Johnathan Mullaney, Broker, Flagstaff Real Estate

Tips & Ways to Save You Money and Make an Impact On Our Environment

1. Ok I am sure you have an opinion on this one. Compact fluorescent light bulbs. They save a bunch of money, at warehouse clubs and discount chains the are almost as cheap as regular bulbs and with the time they last it works out to be cheaper. These bulbs last a long time. They warm up faster than they used to. I remember when they first came out. I hated them because you had to warm them up. The CONS: The light spectrum is not the same and outside in the cold most still do take a while to warm up. If you are going to use outside use cold rated ones.

2. Turn down the heat & air conditioning. 1 degree difference can save tons. Put a sweater on!

3. Energy Star - When you can check the Energy Star ratings when purchasing appliances. Now don't just take the manufacturers

word. Check with Consumer Reports© as they have proved some false tests. If you don't subscribe, go to your local library and research for FREE.

4. Don't buy bottled water. Most people aren't aware that they are selling you tap water and may not have the same standards as your local company. They come in wasteful bottles and you are paying way more for tap water than if you filled your own. So reuse, now the best way is to purchase some 100% stainless steel water bottles. Reusing plastic may have health effects and the PC # 7 bottles have BPA in them in which they are studying the effects of and may not be good for our bodies.

5. Car pool or ride the bus or yet ride your bike (your body will also thank you).

6. Turn things off and unplug if your not using. Something's use electricity even though your aren't using.

7. Don't purchase carbon offsets to make you feel better. In some cases these maybe scams or only using a small portion to plant the trees. Instead take that money and plant a tree, pay someone to plant a tree or check your local nursery to see if they have programs.

8. Use your dishwasher. Yes use it. Studies have shown that your normal mode (or better you Water Miser/Smart wash) uses less water than conventional. Think about it, you fill 2 sinks up (1 for soap, 1 for rinse which usually gets emptied at least once) or worse you keep the water running. Now if you scrub every single dish and rinse them all well and then put them in the dishwasher, then this may not be beneficial as you are using double the water.

9. Turn you water heater down. Turning it down can save lots of dough and energy. Do you need it that hot? If you have a large house and the water has to travel a far way, install a recirculating pump. The pumps are programmable to run when you want them too and take the warm water and cycle it through out the house. Now if your water heater is 7 to 10 years old, you may want to replace it. They get filled with settlement and need to work twice as hard to heat the water. If you are going to replace or put a recirculating pump in, do them at the same time to save you money.

10. Check your house for energy loss areas. Windows are a big loss. The best fix is low-E windows which can be pricey. The cheaper thing to do is use insulated blinds, they will help keep the heat in. Also check weather striping, around doors and windows or anywhere that fills colder than others. Check under the house and in the attic for proper insulation and to make sure it hasn't fallen down in the crawl space. There are also some neat new spray insulation products that are very high efficiency, call today for a referral.

11. Close your doors in the winter. Dad was right saying "Are you trying to heat the neighborhood?" You will loose large amounts of heat by opening that door.

12. Speaking of doors, close you refrigerator door. The less it needs to work, the more energy saved. Also when you do open that door, pull everything out that you need and put it all back in at the same time (less door opening). ALSO, clean behind and under your refrigerator every couple months. This will help the compressor work more efficiently.

13. Use ceiling fans to cool or push the heat down from vaulted or high ceilings. Ceiling fans don't use as much energy as a furnace, heater, swamp cooler or Air Conditioner.

14. Recycle & Reuse. Recycle everything you can, compost your food scraps and reuse what you can and try to use glass or stainless steel when doing so.

15. If you have single paned windows, replace them when you can. I suggest using Low-E, check local building codes, some (like Coconino County) require them.

16. Air dry your close, the dryer's of today aren't much more efficient than ones 10 years ago.

17. Reuse your old clothes as rags. Sock, cotton shirts & pants make a great dust rages.

18. Use real house plants. They purify the air from toxins from building materials, electronics equipment and other off gassing.

19. Don't use air fresheners, they use nasty artificial chemical that may cause health problems. This includes incense, the set on counter, in plugs, reed diffusers.

20. See our Building Materials page for TONS more green building tips. http://greenflagstaffrealestate.com/building.html

Now that you have one of these 10-??mm lenses. You get it set up and start taking pictures. You import them into your photo program and there is a lense distortion and everything looks a bit round or not quite the right perspective. What I do is open photoshop (I think photoshop elements works too) and there are 2 different types of corrections. The newer versions of photoshop have a filter under filters-> distort-> lense correction. Her you can play with the sliders to get desired effect. I only use this on some photos. Usually its only on side that look off to me. Instead I double click on the layer(hit ok) to take it off layer backround lock, grap the pointer tool, hold the control key and move the corner boxex out and down until it comes back into perspective.

Flagstaff Homes & Land: http://www.villagelandshoppe.com Also see: Green Flagstaff Real Estate http://www.greenflagstaffrealestate.com, Flagstaff Homes: http://www.flagstaffhomes.net, Flagstaff Real Estate: http://www.flagstaffrealestatehomes.com Flagstaff Real Estate Blog: http://www.flagstaffrealestateblog.com

I think yahoo is about to jack hosting prices out the roof. Godaddy has great prices and services. If you get a delux hosting account you can host all kinds of sites under 1 $15 a month hosting account. They also have a ton of other useful things for people that can't program or use site editing programs.

Flagstaff Homes & Land: http://www.villagelandshoppe.com Also see: Green Flagstaff Real Estate http://www.greenflagstaffrealestate.com, Flagstaff Homes: http://www.flagstaffhomes.net, Flagstaff Real Estate: http://www.flagstaffrealestatehomes.com Flagstaff Real Estate Blog: http://www.flagstaffrealestateblog.com

For you canon users there is a 10-22mm lense for $635 right now combined with how cheap the rebels are it may be a good deal. I have a couple rebels and can't believe how cheap they have become. I have been using the 10-22mm and it's amazing how much I get in and how big the rooms look. I now shoot almost all bedrooms & baths. # Important Notice! # Only compatible with the 50D, 40D, 30D, 20D and Digital Rebel series cameras http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/351542-USA/Canon_9518A002_EF_S_10_22mm_f_3_5_4_5_USM.html

Part 6 http://activerain.com/blogsview/867774/Wide-Angle-Lenses-Part-6-Photoshop-Filter-For-Distortion

Part 5 http://activerain.com/blogsview/866538/Wide-Angle-Lenses-Part-5-The-Digital-Conversion

Part 4 http://activerain.com/blogsview/866489/Wide-Angle-Leses-Part-4-The-difference-Between-18mm-10mm

Part 3 http://activerain.com/blogsview/866297/Wide-Angle-Lenses-Part-3-Fix-Distortion-Tutorial

Part 2 http://activerain.com/blogsview/858048/Wide-Angle-Lenses-Part-2

Part 1 http://activerain.com/blogsview/857299/Wide-Angle-Lens

Flagstaff Homes & Land: http://www.villagelandshoppe.com Also see: Green Flagstaff Real Estate http://www.greenflagstaffrealestate.com, Flagstaff Homes: http://www.flagstaffhomes.net, Flagstaff Real Estate: http://www.flagstaffrealestatehomes.com Flagstaff Real Estate Blog: http://www.flagstaffrealestateblog.com

We had a great week for snow. A very nice storm just rolled through Flagstaff. It's time to go skiing or snowboarding as Arizona Snowbowl just opened. Go to http://www.arizonasnowbowl.com for more info. If you don't already know or you don't live in Flagstaff it's time to come! All in perfect time for a holiday week.

Flagstaff Homes & Land: http://www.villagelandshoppe.com Also see: Green Flagstaff Real Estate http://www.greenflagstaffrealestate.com, Flagstaff Homes: http://www.flagstaffhomes.net, Flagstaff Real Estate: http://www.flagstaffrealestatehomes.com, Flagstaff Real Estate Blog: http://www.flagstaffrealestateblog.com