Home and Garden Products

Some plumbers still are cold to the idea of tankless, or demand, water heaters, but the variety on the market seems to get wider every day. With help from the Energy Department and the manufacturers listed, here are specifics. WHAT SIZE TO PICK Tankless...

Thermostats used to be primitive on-off switches that required a lot of tweaking -- up a hair to ward off a chill, then down a hair to cool off. Modern versions have keypads and digital readouts that control heating, cooling, humidity and even the amount...

Every product should have a red flag built in—some warning that pops up, say, before the water heater gives way and floods the basement. A few do, like smoke detectors that start beeping before their batteries die. But the tricky business of...

Invest the time to improve air conditioner efficiency (or the money for a service call), and the triple reward is cooler air, lower utility bills and longer appliance life. Some improvements require a service tech with specialized equipment, for...

NEW YORK, May 15 (Reuters) - The Canadian Competition Bureau's review of Agrium's proposed purchase of Viterra assets is within its normal timeframe, the fertilizer company said, adding that it remains unclear what its ruling will be. "The Bureau's...

Need a leg up? Answer Angel is here to help. Dear Answer Angel: I know the fashion is to not wear hosiery in the warm weather so I'm wondering what you think about leg makeup. Would that be a good alternative? I've got spider vein issues so I feel...

There wasn't much talk of cold beer or of going to war - this was church, after all - but friends of beloved sports broadcaster Chuck Thompson had plenty to remember him by as they gathered outside St. Leo's in Little Italy yesterday. The longtime...

With all the talk about going green, it pays to understand the anatomy of an eco-friendly home when you're building a new-construction house. What are the building materials made of and are they assembled with minimal waste? How much energy is used to...

When Ron Karlic and Dale Barz got married and moved into their new Orland Park home, the backyard, she says, "was a blank landscape, except for some trees." In the 10 1/2 years since, they have turned that yard into an oasis of serenity, with trees,...

For first-time home buyers Joshua and Latoya Washington, the mid-February arrival of their high-efficiency furnace was a cause for celebration -- sweet reward for pursuing an energy-efficient mortgage. The loan allowed the Washingtons to roll the cost of...

Q: We have a two-story home, almost a year old. When we moved in, we had a humidifier installed in one of the two furnaces for the lower level. Because of the cold winter so far, we have been experiencing static shocks on the upstairs level. About three...

Q: We had a handyman doing some work around our house last week, and he told us that he thought many of our problems with uncomfortable rooms and high energy bills were the result of duct leaks. He then said the biggest thing to worry about was...