Parking app cuts down on idling
Did you know that for every 10 minutes a car is idling, a pound of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere? One avoidable cause of emissions is when you’re driving in circles in a city, shopping mall or popular destination looking for a parking spot. The Parkmobile app can help prevent this waste of gas and time by eliminating your need to hunt for a place to park. With the app, not only can you find spots, but you also can reserve them and even refill a meter from your phone. The app is growing nationwide, so check parkmobile.com to see if they participate where you live.
WARM FRIDGE
When a refrigerator stops cooling, you may automatically think it means you have to invest in a brand-new appliance. But before you take that pricey plunge, check a few things inside your refrigerator. First, is the gasket around the door of the fridge sealing properly? If cold air is leaking out, your appliance has to work harder. Is the refrigerator too packed with food? If the air vent inside is blocked, that could be why your fridge is warm. And finally, it may seem obvious, but it’s worth checking: Has the temperature setting been changed? If it’s off or set too high, it just needs to be readjusted.
OLD OLIVE OIL
If you open an old bottle of olive oil and it smells rancid, you definitely shouldn’t use it for cooking or salad dressing, but you also shouldn’t toss it into the trash. Rancid oil is still useful around the house. Grab a soft rag and use olive oil to condition leather furniture, belts and bags. Also, use the oil and rag to help moisturize wicker and rattan furniture; it’ll help prevent the natural materials from cracking. And that door that creaks every time you open it? Use olive oil as a lubricant around the hinges.
OILY PAPERBOARD
Many communities now
accept paperboard boxes from things like cereal for recycling. But they often refuse to take the same types of boxes if they have any food contamination on them (like frosting from a cake, or dried-on cheese from pizza). The reason is simple: When paperboard is recycled, it’s mixed with large amounts of water. Everything is separated during this pulping process, including the oil and fats in paper, but it is not removed, which means the new recycled paper can end up with oil splotches. So if you have paperboard with any food contamination — no matter how small — toss it out and don’t recycle it.
SOLAR PANELS
Are you thinking about installing solar panels on your home to save money and be green? Before you do, consider this: Does enough of your roof face the south? This is key to getting maximum sunlight exposure for solar panels. Is your roof more than 10 years old? If it is, you may need to get your roof replaced first, since most solar panels last over 30 years. And finally, where do you live? Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado are considered the sunniest states and are perfect for solar panels. But New York, Oregon, Vermont, Alaska and Washington have the lowest annual sunshine; homes in those states may not be the right fit for solar installation.
SUNROOF DATABASE
Now you can use the power of Google to see if your home is a good candidate for solar panels. Simply enter your home address in Google’s Project Sunroof database. The site uses Google Earth imagery to pinpoint your home and gauge your roof shape; it then computes the eligibility of your home using local weather patterns. You get a personal solar analysis, options and the names of local solar panel providers, and you can even compare finance options. All with the click of a mouse.
CHILLED LEMONS
West Coast readers who have lemon trees know this trick: Store your ripe fruit in the refrigerator. Lemons have a long shelf life when they are chilled, up to one or two months. When you leave lemons on the countertop, they ripen quickly and can go mushy in a matter of days. Storing unwashed lemons in an airtight container in the fridge prevents them from drying out. So when you have a bumper crop of lemons, store them where it’s cold and you’ll have fresh lemon juice to use for weeks and weeks at a time.