Tampa Bay,FL real estate listings and homes for sale, home buying, home selling information

Cash for Appliances Update: Bigger rebates generate greater consumer interest

3/9/2010 4:03 PM

If Iowa and Minnesota are any indication, the more generous the rebate in the U.S. Department of Energy's $300 million State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, the faster the money tends to go. Both states exhausted their cash for clunkers for appliances funding in a single day. (Iowa doled out $2,881,000; Minnesota, $5,009,000.) Such deman...Read More

Inside Consumer Reports Test Labs: New vacuums from Bissell, Electrolux, Hoover, and Kalorik

3/9/2010 1:54 PM

The Bissell Healthy Home 16N5 vacuum, $250. Vacuum manufacturers make some pretty bold statements about the cleaning ability of their products. So as part of the testing for our continuously updated ratings of canister vacuums and upright vacuums (available to subscribers), we often check out those claims. The Bissell Healthy Home 16N5, $250 (shown...Read More

Keeping PACE: Town of Babylon helps homeowners pay for green improvements

3/9/2010 11:57 AM

Get money for green home improvements. Swapping out incandescent lightbulbs with the best compact fluorescent lightbulbs and replacing an old showerhead with a low-flow showerhead are easy, low-cost ways to lower your monthly utility bills. However, the up-front costs for some energy-efficiency-boosting projects can be substantial, such as installi...Read More

Inside Consumer Reports Test Labs: Review of Easun NaturCut Classic, Fiskars Momentum 317736, and Scotts 2000-20 reel mowers

3/8/2010 1:38 PM

The latest reel mowers we've tested. Reel mowers appeal for a number of reasons, including the financial savings (no gas to buy), maintenance-free use (beyond the occasional need to sharpen blades), and cardiovascular exercise they provide, not to mention the emissions they don't produce. But when push comes to shove, so to speak, a reel mower migh...Read More

Kwikset and Schlage locked in battle over rekeyable door locks

3/8/2010 12:34 PM

Kwikset is suing Schlage for patent infringement. An open-and-shut case? Kwikset Corporation is taking Schlage Lock Company, LLC to court, having filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. Along with patent infringement, Kwikset, which makes the Kwikset SmartKey, contends that Schlage is making false and misleading...Read More

At Argentina beer-bottle house, let's hope builder wasn't drinking on the job

3/5/2010 4:50 PM

Everyone's passed the time on an interminably long road trip crooning "99 Bottles of Beer." For the project Tito Ingenieri undertook in Quilmes, Argentina, the song comes up 5,999,901 bottles too short. As you can see in the video (right), the industrious, ingenious Ingenieri spent 19 years building a home out of 6 million bottles of beer and other...Read More

Q&A: How do I deal with red wine spilled on my favorite wool rug?

3/5/2010 12:51 PM

On a couple of occasions a friend has spilled red wine on my expensive beige wool rug, creating a couple of small stains that I've covered up with furniture. She's coming to a dinner party next week. What should I do if she spills wine then, and how can I eliminate the stains? You might consider uninviting your friend or drinking only whites. Short...Read More

By the Numbers: FPL Group harnesses the sun in the Sunshine State

3/5/2010 10:56 AM

190,000 Solar-thermal panels at the Martin power plant. Number of mirrors that FPL Group is erecting at its Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center power plant (shown) in Indiantown, Florida, according to "FPL Experiments With Solar Thermal at Gas-Fired Power Plant" in The New York Times. FPL Group is the parent company of Florida Power & Light ...Read More

Buzzword: Vacuum-Insulated Panel

3/4/2010 4:47 PM

What it means. A vacuum-insulated panel, or vacuum-insulation panel (VIP), is an airtight shell around a thin, rigid-foam core from which the air has been evacuated. The R-value per inch of a vacuum-insulated panel is at least 20 and can climb as high 100, according to U.S. Department of Energy data. This means that a vacuum-insulated panel offers ...Read More

Making laundry detergents—or at least the containers—good to the last drop

3/4/2010 12:55 PM

In "Tip of the Day: Use the Right Type and Amount of Laundry Detergent," we reported that the measuring cap on some laundry detergent containers can lead to overdosing, which wastes money and can be bad for your laundry. But the container of some liquid laundry detergents actually makes it hard to dispense all the cleaner, or at least the last seve...Read More