Our heat cut out last weekend, which prompted some overdue maintenance on our boiler. It turns out that the transparent tube that shows the water level (called the sight glass or water gauge) had gotten plugged with sediment, and we accidentally added too much water. In addition to the lack of heat, this led to horrible clanging in the pipes and radiators as the steam hit water that shouldn’t have been there.

Until I was in the market for shades, I didn’t realize that they can actually make a big difference in insulating your windows. Shades that present a continuous barrier, like roman or honeycomb (cellular) shades, can raise the R-value (resistence to heat flow) of your window significantly. And honeycomb shades create pockets of air that are […]

But you know the signs some buildings put up—”To conserve energy, please use revolving doors”? They’re actually true.

The temperatures this weekend made us remember that we still need to do some caulking before winter. When we moved in last November it was much draftier than we expected, and we spent some time fixing the worst of it: caulking the living room and bedroom windows, weatherstripping the doors and replacing the old sweeps, […]

A conversation with my boss yesterday has convinced me to finally commit to taking the stairs at work. (Thanks, Rob.) This was easier in our old building. Walking up the carpeted, brick-walled stairwell was a much nicer experience than making small talk with the security guard while waiting for the single elevator. Then, when we […]