Most home appliances have become more efficient over the past 30 years, but those gains have been offset by the influx of personal computers, televisions and related devices, according to data released today by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

In the latest update to its Residential Energy Consumption Survey, which is has updated periodically since 1979, EIA found that:

• 58 percent of U.S. homes had energy-efficient, multi-pane windows, up from 36 percent in the 1993 survey.

A century ago, and for about 400,000 years before that, most people burned wood to stay warm. Then the arrival of oil- and gas-fired central boilers and furnaces liberated them from the toil, mess and smoke. Today, fluctuating prices, a desire for independence and a new generation of clean, efficient stoves have attracted homeowners like Richards to a flourishing back-to-basics home-heating movement. Annual shipments of pellet stoves, which burn biomass in the form of compressed sawdust from lumber mills or managed forests, jumped from 18,360 to 141,211 units between 1999 and 2008, a 650 percent increase. Large-scale installations include Vermont’s Bennington College, which uses a wood-chip-fueled biomass boiler to heat 85 percent of its campus.

The editors here at Popular Mechanics would like you to know that we’re not perfect. Whether tackling home improvements or making automotive repairs, we’ve all made our fair share of mistakes. Here are some of the worst. If you’ve got some that you’d like to share, send them to pmwebmaster@hearst.com, along with any lessons that might have been gleaned from the experience.

According to our grandmothers’ wisdom (and verified on thenewhomemaker.com), Monday is Wash Day. After Sunday’s day of rest, homemakers traditionally took on one of the week’s most difficult tasks: the laundry. Whether you’re disciplined enough to schedule your laundry days or you just do a load or two when you’ve run out of socks and underwear, the following recipe for simple washing powder will make the task more fun. This laundry detergent is simple to make, saves you money and smells heavenly.

Being passive isn’t always a bad thing, especially when it’s passive solar heating and cooling. The idea behind passive solar is to design buildings that take advantage of natural heat from the sun in winter; and shade and wind and in the summer. Although the concept has been used in many cultures for centuries, passive solar design principles recently have been refined a great deal, even since the 1970s.

Poor Air Quality Threatens Health

The American Lung Association reports that the death rate from lung disease has risen faster in the last decade than any other major disease. Countless days of school and work are missed due to respiratory illnesses every year. The EPA ranks poor indoor air quality as the fourth largest environmental threat to our country.

Pollution in the Home

Some of the worst polluters of the air you breathe hit right where you live. Biological particles like mold, animal dander, dust mites, bacteria and viruses occur naturally in substances. But in homes that aren’t properly ventilated, or when filters aren’t regularly cleaned, their concentrations can build up and make them into major irritants.

Amenity combined their durable hemp fabric that’s blended with certified organic cotton and a classic Amenity print to create their new organic pet bedding collection. The look is natural and sophisticated and is something you’ll love to look at while it adds cozy comfort for your pooch all in eco-friendly style.

The ground temperate is a constant that you can use to heat and cool your house. Over the summer the deep ground temperature is warmer than the air and into he summer it is cooler. The ‘ground-source heat pump system’ uses underground water from a 1,000-foot deep well and pumps, that are basement heat exchangers to move the water.

The system uses no fossil fuels and provide comfort year-round, with zero CO2 emissions, for a fraction of the operating cost of conventional HVAC systems. Geothermal systems also have fewer moving parts than conventional systems, so they are more reliable and require less maintenance, so they last for decades. As a rule of thumb, complete systems run about $2500 to $3500 per 500 square feet of living space. So, a complete geo-thermal system for an average size 2,500 sq. ft. home would run between $12,500 and $17,500. Geo-thermal for larger homes could easily cost $25,000 to $30,000.