I am finally reading Thomas L. Friedman’s marvelous Hot, Flat, and Crowded, which was first released in 2008 but has been updated and reprinted, including sample audio, free chapters, and a study guide. The following is a brief video introduction from Friedman:

The “Hot, Flat, and Crowded” in Friedman’s title refers to the trends of global warming, globalization, and world population growth. According to the web site, in this top New York Times bestseller, “Friedman proposes that ...

The Tellings are on a quest to save energy and money at home. They’re using Microsoft Hohm to understand their home energy usage and learn what they can do to improve their home’s energy efficiency. We’re following Joel, Miki, their kids and even the family dog Morgan on this journey. Here’s the first introduction video of the Tellings. Note their home improvement list is much longer but we needed to cut it down in the video for time’s sake. ...

About a month ago we did a short post about the proposed Cash for Caulkers program by President Obama. Today we have a couple updates on the program.

1. The Cash for Caulkers bill is formally called the Home Star program, which is part of the short term jobs bill to create new greener jobs and provide incentives for homeowners/contractors to perform work which will improve home energy efficiency.
2. This bill is still pending (must be passed by Congress and signed ...

Anytime I hear someone mention “low flow”, the Seinfeld episode featuring low flow shower heads pops in my head. If you’ve haven’t seen the episode you can watch a sample below.

Luckily low flow shower technology has made great strides in their functionality and design since that episode aired. One low flow shower head that I’ve come to love is the Danze Low-Flow Shower head. Sipping only 1.5 gpm, this shower head is made of solid brass and fitted ...

Like cooking with fresh herbs but no room for an herb garden in your house? Here’s a fun Hohm design project that helps you reuse bottles and grow your own herb garden. And as a bonus, you can test a few bottles of wine to find the best ‘planter’ first! You could use beer or other bottles as an alternative!

The steps are pretty easy to follow –

1. Finish off a bottle or two of your favorite wine ...

Yesterday I posted a creative video produced by Geoffrey Ladd, a student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, that demonstrated ways to reuse simple materials around the house to make trendy woman’s jewelry. For today’s design note I came across a Polish design studio emocja studio (Agnieszka Bartosiewicz & Krzysztof Ruść) that has created a ‘blop’ lamp featuring a lamp shade compiled from paint swabs. This one hit home for me since I have a couple stacks of ...

We’ve pulled together a list from the community of DIY energy saving video ideas. We’re to the point where we’re going to be executing on creating these videos and we wanted your feedback on the following items. What’s the best topic (from the list below)? Can you contribute/are you an expert that wants to be in one or multiple episodes of the video series?  What are we missing? Take a look at the list below and let us know what ...

In the following weeks we’ll be focusing on green design – making your home beautiful and respecting the environment. You’ll see tips, examples, DIY projects and resources you can use for your home design projects.

Tell us what you would like to learn about green design and we’ll try to include something for you.

To get started, think about what green design means to you. What do you hope to get out of the project and what are you ...

Just as we’re all getting used to compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), a new lighting technology based on light emitting diodes (LEDs) is coming to market. Should you care? Yes – they’ll save you even more energy and money -- and LEDs don’t come with some of the drawbacks that drive people crazy about CFLs.

LEDs may seem like a new technology, but you are already surrounded by them. They are used for the little indicator lights in ...

Last November we kicked off the Welcome Hohm Video Challenge and asked you, our Hohm community, to submit a short video and/or photo showing what you've done (or would like to do) to make your home more energy efficient. The creativity and diversity of your ideas and efforts did not disappoint. Thanks to all who participated — we're truly inspired by your passion and commitment.

And now, it’s with great pleasure that we announce our winners.

First prize ...