It looks like a propane tank, but this device is a washing machine, if you can believe it.

Pictured at right is the WonderWash, an environmentally- and budget-friendly laundry product that fits on a countertop and washes with even less water than hand-washing.

From Laundry Alternative, the WonderWash washes 5 pounds of clothes in just a few minutes with a couple of turns on the crank.  Its internal pressure system forces detergent through clothes at very high speeds — up to 100 times faster than by a machine.

WonderWash is safe for delicates, too.

So how much is 5 pounds worth of clothes?  It’s 10 t-shirts, 30 pairs of socks, or 2 pairs of jeans — the kind of stuff that needs a frequent wash and sometimes in a hurry.  It’s great for camping and RV trips, too.

WonderWash comes with a 1-year warranty and a 30-day, money-back policy.  It costs $42.95.

To Search Active Real Estate Listings in Your Area, Visit www.webdigs.com

I kinda yanked your chains the other day when I mentioned the Kill-a-Watt testers that aren’t available in your area. I felt bad about that so I found something that can be purchased reasonably.

It’s the Reliance Amwatt Appliance Load Tester ($25). Plug an appliance into the tester and then the tester into the outlet. When you turn the appliance on, you’ll get a quick digital reading in watts or amps. It will also tell you what the energy needs of the appliances are when these machines are off.  That’s where plugging appliances into a high quality power strip  can save you money.

The amount of standby power wasted varies among electronic equipment, but overall, the cost to consumers and businesses for all the electricity lost to vampire power in the US is estimated to be $4 billion annually. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates the global energy consumption due to standby power at between 200-400 terawatts per year says the Grinning Planet website.

But buying this just to stalk vampire appliances might not seem quite worth it. So here’s another reason to own one. It will help you “right size” an emergency generator or calculate your power needs for a generator’s home transfer switch (the gizmo that brings the emergency power online automatically) to your specific home.

Hey, winter’s coming and I remember an ice storm that had the power out at my parent’s house for nearly three weeks!

One buys a generator based on what you think your energy needs are. It sounds easy to walk around your home and read the wattages on the labels. What may surprise you are that that individual appliances pull wattages different than those listed or even from each other. That’s because an appliance like a microwave may be marketed as “1000W” referring to its cooking energy, but because of various inefficiencies requires far more wattage to run.

So to get a good handle on the size generator to buy, use the load tester - and then hunt electrical vampires for fun.

I missed out on all the warm fall weather to put up outdoor holiday lights this year. If you haven’t untangled your string yet either, here are some reasons to consider the switch over to LED Christmas lights.

What research has found is that we tend to fire up the holiday spirit to the tune of 400 watts at dusk - but, also add on an addition 200 daytime watts. This means we tend to leave our lights on more than we care to admit. This averages out to about $15 a day for an “average” home. Of course, if you’re the Grindwald’s (Chevy Chase’s movie family in Christmas Vacation) you’re paying more.

But even if your display is modest, you’re probably forking out some cash to make it the Season of Lights so you might as well be smart about it.

Here are a few reasons to consider buying the newer energy-efficient bulbs: LED lights use a fraction of what a similarly sized incandescent light would use.The Fun Times Guide to Going Green claims it takes  5 watts per bulb in the average incandescent mini-light while an entire string of LED mini-lights uses around 4 watts. Wow.

In addition to drawing less electricity, the LEDs hold up longer. How many times have you had a cheap string of lights fail the same year you’ve bought them? The LED bulbs are more substantial and also cool to the touch - always a nice bonus.

Okay, the not great news about LEDs: The color is not the same as the incandescent lights that you probably grew up with that signals grandma’s cookies, Asti Spumante and Santa rolling by in a Norelco Shaver - in short, all things Christmas.

The closest color to that would be the LEDs marketed as “warm” or “soft” and guess what - they cost more.

And on that note, all LEDs cost more. A strand of 50-60 white LED mini-lights will cost you around $10 which could get you nearly 500 incadescent mini-lights. So you’re unlikely to break even on energy savings the first year, but you do have durability going for ya.

Now if they only they self-strung, then we’d really be talking…

Send me photos of your light display (LED or traditional) and I’ll be sure to post ‘em.

I read a good book on the plane. And to be fair, I’ll say upfront that I read it because I was I asked to review it for Cabin Life magazine. I might not have picked it up on my own and I would have been missing out.

The full title is The Northwest Green Home Primer: Hundreds of ideas for building, remodeling and buying green. Although the focus is on the Washington and surrounding states, the basic tenants are applicable universally.

What I liked is it covers the big, major projects you’d expect like hydronic radiant systems, wind turbines and solar heating. But there were literally hundreds of smaller, more manageable improvements including rainwater harvesting, passive solar and how to buy “green” items like carpet.

What makes it all seem do-able are helpful worksheets and illustrations that walks one through everything from site analysis to budgets. Also dotted throughout the text are real-life case studies, warts and all, supported with photos.

I think everyone wants to go green and do better by this earth, but the task can seem so enormous at times it’s easy to do nothing at all. Green Primer can help dislodge us from our trance and help us take steps in the right direction - even if they’re just baby ones.

The Midtown Farmer’s Market at Lake Street & Hiawatha (by the YWCA) is open every Saturday 8:00 a.m. - 1:00 am. In addition to offering local products, shoppers enjoy live music, library story time and demonstrations.

Let the Farmer’s Market begin! Markets are extremely popular in the city. I think because it combines our rabid passion for festivals, gardening and going green into one package.

The Midtown Market is a particularly deep shade of green given that it is the most accessible one in the city. It’s just steps from light rail and bus transit, the Green Way bicycle trail - and has a sizable parking lot for your Prius. And unlike many of the larger markets, the Midtown Market prides itself in offering truly local foods directly from growers - not wholesalers.

Responding to America’s cash-free society, this is the first twin city farmer’s market to take CREDIT CARDS and public assistance cards. It works by purchasing wooden tokens on your plastic at the info booth. These tokens work like cash throughout the market. Fun, huh?

I think my children would love paying with produce with wooden tokens, not to mention watching the sheep shearing and holding the piglets- and this is a good market to bring them to. It’s big enough to have what I need, but still intimate enough keep track of everyone. (My little guy has gotten lost in a crowd before and although it had a happy ending, it was frightening. He did exactly as we had role played. He found a mother with a lot of children -because no one is less likely to take a child than an overwhelmed parent- and he said, “My name is Mi-whoa and I’m loss-ed.”)

This whole Midtown neighborhood certainly deserves a post of its own. But I’ll mention that Light Rail has made the once idle areas of Greater Longfellow, Powderhorn and Midtown hot property again. This happens just as local investment on the west side of Hiawatha is starting to pay off.

If you haven’t been to Lake Street lately you may be surprised how fresh it’s looking thanks, in part, to the Lake Street renewal project. The decorative lighting, sidewalk trees, bike racks and places like the Midtown Exchange Building (think old Sears) and their Global Market have really spiffied up the area.

So check out the market, bring your own coffee mug for a discount (I used my shiny new Webdigs mug for a cool quarter off) and get yourself some wooden nickels. It’ll be summer before we know it.

Photos credits: I took the picture at the market myself. You get extra points if you find the light rain train on the bridge. But the cool image of the wooden coins is from the Midtown Market site which you can visit HERE.

Coil Brush - a thing of beauty

Because I’ve been getting my house ready for market, we’ve been cleaning like crazy people. But regardless of whether your selling your home or not, it’s spring cleaning season. And, if you grew up with my mother, that meant rolling up your sleeves & scrubbing ’til an inch of your life.

But what if I told you a cleaning tip that can actually save you money? When was the last time you cleaned the coils under your refrigerator? Older units will have the coils on the back and the same principle applies- it’s all about getting at the coils and shooing away the herds of dust buffaloes that have overwintered there. This goes double if you have a pet. Pet hair clogging the coils and causing the unit to overheat is one of the top fixes for repair folks - to the tune of $80.

And by pulling out gobbs of pet hair you can save yourself nearly 10 bucks a month on electricity! That’s your Netflix subscription for a year for a 10-minute task. So how do you do it? Buy one of those crazy-looking coil cleaning brushes at a big box hardware store for about $5. Then push the brush into the coils, pull it back and vacuum it clean until you’ve removed all the bunny build-up. Your refrigerator will breathe easier - and knowing you’re saving cash, you will too.

Lucie is a DIY writer for the Reader’s Digest publication, The Family Handyman. She wrote a story about simple appliance repair for their November 2006 issue.

Here is something to be proud of; my neighborhood (Lynnhurst) made the top 10 list of Southwest Minneapolis neighborhoods to answer the challenge to conserve energy.

“The conservation initiative, developed by local nonprofit the Center for Energy and Environment, encourages individuals and organizations to pledge to conserve energy at www.mnenergychallenge.org . Challengers promise to take any number of actions to shrink their carbon footprints, from replacing light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs and turning off appliances when they’re not in use to washing laundry in cold water and carpooling to work.”  - Mary O’Regan, Southwest Journal

Over 126 neighborhoods across the metro participated and we made the top 10.  It has inspired me to try and do my part.  So, here is my pledge:  I am going to trade in my gas guzzling Chevy Tahoe - which I love - for a Toyota Prius Hybrid.  I am going to miss my truck…seriously, it’s like driving a lazy-boy recliner down the road.  Awesome baby.  But honestly, I put around $60 worth of gas every four days into that beast.  So, it’s time to grow up, be responsible and do my part.  I will post again, when the trade is done.  To read the full article from the Southwest Journal about the MN Energy Challenge…. (more…)

When Selling your home – here are some green ideas that are relatively low-cost solutions to help add value to your home and help keep pace with the green trends more and more buyers are looking for:

· Seal Windows – plug all air leaks with caulk or weather stripping

· Consider Recycled insulation if any needs to be replaced or added – helps show buyers possible energy cost savings

· Consider updating old appliances with new Energy Star Label efficient ones

· Consider choosing eco friendly materials such as bamboo flooring – for any remodeling projects

· When replacing any bathroom fixtures use low-flow toilets, showerhead, and faucets –

· Replace all light bulbs with energy efficient ones