Lake Travis Waterfront Property
Lake Travis is a very popular place to own waterfront property. Just west of Austin, Lake Travis starts at Mansfield Dam and winds about 63 miles through the Central Texas Hill Country. Because of its proximity to Austin, its very clear water and the added drama of being in the Hill Country, Lake Travis waterfront property is very desirable.
The south shore of Lake Travis is a more popular place to own a waterfront home than the north shore. This is because the south shore is closer to downtown Austin and the airport. It also has quick access to much more shopping. Communities on the south shore include Lakeway, The Village of The Hills, Briarcliff, Hudson Bend and Spicewood.
There are some very exclusive gated communities on the south shore of Lake Travis. Costa Bella and Vineyard Bay are the closest to downtown Austin. Angel Bay, The Coves on Lake Travis, Barton Creek Lakeside and Lakecliff are also fabulous gated communities, but they are farther out on Lake Travis. The city of Lakeway has some of most spectacular waterfront homes on Lake Travis.
In 2005 there were 91 waterfront homes sold in the Lake South area of the Austin MLS. This is basically the south shore of Lake Travis. A could may have snuck in there that are actually on a pond or creek, but most were Lake Travis waterfront or Pedernales River (which runs into Lake Travis) waterfront homes. The average sold price per square foot was just over $341. That gives the reader a good idea of the value of a waterfront home on Lake Travis.
Waterfront lots on the south shore of Lake Travis have become scarce and expensive. Current Lake Travis waterfront lot listings are priced from around $500,000 to over $3 million.
Because south side properties have become a bit scarce and more expensive, the north shore has started to become more attractive. The north shore has not developed like the south shore has in terms of nicer subdivisions and shopping, but that is changing. Much of the north side of Lake Travis will be from 20 minutes to an hour farther from downtown Austin than the south shore. So anyone buying there needs to keep this in mind
There are a lot of places in the U.S. in which to own great lake property. Lake Travis is truly one of the best. See more at Lake Travis and Austin, Texas real estate
Heating Your Home With Solar, But Without Panels
With rising energy costs and massive stress on our electrical grids, solar is gaining in popularity. Not everyone realizes you can heat your home without buying big panel systems.
Heating Your Home With Solar, But Without Panels – Gain
You can use solar energy to heat your home through a concept known as gain. While you may associate panel systems with any mention of solar power, they are not a component of this approach. Of course, this makes the installation a heck of a lot cheap than going with traditional panel systems.
Solar gain is a concept that has been with us for much of the history of mankind. Earlier civilizations obviously didn't have electricity. To keep structures warmed, they learned to use the heat produced by sunlight. It is fairly humorous when archeologists marvel at the fact ancient structures are always oriented to the sun. If they new anything about solar gain, they would realize the structures were being used to produce thermal heating through masonry, openings and so on. Regardless, these early civilizations were the first to develop and implement solar gain heating.
The simplest way to explain solar gain is with a practical example. Assume it is summer time and your car is parked in the driveway with the windows rolled up. What happens when you open the door to get in? A massive blast of heat comes out. If you have black seats like I do, you also hop around like a fool when you sit down on the black surface. Your car is hot because it has acted as a platform for solar gain. The sun came in the windows, heated up surfaces in the car and raised the temperature. Since most vehicles are poorly ventilated, the heat reached unbearable levels because it couldn't escape quickly enough. This is solar gain in a nutshell, a methodology that can be applied to your home.
With solar gain heating, the idea is to maximize sun penetration into the home, covert the sunlight into heat, and circulate it through the home. To accomplish this, one typically puts windows on the south side of the home to capture as much sunlight as possible. Thermal storage materials, such as masonry, are placed below the windows to capture and store heat for after the sun goes down. The heat from the sun is circulated throughout the house throughout the day and evening until the stored amount is exhausted. Yes, it works in winter.
Solar gain is an ancient and highly effective method for heating your home. If it sounds interesting to you, visit a solar site to find out the specifics.
Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com, a directory of solar energy companies. Visit us to read more articles on solar power and renewable energy.
Taking Solar Into Account When Designing Your Home Improvements
Using the sun to heat up a home is growing by leaps and bounds in popularity these days. To really save money with solar, the best way is to design your home or improvements with solar in mind.
Taking Solar Into Account When Designing Your Home Improvements
In this case, we are not talking about using active solar panels to heat your home. We are merely talking about orienting your home in a particular way as well as emphasizing certain features. While this may sound odd at first, it is an extremely popular and cost effective energy production method used throughout the world.
To pursue this strategy, you must pay careful attention to how you design your house or improvements. One of the biggest errors made by people is the failure to take in all aspects of home heating and cooling. This can lead to a situation where you are producing far too much solar heat and the house becomes an oven. Get it wrong in the other direction and you don't have nearly enough heat. Here are the key issues to consider.
The first issue, the site location, is almost always overlooked. Ideally, you want unobstructed sunlight to hit the south side of the home for at least six hours in the middle of the day. Contrary to popular opinion, it doesn't matter what part of the United States you live in. There is sufficient sun exposure everywhere, although areas heavy with fog and cloud cover may be problematic. Regardless, the home must receive the aforementioned amount of sunlight. If it doesn't, you are not going to be happy with the results.
The second issue many people miss out on is commonly known as the axis orientation. In the Northern Hemisphere, the south wall of structures will receive the most sun exposure. To efficiently use this energy, your home must be oriented to expose the longest wall of the structure to the south. The more surface area you have facing the sun, the more heat and light you will be able to generate in the home. On the other hand, if you orient a short side to the sun, it is going to produce less heat and be harder to circulate it through the length of the home.
The third issue ties in into axis orientation. To produce heat, you must have a vast majority of the windows on the south side of the home. Unless you are using a solar capture wall, it makes little sense to orient your home correctly without letting the sunlight in. Conversely, you need minimize windows on the north side of the home or at least use super energy efficient windows to keep heat from escaping. You don't want to create a wind tunnel from the south to north side of the structure as air temperatures try to balance out!
You may have some doubts about how much heat a properly planned structure will produce. Hyperbole aside, your home will cook. The sun is incredibly powerful. Imagine sitting in your car on a sunny day with the windows rolled up and no air conditioning. The same thing will happen with your home.
To combat excessive heat, you should include some mechanism for reducing the amount of sun coming into the home. The easiest answer is to put curtains or some such thing on the interior, but it doesn't always work for large bay windows. To resolve this problem, you should put some type of a retractable overhang on the exterior of the home. You can install the roller under the lip of the roof. They don't look nearly as cheesy as they used to and you'll be happy you did so when summer rolls around.
Taking advantage of the sun for heating is not particularly complicated. If you keep the above issues in mind, you'll be able to smile when your neighbors complain about their utility bills.
Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com, a directory of solar energy companies. Visit us to read more articles on solar power and passive solar floor plans.
