I get a lot of questions about energy. Electricity consumption factors into many of them. Why are electric bills so high? How can I tell when it's time to replace a refrigerator? Most of us have electric meters on our houses, but these measure your total household electricity use. To figure out what accounts for that overall figure, you need to measure the consumption of individual appliances and pieces of equipment. A really useful gadget for figuring out these sorts of questions is an electricity monitor.

"Standard 189.1 addresses site sustainability, water use efficiency, energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality (IEQ), and the building's impact on the atmosphere, materials and resources. This is a standard for high-performance green buildings.

From the USGBC:

For the EBN feature article this month I spent weeks learning about building-integrated wind. I'm a huge fan of wind energy in general, and the idea of putting wind turbines on top of buildings — or actually integrating them into the architecture of buildings — was really appealing. Why not generate the energy right where it's needed, and by putting turbines on top of buildings wouldn't you be getting them up higher where it's windier? What a cool idea.

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Which is better: a gas or electric range? Most serious cooks prefer gas, because it delivers heat instantly and is highly controllable. With typical electric cooktops, it takes longer for the burner to respond when turned on and when the setting is adjusted.

Which is better: a gas or electric range? Most serious cooks prefer gas, because it delivers heat instantly and is highly controllable. With typical electric cooktops, it takes longer for the burner to respond when turned on and when the setting is adjusted.

Last week's column looked at efficient but also very expensive ground-source heat pumps; this week we'll look at a less expensive option that's becoming more common even in our climate: air-source heat pumps.

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Last week I introduced heat pumps and described how they can deliver more heat than is contained in the electricity they consume--while being able to provide cooling as well as heating. I mentioned two different types of heat pumps: air-source and ground-source. This week I'll cover ground-source (also known as "geothermal" and "geo-exchange") heat pumps.