| BobVila.com's Top 5 Energy-Saving Ideas for 2008
BOSTON, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Home improvement expert Bob Vila has been on the presidential campaign trail talking about energy efficiency. His popular web site shares five earth-friendly projects -- both large and small -- for your home in 2008. 1. Use energy-saving appliances. Refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, furnaces, heat pumps, air conditioning units and water heaters all have high- efficiency models. Before buying a new appliance, compare labels to find one that uses the least amount of energy and water with the lowest operating costs. Appliances with the Energy Star label are up to 50 percent more efficient than standard models, saving you up to 30 percent on your electric bill. "I've been promoting Energy Star appliances for over a decade," Bob Vila says, "and it still makes sense to invest in them because of the energy savings you'll get." 2.
Giving orang asli youth skills training
TANGKAK: The Johor Education Foundation (YPJ) has launched an aggressive move to attract as many orang asli youth to take up skills training courses next month. A team, led by Muar and Batu Pahat community college chairman Abdullah Omar, has started making visits and giving talks to a community of Temuan orang asli near Gunung Ledang. Abdullah said the programme was aimed at providing work skills to orang asli youth who did not have proper education to help them improve themselves. "The community colleges in Johor have been providing work skills such as electrical wiring, air-conditioning repair, sewing and even tailoring to youth for several years. "However, we now want to push the programme to the orang asli youth," he said in Kampung Tanah Gembur on Thursday. Abdullah said the settlement, headed by Tuk Batin Jengking Jani, had about 66 families living in 52 homes located at the foothill of Gunung Ledang near Bekok. He said initial checks with the community showed many of the youth either worked as contract labourers with daily wages or were self-employed. He said the community of about 300 residents who owned cars or motorcycles and mostly lived in homes powered by generators could benefit if there was a certified electrical wireman or mechanic among them. He said besides installing or repairing electrical wires, those with motor mechanical knowledge could repair vehicles while the girls could become tailors and sew dresses.
Middle-class autoworkers cling to way of life amid benefit cuts
Just two weeks after his 18th birthday, Randy Horter started his first factory job, helping make clutches and air conditioning systems at an auto parts plant. Since then, the 49-year-old Chrysler line worker has cobbled together a career working at various manufacturing plants and made a nice, middle-class life with his wife, Candace, who works at the same Chrysler plant in Belvidere, Ill. The couple earns about $75,000 a year, unless one or the other is laid off. They own two used cars and their home. Between them, they raised five children, now grown, and were hoping to start preparing for retirement. .
ComEd plans to push efforts that cut bills
ComEd customers may pay more for new conservation programs but could save in the long run, consumer advocates and the utility said Thursday. The Illinois Commerce Commission, which regulates ComEd, has approved energy efficiency programs proposed by ComEd, downstate utilities and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Different programs will roll out at different times. They include discounts on energy efficient light bulbs; the pick up and recycling of older, inefficient refrigerators; air conditioning "tune ups" and other measures designed to reduce energy consumption. ComEd said consumers overall could save roughly $155 million during the lifetime of the programs, possibly up to 10 years. That could save 1.2 megawatts of power, or enough to power 140,000 homes for one year, ComEd spokesman John Dewey said.
EU bid to freeze out patio heaters
They have only been popular in the UK for little more than a decade, but patio heaters could become history if MEPs vote to ban them today. The EU parliament is expected to back a resolution requiring the use of appliances with low energy efficiency to be phased out. Patio heaters are specifically targeted in the motion, which calls on the EU to act urgently and introduce minimum standards for energy efficiency on such appliances as air-conditioning, television "decoder" boxes and light bulbs. It also calls for the abolition of stand-by mode on electrical appliances. If the ban comes into effect and is enforced, it could cost pubs, restaurants and caterers in the UK up to £250m in lost revenue per year. The use of outdoor heaters increased with the new UK smoking ban, as well as growing use at home as garden accessories for the British summer.
America Ferrera's stalker escape
America Ferrera has been driven out of her home because she is scared of stalkers. The 23-year-old actress - who plays clumsy PA Betty Suarez in hit US TV show 'Ugly Betty' - was advised by the programme's bosses to move into a more secure apartment after they realised how easy it would be for obsessed fans to get into her property. America said: "There was a big security issue. I was living in an apartment in Hollywood where the windows faced the street. I always left them open because there was an air conditioning unit hooked up to the outside. .
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