Learn more about the Amish heater and EdenPure space heater

The calendar indicates that heating season is  upon us, but the Home & Garden blog team doesn't need to look at a thermometer or watch the Weather Channel to know it's starting to get colder here in the New York City metro area and elsewhere around the country.

Nope, all we've got to do is look at the traffic to and comments about heating appliances on the Home & Garden blog and ConsumerReports.org. Specifically, readers are looking for information about the Heat Surge Roll-n-Glow Electric Fireplace (aka the Amish heater), EdenPure space heaters, and pellet stoves.

• If you're considering the Heat Surge appliance, read our review of the Amish heater as well as our post about some consumer complaints to the Better Business Bureau. And remember, although Heat Surge claims its heaters will help you save on your heating bills, the only way to do so is to employ zone heating. (Note: According to a customer-service representative at Heat Surge, heaters made in 2009 were updated with a stronger blower and other changes affecting heat distribution. The company also says it plans to add a thermostat on future versions, possibly in 2010. The model we purchased and reviewed early this year might have incorporated some or all of the updates.)

• If you're pondering buying an EdenPure space heater, read "Are EdenPure Space Heaters Just a Lot of Hot Air?"
 
• If a pellet stove seems like a viable heating option, learn more about these appliances in our October 2009 report and our previous buyer's guide to pellet- and wood-burning stoves.

Essential information: "Don't Let Energy Savings Go Up and Out the Chimney" covers proven ways to save energy during heating season. And learn about space heaters, programmable thermostats, and weatherizing your attic. If you're in the market for new heating equipment, get up to speed on the $300 million State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, aka cash for clunkers for appliances.

Tip of the Day: Find the right caulk for your home project

As you might have already encountered in the caulk aisle at your local home center, there's a dizzying array of caulking products in tubes, cartridges, and aerosol cans. All those choices could make finding the right caulk for the job a hassle. The chart below covers the major categories of caulk and can help you find the best material for your project.

Why use caulk? When the right type of caulk is applied properly, it can protect your home from the elements and make it more energy efficient or prevent leaks from the shower or tub. What's more, our stories on five key home repairs and smart ways to cut your energy use reveal how important caulk can be.

Modern caulk formulations are relatively inexpensive and many are easy to apply, simple to paint over, and a snap to clean up. Althogh the 30 percent federal tax credit on purchases of weatherization materials doesn't apply to caulking, state incentives are often available.

Ed Pollack, a team leader for residential-energy-efficiency research at the U.S. Department of Energy, recommends you use water-based foam sealants since they're easier to clean up. And he urges you to start caulking from the outside first. "You want to seal openings in your home's exterior that could allow water and cause mold or ruin the caulking you've done to interior spaces."—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Consider weatherizing your attic to save money and boost comfort at home year-round. Our Energy Saving & Green Living guide offers many ways to weatherize your home and make it more efficient. And the Complete Guide to Reducing Energy Costs provides illustrated instructions for key do-it-yourself weatherization projects, and with the purchase of the book you get a free 30-day trial of ConsumerReports.org, including access to the ratings.

Type of Caulk	Best Use(s)	Pros	Cons	Price
Acrylic tub and tile	To seal kitchen and bathroom fixtures.	Flexible; mildew resistant; cleans up with water.	Not paintable; not as durable as 100% silicone.	$4 and up per tube
Butyl rubber	To seal and fill around windows and skylights and around flashings and in gutters to seal dissimilar materials (glass, metal, plastic, wood, and concrete). More flexible (can stretch in multiple directions) than silicone. Good in areas that experience high temperature variations. Formulations with with asphalt are best for roofing repairs.	More flexible (can stretch in multiple directions) than silicone; can be painted after curing one week. Good in areas that experience high temperature variations. Formulations with asphalt are best for roofing repairs.	Does not adhere well to painted surfaces; shrinkage varies; might require two applications. Can be toxic; precautions must be taken and requires solvent cleanup.	$3.50 and up per tube
Concrete and mortar repair	To repair cracks in concrete and damaged masonry and mortar.	Can be shaped to fit before drying; remains flexible, cleans up with water, dries to color of concrete mortar or can be painted.	Not recommended for horizontal surfaces where water could accumulate.	$4.50 and up per tube
Latex	To seal gaps in exterior walls and plug holes and fill gaps in interior walls and woodwork before painting.	Inexpensive; takes paint well;, can be sanded; easy to work with; cleans up with water.	Will crack eventually where temperatures vary greatly (acrylic latex formulations are more durable); needs to be painted when used outdoors; won't adhere to metal.	$1.50 and up per tube
Oil or resin-based	To seal gaps in exterior walls.	Inexpensive; will bond to most surfaces.	Cracks after a few years; much less durable than elastomeric (silicone, latex, or acrylic) caulks.	$1 and up per tube
100% silicone	To fill around pipes and vents and building structures made of nonporous materials and plumbing fixtures. Not as effective on wood or masonry.	Very durable and flexible; doesn't crack.	Expensive; limited colors; can't be painted or sanded, gives off strong odor when curing; solvent required for cleanup.	$4.50 and up per tube
Siliconized latex	Same uses as 100% silicone, except not on plumbing fixtures.	Very durable and flexible; rarely cracks, many colors available; cleans up with water; less expensive than 100% silicone.	Can't be sanded.	$3.50 and up per tube
Spray foam (polyurethane-based)	To seal around window and door frames or to fill cracks and holes.	Expands more than latex and fills a greater area than caulking alone.	Expands after application, so it can warp door and window frames; can't resist UV light; must be painted for exterior use; very difficult to clean up after use.	$5.40 and up per can (but one can fills as much space as many tubes of caulking)
Spray foam (water-based)	Around window and door frames or to fill cracks and holes.	Does not expand as much as polyurethane foam; can be shaped while wet; easy cleanup with water; will not cause windows or doors to bind.	Does not adhere as tightly to materials as urethane; takes longer to cure (up to 24 hours).	$5 and up per can (but one can can fill as much space as many tubes of caulking)

Can newfangled utility bills persuade Americans to use less energy?

You've swapped out your old thermostats for programmable models, replaced inefficient incandescent lightbulbs with the best compact fluorescent lightbulbs, followed our advice for saving energy at home, weatherized your attic, and taken advantage of tax credits and other incentives for energy-related home improvements.

There are still other ways to squeeze some more energy savings out of your home, and your utility company might be able to help—not by giving you an energy audit or lowering your rates (like that'd ever happen!). Rather, some utilities nationwide are sending out new bills that show your energy use compares to those of your neighbors, with a goal of getting you to keep up (or is that down?) with the Joneses. See the image below for some of the detailed information customers receive.

National Grid is sending 50,000 of its Massachusetts customers bills (shown) with data showing how their gas and electricity consumption compares to the 100 nearest and 20 thriftiest households of similar size in the area, according to this Boston Globe report. "There's obviously a little bit of a competitive aspect to it, to see if you can one-up your neighbors in terms of energy savings,'' said Monica Ibrahim, program manager for the National Grid program, told the paper.

The bills also contain energy-saving tips to spur energy hogs to consume less. A nationally representative survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center found that 55 percent of respondents had done very little to conserve energy in their homes.

The technology for the consumption comparisons in these bills comes from Arlington, Virginia-based software company Opower, which has established partnerships with 21 utilities nationwide, including the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and Puget Sound Energy. "We're best known for use of behavioral science to show people how their energy usage compares to that of their neighbors," says Opower CEO Daniel Yates, whose company's software draws upon psychologist Robert B. Cialdini's theories of persuasion. National Grid hopes Opower-assisted bills will persuade customers to cut household energy consumption by 3 percent a year over the next decade. (Learn more about how the billing is designed to work.)

If your own utility still isn't using such high-tech bills, you might want to look into Google's PowerMeter or Microsoft's Hohm services or one of the watt meters we tested to ferret out energy-wasting appliances and practices.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential Information: Our Energy Saving & Green Living guide offers other advice, including updated coverage of the $300 million State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, aka cash for clunkers for appliances.

 

By the Numbers: Federal funding for weatherization eclipses cash for clunkers for appliances money

$4,728,750,000

Money allocated to the U.S. Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program under the 2009 Recovery Act. To date, the program has doled out about half of its multibillion-dollar funding for a variety of weatherization projects, such as properly insulating an attic.

New York tops the WAP recipient list with $394,686,513, followed by Texas ($326,975,732), Pennsylvania ($252,793,062), Michigan (243,398,975), and Illinois ($242,526,619).

The nearly $5 billion is a boatload of money, but if spent wisely it could go a long way toward saving millions of Americans money and helping the environment. A recent report from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies estimates that residential energy use would decline by 22.5 percent if the roughly 120 million homes built before 2000 were made as efficient as those built since then.

Perhaps that potential significant impact explains why federal weatherization money so far exceeds that given to the $300 million State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, also known as cash for clunkers for appliances. Visit the Energy Star Web site for information on special offers and rebates for appliances, heating and cooling equipment, water heaters, and the like, and find out how much money your state has available for rebates, weatherization programs, and more.

You'll find more information on other federal and state energy-efficiency programs on the Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy Web site.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Our Energy Saving & Green Living guide can help you cut your carbon footprint and save money. Follow our overall advice for using less energy at home, and remember that some projects might qualify for federal tax credits.

By the Numbers: Energy Star homes reach major milestone

1 million

Number of Energy Star-qualified homes built nationwide since the program debuted in 1995. These homes have saved Americans $1.2 billion in energy costs, reduced greenhouse-gas emissions by 22 billion pounds, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The top 10 markets for Energy Star homes are Houston, Dallas, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York City, Tucson, San Antonio, Sacramento, and San Diego.

To qualify for Energy Star, says the EPA, a new home must be at least 15 percent more efficient than homes built to the 2004 International Residential Code and include other features that make them 20 to 30 percent more efficient than standard home, such as effective insulation, high-performance windows, and efficient heating and cooling equipment, appliances, lighting, and ventilation. (The image below, from Energy Star, shows typical locations of air leaks in a home. Check out our recent Weekend Project on weatherizing your attic.)

"This is an amazing achievement for the Energy Star program, but the real winners are the 1 million American families who have the chance to save money and keep harmful pollution out of the air. That's great news for anyone who wants to cut costs and protect our planet," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson in a press release. "We're going to keep the number of Energy Star homes growing, because every new Energy Star home is a step towards lower costs, cleaner air, and communities that are environmentally and economically sustainable."

To boost the energy efficiency of your home and save some real money, start with these simple, inexpensive steps and follow our overall advice for using less energy at home.—Celia Kuperszmid Lehrman | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: If you haven't done so already, get your heating system tuned up and install a programmable thermostat. Also refer to our buyer's guides to furnaces (more details here), water heaters, pellet stoves, and solar water heaters, and find the best compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Remember, some projects might qualify for federal tax credits. If you want energy-efficient appliances, stay up on the news related to the $300 million State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, also known as cash for clunkers for appliances.

 

Save money by replacing incandescent holiday lights with LED versions

If your holiday lights have seen better days, you might want to replace incandescent versions with more-efficient and more-durable LED lights.

Our tests of mini, C7, and C9 holiday lights showed that while incandescent versions did burn more brightly than LEDs, the LEDs were much more durable, ran cooler and posed a lower fire risk, and cost less to operate. While the initial cost of LEDs is higher than that of incandescents, we found that LEDs used 1 to 3 kilowatt hours of energy compared with 12 to 105 kWh for incandescents, generating savings of $1 to $11. Watch the video for more details.

Home Depot is offering an added incentive to trade in your played-out strings. For each string of used or broken incandescent holiday lights you turn in through November 15, Home Depot will give you $3 off any new LED lights you buy. The retailer says it will recycle any lights you turn in.

Remember, LED lights are not foolproof, as evidenced by this March 2009 recall issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The lights presented a fire hazard and lacked an easily verifiable label from Underwriters Laboratories or any other recognized testing laboratory indicating that the product had met all safety and construction standards. To keep things safe at your home, follow these precautions for holiday lights:

• Buy only products certified by a recognized testing laboratory, including UL, ETL, or CSA. For UL-listed products, look for the silver- or gold-foil UL label on the cord itself. Labels with the green holographic UL logo indicate the lights are for indoor use only, while those with the red holographic UL logo can be used indoors and out.

• Before you hang them, inspect light strings carefully for loose connections, bare or frayed wires, missing bulbs, and cracked sockets.

• Don't use indoor string lights for more than a 90-day season without inspecting. Don't use outdoor lights for more than three holiday seasons.

• Don't connect more than three strings of push-in bulbs or up to 50 screw-in bulbs together. There are no specific limitations for LED light strings.

• Since the lights' electrical cords might contain lead, refrain from eating while hanging lights and wash your hands after handling them.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Save money on lighting elsewhere in your house by using Energy Star-qualified compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Read our latest report on CFLs and check out the ratings of these energy-saving bulbs (available to subscribers).

By the Numbers: Where electricity prices are highest, Energy Star shines

38 percent

Market share of Energy Star-qualified appliances in Connecticut, Hawaii, and New Hampshire, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. As we reported yesterday, consumers in those states pay some of the highest electricity rates in the country.

“Market share for Energy Star qualified appliances is generally higher than average in states and regions with longstanding or very active energy efficiency programs (e.g., California and Vermont) and those with particularly high electricity prices (e.g., Hawaii, Connecticut, and New Hampshire),” reads the U.S. Department of Energy’s Refrigerator Market Profile: 2009 (PDF).

The state average market share for Energy Star-qualified appliances is 30 percent, but the share in West Virginia, Louisiana, and Kentucky is the lowest in the country, ranging from 23 to 25 percent. Residents in those states pay about 4 cents less per kilowatt hour than the national average of almost 12 cents and about 15 cents less than consumers in Hawaii.

If you’re in the market for new appliances, read up on the U.S. Department of Energy’s $300 million State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, aka cash for clunkers for appliances, and find the best places to buy appliances.—Daniel DiClerico | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: “Energy Star Has Lost Some Luster” details some issues we found related to the Energy Star program.

Paradise Cost: Hawaii's not a better place to live than West Virginia or North Dakota . . . at least when it comes to electricity prices

Cutting down on how much electricity you use at home is a good move for your finances and the environment. Some steps to using less energy are simple, like choosing energy-efficient appliances and using and maintaining them properly—read about the U.S. Department of Energy's $300 million State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, otherwise known as cash for clunkers for appliances—and replacing incandescent lightbulbs with compact fluorescent lightbulbs, like those covered in our new ratings-based report on CFLs.

One area where you have limited options in terms of saving money is the kilowatt-hour price you pay for electricity. In our stories we always refer to the national average price for electricity—currently almost 12 cents per kilowatt hour—but the price you pay could be a lot more or a lot less. Here are the states with the highest and lowest average per-kilowatt-hour costs for electricity, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration:

Highest electricity rates
Hawaii: 22.99 cents
Connecticut: 20.24 cents
New York: 19.74 cents
New Jersey: 17.83 cents
Alaska: 17.82 cents
Massachusetts: 16.63 cents
New Hampshire: 16.41 cents
Maryland: 15.95 cents
California: 15.91 cents
Maine: 15.19 cents

Lowest electricity rates
West Virginia: 7.87 cents
Washington: 7.93 cents
Louisiana: 8.24 cents
Idaho: 8.44 cents
Kentucky: 8.58 cents
Oklahoma: 8.79 cents
North Dakota: 8.86 cents
Tennessee: 8.97 cents
Wyoming: 9.07 cents
Oregon: 9.07 cents

10 Questions for . . . Jon Strimling, President of WoodPellets.com

In this installment of 10 Questions for . . ., Associate Editor Gian Trotta speaks with Jon Strimling, president of WoodPellets.com about the pellet market. Strimling also addresses some of our readers' concerns about wood pellets and their delivery.

Last year there were reports of pellet shortages. What are the prospects for pellet supplies this winter?
We're clearly in a better position now at the macro level than we were last year, when oil prices shot through the roof in May, June, and July and caused a run on pellet supplies. The industry usually has until November to provide enough fuel for a winter season, but last year many people saw prices going up and thought that they should get their pellets early.

The sudden surge in demand was challenging, and there were times last year when one coast or another would go into back order. But the country has never been short of supply; it was just a case of the product sitting in the wrong place. We were able to keep a flow, but pellets were traveling farther and cost of transport was higher.

A fair bit of additional capacity has also become available. Over past few years 20 new mills have started producing pellets in U.S. and Canada, and new capacity has been added to existing plants. This year, a major boost to raw-material supplies consists of lodgepole pines in Colorado and British Columbia. Because of beetle infestations in recent years, there is an enormous quality of dead standing timber being removed for forest-fire mitigation, and the highest-value use of that resource is pellets.

Will all those factors offset the reduction in pellet raw materials from lumber and wood-flooring production?
Certainly, housing starts are down, and that has reduced capacity of some mills that rely on that stream of dry residual wood. But most of the newer mills can employ "green chips" that enable them to continue to produce premium pellets, and in some cases even superpremium pellets. These clean, debarked chips are cut before wood is dried, for example from the lumber cut from side of logs to square them.

How vulnerable are pellet-producing plants to supply interruptions?
Fortunately, production is dispersed among several areas and companies to reduce chance of shortages. Individual pellet-supply facilities can go down, especially if they are linked to a particular lumber mill. The network of 80 to 100 plants is as a whole pretty robust, so if someone goes down, someone else will pick up that volume.

One of our readers noted that when he began using pellets five years ago, pellets were $110 a ton, now he's paying $265. What is your long-term forecast for pellet prices?
It may be that this consumer got a very unusual deal in 2005 through some sort of a clearance event, because that price is much lower than even typical wholesale pricing was in 2005. If you look at when we started this business in 2006, our retail price was right about what it is now. In 2008, pricing went up about 10 percent.

If you go back five to 10 years ago when crude was cheaper, pellets cost less. Wood and pellets are typically moved by trucks that use diesel fuel, which has gone up since then; so there's no avoiding that pellet prices will rise as oil rises, as diesel fuel is an element of pellets' cost. Normally, when the price of oil doubles, it results in an increase in transportation costs for pellets of about 25 percent.

How do sales of pellet-burning appliances affect your demand forecast?
Last year, sales of pellet-burning appliances were up 180 percent. We won't see sales like that repeat this year—probably not until the next spike in oil pricing. But every heating system sold creates an incremental increase in demand, and people who have systems are continuing to use them, even with oil at lower price levels.

What we're seeing this year is that demand for pellets is coming later. There hasn't been mad rush to go out and buy supply, so we're seeing a later buying season with strong demand. There's not a feeling of panic of everyone this year like last year with the continued growth in the industry. Folks with stoves and inserts are telling friends to go out and buy a pellet-burning stove.

What's the difference between premium and superpremium pellets?
The Pellet Fuel Institute just released a new standard for superpremium pellets and is working out the statistical data around the new methodology. Ash level is a major distinction. Premium has a maximum of 1 percent ash content while superpremium has less than one-half of one percent. That's a big deal to a stove owner because you're cleaning your stove half as often.

Other things tested by the PFI include Btu content, length and diameter of the pellets, and durability. The heating value and ash level are of primary interest to a consumer. The range of variation for the heating value can be 10 percent, but ash level can vary by a factor of three. Moisture level is inversely proportional to heating performance also.

At opening of Florida solar-energy facility, President Obama focuses on smart grid and renewable energy

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama promoted the smart grid and renewable energy at the opening of Florida Power & Light's DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center (shown). The facility consists of more than 90,500 solar panels, making it the largest solar-photovoltaic plant in the country and, according to FPL, its annual estimated generation is about 42,000 megawatt hours.

The president outlined how the federal government is making a $3.4 billion investment from Recovery Act funds to modernize the country's electric grid with a goal of creating a more-reliable, more-efficient system. "But getting there will take a few more days like this one and more projects like this one," said the president. "And I have often said that the creation of such an economy is going to require nothing less than the sustained effort of an entire nation—an all-hands-on-deck approach similar to the mobilization that preceded World War II or the Apollo Project."

If you're interested in using solar power at your home, read our report on solar water heaters from the October 2009 issue of Consumer Reports and look for ongoing coverage of these devices on this blog, such as this testing update from earlier this month.—Daniel DiClerico | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: The president referred to World War II the other day, and it was during this era that George Löf undertook his first experiments with solar power. Löf, a solar innovator who died earlier this month at the age of 95, is credited with creating one of the earliest solar-heated homes in this country, according to his obituary in The Wall Street Journal. Löf's system consisted of a large glass roof panel that heated a pile of gravel in the basement, which in turn warmed the house.

Official White House photo by Chuck Kennedy