In the kitchen I wanted to keep the recessed lights and either put covers on them that make them airtight or buy new ones that were. The covers would cost the same as new ones. Either option meant Scott had to go back into the attic, not something he was looking forward to. Then while I was looking online at how to save energy with recessed lights I came across LED bulbs for recessed lights. They screw into your current fixture and make it airtight.

The LED light bulbs use less energy, give off no heat, become airtight and it meant Scott didn’t have to work in the attic. The only downside was the cost, $50 each. How in the world would I convince Scott that double the cost was a good idea in the long run? I was prepared to plead my case when he came home from work but all it took were two facts: they give off no heat and installing them means not working in the attic.

Installing them was very easy and we had all five done in less than 40 minutes.
Depending on the type of recessed lights you have currently it can take less than 5 minutes per bulb.

Start by turning off the power to the switch by flipping the breaker on your electrical panel that controls that switch. You don’t want someone walking by and accidentally flipping the switch.

Take all your old bulbs out and remove the outer ring/trim from the light. Our socket was not free standing which meant we had to unscrew it, no big deal.

Next we had to remove the plate at the top of the housing. According to the box it slips down easily. Not so in our case, the wires were ran a small hole making it impossible to slide pass the socket. Instead of cutting the wires and from the socket Scott used tin snips to cut the plate once it was hanging loose. This was really the only time consuming part and why it took us 40 minutes to install the new lights.

The new light attaches just like a light bulb. You screw it in and the metal clips on the side catch in the can of the recessed light. The bulb and trim are all one piece.

I am very pleased with the light they give off; it is a true bright light not the blue tint you normally associate with LED lights.

Prior to installing these I had asked Scott about installing another row of lights but these are bright enough I no longer need it. The LED lights can be used with a dimmer switch but we did not install one. When we redo the kitchen next year it is something I want to add.

Just the facts:

1.  LED bulbs do not produce heat therefore they do not add heat to the room. The average CFL bulb can increase the room temperature by as much as 2 degrees.

2. Gives off bright light: 25,000 lumens; 65-watt incandescent equivalent

3. These bulbs have no Mercury content and do not need to be recycled the way CFLs do.

4. Average lifespan of the bulb is 20 years!

5. Only uses 10.5 watts of power that is about 3 watts less than a CFL bulb and 50 watts less than a regular incadescent bulb.

6. None of the warm up time that CFL’s require, you flip the switch and like a traditional bulb you have instant light at full brightness.

7. The total cost was about $250 after a 10% off coupon and tax but each bulb will save over $200 in the course of its lifespan.  That does not include the fact it will reduce the temperature in the kitchen which also saves money.
Below are the after pictures. My only regret is that we did not paint the ceiling and exposed beams prior to installing the new lights. We know that we are redoing the kitchen next year and didn’t want to waste time or money with painting now.

Sealing up the leaks was our next project for beating the heat. We knew we had a few but we had no idea how many places are potential leak issues. You can see by the diagram there are a lot.

We purchased high temp attic grade silicone from Home Depot and went to work. Scott took care of the attic including around flues, electrical boxes, vents and anywhere else we saw light coming through or felt air coming in. We installed foam weather-stripping around the attic door to finish off the attic area.

I used silicone to seal around the door frames and windows. Then we installed H-4 Spring-v weather-stripping to the door frame. It prevents any leaks between your door and the frame. Home Depot does not carry it in store but Ace Hardware does.

Finally we put door sweeps on the bottom of the doors leading outside and to the garage. This cost less than $10 for both and has made a noticeable difference especially in the door leading to the garage.

Altogether to seal up the house we spent about $25. The great thing about sealing the house is that it helps with the temperature of the house year round.

Next week I will share with you how we handled the recessed can lights in the den and kitchen. This repair has been my favorite so far, excluding getting the AC working properly.

This summer has been incredibly hot here in Texas and as I told you before we have been going crazy trying to reduce the heat in the house.

So far we have put up solar screens, reduced our indoor cooking,  and a few other things I will be sharing with you soon. The one thing we had not done yet was to have our AC unit serviced. We had our old unit serviced yearly after it was three or four years old but since this one is only 2 years old I figured we could invest the money somewhere else in the house. BIG MISTAKE!

Last week Scott mentioned that I should probably go ahead and have them come out and check it since the house is not really cooling down. He also reminded me that sometimes not having it done can void  the warranty. I figured it would’t hurt so Tuesday I called Metro Energy to schedule our service.

Brian came out Today (7-28-11) and at 10:54 am the house was 80 degrees, nothing new for us. After a few minutes of looking at the unit outside he let me know that it needed to be cleaned out. The condensing unit outside was clogged with cotton wood gunk, leaves and just everyday dirt and stuff that blows around in the wind. Brian compared the way the unit was working to putting a blanket around it and expecting it to work. With the air unable to circulate the unit could not operate efficiently. That is why we got cool air blowing from the vents but not cold air. (A poorly running AC is probably why we did not notice a big difference instaling the solar screens.)

Brian got the outside portion of the unit cleaned then when into the attic to check the rest of it out. Come to find out our unit needed 3 pounds of coolant. By the time Brian finished cleaning out the condenser and charged the coolant the house was already dropping in temperature. He was here for about an hour; when he left the house was at 78-79 degrees. Within another 30 minutes it was at 78 and for the first time in months cycling off.

FYI: Metro Energy is not compensating me in any way for this post. I only mentioned them by name because they installed our first unit and have serviced our house for over 15 years without ever disappointing us! If you need your unit serviced and in the DFW area I would highly recommend you give them a try.

We went from an average daily use of 97 kw in June, 111 in July and in the 72 hours since it was fixed about 64 kw. That should drastically change our electric bill!

Don’t put off regular maintenance!