Living in South Carolina 
Excerpt from: A Monthly publication from South Carolina Electric Cooperative, Inc.
by Larry Cribb

Are you heating and cooling your attic? You probably have a hole in your ceiling which causes your heating and air conditioning bills to escalate, yet you aren't aware of it. This hole is cut there for installation of your disappearing stairway which provides access to your attic. You may think that hole is filled up, but is it?

The problem is improperly fitting doors on these stairways is often caused by the wood warping, thus leaving gapping spaces when the door doesn't close properly. Even doors which seem to fit pretty well have cracks surrounding the installation, and the doors themselves are usually made of very thin plywood without any added insulation. This causes your heating/cooling unit to run overtime to try and compensate for the loss of efficiency caused by the camouflaged hole in your ceiling.

"This is a problem that we run into all the time while performing energy audits for our consumer/members to show them how  they can save money on their energy bills," said Dwight Amick, Marketing Supervisor of Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative.

"Until Recently, there really hadn't been an easy recommendation that we could give them," he continued. "Even suggesting tearing out the existing stairway and installing a new one wasn't a viable because of the cost involved, plus the fact that the new stairway still didn't always completely solve the problem of sealing up that large hole in the ceiling. If you leave the light on in your attic, close the stairway, chances are you can see the light shining through cracks about the installation. This will help you determine just how large your problem is."

As Featured on Good Morning America - Fireplace DraftStopper

	We could all agree that home heating costs are going straight up.  Which is why keeping that expensive warm air inside is very important.  When chimney's are not in use that expensive heat is escaping straight up them.
One would think closing the damper would be enough to keep cold air out and warm air in, but not necessarily so.
	A solution to this problem is the fireplace plug.  It is like a plastic inflatable plug for your chimney.
To install it, you partially inflate it with the breathing tube...
	...then slip it up into the top of the firebox...
...and lock it in place.
	Finally, finish inflating the plug and tuck the tube out of sight.
Some heating experts claim that an unlit fireplace with a damper open can increase heating costs by as much as 30 percent. Now that could add up to $500 over the course of a season. Well, here's a solution that's relatively inexpensive, easy to install and pretty much invisible.