What's new on ConsumerReports.org: October 2009 home-related content

Tests that reveal the pros, cons and long-term costs of pellet-burning stoves and solar water heaters headline the new Energy Saving and Green Living Guide that we've published in tandem with these stories from our October 2009 issue. Among the key findings:

• Pellet stoves and solar water heaters. Our Alternative Energy overview reveals how both pellet-burning stoves and solar water heaters could reduce heating costs. But their high prices ($1,300 to $3,900 for pellet stoves; $2,200 to $6000 for solar water heaters, not including installation) and in the case of pellet stoves, higher operating costs (burning pellets is more costly and more polluting than burning natural gas) can lengthen payback times. Both also require upkeep and maintenance. Ratings of pellet stoves and an interim report our solar water heater testing are available to subscribers.

• Simple energy savings. Cut your Energy Bills lists more low-cost and cost-effective ways to reduce your utility bills, including specific tactics for heating and cooling, water consumption, and electricity use.
 
• Tracking federal incentives. See qualification criteria, installation costs, and annual monetary savings from the many energy-savings products and projects eligible for a 30 percent federal tax credit. We also describe how energy audits (done by private firms or on your own with help from government Web sites) can spot home energy wasters.

• CFLs now offer savings and style. Choosing the right compact fluorescent lights is another great way to cut your electric bills. They've been showing up in more and more fixtures, and our ratings (available to subscribers) include models that will work in conventional lights and recessed and track lights, outdoor and flood lights and porch/post lights.

• Readers share mattress ratings. When it's lights out, tap into the wisdom of 17,444 Consumer Reports readers who shared their ratings of the best mattress brands and retailers.

• Vacuums for tough times. Our report on Vacuums rates the performance of both the high-powered high-end and low-priced (but still well performing) models that manufacturers are rolling out during this recession.

• Standout shower towers. Our tests of shower towers revealed three models that could provide an invigorating spray while staying within federal water-consumption regulations and avoiding surcharges imposed by some utilities for heavy water use.

• The scoop on a robotic gutter cleaner. We unleashed the iRobot Looj 155 robotic cleaner on some sections of leaf-clogged gutters and found its promise exceeded its performance. Subscribers can read the full report here.

• Snow blower problem. We found a Toro snow blower that lacks an essential safety feature and gave it our Don't Buy: Safety Alert rating. But safe and cost-effective blowers did abound in our new ratings of 17 models (available to subscribers).

• Green dishwasher detergents wash out. Our tests of three phosphate-free dishwasher detergents also proved disappointing, although you can find capable phosphate-free performers in our August 2009 review of dishwasher detergents.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Find our more about upcoming increases in federal incentives for energy-efficient appliances.

EU begins ban on incandescent lightbulbs

Retailers and consumers in Europe are complaining about the new ban on incandescent lightbulbs of more than 100 watts. According to this New York Times/International Herald Tribune report, the move is supposed to spur use of energy-saving compact fluorescent lightbulbs, but the ban's opponents are citing CFL's higher per-bulb price and inferior quality of light.

The European Union argues that the switch, which will be gradually extended to cover lower-wattage lights by 2020, will save enough energy to power 11 million households and lower the average family's annual electric bill by about 50 euros (around $71.50). The EU also notes that consumers can still use transparent improved incandescent bulbs with halogen technology, which they claim provides exactly the same type and quality of light as conventional incandescent bulbs. (Read this post about new energy-efficiency rules for incandescent reflector lamps and general-service fluorescent lights. For more on the current quality of CFLs, read or listen to this National Public Radio interview with Celia Kuperszmid Lehrman, deputy editor of the Consumer Reports Home franchise.)

The EU is also pinning its long-term hopes on LEDs, which are free of the mercury found in CFLs and last even longer than CFLs. In a recent interview with Consumer Reports, Nadarajah Narendran, the director of research at the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, described future improvements to LED lighting and its potential to help millions of people in the industrialized and developing worlds.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Our October 2009 report on CFLs found lower prices, better performance and a host of new models for a wider range of applications; ratings are available to subscribers. Find out what other green technologies are worth deploying in your home in our updated Energy Saving & Green Living guide.

Don't fall for mortgage scams

With foreclosures in this country reaching a record high, as we recently reported, it's not surprising that more strapped homeowners are looking for some help to avoid losing their homes.

It's also no surprise that scammers are preying on vulnerable homeowners, as evidenced by this week's arrest in Westchester County, New York, of eight people who allegedly defrauded homeowners and mortgage lenders of $1.4 million.

If you're at risk of losing your home, read this story from the September 2009 of the Consumer Reports Money Adviser to avoid foreclosure and learn how to avoid getting ripped off if you're trying to refinance or modify your mortgage.

Essential information: If you or a family member are considering a reverse mortgage, read "Reversals of Fortune" to learn the ins and outs of these loans.

Forum Friday: Gas and charcoal grills cook up loads of discussions

Last weekend, we shared some late-season tips on keeping your gas grill in peak working condition. The discussions in our gas-grills forum reflect what's been hot this past season. If you're hoping to get a good deal on an end-of-season grill purchase, watch the video (right) and check out our free buyer's guide to gas grills. Our latest report on grills covers gas models as well as charcoal cookers and the Traeger Lil' Tex BBB070.

• Some posters are comparing notes on how specific 2009 model gas grills are faring this season

• Other commenters are complaining of being overcharged or underfilled when refilling or exchanging their propane tanks.

• There's also a heated debate over natural gas and liquid propane.

•Other readers have strong feelings about stainless-steel and cast-iron burners and infrared grills.

• On the customer-service front, one commenter had a good experience dealing with a manufacturer over a defective fuel regulator; another hasn't been as lucky with a Blue Ember grill, but some readers offered their own solutions.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Try our easy, delicious grilling recipes. And if you have a grilling tip or tale of your own, leave a comment below or on the forum.

Weekend Project: Even as summer enters final weeks, save by taking advantage of cooling incentives

Cool roofs are a hot item, with no less an advocate than Energy Secretary Steven Chu promoting their potential to save energy during an appearance on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. And while the U.S. Department of Energy is lacking in some ways when it comes to reducing energy use, the United States Postal Service has unveiled a new green roof (shown) atop its 2.2 million square foot mail-processing facility on Manhattan's West Side.

While such a project is too ambitious for your home, you should take advantage of the plentiful federal, state, and utility incentives for air conditioning and other improvements and equipment that will help you reduce your cooling and heating costs. (Read "Cash for Clunkers Moves to Appliances. Money Back for Your Old Kelvinator?" for details on the federal government's $300 million State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program.)

Air Conditioner Tune-Ups
There are several state and local utility incentives for central-air systems. Rocky Mountain Power and the Long Island Power Authority provide $100 rebates for tuning up central-air-conditioning systems.

Duct Insulation
As much as 30 to 40 percent of your cooling energy can be lost through leaks or when uninsulated ducts pass through uncooled spaces like the attic and garage. "Its certainly reduces the impact of a very efficient central-air unit if your ducts are leaking like a sieve and you have inadequate attic insulation," says Ed Clark, director of communications for Austin, Texas-based Austin Energy. That utility is offering rebates for duct-system performance testing, sealing, replacement, and insulation.

Programmable Thermostats
Today's best programmable thermostats can help you cut heating and cooling costs by up to 20 percent. Utilities in 34 states offer rebates of up to $70 for programmable thermostats—enough to cover the entire purchase price of seven of the 10 recommended models in our ratings (available to subscribers).

Whole-House and Ceiling Fans
California's Sacramento Municipal Utility District offers a $100 rebate on a whole-house fan system. These work by pulling in cool air from open windows and exhausting hot air from vents in the upper part of the home. Pasadena Water & Power will give its customers a $50 rebate on a ceiling fan, provided it's outfitted with an energy-saving compact fluorescent lightbulb and you buy it from a local retailer.

Weatherization Projects
Weatherization products such as energy-efficient windows, insulation, and doors can qualify for a federal tax credit of 30 percent of the cost, up to a $1,500 maxiumum. California's Alameda Municipal Power will pay up to 80 percent of caulking, weather stripping, and building insulation costs. National Grid offers customers in Massachusetts a 75 percent reimbursement up to $2,000 for similar improvements. The Orlando Utility Commission offers a $1-per-square-foot rebate on Energy Star-qualified windows and a $100 rebate for installing window film. Note that payback for your investment in these types of projects can be much longer than it is for other improvements you'll make.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: See our maintenance checklist for air-conditioning systems and learn how to add a ceiling fan. Our latest report on cooling (available to subscribers) provides details on window, portable, split-ductless, and central air conditioning.

10 Questions for . . . Andrea Gabor, Business Journalist

In this installment of 10 Questions for . . . , Senior Editor Daniel DiClerico speaks with Andrea Gabor, the Bloomberg Chair at Baruch College/CUNY whose most recent book is The Capitalist Philosophers: The Geniuses of Modern Business—Their Lives, Times, and Ideas. Here, Gabor shares the findings of her investigation into the appliance industry, including why she thinks U.S. manufacturers are at risk of being overtaken by foreign competition and what you should think about before buying major appliances.
 
You've spent much of your career covering the car industry. Why the interest in appliances?
It all goes back to my book The Man Who Discovered Quality (1990). It was the story of W. Edwards Deming, a statistician from Wyoming who ended up teaching the Japanese auto industry about quality management. Since then, quality has been something of an obsession with me. Two years ago I bought a $2,000 lemon of a range. I had so much trouble getting it repaired to my satisfaction—even the repair parts failed. That got me wondering about the once reliable American appliance and whether the American appliance industry was going the way of the American auto industry.

What have you learned so far in your investigation?
There are some remarkable parallels, especially when you think about what U.S. manufacturers could have learned from the auto experience of the 1980s. The Japanese started to beat the U.S. because of their commitment to quality. As with the auto industry, the main competitors to the U.S. appliance industry are largely Asian, and Korean in particular. These manufacturers have an incredibly strong quality ethic, which they learned from the Japanese. If you look at the big Korean companies like LG and Samsung, they live and breathe the Toyota quality playbook.

Is it even possible to have a domestic-versus-foreign discussion in this era of globalization?
We do live in a global world, and everyone does some amount of outsourcing. But the issue is not whether you do all your production under one roof in one country. The issue is what kind of relationship you have with your suppliers—and how much control you have over the production process. At one extreme you have the Toyota model, whereby the plant and the suppliers are usually in close proximity, like what you see in Toyota City. Both LG and Samsung have similar manufacturing centers in Korea. At the opposite end of the spectrum is a company like Apple, which has basically become a marketing and design company with virtually no in-house manufacturing. In my opinion, U.S. appliance makers need to be more like Toyota and less like Apple. Its iPods are designed to be replaced regularly; a range or refrigerator should last for years.

What do warranties tell you about this change in direction?
Warranties are in decline throughout the appliance industry. On smoothtop ranges, for example, they're down from five years to one year. The other interesting thing is that if you look at the accrual rates, which Warranty Week assembles, the average rate for U.S. home appliances is roughly 3 percent. Toyota and Honda, by comparison, have accrual rates of 1.3 percent. I realize that's comparing apples and oranges, but it begs the question of why the accrual rates would be half as much for what's essentially a much less complicated product. I would argue that it comes down to the lessons of quality that many of the major U.S. appliance manufacturers are learning the hard way.

How do values differ with American appliance manufacturers?
U.S. manufacturers don't seem to have the same quality-based philosophy. Their focus too often is on cutting costs. They want sales and they want profits and they see cost-cutting as the fastest way to get there. But what the experience of the 1980s Japanese automakers should teach them is that keeping quality up is the best way to keep costs down. I'd also argue that the U.S. manufacturers focus on slick design and features—the appliance world's equivalent of car fins—in lieu of quality.

But isn't innovation a requirement of growth? Can all of us still be cooking with grandma's old range.
You definitely need innovation. But real innovation and quality are linked. The Japanese understand this better than anyone. Their idea is that a culture of mindfulness and continuous improvement can lead to giant leaps. It wasn't that the Japanese undercut the price of the American auto or that they paid their workers less. Toyota beat the U.S. by making a better-looking, more-reliable car for a better price. They also pushed fuel efficiency and hybrid research when U.S. automakers said there wasn't a market for it. That's true innovation.

Tiny Greenwich Village home makes the most of minimal space

This 9.5-foot-wide home for sale on Bedford Street in New York City's Greenwich Village could be a most appropriate buy for this era of downsizing.

The three-story, 42-foot-long town house was built in 1873 and counts actors Cary Grant and John Barrymore, anthropologist Margaret Mead, and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Edna St. Vincent Millay among its former owners. If not averse to the space, a buyer might pause at the asking price of $2.75 million. The home actually has 1,500 square feet of living space, in line with a trend toward "rightsizing" homes that saw average floor area of newly built home shrink from 2,629 to 2,438 square feet in the last quarter of 2008.

Inside the home, open floor plans and extended balconies give the illusion of roominess, reflecting a move toward better use of existing interior space, as described in our  10 Questions for interviews with The Not So Big House author Sarah Susanka and architect Marianne Cusato.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Our newly updated Kitchen-Planning Guide has dozens of tips to maximize your space and budget.

By the Numbers: China aims to take the lead in solar power

20,000 megawatts

Amount of solar power the Chinese government hopes to generate by 2020, according to "China Racing Ahead of U.S in the Drive to Go Solar," in yesterday's New York Times. The story adds that China today produces more than 25 percent of the solar modules made worldwide.

Chinese companies are aiming to become the dominant player in solar power and are backed by generous government support, according to the Times. The biggest manufacturer, Suntech Power Holdings, sells solar panels in the United States for less than the cost of materials, assembly, and shipping.

While this country is lagging behind China on the solar front, wind power is starting to grow in the U.S., as we reported last week in "By the Numbers: In the Quest for Renewable Energy, One Answer Is Blowin' in the Wind."—Kimberly Janeway | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Look for our coverage of renewable and alternative energy, including reports on solar water heaters and pellet stoves, in the October 2009 issue of Consumer Reports, online and on newsstands next week.

Tip of the Day: Freeze summer fruits and vegetables

With recent projections from the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicating that prices for "food at home"—that's all the stuff you buy at supermarkets, farmers' markets, and convenience stores—will rise 2 to 3 percent this year and 2.5 to 3.5 percent in 2010, you might be more inclined to buy a stand-alone freezer, figuring that freezing food that you buy in bulk or cook in big batches might save you some money.

See our September 2009 report on freezers for news on and ratings of the latest models (ratings available to subscribers) and read our free buyer's guide for freezers and shopping advice for refrigerators. (The photo shows freezer testing in our labs.)

Now's also a great time to freeze summer produce in your refrigerator's freezer or stand-alone freezer, whether it's the bounty from your own garden or fruits and vegetables you pick up or at local farm stands.

Some vegetables aren't freezer friendly because they become limp and soggy when thawed. The do-not-freeze list includes celery, endive, lettuce, parsley, radishes, and nonmarinated cabbage and cucumbers, according to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, which offers advice on freezing dozens of different foods. You'll learn other ways to freeze fruits and vegetables and prevent freezer burn and odors from permeating produce with this advice from the University of Minnesota Exentsion. Cook's Illustrated also offers a PDF with step-by-step freezing information.

Once you've prepared your food for freezing, keep the freezer temperature at 0°F or lower, since foods lose their quality faster when stored at higher temperatures. Place produce in the coldest spot in the freezer and next to refrigerated surfaces. And leave a little space between packages to allow the air to circulate. After the food has frozen, pack it more closely together, which frees up space for more items.—Kimberly Janeway | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Learn more about the federal government's State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, aka cash for clunkers for appliances.

The latest showerheads can save water and still provide an invigorating experience

Kramer: Hey. Super's in my bathroom changing my showerhead. Have they changed your showerhead?

Jerry: No, he's doing mine next. They're low-flow, you know.

Kramer: Low-flow? Well I don't like the sound of that.

That scene between Jerry Seinfeld and his loony neighbor Kramer takes place early in the "The Showerhead" episode of Seinfeld, which first aired on February 15, 1996, as episode 16 of the seventh season of the NBC hit sitcom. Later in the show, Kramer declares, "If I don't have a good shower, I am not myself. I feel weak and ineffectual. I'm not Kramer." Toward the end of the episode, Kramer and postman-neighbor Newman find a black-market dealer in non-low-flow showerheads who sells them the "Commando 450," which, he explains, is used only in the circus . . . for elephants. (The photo, taken from this YouTube clip, shows Kramer and Newman buying the unit.)

Last night I caught a rerun of "The Showerhead" on the Fox affiliate here in the New York City area. While the show today feels dated, one notion holds: Consumers often find that some water-saving bathroom fixtures like showerheads and toilets (latest report and ratings available to subscribers) don't perform as well as their thirsty predecessors. So it stands to reason that Jerry, Kramer, and Newman might have been dissatisfied with the low-flow fixtures installed in their apartment building.

But many new showerheads we tested for an August 2009 report meet the federal maximum flow rate of 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm) and provide a satisfying shower experience.

That August report also covered shower towers, multishowerhead units that promise a spalike experience at home. These models can legally use more than 2.5 gallons per minute, though each individual showerhead must meet the federal government's flow-rate levels.

One of the five showerheads on a $500 shower tower we tested exceeded the maximum federal flow rate. So earlier this month we informed the EPA of our findings, asking the agency to take compliance and enforcement action.

Look for our story on this shower tower in the October 2009 issue of Consumer Reports (online and on newsstands next week). And if you're in the market for a new showerhead, read our latest report, which covers single- and multisetting units.—Steven H. Saltzman | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook