Buzzword: Unitasking

What it means. In this age of computer-assisted information overload, many of us bounce willy-nilly among work tasks. While you're reviewing a spreadsheet or preparing a PowerPoint, you might suddenly get the inclination to Google an old high-school friend ("I wonder what Cliff's up to?"), launch Pandora to listen to a favorite artist whose song popped into your head, or tweet some random thought ("I don't believe the All-Star game should decide home-field advantage for the World Series").

So much for getting the work done on time and heading home right at 5 for a family dinner.

There are other downsides to multitasking. Weisure has blurred the line between work and home life, turning folks into burnt-out multitaskers. And just ask anyone who's gotten into a car accident while texting whether that message could have waited.

The response for some harried Harrys and Harriets? Unitasking, aka monotasking: focusing on one job, project, or goal at a time, completing that task, and moving on to the next one.

Why the buzz? Amazon's Kindle e-reader has been praised as a paragon of unitasking, forcing users to focus on the particular material at hand—no taking a break from reading Bleak House to check on the latest market news on Bloomberg.com.

When it comes to home remodeling, unitasking makes sense not only as available dollars for home remodeling have dwindled but also because it's a smart way to work.

As author and contractor Fernando Pages Ruiz explained in our interview with him, "Starting the work all over the house [is a common mistake]. This is usually a guy thing, the do-it-yourselfer who starts jumping around doing this and doing that until he finally runs out steam and the house is a mess."

Haphazard remodeling inevitably leads to a change of plans, and that costs money—a median of $2,000 extra, according to our recent remodeling survey of 17,219 readers. For major additions, that number ballooned to $10,000.

Of course, renovations are complicated, especially if you're managing the project or doing the work yourself. But the more you plan and prioritize, the fewer headaches and cost overruns you'll encounter.—Daniel DiClerico | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: For more advice on managing a renovation, check out our updated Kitchen-Planning Guide and use our Home Remodeling Guide interactive.

Staycation and green collar Buzzwords part of 2009 update to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary

Planning to spend you're staycation hunting for a green-collar job? Those two Buzzwords we've written about in the past year or so are among the 100 words being added to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, this year. Some of our other Buzzwords—ruralpolitan, precycle, and paycation—have yet to make the cut.

John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster, told the Associated Press that some of this year's new words are tied to advances in technology (sock puppet), increasing environmental awareness (locavore), and concerns among aging baby boomers about their health (cardioprotective).

One term that might be included in future updates is a spin on postpone: Prepone, commonly used in India, means to arrange for something to take place sooner than planned. If you're preponing a kitchen remodel, check out our new Kitchen-Planning Guide.

Let us know what other Buzzwords we should explore by leaving a comment below.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Buzzword: Power Factor

What it means. Power factor, a characteristic of alternating-current, or AC, circuits, is defined as the ratio of real power (what the end user consumes, measured in watts) to apparent power (what the utility company supplies, measured in volt-amperes).

Power factor is expressed as a number between 0.0 and 1.0. The higher the number, the better the power factor, with 0.85 and above being considered optimal.

An analogy might be helpful here: Let's say you're at your favorite watering hole and order a $4 pint of beer. To serve you a proper, full pint, the barkeep might end up dispensing a few extra ounces. You're not charged for that spillage—you pay for only the beer in the glass. (Yes, the bar accounts for waste.)

That's basically how things operate between you and your utility: You pay for real power (beer) and not apparent power (spillage). It's a different story at the commercial level, since utility companies may impose a penalty on industrial customers whose facilities have a low power factor. Many utilities will levy a surcharge if a company's power factor is less than 0.95, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Your utility company would prefer that your home have a 1.0 power factor, since it charges you only for real power

Why the buzz? Power factor is still mainly a concern for industrial clients, but it might creep into the residential sector. One reason for this is the low power factor of compact fluorescent lightbulbs.

For a 60-watt incandescent lightbulb with a 1.0 power factor, for instance, the utility generates 60 volt-amperes and the customer pays for 60 watts of power, according to lighting company Osram Sylvania. But for a 15-watt CFL with a 0.60 power factor, the utility must generate 25 volt-amperes, while the customer pays for 15 watts. (To get volt-amperes, divide watts by power factor.)

So when that 0.60-power-factor CFL over the course of time uses 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity, the utility would have to generate 1,667 volt-amperes to power it. (It costs American utility companies an average of 4 cents to produce a cost of a kilowatt-hour of electricity, according to the Edison Electric Institute.) Note that the average home has an overall power factor of about 0.90.

When you factor in the hundreds of billions of kilowatt-hours used by U.S. households each year, you can see why power companies would love to pass on some or all of the additional costs associated with power factor on to their customers.—Daniel DiClerico | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Check out these easy ways to cut energy use at home and learn about watt meters, which are marketed as energy-saving devices.

Buzzword: Phasing

What it means. In the context of home improvement, phasing occurs when you take a piecemeal approach to renovation. You might apply the strategy across several areas of the home, for example redoing the kitchen this year but replacing a dated, inefficient air-conditioning system at a later date. Or you can implement phasing for a single space, say refinishing kitchen cabinets now and installing new counters and appliances down the line.

Why the buzz? Plummeting property values mean less equity to help pay for remodeling projects. That reality and fears of job loss and a general uncertainty about the economy are behind the 12 percent year-over-year decline in home-improvement spending projected for 2009 by Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. Phasing can spread out the financial hit of a major project. In our latest remodeling poll of 1,000 Americans, more than a third of respondents said the recession has imposed a staggered schedule onto their project. But phasing mistakes can lead to additional expenses and stress. Here's how to do things right:

Stick to the plan. This directive, true for all remodeling projects, is essential when phasing to avoid the remodeling equivalent of military "mission creep"—expanding a job beyond its original scope. Your written contract with the contractor should spell out the specific phases of the project, including target start and end dates. If you're a DIYer, creating a detailed plan will force you to think through the entire project and might keep any budget-busters from creeping in.

Don't do double work. If you're remodeling a single room in phases, that means doing any behind-the-walls work first so that you're not plastering or painting twice. It's also best to proceed from the top of the room down, saving the floors for last to prevent workers from trampling across finished surfaces, for instance. The same rules apply to exterior remodeling. For example, do necessary window work when the clapboards are off for a siding project, or replace the roof before you undertake major landscaping.

Make off-season hires. Contractors' schedules tend to slow down after the end-of-year holidays. If you can line up a kitchen or bath remodel for that time, you might be able to negotiate a better price. At the very least, the pro you hire will likely be grateful for the work and anxious to do a crack job, perhaps ensuring himself the gig for the next phase of your remodeling.—Daniel DiClerico | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: You'll find the latest information on kitchen and bath remodeling in the August 2009 issue of Consumer Reports, online and on newsstands starting on June 29. See our kitchen-planning guide for more details.

Buzzword: Cool Roof

What it means. Never heard of a "cool roof"? Abandon your visions of an overhyped hipster-filled rooftop bar or eatery in an edgy, funky neighborhood. A cool roof, simply put, is a roof designed to reflect sunlight. Since the roof stays cooler, less heat is transferred to the building below, resulting in a cooler building and energy and money savings.

Why the buzz? U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu recently made headlines when he was in London to attend a symposium on climate change. He said that painting all roofs white or light colors could help significantly reduce the amount of energy used to cool buildings.

But this idea is about not only the color of a roof but also its solar reflectance (SR) and thermal emittance (TE), which are rated on a scale of 0 to 1, with 1 being the most reflective or emissive. The Cool Roof Rating Council trade group says it rates products based on their initial values and after three years of weather exposure. The cool-roof concept is to use reflective coatings or materials. So a cool roof could be made of clay or concrete tiles or other materials suitable for a climate along with coatings in a range of colors that are designed to reflect the rays of the sun. The photo shows a home with MCA clay roof tiles in Riverside, California.

Cool roofs lower the surface temperature of a roof by up to 100*F, according to the California Energy Commission, which estimates that cool roofs can trim cooling costs by 20 percent on average in California. The CRRC estimates the average energy savings are 7 to 15 percent of cooling costs.

But the U.S. Department of Energy says that reflective roofs don't work in all situations, and the biggest benefits are reaped in hot, sunny climates where air conditioning is used frequently. Homes in shady spots or those with well-insulated attics might not see significant benefits. Cool roofs can also increase heating costs in the winter. To figure out how much energy you'll save, use the DOE's cool-roof calculator.

If you are considering a cool roof, find out whether the materials qualify for a federal tax credit and request a manufacturer's certification statement. You could receive a 30 percent tax credit (up to $1,500) for the material costs if the roof is installed this year or next. Also look online for rebates from utility companies.—Kimberly Janeway | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Check out our June 2009 report on roofing and July 2009 report on air conditioning (available to subscribers), stay cool without sky-high energy bills, and read about ceiling fans.

Buzzword: Lumens

What it means. Watts are probably what you think of when you replace a lightbulb around the house, be it an incandescent bulb or a compact fluorescent fixture. But lumens output is really the key factor in choosing a lightbulb for an application: Watts tell you how much electricity a bulb consumes whereas lumens represent bulb brightness and how much light they provide.

Manufacturers list lumens and wattage on bulb packages, so look for a comparable lumens output at the lowest wattage when you're replacing a bulb. A 13-watt CFL provides around 800 lumens, about the same as a 60-watt incandescent bulb. (The image, courtesy of Philips, shows a residence in Mexixo City with an LED installation by Grupo G1-V3.)

Why the buzz? We're in the midst of a lighting revolution, as manufacturers continue to improve their compact fluorescent lights and do R&D on LEDs. LEDs are being hailed as the next big thing because they're highly efficient, last a long time (up to 100,000 hours, claim some makers), and lack the mercury that all CFLs contain. The New York Times recently covered the growing interest in and use of LEDs in "Green Promise Seen in Switch to LED Lighting."

But further research is still need needed to realize the full energy and cost savings of LEDs and to make bulbs that will work in more residential applications, say the experts at the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, New York. (So far, we've tested LEDs only for undercabinet lighting.) What's more, LEDs cost $20 to $100 each, a lot more than CFLs.

Until LEDs become more widely available for home use and come down in price, replacing incandescent bulbs with CFLs is your best energy-saving move. Buy Energy Star-qualified CFLs, and be sure to consider the color of the light. The color could affect how bright a light appears, even if lumens are the same, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Incandescent lights have a soft, yellowish glow, but CFLs nearer to the color of daylight aren't as yellow and might appear brighter.

Keep in mind that the lower the Kelvin number listed on the package, the yellower the light; higher numbers indicate bluer or whiter light. Watch this New York Times video, featuring Home Editor Bob Markovich, to learn more about the different types of CFLs.—Kimberly Janeway | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Watch our video on safety issues and CFLs.

Buzzword: Weisure

What it means. If you’ve ever dashed off a quick e-mail to a colleague when you’re at your kid’s soccer game or forged a new business connection when you were otherwise Facebooking for fun, you’re part of the growing weisure class. Sociologist Dalton Conley, a professor at New York University, coined the term to describe the increasingly blurry line between work and leisure. “Increasingly, it’s not clear what constitutes work and what constitutes fun,” Conley recently told CNN.com.

Why the buzz? Technology is a major contributor to weisure time. Omnipresent online connectivity and multifunction PDAs and smart phones keep us virtually tethered to our desks 24/7/365. Social-networking sites, meanwhile, are “part fun and part instrumental in our knowledge community,” says Conley. He contrasts the current work-obsessed culture with the 1950s, when it was taboo to talk business with friends, and work and home spheres were kept separate.

(As fans of Seinfeld well know, it’s important to keep certain worlds apart, as George and Jerry discussed in “The Pool Guy,” an episode that originally aired on November 16, 1995, during the show’s seventh season:

George: “You have no idea of the magnitude of this thing. If she (George’s girlfriend, Susan) is allowed to infiltrate this world, then George Costanza as you know him ceases to exist. You see, right now I have Relationship George. But there is also Independent George. That’s the George you know, the George you grew up with—Movie George, Coffee-Shop George, Liar George, Bawdy George.”

Jerry: “I love that George.”

George: “Me too, and he’s dying. If Relationship George walks through this door, he will kill Independent George. A George divided against itself cannot stand!”)

We’ve reported on the rise of the paycation, in which people look to earn extra cash during their vacations. And anxiety over the recession is undoubtedly another cause of weisure: Workers seem to be more inclined to check in more during their vacations, perhaps out for fear of falling behind or losing favor with the boss.

Weisure seems to border on workaholicism—voluntary or imposed—but it’s not always unhealthy, says Conley. Some Americans mix business with pleasure because they genuinely enjoy their jobs. He borrows Richard Florida’s term “creative class” to describe this group of career-loving professionals.

Still, even in cases where weisure is willful, there’s no substitute for real R&R. If you can or are so inclined this Memorial Day weekend, turn off your PDA or phone or keep the laptop stowed away. Or, with a nod to Timothy Leary, turn off your phone, log out of the company network, and tune in to some good old-fashioned leisure time.—Daniel DiClerico | e-mail | Twitter

Essential information: Check out our buyer’s guide to gas grills and our tips for taking a Memorial Day road trip.

SiteSeeing: TheGreenestDollar.com provides money-conscious eco-friendly advice

Heather Levin has a plan. She wants to sell her circa-1900 home so she can move into an off-the-grid home built from shipping containers.

Levin has long been trying to save money by going green whenever possible, and as she collected and documented tip after tip, she decided to decant them into TheGreenestDollar.com, which launched in 2008.

The site consists of a slew of tips and product reviews broken into 15 categories including Frugality/Saving Money, Green Building, Green Home Tips, Recycling, Small Home Living, and Solar Power. Levin also includes product and book reviews (of course, she borrows books from her local library instead of buying them).

But TheGreenestDollar.com shines brightest when Levin cites and summarizes multiple sources to detail the pros and cons and costs of projects like using old tires in your garden and making a mud-and-straw cob house.

Given the site's obvious appeal and value, Levin might soon be able to use her own eco-friendly ways to sell a home and watch her ship(ping containers) come in.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter

Essential information: Visit GreenerChoices,org, which offers advice on ways to save money and the planet. And stay on top of the latest green trends with our Buzzwords, including bright green, cookprint, and greenwashing.

Buzzword: Cookprint

What it means. Cookprint takes the carbon footprint—the amount of greenhouse gas each of us generates through our daily activities—and plants it firmly in the kitchen.

Food writer Kate Heyhoe cooked up cookprint, defined as the energy needed to prepare the food you eat. That energy use encompasses the appliances and techniques used to prepare and store food, though the management of leftovers and food waste also factors in—you lower your cookprint by composting rather than tossing scraps into the trash. Low-cookprint meals should also be heavy on plant-based and locally grown, sustainable foods.

Why the buzz? A few new cookbooks—including Heyhoe's Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen—the New Green Basics Way; Big Green Cookbook: Hundreds of Planet-Pleasing Recipes and Tips for a Luscious, Low-Carbon Lifestyle, by Jackie Newgent; and Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating, by Mark Bittman—have stirred up interest in eco-conscious cooking.

Besides food enthusiasts, appliance manufacturers are in on the cookprint movement, though it's worth noting that cooking appliances as a category account for just 3 percent of a home's energy consumption, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Whirlpool says that for its induction appliances, "90% of the energy [is] expended into useful heat to reduce utility costs. (With gas ranges up to 60% of the heat is normally wasted through indirect gas combustion.)"

It's easy to cook more efficiently. On the cooktop, blanch green beans first and then cook pasta in the same pot of boiling water. In the oven, roast vegetables for tomorrow's supper alongside tonight's baked chicken. And when preheating a gas grill, throw on some potatoes or corn on the cob or heavy-duty-foil packets of vegetables instead of letting all those Btu go to waste.

Or when you're cooking small portions, use your toaster oven, which will consume less energy than a conventional oven. And reheat leftovers in a microwave oven. As covered in our February 2009 report on microwaves, microwave ovens can save up to 80 percent of the energy used by a typical oven. Indeed, the Environmental Protection Agency is considering making microwaves eligible for Energy Star qualification.

Remember, it rarely makes environmental sense to replace a working appliance just to take advantage of a new, more-efficient model. Still, if you do need a new refrigerator or dishwasher, the latest versions will reduce your cookprint. The average 2008 refrigerator or dishwasher uses 30 percent less energy than the average 2000 model, according to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. Just don't fall victim to the Snackwell's effect when shopping.

Completing the cookprint cycle, conserve energy and water with your dishwasher by not prerinsing dishes before loading them, running full loads, and skipping the heated-dry cycle.—Daniel DiClerico | e-mail | Twitter

Essential information: Visit our appliances hub to find the most energy-efficient refrigerators and dishwashers. Look for our special report on kitchens, in the August 2009 issue of Consumer Reports, online and on newsstands in July.

Buzzword: Teardown

What it means. During the last housing boom—remember that carefree time?—the teardown proliferated, as homeowners and builders razed countless properties to make way for new, often dramatically larger abodes. But in some circles, teardowns were not a welcome occurrence. "Across the nation a teardown epidemic is wiping out historic neighborhoods one house at a time," according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 2002, the organization published an entire book on the subject, Protecting America's Historic Neighborhoods: Taming the Teardown Trend. By 2006, the housing bubble was leaking serious air, slowing new construction and teardown activity.

Why the buzz? Teardowns have returned, but it's no longer undesired or historic homes that have a date with the wrecking ball. These days, with the air completely out of the last housing bubble and the real-estate market a mess, brand-new houses are being leveled in what you might call Teardown 2.0.

Consider the case of Victorville, California, located 100 miles north of Los Angeles. Hoping to cut its losses, the bank that owns 16 houses in a planned community there won't try to sell the homes in a moribund market and decided to demolish the homes. So far, four luxury McMansions have been demolished and teardowns are scheduled for another dozen nearly finished houses.

Some of the building materials from today's teardowns will be reused or recycled—turning 2x4s into landscaping mulch for example. But "it's a waste of a lot of resources and perfectly good construction," said Ron Willemsen, president of Intravaia Rock and Sand, the company handling the Victorville demolitions, in this article in the Los Angeles Times.

Across California, developers have abandoned almost 9,400 other homes, according to the Times' article. With the explosion of boomburbs/boomburgs nationwide, what's happening in Victorville could spread to other areas, so don't be surprised to see Teardown 2.0 launch in your town.—Daniel DiClerico | e-mail | Twitter

Essential information: Find out how long it takes for a totally neglected wood-frame house to fall to the ground.