The best way to cut your heating bill is often to make sure all the windows and doors of your home are properly caulked, sealed, and weatherstripped, instead of going shopping for a fancy new solar water heater. Blowing in a few extra inches of insulation in your attic can very easily save you more money over the next ten years than installing a solar installation that can cost from $5,000-$10,000, and the net effect on the environment is much the same (especially if you use cellulose or other “green” attic insulation).

Once you’ve got your basic home in tip-top shape, then it’s time to turn to appliances and solar installations, as far as being as energy efficient as possible. But make sure you’ve tackled all the small improvements first, as that’s often where you’ll get the biggest return on investment of your home improvement dollars.

As far as a place to turn to find the best mortgage rates and other loan products, we recommend Personal Home Loan Mortgages. The site is simple and clean and easy to navigate, and provides you with mortgage rates for a wide range of loan products, including 30 and 15 year mortgages, home equity loans, and debt consolidation products. Mortgage providers from around the US are included in their database, so it’s quick and easy to get rates from local lenders no matter where you live.

In addition to mortgage rates, the site also provides a wealth of other information including instructional articles about shopping for the best mortgage product for your particular needs, info about how the mortgage process works in generals, and other helpful tools like a mortgage calculator to see just what your monthly mortgage payment would be for various products.

Furniture coverings are available for pretty much anything and everything, including patio chair covers, barbeque grill covers, patio table covers, ottoman covers, wicker furniture covers, you name it, there’s a cover for it.

Outdoor patio furniture covers come in a wide range of styles and materials, and usually incorporate velcro or tie down fasteners to secure the cover to the furniture. Gray is a ocmmon color for covers, as it holds up well when subjected to lots of sunlight and weather conditions. Most covers also come with a warranty of two to three years.

Vinyl is a popular material choice for patio furniture covers, as it’s lightweight and very durable. Polypropylene is also used in some covers.

While they’re not the most inexpensive solution for shade and patio protection, that’s also a plus, as aluminum patio covers won’t deteriorate due to inclement weather over time, and can easily be repainted a variety of colors if you upgrade your patio furniture or otherwise would like to go with a different color scheme.

Like most patio furniture, there are cast aluminum patio covers at a variety of price points and in innumerable styles, so there should be plenty of options out there for budgets and tastes of all sizes.

Patio heaters are exactly that: devices that sit on your patio and produce heat. They can take a variety of forms, from chimineas and  copper firepits that burn wood to residential patio heaters that operate on propane of electricity and can put out 50,000 or more BTU of heat to keep you warm and toasty on chilly winter nights.

Patio heaters are available in a variety of decorative styles and colors, so it’s simply a matter of choosing one that suits your taste. Expect to pay anywhere from $100-$500 for a quality, well-made patio heater.

1. In concrete pools, hairline cracks can simply be patched with chorlinated rubber or epoxy swimming pool paint. Most small hairline cracks can safely be ignored in fiberglass pools, as they’re just a normal sign of the pool aging.

2. For slightly larger cracks (less than 1/8 of an inch), patch cracks with special epoxy compound that is made just for concrete pools or with fiberglass patch kits for fiberglass pools. Always follow the instructions from the manufacturer of the product you’re using.

3. If cracks are larger than 1/8 of an inch or more than a foot long, it’s time to call the professionals.

Stepping back a bit, though, the best way to treat algae is to never let it become a problem. Proper pool maintenance will keep algae from growing, so be sure that you maintain the right pool sanitizer level to prevent algae from ever forming.

Once you’re faced with algae, check the pH and adjust it if necessary. If it’s green algae, superchlorinate the water (going as high as 30 ppM chlorine) and then wait until the chlorine drops to normal levels, which usually takes about 48 hours. Add an all-purpose algaecide and follow the directions on the packaging. After the algaecide treatment, vacuum the dead algae and backwash the filter. If the algae growth is really heavy, you may need to repeat the above treatment.

If you’ve got mustard algae or black algae, use a stiff brush to remove as much of the spots as you can. Turn off the pool pump and spot treat the algae with chlorine tablets then pour an all-purpose algaecide on the algae spots. Leave the pump off and let the algaecide work overnight. Restore water circulation the next day and brush off any dead algae and vacuum. Again, if it’s a heavy case of algae you may need to repeat the treatment again if there’s more algae remaining.

1) Balance the water.

About a week before you close the pool for good, adjust your water balance to somewhere in the ranges below:

pH: 7.1-7.5
Alkalinity: 75-125 ppm
Calcium Hardness: 175-225 ppm

When that’s done, shock the pool. Wait until the chlorine level is around 1.0-3.0ppm and then add winter algaecide and your pool cover.

2) Lower the water level.

Using either the filter pump or a submersible pump, lower the water level until it’s 12-18″ below the skimmer (for mesh pool covers) or lower it 3-6″ below the tile (for solid covers).

3) Drain pumping, filtering, heating, and chlorinating equipment.

All pump, filters, heaters, and chlorinators have drain plugs, and you have to completely drain them to prevent cracking and damage during freezes. Also be sure to remove any filter grids or cartridge filters and clean them thoroughly before storage.

4) Remove anything else that is removable.

This includes pool equipment such as skimmer baskets, fittings, pool cleaner houses, solar blankets, pool ladders, etc. as well as anything esle pool-related that needs to be stored during winter.

5) Lubricate the pump and filter.

Lubricate any o-rings on the pump or filer that you can get to.

6) Thoroughly clean the pool.

Don’t think that you can get away with not cleaning the pool one last time, just because you’re closing it for the winter. Skim the pool, vacuum, and brush. If it’s really dirty, always vacuum to waste, pumping the debris out the backwash line.

7) Winterize the plumbing.

For inground pools, blow out the lines using a Shop Vac or similar device. Your goal is to blow air from the skimmer through the equipment and back to the pool, then to plug the lines at the pool. If you don’t blow the lines, at least add swimming pool antifreeze into the the lines.
For above ground pools, simply disconnect the hoses to and from the pump and filter and plug the wall outlets.

Add winterizing algaecide and cover the pool.

Mesh safety pool covers are best, as they’re not only the safest but don’t require you to peridoically remove pooling water during the winer as solid pool covers do. If you do have a solid cover, be sure to regularly clean off debris and collected water during the winter months, as it will make opening the pool much easier.
Wait until you’ve done everything else to add the algaecide, as the pool needs to recover from the earlier shocking before you add it.

ph: pH is a measure of how acidic or basic the pool water is. pH is measured on a scale of 0-14, with 7 being neutral. Anything below 7 on the scale is considered acidic, with anything above 7 called either basic or alkaline.

It’s recommended that you test weekly and keep your pool’s pH in the range of 7.2-7.8, so you’re shooting for a slightly basic state. That makes sense, since you’re going to be swimming in it, and it would be odd if it was recommended that you swim in slightly acidic water, wouldn’t it?

The problem is that lots of things enter your pool that can change the pH and make the water more acidic or more basic, including rain, sweat, and urine. So some times you’ll have to introduce bases to counteract acidic things entering the pool, while at other times you need to add acids, if a lot of bases have been added to the pool.

Alkalinity: Alkalinity is a lot like pH, and is a measure of how much carbonate, bicarbonate, hydroxides, and other alkaline substances are in your pool water.
Alkalinity should be tested for weekly and maintained in the 80-120 ppm range, and can be raised and lowered much like pH. To raise the alkalinity level, add a base such as sodium bicarbonate; to lower alkalinity, add an acid.

Calcium Hardness: Calcium hardness is basically how hard or soft your water is. Hard water is bad as it leads to scale building up, while soft water can corrode pool surfaces. It’s recommended that you keep the calcium hardness in the 200-400 ppm range, and, like the other factors mentioned above, it should be tested each week.

The size of your pond: For filtration purposes, it’s recommended that your pump should be rated to circulate the volume of water in your pond once every hour. If your pond is 2,000 gallons, then you need to buy a pump with a minimum 2,000 gallon per hour (gph) rating. You should also make sure that your filter is compatible with your pump and that the pump isn’t circulating more water through the filter than is recommended.

Water features: If you have waterfalls or other water features, you’ll need a pump to supply them with the proper amount of water. If these features require the water to be pushed to a considerable height, you should lean towards a direct drive pump instead of a magnetic drive or submersible pump.

Fish and other plants: If you have fish or plants in your pond, there are certain types of pumps you should avoid, primarily direct drive pumps, as they require oil lubrication and this could contaminate the water.

Ease of installation and maintenance: If you’re installing a simple, small water pond yourself, consider a submersible pump, as installation is as simple as plugging it in and dropping it into the deepest part of the pond.