In 2012, American homes consumed 3.65 billion kilowatthours (kWh) worth of electricity—up from 720 million kWh in 1950—more than double per household than our British counterparts, and second only to China. How did the American home become such an energy hog, despite so many advances in efficient appliances and construction? Blame the American Dream.
The world is not lacking for inexpensive kitchen knife sets—they’ve long been a staple of late-night infomercials and homeware bargain bins alike—but top-quality cutlery is much harder to come by
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A bulb is a bulb is a bulb. Wait, no, not—not when it looks like this it isn’t. These energy-efficient bulbs make low power consumption a form of high art.
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I’ve got a stack of loose paper recipe cards 18 inches tall, dozens of cookbooks, a bookmark folder jam-packed with links to Food Beast, Sunset, Bon Appetit, and enough canning ratios rattling around in my head to fill a 21-quart pot. What I don’t have is a single mobile resource to digitize, organize, and store my family’s four generations-worth of culinary knowledge. But maybe you do.
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Neolithic farmers may have been new to the whole "raising crops" game but they quickly figured out how to increase their agricultural efficiency: literal bullcrap. And we’ve gotten hellaciously good in the intervening thousands of years at the art of compost. Here’s how you can get in on the goods.
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The season for backyard barbeques and pool parties is upon us! But with the summer sun smothering the East Coast, who wants to crowd their ears into a pair of headphones or jam silicone buds down their ear canals? Instead, here are four easy ways to bring your playlist poolside.
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Tomorrow’s barbeque is going to be epic, a cookout for the ages. But first you’ll need to make sure your grill is up to the task. Here’s how to turn your fire pit up to 11 in time for the 4th.
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Gas-powered weed eaters are burly enough to chop down the thickest underbrush, no doubt. But they’re also noisy, smelly, and expensive to run. Instead, take the CGT400 Trimmer from CORE GasLess Power for a spin.
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The humble thermostat isn’t the hottest gadget category, but the Nest thermostat has the right combination of attractive interface and smartphone integration to actually be lust-worthy. Instead of pokey up and down buttons, the Nest shows you the current temperature on an aluminum dial and glows either blue or red if it’s currently heating or cooling your home. After a week of manually setting the temperature, the Nest learns your schedule and starts to control your home temperature on its own. Plus, you can control it from your computer or smartphone. More »
Securing your home against intruders used to be as simple as barring your doors and locking your windows. But home automation services—offering everything from remote monitoring to keyless door locks—have revolutionized how we fortify our houses. Are these new systems any better at protecting us? More »
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