02/28/12

Who knew that those little cable boxes in our homes could eat up more power than a refrigerator or air conditioner? Since the cable box is on full-tilt power 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it uses a lot of power; add in DVRs and non-Energy Star-rated TVs, and you've got a recipe for energy disaster. The best solution is to turn them off: Plug the TV and cable box into a power strip and power it down every night before bed. Flip the switch in the morning -- it should only take 45 seconds for the whole system to reboot -- to cut down on energy savings by a third.

02/27/12

How do you know if it's time to water the lawn? A simple trick will tell you. According to the Environmental Protection Agency's WaterSense program, if you step on your lawn and the grass bounces back, there's no need to water. If you step on the grass and it stays flat, give it a good drink early in the morning or late at night so the sun's rays won't evaporate the water your lawn needs.

02/26/2012

With spring around the corner, your outdoor window boxes and garden pots may still have last year's potting soil in them. So the question is: Is it any good? Or if you are repotting a household plant, can you reuse the old soil? The answer is no, unless you know for sure the soil is free of any disease. Since that can be impossible to tell, the best way to reuse potting soil is to sprinkle it in the yard, where the sun will have a chance to "bake" the soil (killing any disease), and it can blend into the ground.