The post Happy Halloween!! first appeared on Kansas City Attic Insulation Professionals | Energy Audits.

The weather is warming up and this means most of us are starting on a list of outdoor projects. We all know there will be those certain projects that you just won’t be able to get done this summer on your own.  Some of us may also find that you simply do not have the correct tools to do the job.  This is when it is time to call us!  Here at Green Improvement Consulting  we offer many types of exterior home improvement services.   Our experienced staff is very talented and customer oriented.  We provide very competitive pricing, while still offering good quality service.  Some of our most popular outdoor services are:

Exterior Home Painting
Deck Cleaning and Staining
Cement Power Washing
Siding Repair and Power Washing
Deck Installation and Repair

Owning a home is a big investment, so it is important that you are taking care of this investment.  The exterior of a home acts as a barrier to the outside elements and if not properly sealed, it can cause many issues.  Decks also needs to be properly cleaned and sealed each year to help prevent rotting.  Our experienced team wants to help you enjoy more of the summer by doing this hard work for you.

Continuing to keep the exterior of your home in good shape will not only create a beautiful curb appeal, but it can also increase your homes value.  These improvements will also help when you are ready to sell.  Therefore, start your project list and contact us today to keep your investment in tip top shape.

Call GIC at 816.301.4448 to schedule a FREE BID today!

Leave the outdoor projects to us at GIC and the fun to you!

The post Projects Outside Are Starting! first appeared on Kansas City Attic Insulation Professionals | Energy Audits.

These certificates are a simplified way for building officials to make sure your home meets IECC requirements.  Every new home must meet set energy requirements in order to pass inspection.

Here at GIC we would like to help make this process a little easier for you.

With a simple email sent, we will examine the plans for information needed to provide you with a completed certificate.  This will give you a simple report for code approval.  Although not every county requires a REScheck, it is a simplified way to make sure you are following Energy Efficiency requirements.

Contact us today to start your certificate!

816.301.4448

The post GIC is now offering REScheck! first appeared on Kansas City Attic Insulation Professionals | Energy Audits.

Most of us have plans for our tax return long before we receive them.  Why not put your tax return to use towards saving money all year round?  There are many expenses when owning a home, so wouldn’t it be nice if you could lower some of these bills.  Utility bills go up and down depending on the season, but can become a hefty expense each month.  What if you could lower your utility bills each month simply by doing a few improvements to your home.  Investing in the following home improvements could help you do just that.

Recommended money saving improvements:

The first improvement would be to air seal your home.  There is a certain amount of air sealing that can be done to a home, before mechanical ventilation would need to be installed.  A good way to find out which areas of your home that need air sealing, is to have an Energy Audit completed on your home.  During the audit a blower door will be be placed in your home and will be able to show the gaps in the home that need to be sealed.  By sealing these areas, you can help keep conditioned air from leaking to the outside of the home.  This will help keep  your HVAC from constantly running and raising your bills each month.

Another suggested improvement would be proper attic insulation.  Attic insulation acts like a blanket for your home to keep conditioned air from leaking.  If your home is not properly insulated, conditioned air can leak through the attic area to the outside.  Energy efficiency guidelines suggest that a home should be insulated to an R-49 in order to keep conditioned air from leaking.  The more air that leaks from a home, the harder the HVAC has to work.  The harder the HVAC has to work, the higher your utility bills will be.  Although attic insulation is a bigger investment than air sealing, insulation can save you quit a bit each month.

Therefore consider using your Tax Return towards these simple improvements and start putting money back in your pocket!  GIC would like to help you prioritize improvements for your home and get you on the road to savings.

Don’t just throw your Tax Return away, make an investment in your home today!!

Call GIC to get started!  816.301.4448

The post Save Money Each Month With Your Tax Return Money! first appeared on Kansas City Attic Insulation Professionals | Energy Audits.

GIC has earned the Super Service Award for 2016!

What is the Super Service award you say?  Angie’s List chooses top A-rated companies in their category, within their market for this honor.  The nomination comes from customers giving reviews that state excellent service from a company.  Even though Angie’s List gives us the award, it is the reviews from our customers that got us nominated.

We would like to thank our customers for their reviews in order to get us to this point.  When choosing a contractor, customers would like to have the confidence that they are choosing a good one.  With the help of companies like Angie’s List, you can be sure you are choosing a contractor that will treat you right.

This past year has been a wonderful year for our customers and business.  We are looking forward to helping even more homeowners in the next year make their homes energy efficient!

Thank you again to our wonderful customers!!!

The post Our Customers helped us win the Super Service Award! first appeared on Kansas City Attic Insulation Professionals | Energy Audits.

Yes snow is a beautiful thing, but it also lets you know how well your homes attic is insulated.  In the days that follow after a snowfall, look up at the roof on your home.  If the outside temperature stays below 32 degrees, there should still be a nice sheet of snow on your roof.  If you notice patches where the snow has been melting, this is a good sign that your homes attic is not properly insulated.  Below are pictures that show what it would look like if your attic is not properly insulated.

As you can see from the pictures above, the snow is only melting on certain areas of the roof.  This is from heated air escaping into the attic and warming the roof.  Your attic area should be insulated to an R-49 in order to keep conditioned air from leaking.  This is roughly 19.50 inches of insulation that should be in your attic area.  Another culprit could be insulation that has been moved around and is not fully covering the attic floor.  These areas of leakage will not only melt the snow, but it will cause your heating bills to rise.

If you do notice that this the case with your home, it is recommended to have a professional help you figure out a plan to improve the attic area.  Simple improvements like air sealing and additional insulation will help keep you from paying to heat the outside.  Over time extra energy use can add up to be more than the cost of the improvement.There are also rebates available from participating utility companies that will help cover the cost of improving your homes insulation.

Contact GIC today if you have any further questions or would like to schedule a consultation at 816-301-4448!

The post What can snow on the roof tell me about my home? first appeared on Kansas City Attic Insulation Professionals | Energy Audits.

Christmas time can be a very difficult for many.  Although the season is not about presents, giving back to others can lift their spirits.  Just to know that someone else is thinking about them, can make this time of the year a little easier.

Here at GIC we were able to adopt a mother this year who is living at the Mother’s Refuge house in Independence.  If you are not familiar with this organization, this is definitely one to get to know.  Mother’s Refuge is a home where teen mothers are able to care their newborn babies in a safe and loving environment for the first year.  These teens are also able to take classes to further their education, while learning important life skills that will help them raise and support healthy babies.

When dropping off the gifts, we enjoyed a tour of the Refuge home.  The environment provided for these girls is an amazing space.  You can feel the love and care that went into making this home a safe haven.  Also the staff and volunteers obviously give so much of themselves to make this possible.  Now don’t think this home is a free handout to the girls.  While being provided with the necessary needs, the girls are expected to keep up their responsibilities in the home.  Like many of us, they have to share cooking and cleaning responsibilities.  As well as completing an educational plan set up for them.

This is such a wonderful opportunity for those in need.  We are extremely excited to be able to provide a few presents for one of the girls to open on Christmas day.  Hopefully they will feel that someone cares and one day help make a difference for someone else.

Thank you to the Mother’s Refuge family for letting us be apart of their holiday this year.

Remember to give back this season and make someone smile!

The post Tis The Season For Giving Back first appeared on Kansas City Attic Insulation Professionals | Energy Audits.

It’s that time of the year when many of us are putting Christmas lights on our house for the neighbors to enjoy.  Most of us can not live up to the beauty of the National Lampoons Christmas Vacation home, but we can try to come close.  The downside of having your home decorated in a sea of lights, is the bill at the end of the month.  I know people who budget in extra money just to be able to go crazy with lights during the holidays.  Wouldn’t you rather enjoy your lights than stress about the cost to turn them on?  One way to avoid a big bill is to consider switching out the traditional Christmas lights with LED light strands.

LED lights are superior to incandescent lights in almost every way!

LED bulbs use about 90% less energy and do not emit as much heat as traditional bulbs.  If you are like me, you might have thought the traditional lights were so pretty you had to touch them.  Yeah, yeah I should have known they were hot.  Or have you ever held a traditional light and an LED light side by side?  No I am not on something, but there is a huge difference.  Traditional bulbs are white color lights with colored caps to give the illusion of different colors.  Due to the diode technology, LED bulbs are able to generate a true color on the wavelength spectrum.  Therefore giving off a more vibrant color.  Imagine the possibilities!

What about the cost you say?  Although the initial cost of LED bulbs is more than incandescent bulbs, the life span of an LED will make up for the price difference.  Majority of LED bulbs are rated for a service life of anywhere from 25,000 to 75,000 hours.  As for the service life of incandescent bulbs, we are talking in the hundreds.  That is a difference of 125% on up.  You will purchase over 30 or more incandescent bulbs in a life span of one LED bulb.

It is a no-brainer, switch your traditional lights out with LED strands.  And since your bill will be lowered, that means more lights!  Go for the gold, the National Lampoons gold that is!

Light up your house with LED!!

Let’s have some fun and paste a picture of your home all lite up in the comments, show off your lights!

The post Light Up Your House With LED OR Incandescent Christmas Lights? first appeared on Kansas City Attic Insulation Professionals | Energy Audits.

Most homeowners will settle into their utility bill like a car payment.  Since utilities are a necessity most of us will pay the monthly bill without thinking twice.  Wouldn’t it be nice if you could invest a percentage of what you pay each month for utilities into something that will make you money instead?  The average home will have energy problems that are not obvious to the untrained eye.  Green Improvement Consulting wants to educate you in ways to make your home more energy-efficient while saving money.

Let’s say you could save close to $50 per month with improvements.  That would be a savings of $600 a year or $3,000 over 5 years.  For some that may not be much, but for most homeowners $3,000 is a huge savings.  The savings could be more each month depending on the specific improvements you home needs.

Here is a list of improvements to help make your home more energy-efficient:

Insulation

Having a home that is properly insulated will help keep the conditioned air in your home from leaking to the outside.  Properly insulating the attic, exterior walls and exposed framed flooring are the main areas to focus on.  Insulation acts like a blanket for your home, keeping the livings spaces at the desired temperatures.

Air Sealing

Gaps in the home will cause unwanted drafts while the heating or air-conditioning system is running.  We identify these gaps–sealing them to prevent conditioned or warm air from leaking out of the desired living space.  Spray foaming and weather-striping are examples of some methods we use to seal these gaps.

Appliances

Increasing energy efficiency for appliances that run 24/7 can yield substantial savings over the year.  Home appliances should meet Energy Star ratings for efficiency–appliances that do not meet these standards should be replaced.

HVAC

The air conditioner and heating units also make a big impact on the monthly bills.  Having the correct size and servicing these units will help ensure optimal efficiency.  A certified professional can help you find the correct size unit for you home.

Light Bulbs

Switching out your homes light bulbs for LED‘s can save you money on your electric utility bill each month.  LED bulbs have a longer life span and use close to 33% percent less energy.

These improvements together can help you save money each month to put towards an investment that will make you money instead.  If you are unsure of which improvements your home needs, consider having an Energy Audit preformed on the home.  This audit will help identify and prioritize improvements for you home.

Don’t get stuck in a rut! Utility bills are not a car payment, there are ways to lower them each month!

The post Make an investment in your utility bill. first appeared on Kansas City Attic Insulation Professionals | Energy Audits.

KCP&L has been experiencing an increase in reports of phone scammers.  They are posing as KCP&L employees, as well as recordings for customers to key in their payment information.

We have provided information below from the KCP&L website to help keep you safe:

With the phone scam, customers are prompted by a recording to input their payment information. This phone number is not associated with KCP&L. There have also been reports of a live person posing as a KCP&L employee who notifies the customer of a past due bill and demands immediate payment to avoid service disconnection. In some instances, the caller requests that the customer purchase a money gram to pay their bill. If the customer is unable to make an immediate payment or does not answer, the caller gives out a return phone number for customers to call back. 

Utility Scam Warning Signs

KCP&L employees do not:

• Call and threaten disconnection if a payment is not made within 30 minutes or an hour. KCP&L employees will never give this type of deadline. Instead, we provide advance notice and work with the customer to resolve billing issues.
• Call and request that customers buy a pre-paid debit card, scratch off the covering and read the number beneath to pay a bill. KCP&L employees will never ask you to pay a bill this way.
• Ask for personal information via email or social media.
• Sell products door-to-door.
• Deliver cash refunds or rebates.
• Charge for line-clearing or tree-trimming work.

How to Protect Yourself

Before providing personal or payment information:

• During in-person visits always ask for identification. All employees carry KCP&L photo identification badges, wear KCP&L clothing and drive vehicles with the KCP&L logo on it.  Employees are required to display their badges if asked.
• Verify the information. If you are unsure about the person’s identification or the work that they’re doing, call KCP&L before letting the person onto your property.  You can call KCP&L at (816) 471-5275 or (888) 471-5275.
• Protect your personal information. If someone claiming to be from KCP&L calls you on the phone, request the person’s name and contact information. Do not give out your account number or any other personal information on the phone.

Phone and Email Scams

The post Be Aware Of KCP&L Utility Phone Scammers first appeared on Kansas City Attic Insulation Professionals | Energy Audits.