I don't live in Ohio, but in Southern California. I just insulated my walls with R-19 loose cellulose on 3 sides of the house and fiberglass on one side. It cost the same. Installer used loose fiberglass on the first outside wall and realized that I asked for cellulose. The fiberglass looks cleaner (white in color) and lighter. The cellulose looks dirtier (brown in color) and heavier with more dust particles. I didn't check for air-leaks...I just decided to get wall insulation to help keep out both summer heat and winter cold. It also helps dampen some noise from neighbors garage band. In the summer, I felt that my house didn't get a hot as usual. It used to get hot inside my house by 1 pm, but after adding the wall insulation the house gets hot by 5 pm. This means that I don't have to turn the a/c as early as before, thus saving some cooling $$$. In the winter (now), my house is more comfortable than it used to be. My walls in my bedroom used to feel cold at night (considering that I'm a mild winter zone) just by putting my hand close to them. Now, it's not as cold even if I touch the wall. Okay, this is all subjective data. If I had to do it over again, I would have chosen the fiberglass insulation over the cellulose. I already had R-25 batt insulation in the attic, but I had the insulation guys use loose fiberglass insulation in all the areas that I missed when I installed the batts myself. I had missed about 10% of my attic primarily above the kitchen. Overall, I paid $1630 to do all the walls (1200 sqft of walls) and about 150 sqft in the attic. I also got a $170 rebate from my gas company. I already have double pane windows and a new aluminum back door. I have a glass door on my wood fireplace (it's a decoration piece) that I never use.

I was just at a local grocery store and the 15w CFLs were $2.99 for a 3 pack. Finding them shouldn't be a problem. When a CFL burns out, most larger places take them and recycle them. Menard's, Home Depot, Lowe's all recycle them and a number of other places like hardware stores and such take them. Just drop them off when you go there. Course some people think it's too much of an invasion to recycle something. And that really annoys me. It never ceases to amaze me how people get so paranoid when they WANT to be afraid of something. The amount of mercury in a CFL is so little when you check it out. A coal fired power plant puts more mercury into the air in one day than all the mercury in all the CFLs. So geez people... Pick your battles. LEDs will likely be the next generation in energy efficiency. I hope it happens soon. There's another significant savings but some people will still say a few dollars is insignificant to them. And then people will scream about the bluish tint they put off and how they "can't stand" the light from them. They'll be proudly going to their pole barn filled with Y2k duct tape, bottled water and incandescent light bulbs to keep the g-men from telling them what kind of bulbs to use. I'd like to do a poll sometime. See how many of the people who refuse to use CFLs use front load washers "to save money". I think that could be interesting. People are strange. They get a burr in their bonnet over the thought of a light bulb being regulated, yet having the feds listen to phone calls or reading emails doesn't seem to bother anyone. It's amazing.

Assuming your existing fridge is in good working order and there are not other good reasons to replace it, for example it's too small, then the only reason to replace it would be to save money. In other words, it would be a financial investment. However, comparing it against other investments makes it look rather minimal. Taking Cynic's example, for the mid-range fridge it takes 5-6 years to pay for itself. However, you don't quite have your money back yet, you're still missing the cost of the fridge - something which you would still have if you had kept the old one. It will take another 5-6 years to have your original investment back again. In 10-12 years you may have saved $1000, but it cost you $500 up front, thus it takes that long to break even. Unfortunately, in the 10-12 years your original investment was tied up in that fridge, it hasn't earned any interest at all, so in fact you have lost money. Worse still, taking in to account the quality of many modern appliances, you may need another new fridge soon too. Depending on events, it's looking like you may never break even on the fridge investment, let alone see significant returns from it. Even a bad savings account would be far ahead at this point, having had around a decade to accumulate interest.

Hey G!! sorry to hear about your knee..but glad you are on the mend. I think we got your summer...it was a hot one, but I prefer heat to cold, last winter...was pure hell for me. I've always been allergic, but like wasp stings the poison ivy reaction seems to get worse as I age. I swear all I have to do is look at it wrong..and it includes sumac, poison oak & just about every thing with leaves of three & red stems. being a yardie (new to me term for yard junkie) and living in the woods fighting these things is a neverending job. I must have gotten hold of some roots in one of the flower beds. and with our crazy weather last winter...I even got it in feburary. so whats the deal with the roof? doing a cool roof or something complex? or just having trouble with weather cooperating? sounds like you have perfect weather to get it done this weekend...just be careful up there! do you still have those wonderfully explained igu windows 101 posts from the building forum? I'd like to share them on another forum...maybe in general discussion part of the site as other areas are locked to the publc. I'd really like to get them into the building science forum...but its only for pro members...you wouldn't have an epa card by any chance?? anyway let me know. and again...great to hear from you. take care.