April 29, 2022 - My Cn know

How to Choose the Right Solar Panel Installers

by Kimberly Allen on April 29, 2022

There are over 13,000 solar panel installation companies in the United States. This is a 2.3 percent increase from 2021.

Yet, selecting the right solar panel installers can be tough. Various solar companies provide different services. For instance, installation, sales, marketing, and financing options.

Many companies will not provide solar incentives, resulting in higher upfront costs. Furthermore, most of them that provide incentives are start-ups or fly-by-night activities. They may not be there in the long run.

When you’re prepared to install your solar panels, these incentives may no longer be available. So, carefully consider your options.

Here are a few tips to help you choose the right solar panel installers.

Check Warranty

A reputable solar panel installation company should offer you a warranty. The warranty will protect the solar panel from various uncertainties.

Focus on the warranties provided by the solar panel installers rather than solar panel manufacturers.

Solar panel installation companies provide workmanship warranties. The labor and service warranties cover damages resulting from poor installation services.

Ensure that you read and understand the warranty’s terms and conditions. You should also be clear on the period that the warranty will be effective.

Accreditation

You need to be sure that you’re hiring a reputable and professional solar company. The first accreditation to check is licensing.

Licensing/certification proves that the company has met all the training requirements. Certified solar panel installers also understand and comply with all the safety guidelines.

The installer you choose should have a Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) accreditation.

Reputable solar installation companies should also be members of recognized groups. Examples are the Renewable Energy Consumer Code (RECC) and Solar Trade Association (STA). The solar company’s workers should also have the necessary certifications.

Experience

Experience determines the competency levels of solar panel installers.

An experienced solar company has excellent expertise and skills for quality work. Such a company will ensure electric and general safety in your home or business.

The quality services from an experienced solar panel installer will give you peace of mind. Check the company’s website to confirm its period in the solar panel installation industry.

Review the work history before choosing a solar installing company. A successful track record is a sign of an experienced solar panel installer.

Solar Incentives

Solar panels are quite costly investments. A good company should relieve you from the financial burden of buying and installing solar panels.

The company should offer you some solar financing options like loans, grants/cash, and leases. Other solar incentives include tax credits, solar power rebates, and bonus payments.

Such solar incentives will save you from breaking the bank. You will get a good solar panel and quality installation services with a limited budget.

Hire the Best Solar Panel Installers

What you pay for is what you get. Professional and reputable solar panel installers are more expensive but offer quality work.

They have what it takes to handle both simple and complex solar installation works. The above tips will help you find the right solar company quickly.

Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed reading this article. Visit our website for more informative blog posts.

Home Improvement

How to Choose the Right Floor Register: A Guide

by Marie Lentz on April 29, 2022

Are you looking to install a floor register to ensure greater floor heating in your home?

Choosing high-quality floor registers is a crucial part of ensuring improved floor heating. The right floor vent ensures that more heat can travel throughout your home to keep your house warm.

As a result, if you choose the wrong floor grill you can expect to have to tackle another freezing winter!

Here’s how to choose the best floor register:

Choose Your Finish

The first step is to choose the right finish for your floor register. You want to choose what looks best for your home and what sticks out. You don’t want to choose a floor register that blends in with the floor.

Your floor register’s finish can come in a variety of materials such as plastic, wood, and different metals.

Some of the most popular materials for floor registers include cast iron, oak, antique brass, and polished brass. Make sure you choose one that looks aesthetically-pleasing for your home.

You also need to consider what’s the easiest material to maintain. In most cases, floor registers don’t need maintenance. However, you want to ensure you know how to clean your finish without causing further damages.

Choose Your Vent

The next step is to choose the right floor vents for your floor register. You want to choose certain features to have a high-quality floor register.

Here’s what you should consider for your floor register:

Multi-angled fans to ensure the heat emits all over your room
On/Off Switch that you can operate via foot
Unrestricted air flow
Heavy duty material so it avoids damage when walked on
Lever to control the air flow

Make sure you test out different types of vents to figure out which one works best for your floor register. It’s often difficult to replace a floor register so you’ll be stuck with one for several years.

Choose Your Floor Register Style

The final step is to choose the style for your floor register. There are 4 common styles with the following features:

The modern style is the easiest for ensuring consistent air flow. At times, the intensity of the air flow can be rather intense.

The traditional style has a design with medium-sized holes. This is great for for a more temperate climate in your home.

The Victorian and geometric styles are also great for ensuring a consistent climate in your home. With these options, there’s little flexibility for adjusting your temperature.

Get a Floor Register

Now you know the guidelines on getting the right floor register to improve the heating in your home.

You want to start by choosing the right finish for your floor register. Choose a material that’s easy to clean and maintain. You can also choose the one that you find most aesthetically-pleasing.

Next, you want to choose the type of floor vents. These help you control the temperature and manipulate the air flow in your home.

The final step is to choose the floor register style. This also helps you control the air flow.

You can find more home renovation tips on our blog!

Auto

8 Car Maintenance Tips You Need to Remember

by Norma Rodriguez on April 29, 2022

Used car prices are skyrocketing!

With the prices of cars so high, when it comes to taking care of your car you need to be proactive about it. Like most people, you are probably heavily dependent on your car to get you from one place to the next.

This means that maintenance of your vehicle should be high on your list of priorities. If you have not been taking proper care of your vehicle it is time to start.

Here are some car maintenance tips that will help with caring for a car.

1. Do Regular Inspections

For your vehicle to always be in good working order, regular maintenance is important. Make sure that you take a look at your vehicle at least once per week.

Look for damage to the body and especially to your tires. When examining your tires look to see if there are any punctures or cuts.

Defective tires can result in accidents. They also cause you to burn more fuel.

2. Examine Your Air Filters

Air filters prevent dust and other forms of contaminants from getting into your engine. Dust and contaminants prevent your engine from performing at its best.

To make sure that your air filters are unclogged at all times change them whenever it becomes necessary.

It may seem like a simple task, but it is very important for improving the performance of your engine and even your fuel economy.

3. Take Care of Your Headlights

Your headlights are also something that you need to ensure are in good working order at all times. If you don’t drive in the dark you may not use your headlights very often.

You need to make sure that you check them at least once per month. You never know when you will have to drive in the dark and the last thing you want is for them not to be working when you need them the most.

4. Change Out Your Spark Plugs

Bad spark plugs can cause your engine to underperform. To keep your engine running at its best it is always good to check your spark plugs, occasionally.

Spark plugs have the big job of igniting gas and air to power your vehicle. If your spark plugs are not working correctly your engine will lose power quickly.

An underperforming engine results in an underperforming vehicle and high fuel usage.

5. Pay Attention to Interiors

Protecting the interior of your vehicle is important. A lot of focus is often put on the external aspect of the vehicle.

While you do you want your vehicle to be amazing to look at from the outside, you also want to make sure that it is protected on the inside as well.

Ensure that you install extra floor mats to keep mud and dirt out of the vehicle. Put seat covers on your car if you can and be sure to vacuum your car regularly to remove dust and grime.

6. Check Your Oils

A lot of friction can take place in your vehicle if the proper oils are not there to prevent it.

Good vehicle maintenance means that you check your engine oil and ensure it is always at optimal levels. Make sure that you also check the color of the oil.

It should never be black. A dark-colored oil means that there is contamination happening.

If you’re not sure how often you should get your engine oil changed, ask your mechanic, check the manufacturer’s website, or your owner’s manual.

7. Wax Your Car

Take the time to get your vehicle waxed every six months. Just washing alone is not enough to ensure that your paint job keeps looking shiny and pristine.

There are subtle changes that can occur to the exterior of your car and getting your car waxed every six months will help to stretch your paint life. The wax will provide a protective seal over the paint on the vehicle.

Aside from waxing, a good way to ensure that the paint on the exterior of the car does not fade is to ensure that you are doing proper vehicle storage.

This is especially true if it is a car that you do not use regularly.

One way you can store the car is by installing a metal shed in your backyard. Strong metal sheds can protect your car from the elements.

Pay Attention to Your Spare Tire

As discussed before, taking care of your car means checking your tires regularly to ensure that they are not damaged.

One tire that often gets overlooked is a spare tire. However, this should not be the case. It is important that you examine your spare tire and even check its air pressure at least once per month.

This will ensure that if anything ever happens to any of your other tires, you will be more than ready to replace the damaged tire with your spare.

Essential Car Maintenance Tips

The tips given here are essential car maintenance tips. If you wish to keep your car looking and working its best at all times, taking care of it should be a priority.

As you can see, there’re a lot of things that you need to be aware of, so that you can know exactly how you should go about maintaining your vehicle.

The key to maintaining your vehicle is consistency. You need to be consistent about doing inspections and also implementing the maintenance tips discussed here.

If you’d like more interesting tips, please visit the auto section of the website.

Health

3 Common Causes of Knee Pain (and What to Do About Them)

by Phil Reis on April 29, 2022

Around one in four American adults suffer from chronic knee pain. From joint stiffness and swelling to instability and weakness, knee pain symptoms make almost all everyday tasks painful and difficult.

But despite how widespread knee pain is, it’s not always easy to find effective treatment recommendations without knowing the cause.

So, what are the leading causes of knee pain? And what can you do about them? Let’s take a look!

1. Knee Injury

Being active is great for your joints and the rest of your body. But bad form, over-reaching, and other exercising errors can often cause knee injuries.

Some of the most common causes of knee pain are ACL tears, tendinitis, sprained ligaments, bursitis, and runner’s knee. Or, if you have an old knee injury that wasn’t treated at the time, it may flare up occasionally or cause consistent pain now.

This is why it’s important to take steps to fix knee pain as soon as it starts. One of the best ways to stop or help knee pain following an injury is to make an appointment with your local chiropractor at BCAchiropractic.com.

2. Mechanical Problems

Various mechanical problems affecting your knees or other parts of your body can also cause knee pain. Some examples include:

Misaligned bones – If any of the bones from your hips down to your ankles are not in their correct position, this can put excessive pressure on certain spots. This kind of misalignment causes knee pain when the kneecap can’t move smoothly
Loose body – Following injury or degeneration, a “loose body” (a piece of bone or cartilage) may break off and float in the space between joints. If this loose body interferes with the knee joint, moving it becomes difficult and painful
Referred pain – Pain in your hip or foot, such as plantar fasciitis, can cause you to change the way you walk. But knee pain can be a side effect of this altered gait because of the stress you’re putting on your knee joint when walking

While you would likely need surgery to remove a loose body, your local chiropractor should be able to help you with bone misalignment and referred knee pain.

3. Arthritis

There are more than 100 types of arthritis. Those most likely to affect the knee include:

Osteoarthritis – This degenerative or “wear-and-tear” arthritis is the most common type. It occurs when the cartilage in your knee deteriorates over time due to age and use
Rheumatoid arthritis – This debilitating autoimmune condition can affect almost any joint in your body, including your knees
Gout – This type of arthritis involves a build-up of uric acid in the joint. Although gout usually occurs in the big toe, it can also affect the knee
Pseudogout – This occurs when calcium-containing crystals develop in the knee joint

One of the best ways to help knee pain is to maintain a healthy weight and exercise regularly. But, low-impact activities such as swimming are the best option for those of you with any of these forms of arthritis.

Your Guide to the Common Causes of Knee Pain

As this quick guide shows, there are three very different common causes of knee pain.

But, whatever the reason for the pain you’re experiencing, knowing the cause can get you the right treatment and help you on the path to recovery.

Want more interesting insights and helpful advice? Be sure to check out all the latest blog posts for great tips and tricks on everything from real estate to relationships.