Tweet Clever elves decorate with Solar LED lights Start the holidays right and avoid senseless holiday expenses at home. That means use green building ideas to manage your extra decorating and entertaining costs or you’ll end up with financial troubles in January – and beyond. In this series, we’ll focus upon one of 12 smart […]
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Energy Efficiency
Tweet Rebates today, discounted bills for decades! In this series, we focus upon one of 12 smart ways to give yourself Holiday Breaks at Home: Still shopping for your Iron Chef? Here’s my cheat sheet for finding the perfect refrigerator that is both top quality and most efficient. Right Size, Right Place Try to find […]
Tweet You deserve some extra holiday help Harness the Holidays and de-stress with these green building ideas to manage your extra decorating and entertaining costs or you’ll end up with financial troubles in January – and beyond. In this series, we focus upon one of 12 smart ways to give yourself Holiday Breaks at Home: […]
Tweet You Deserve It – Celebrate! Start the holidays right and avoid senseless holiday expenses at home. That means use seasonal green building ideas to control your extra decorating and entertaining costs or you’ll end up with financial troubles in January – and beyond. In this series, we’ll focus upon one of 12 smart ways […]
Tweet Before winter cold sets in, it pays to make sure that your gas heating system and appliances are working safely. Two main dangers of defective systems are carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning and fires. In Penfield, New York, a 54-year-old man died of CO poisoning one November. Prior to his death, the home’s CO alarms […]
Tweet I am always fascinated by the names of odd things. Take for instance the white, inner rind of a citrus fruit. It’s called an ‘albedo’. Who thinks up this stuff? I’m humored because green builders also use ‘albedo’ when choosing different types of cool roofs. By the way, cool roofs lower your home air […]
Tweet Relative Humidity is part of indoor air comfort Your Turn: How come I’m comfortable with the air conditioning temperature but my husband keeps complaining that he’s still hot? Maria, Fayetteville, NC My Turn: To a green builder, your family’s comfort is a critical part of indoor air quality. It’s said Americans spend an average […]
Tweet About 90 percent of the power used by a traditional light bulb creates heat, not visible light. That’s why, as a kid, I could make Teddy his favorite brownies in my Easy Bake Oven. These days though I want my bedroom to be lit for reading, not heating, so I banned incandescent light bulbs. […]
Tweet Easy Energy-Saving Project Brings Home Comfort Sick of uncomfortably drafty rooms? It’s really tough to solve the problem because there can be more than one issue. One very common source of drafts are gaps around electric wall switches and plugs. This is usually forgotten because the switch plates cover the problem from your view. […]
Tweet 2011 tax credits help you have a greener home Yippee! For the third year in a row, you can get federal tax credits (and more) for your green home building or remodeling. Many people mistakenly believe the $2,000 federal tax credit for new, energy-efficient homes ended in 2010, but Congress extended the perks through […]
