Voucher: 25% off at Dorothy Perkins
You can currently get a smashing 25% off your orders at Dorothy Perkins either online or instore using the following vouchers. They both expire on April 4th so use while you can
To get your discount online simply follow this link to Dorothy Perkins and enter code DPVIPE at checkout.
To print a voucher to [...]
Lawn & Garden Guide adds more low-cost landscaping tips
The Consumer Reports Lawn & Garden Guide.
Even if your budget doesn't allow for a cutting-edge electric mower or the services of a professional lawn-care service, don't despair. Our newly revamped Lawn & Garden Guide's articles, videos, and interactives are chock-full of tricks that will save you money, whether you're just fixing a small patch of lawn or revamping acres of outdoor spaces as a newly sprouted ruralpolitan.
Sub-$500 yard makeovers. Yards can be transformed by layering low-cost (and different height) plants, laying down mulch, using vine-covered lattice sections and installing low-voltage outdoor lighting. See "10 Questions for… landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy" for more ways to expand your inner gardener and outdoor vistas.
Low-cost landscaping. Savvy planning, soil testing (see this video on our tests of soil-test kits), mulching, and watering save time and money spent on fertilizers. Choosing the grass that grows best in your area lowers cost of fertilizer and pesticides. Cooperative extension services from your local university can prove a wealth of good gardening information; you can find state-by-state listings here.
Prudent planting and pruning. These step-by-step illustrated instructions show how proper planting of trees, shrubs, and flowers can reduce the need for water, fertilizer, and pesticides while helping plants survive diseases and other stresses. Savvy pruning of trees, shrubs and hedges increases the quality and quantity of flowers or fruits a tree produces, helps hedges provide right degree of denseness to ensure privacy, and prevents damage from winter storms.
Don't ignore little-known dangers. If you're not a regular gardener, read why alcohol and mowers don't mix and how to avoid the perils of sun exposure, excessive noise, carpal tunnel syndrome, herbicides, and poison ivy.
Essential information: Find ratings of the best tools for yard and garden work in our Lawn & Garden section. Discuss your bests planting and pruning practices on our lawn and garden forum.
Energy Star faulted by government watchdog; program "vulnerable to fraud and abuse"
A gas-powered alarm clock. A geothermal heat pump more efficient than anything on the market. A fictional computer monitor approved within 30 minutes of submission.
These and other products are on a list of 15 bogus products detailed in the Government Accountability Office audit, "Energy Star Program: Covert Testing Shows the Energy Star Program Certification Process Is Vulnerable to Fraud and Abuse." The audit states, "GAO's investigation shows that Energy Star is for the most part a self-certification program vulnerable to fraud and abuse."
Read "Audit Finds Vulnerability of Energy Star Program" in today's New York Times, which references our October 2008 investigative report, "Energy Star Has Lost Some Luster," for more details on the audit.
We'll cover more details on the GAO audit and the Energy Department's plans to increase Energy Star enforcement, which we recently covered in "DOE to Step Up Energy-Use Checks on Energy Star-Qualified Appliances." "Consumers have long trusted the Energy Star brand for products that
will save them energy and save them money," said Cathy Zoi, the
Department of Energy's assistant secretary for energy efficiency and
renewable energy, in a press release last week. "The steps we're taking now will further strengthen and improve the
program, building on the results that consumers have come to expect."
Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports and the Home & Garden blog, recognizes that the Energy Star program is a good one in concept and can be of help to consumers. The organization has advocated for updated energy-use testing and better oversight of Energy Star to prevent that the types of issues found in the GAO audit.
We hope that the GAO audit and other findings will motivate the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which administer Energy Star, to improve the program. What's more, Consumer Reports will continue to advise the Energy Department about appropriate revisions to its energy-use test procedures.
On March 27, it’s lights out for Earth Hour 2010
Time zone by time zone, the lights will go off around the globe this Saturday night. This advancing darkness won't be caused by some cyber criminal hacking into electrical grids or by an unusual cosmic occurrence.
Rather, as part of the Earth Hour campaign and its worldwide call for action on climate change, 1 billion people in 115 countries are expected to turn off their lights for an hour starting at 8:30 p.m. their local time.
Some world-famous icons—the Acropolis, Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Empire State Building, übermodel Gisele Bündchen (and her über-QB husband Tom Brady)—will also go dark during this global version of that sports-stadium crowd-energizer known as the wave. Government buildings and businesses, too. (See a list of Earth Hour supporters here.) It'd be a good time to be aboard the International Space Station to see the view from above.
The World Wildlife Fund has led this lights-out campaign for three years now. The organization's Web site states that "Earth Hour sends a clear message that Americans care about this issue and want to turn the lights out on dirty air, dangerous dependency on foreign oil and costly climate change impacts. . . . "
It's easy to dim the lights for an hour. But after we turn the (hopefully energy-efficient) lights back on, a bigger question still looms: What are we willing to do to address the causes of climate change?
Essential information: Visit our Energy Saving & Green Living guide for tips on reducing energy use and ways to save money.
EPA plans to ramp up protection of nation’s drinking water
The Safe Drinking Water Act got a boost this week when U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced the agency's plans to better protect you from contaminants in your drinking water. "To confront emerging health threats, strained budgets, and increased needs—today's and tomorrow's drinking-water challenges—we must use the law more effectively and promote new technologies," said Jackson, before outlining a four-point plan to:
• address contaminants as a group rather than one at a time to enhance drinking-water protection in a cost-effective way;
• foster development of drinking-water-treatment technologies to address health risks posed by a broad array of contaminants;
• use the authority of multiple statutes to help protect drinking water; and
• partner with states to share more complete data from monitoring at public-water systems.
Even if the Safe Drinking Water Act were to regulate every conceivable contaminant and water companies were to stick to the letter of the law, contaminants could still enter your drinking water after it leaves a water-treatment facility. That's because many of the countless miles of water-distribution pipes throughout the country are nearing their end of service life or are in disrepair. What's more, household plumbing remains a main cause of lead contamination in homes built before 1986.
Given that situation, you might want to add an extra line of defense with a point-of-use water filter, which can also improve the taste, odor, and clarity of your water.
For more information on water filtration, look for our May 2010 report on water filters, which includes our updated ratings of carafe, faucet-mounted, countertop, undersink, and reverse-osmosis models (available to subscribers). Also see our free buyer's guide to water filters.
Voucher: 10% off at InkWarehouse
If you use UK Bargains the way it is intended then you know doubt get through quite a lot of printer ink, what with all the printable voucher I am always sharing with you here. So you’ll also know it can be expensive – sometimes costing even more than the printer itself – I kid [...]
DOE to step up energy-use checks on Energy Star-qualified appliances
It might not be at the level of health-care reform, but the U.S. Department of Energy's March 19 announcement that it will begin verifying manufacturers' energy-use figures for six major household appliances represents real change in Washington. Going back to our October 2008 investigative report "Energy Star Has Lost Some Luster," Consumer Reports has argued for increased independent, third-party verification of energy-use declarations.
In the coming months, the Energy Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will spot-test the energy-consumption figures for 200 different Energy Star-qualified freezers, refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, water heaters, and room air conditioners. Eventually, the federal government will require all products seeking the Energy Star qualification to receive third-party verification.
"Consumers have long trusted the Energy Star brand for products that will save them energy and save them money," said Cathy Zoi, the Department of Energy's assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, in a press release. "The steps we're taking now will further strengthen and improve the program, building on the results that consumers have come to expect."
The Department of Energy has removed the Energy Star qualification from appliances, as we reported in January in a matter related to several LG and LG-made refrigerators.
We'd like to see independent, third-party energy-use verification for all appliances, not just Energy Star-qualified models. Another challenge for the Energy Department is to toughen energy-use standards and the test procedures they're based on. "We continue to encourage the Energy Department to update testing procedures and raise standards for inclusion in the Energy Star class of products, so that the Energy Star label will be a reliable indicator of energy savings," says Shannon Baker-Branstetter, policy analyst for Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports and the Home & Garden blog.
Essential information: If you're in the market for new Energy Star appliances, take advantage of a cash for appliances rebate.
Voucher: Various Tesco Discounts
Here’s a nice little stream of Tesco discount codes for your usage. To use any of them simply visit Tesco via this link and enter the appropriate code when prompted at checkout. All codes expire April 11th unless otherwise stated. Enjoy.
£10 off a £50 spend – TDX-GD55
£25 off pushchairs and car seats – TDX-WK5A
£10 off [...]
Cash for Appliances Buyer’s Guide: Water heaters
If you need a new water heater and are planning to take advantage of the $300 million State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, also called cash for clunkers for appliances or cash for appliances, use the advice below:
States offering rebates for water heaters: Rebates for water heaters are available in 32 of 56 U.S. states and territories. Find out whether water heaters eligible for a rebate where you live and use our interactive map to link to the appliance clunkers Web site in your state.
Rebate amounts: As with every appliance that's part of the cash for appliances program, rebates vary by state. In Arizona, for example, residents will get $200 for a gas-powered storage- tank water heater, $300 for a gas-powered tankless water heater, and $435 for an electric heat-pump water heater such as the new GE GeoSpring electric heat-pump water heater we recently reviewed. Wyoming isn't offering rebates for gas-fired storage-tank water heaters but is giving rebates of $150 on gas-powered tankless, electric heat-pump, and solar water heaters. New Hampshire is offering $100 on a gas-fired storage-tank water heaters, $300 on gas-fired tankless water heaters, and $750 on solar water heaters.
Repair-or-replace advice: Our free buyer's guide to water heaters details what components are worth fixing in a storage-tank water heater—a storage-tank heater with a leaky tank usually isn't worth repairing.
Buying advice: Check out our free buyer's guide to water heaters and use our water-heating-sizing calculator so you don't buy more capacity than you need. For storage-tank water heaters, in our tests models with a 10- or 12-year warranty—featured larger heating elements, thicker insulation, and thicker or longer corrosion-fighting metal rods, called anodes.
Also in our tests, tankless water heaters were 22 percent more energy efficient on average than the gas-fired storage-tank models. (See this diagram of how tankless models work.) That translates into a savings of around $70 to $80 per year, based on 2008 national average energy costs. But because tankless models cost much more up front than storage-tank water heaters, it can take up to two decades or more to break even—you might even end replacing it before it can pay for itself.
Models to consider: We've tested gas-fired tankless and condensing gas-fired storage-tank water heaters that should be eligible for a rebate in your state. Test results (available to subscribers) cover the Noritz N-0751M ($1,150) and Takagi T-K3 ($800) gas-fired tankless water heaters and the A.O. Smith Vertex GPHE-50 ($1,400) gas-fired condensing storage-tank water heater.
We've also reported on solar water heaters, including the Fafco Hot2O Solar Water Heating System ($2,200); Heliodyne 50180 ($6,000 to $7,500); Rheem RS47-21BP ($5,000 to $6,200); and SunMaxx 3570 ($5,500 to $7,000).
Discuss on ConsumerReports.org: You'll find discussions on particular types and models of water heaters on our water-heaters forum.
Essential information: Stay on top of the news on our cash for clunkers for appliances hub and find the best places to buy appliances.
Jellio’s Candelier gummi-bear lighting fixture is real eye candy
When I recently stumbled across Jellio's Candelier, a 31-inch, 50-pound lighting fixture made with acrylic gummi bears, I thought the light might have been an early April Fools' Day hoax. But a couple of clicks revealed that the Candelier exists and is made by a company that "is about combining childhood fun with interior design." I mentioned the fixture to Abigail, one of my 11-year-old twin girls, who enthusiastically asked to write about it. So instead of a look at the Candelier through the jaded eyes of 40-something, here's Abigail's take.—Steven H. Saltzman
The Jellio gummi-bear Candelier is one of the sweetest lights I've ever seen. The Candelier is hand-strung with 5,000 gummi bears and takes about two months to complete. The gummi bears look real but are made out of plastic; it'd be even better if the light were made with real gummi bears like the stuff I found on Geekologie.com. On the other hand, you might end up eating the light.
I'm sure that most kids who hear about this light will run to their parents and ask for one for the next big occasion, but my dad explained that the Candelier is done by request and that only 10 will be made. I think that means it's real expensive.
Jellio makes a lot more than this light—the company also has ice-cream-sandwich benches, cupcake tables and seats, and other gummi lights. When I was reading about the Candelier I also found out that Jellio has made stuff for the set of the iCarly, a popular kids' show on Nickelodeon starring Miranda Cosgrove. (I've kind of outgrown iCarly but I did used to like it.) You can see some Jellio stuff in Carly and Spencer's apartment.
Jellio does some very cool things and obviously has a very creative staff. So the next time you're redecorating your room, visit the company's site for some colorful, delicious ideas.
—Abigail Saltzman
Essential information: The Candelier uses compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Find the best CFLs in our ratings (available to subscribers).