home improvement
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Remodeling? Meet the guy who’s cleaning up home improvement
This website can help you navigate the crazy world of sustainable renovation.
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TreeHouse is like Home Depot with a green conscience
This one-stop green-renovation shop is really improving home improvement. Sorry Lowe's.
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Fun with energy efficiency! (No, really. I promise.)
The problem with trying to make your home more energy-efficient is that energy efficiency is deadly boring. Start talking about heating systems and insulation and smart windows and even the niftiest thermostat ever, and eyes start to glaze over. The Energy Bills, though, are funny. Ish. At least, they're funnier than any other conceivable idea […]
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Which green home solutions pay for themselves?
Trick question: They basically all pay for themselves in the long run! But a new infographic from One Block Off the Grid helps you choose home energy improvement projects based on up-front cost and how long they'll take to start paying you back. The quickest payback is a smart thermostat, with a payback time of […]
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Replace your lawnmower with goats
Anyone still caring for a clipped green lawn can lessen their enviro guilt by trading in weed-killing chemicals for a herd of goats. If you’ve got invasive plants, never fear: Your milkweed brings all the goats to the yard. They could eat it, but they have to charge ($725/day plus tax for a 60-goat herd at Rent-a-Ruminant).
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Report: Homebuyers willing to pay premium for solar
Okay, I’m a little slow on the uptake on this but I’ve been pursing a recent report from Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory on the effect of installing a rooftop solar array on the sale price of homes in California. (It makes for dense reading and unless you’re really into “hedonic pricing models” and “difference-in-difference model,” you […]
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Ask Umbra gives relationship advice to a couple battling it out over 'eco-stress'
Ask Umbra gets personal and gives advice to a reader who has a “different level of commitment to sustainability” than her husband. What to do if you’re more eco-aware than the one you love? If you’re a lover and/or a fighter, read this!
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The messy side of energy efficiency: finance
If we want to make a dent in household energy efficiency, we will need to move large amounts of private capital.
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Home improvement giant invests in energy retrofit startup
Photo: aka Kath via FlickrI usually don’t write about companies’ funding announcements, unless the amount of money raised is particularly eye-popping. But when Recurve announced Wednesday that it had scored $8 million in its latest round of fund-raising, what caught my attention was who decided to invest in the San Francisco energy retrofit startup. Along […]