Daily Home Renovation Tips

Our first review of an energy conservation site with great information for home renovation activities in our Blog Roll is about Build It Solar, a wonderful residential energy conservation site by Gary Reys, a retired airplane product development engineer from ‘Big Sky’ country near Bozeman Montana.Build It Solar focuses on ‘renewable energy for do-it-yourselfers.

There are many articles and case studies on implementing different solar energy plans, tools and the like in homes. This site has published several articles in Mother Earth News magazine, including a series of articles in which Gary tackles energy conservation in his own home with a unique ‘Half’ program approach.

I really liked the DIY Projects page where many different types of energy conservation related renovation residential projects are reviewed and explained including:

• water conservation,
• solar homes,
• passive cooling,
• greenhouses,
• pool heating,
• space heating,
• water heating, and
• even some for kids.

While I have just begun to explore the site (after all, I have to focus on our own home’s renovations and then tell you about them, right? J ), one article which really stood out to me was the ½ Projects Summary Charts where he provides for many of his personal home projects the savings realized for:

• CO1 Reduction (lbs/ yr),
• Energy Savings (KWH/yr),
• Initial Cost per project, and
• First Year Rate of Return.

How he kept track of all of this I will never know.

Great site, Gary!