles or tiles

For low-slope roofs (less than 2:12 pitch):

• Light colored or cool coated single-ply membrane

• A built-up roof with a cap sheet that has a reflective mineral coating or an added layer of reflexive marble or gray slag

• A modified bitumen sheet membrane with a mineral coating or an added reflective coating

• A spray foam roof

For steep or low-sloped roofs

A standing-seam metal roof can be used on either a steep or low-sloped roof, and can be coated similarly to metal shingles or tiles with a light color or IR (infrared) reflective finish to make it cooler.

Green roofs

Green roofs can reduce the interior temperature of your home as well, and while their installation can be complicated, a modular green roof system can save you some money on your project and provide many of the benefits of a built-in green roof.

When is the right time to install a cool roof?

Once your current roof is due for replacement, a cool roof can be installed for a similar price to a traditional roof. Replacing a perfectly good traditional roof with a cool product will be more expensive than waiting, but if you have a metal roof or a membrane roof, you can likely apply a cool coating to your existing roof, even if it’s not time for a total roof replacement.

With gardening season in full swing, and the weather getting hot enough in some places to wilt your plants if they’re not watered, you might be noticing an increase in your water bill. And sure, you could opt for native, drought-resistant plants for yards and gardens to help save water—but you don’t need to rip out your landscaping in order to reduce your water bill. Instead, try employing some smart watering techniques.

Use a smart hose timer

One way to reduce watering costs is to set a timer so that your hose can turn on at the optimal time of day and for a planned amount of time. Using a smart hose timer allows you to time your sprinkler or other watering system. Many also have the option to delay your watering schedule in the event of rain to prevent double watering. You can use a smart hose time that connects to an app to keep track of your watering history and adjust to conserve water when you want to.

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Water at the right time of day

Watering your garden or lawn in the middle of the day can cause more of the water you use to evaporate before it gets to your plants. Watering early in the morning, before the sun comes up—or late at night after the sun sets—can save you water by making sure more of the water from your hose makes it to your plants.

Consider drip irrigation

Since a sprinkler throws water droplets up into the air before they hit your plants, they can tend to use more water than a drip irrigation system or a soaker hose that rests on the ground and emits water directly onto the soil. A drip system also allows you to more precisely plan where you want to water, so if you have plants that need a lot of moisture, you can add a drip hose or soaker hose to those areas in particular.

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Mulch your garden beds

To keep more moisture close to the soil and slow down the evaporation process, allowing more of your water to make it to the roots of your plants, add some mulch to the surface of your garden beds. To mulch, you can use grass clippings or leaves, which have the benefit of being free, or you can opt for wood mulch instead. You can also sometimes get free wood chips from Chip Drop for spreading in your garden—but be aware that you will end up with quite a large volume of chips, so plan ahead if you go this route.

Direct your rainwater

Rain is the cheapest of all irrigation methods. If you have downspouts that route water away from your foundation when it rains, you can add a downspout extension to aim your rainwater runoff towards your garden beds or particular plants that need more moisture. You can also choose to add a rain barrel with a downspout diverter if they’re allowed in your area, but make sure to check for local rainwater collection ordinances before installing one.

Use gray water

While you could opt to install a gray water recycling system in your bath or laundry drain to recycle water that’s been used for washing, that involves adding plumbing and sometimes can be expensive, depending on the complexity of the project. A simpler way to reuse your water is to use a basin when washing dishes and then use that basin to water your planters. If your washer drains into a slop sink through a hose instead of into a closed pipe, you can add a water collection tank to your washer, allowing you to reuse the water for plants after it’s been used for washing. In general, you should be careful not to use water with too much food waste in it—especially salt, meat, or dairy—to avoid causing issues for your plants.

Perform preventative maintenance

Check your hose connections that you use for watering as well as any buried lines for leaks on a regular basis. To check for leaks, look for excessively damp areas, especially when your sprinklers and valves are off. You can look for puddles or muddy areas that aren’t reduced by dry conditions in other places as well as spongy spots on your lawn. Replace your hose valves if you notice any water coming through when they’re turned off to prevent wasting water from leaky connections.

Living in an older house is, for many reasons, an experience. From architectural details you don’t see anymore, to layers of paint and wallpaper, to custom built-ins, there are features hidden everywhere.

Some quirks of older homes, however, are hard to ignore, let alone miss—like a leaky basement, teeny tiny closets, or flickering electricity—which relators routinely label as “character” and/or “charm.” Creaky hardwood floors also fall into this category.

It’s one thing for them to betray you at night, making noises as you attempt to sneak into the kitchen unnoticed to grab a snack. But older floors also have a tendency to make squeaking and cracking sounds even if no one in the house is up and about. And even though you know it’s not an extra set of footsteps, your mind can play some pretty mean tricks on you in the dark.

Luckily, you have options for how to address the problem and get your floors to quiet down.

Reasons your floor might be creaking

Over time, the fasteners that hold your subfloor to the joists or the hardware holding your flooring material down can become loose. In older homes, the nails holding things together can eventually begin backing out, allowing the floor to move. If space develops between the floor joists and the subfloor or between the flooring material and the subfloor, the wood will often make a creaking sound as it rubs against itself under pressure from footsteps.

How to stop wood floors from making noise

Lisa Kaplan Gordon writes in an article for Realtor.com, “Squeaks happen when a house settles and wood flooring dries and then expands. This causes the floorboards to rub against each other, or against the subfloor, or against the nail casings.”

Fortunately, she also has some ideas for how to stop the squeak. But first, you have to locate its source—something she says is a two-person job.

Have one person go down to the level of the house below the noisy floor (so if the creak is on the ground floor, head to the basement), while the other walks around on the squeaky floor. The person on the lower level should be able to pinpoint exactly (or approximately) where the sound is originating.

From there, you have several options, depending on whether you want a quick fix or something more permanent, and whether you want (or more realistically, are able) to tackle the problem from above or below.

From below

According to Gordon, a few of the ways to fix the noisy floor from below include:

• Spreading some construction adhesive or carpenter’s glue on a thin wood shim, and then gently tapping it between the joists and subfloor, or two floorboards, “taking care not to pound so hard that you raise or buckle the floor,” she notes.

• If there’s a bigger gap, you can use a caulking gun to fill it with construction adhesive between the subfloor and the joist.

From above

Meanwhile, here are some ways to go about quieting your floors from above, once again, per Gordon:

• Sprinkle talcum powder into the noisy cracks, cover the area with a towel or cloth, and carefully walk over it so everything settles. “The powder works as a lubricant that stops the rubbing that causes the noise,” she explains.

• “Drive ring-shank flooring nails (covered with little rings that prevent the nail from backing out over time) or cement-covered flooring nails into the seams between rubbing parts,” Gordon says.

• If the squeak is caused by the floorboards being separated from the subfloor, you can drive two nails at opposite 45-degree angles into joists (which you can locate with a stud finder), then use wood filler on the holes.

Try supporting the subfloor

The hardware holding your subfloor to the joists can become loose over time. Nails can begin to back out and the boards are then free to rub against their neighbors, causing a creaking sound. If your floor is squeaking because the subfloor is moving against itself, there are a few more things you can try.

• If the subfloor is accessible from underneath in a basement, you can try adding a support or cleat to the underside of the subfloor boards. Cut a piece of one-by-three or one-by-four to fit in between the floor joists of the problem area. Then use a pilot bit to drill two pilot holes to either side of the board. Using some short screw (1.5- or 1.25-inch), screw your cleat into the underside of the sub floor through your pilot holes.

• If the subfloor is accessible, you can also try toe screwing the offending subfloor board into the floor joist. Drill a pilot hole at an angle through the joist neighboring the offending subfloor board. Then, using a two-inch screw, drive the screw diagonally through the joist into the subfloor board.

Try lubricating the neighboring surfaces

Because the creaks are caused by neighboring boards rubbing against each other, you can alleviate some of the problem by lubricating the areas where the boards are rubbing. While this is a temporary solution and will need to be redone periodically, it's a quick and simple way to address the issue.

• Rub some beeswax into the cracks of your floor where the squeaking is coming from. Walk back and fourth on the area and then reapply your beeswax. Repeat this process until your beeswax has been well worked into the area. When you're finished, you should hear no squeak.

• If you have engineered hardwood or vinyl floors laid overtop of an existing floor, it might not be held onto the surface below with adhesive. If that's the case, you can use a floor lubricant to address the problem area.

If you want to update your color scheme and get the look of some of 2024's most popular colors without painting your whole house, you’re in luck: There are plenty of projects that you can do to add some new color with just a gallon or even a quart of paint. If you’re looking for a simple DIY project to add some color to your home, here are a few ways to add 2024’s most popular colors.

Ever year, designers as well as color experts from major paint manufacturers choose a color of the year based on global trends. This year, the color palette seems to be nature-inspired, with a lot of blues, but also greens, darker black and brown tones, and some floral notes like yellow and peach.

Paint some trim

To add color to a room without needing much paint, consider painting your door frame or window frame. For smaller frames, you should only need a quart of paint, but if you have more trim in your room, a gallon should do it. Try adding some Renew Blue from Sherwin-Williams or some Cracked Pepper from Behr to your trim to make it pop and give your color scheme a refresh. When painting trim—especially trim that is likely to be touched, like window and door frames—it’s a good idea to use semi-gloss or gloss paint to avoid damage and make it easier to clean.

Paint a door

If you have doors that have seen better days, you can give them a facelift with a new coat of paint. Standard sized doors without much damage might be able to be painted with a quart of paint, but if you need to do multiple coats, or if you have an oversized door, you should get a gallon, just in case. Try painting a door with Blue Nova from Benjamin Moore or Dark Auburn from Sherwin-Williams. Remember that removing a door before you paint can often make it easier to mask and will make your project go faster.

Paint some hardware

If you have metal hardware that needs a refresh, you can try spray painting it with some Krylon Bluebird. Spray painting your drawer pulls, knobs, and handles for cabinets or furniture can give you a pop of color without spending much money—just remember to use your spray paint outdoors or in another well-ventilated area. If you have wooden drawer pulls or knobs, you can try adding some peach fuzz from Pantone's color of the year as a brush-on.

Paint a piece of furniture

If you have a piece of furniture that needs a new coat of paint, you can incorporate a color of the year easily into your space. For most furniture, you can use a spray paint like Satin French Blue from Rust-Oleum. Just scuff up the surface a little bit with some fine grit sandpaper to make sure the paint sticks well. If you have wooden furniture that could use a boost, you can try using a sky-inspired blue like Upward from Sherwin-WIlliams to add a stripe or paint an edge. If you’re painting only a small piece, you can likely get away with just a quart of paint for this project.

Stencil on some color

With a relatively small amount of paint, you can add some detail to a floor, wall, ceiling, furniture, or really any surface big enough to hold a stencil. This project will work best on surfaces that are in relatively good shape already, and you might need to add a coat of sealer on top to make it durable for a tabletop or other high-touch areas. Use some Limitless, a buttery, floral yellow by Glidden, or any of the other colors we’ve listed and a stencil to add a colorful motif or pattern to your surface for an instant color pop that’s affordable and simple to do.