Living with Tech: Greening your ride and home
Need some ideas on how to have a more eco-friendly lifestyle? Take a look at CNET's Living with Technology feature, which is focused on green tech this month.
The top story and photo gallery are about cars. With all the talk about electric cars like the Tesla Roadster and plug-in hybrids, you would think that the dealer lots are full of them. They're not.
Click on the image to see a photo gallery of Genzyme Center, a Platinum-level green building.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET News)But automakers, eager to appeal to consumers looking for more fuel-efficient cars, are pushing to make production plug-in hybrids available within two or three years. The dates are shifting as results from battery tests come in, so it's worth monitoring.
In the meantime, there are a growing number of hybrids and fuel-efficient cars you can check out in the photo gallery.
The other place to lower your environmental footprint is in the home. The first things you should do are the least sexy: get an energy audit, buy Energy Star appliances, and pile up more insulation. As I said in our Earth Day special package, it's not that hard taking a few steps to lower your energy use.
Beyond that, you can start talking about making your energy at home. Check out this story that covers solar hot water, solar electric, wind, and community-based distributed energy plans.
If you want a look at how the Maserati of green buildings operates, take a look at this video and photo gallery. It's a profile of Genzyme Center, corporate headquarters of the biotechnology company in Cambridge, Mass., and a Platinum-level LEED-certified green building. You might even get a few ideas (daylighting) for your home.
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld. E-mail Martin. 
In many areas, home energy audits are provided free for the asking by the local utilities.
We had a home energy audit performed on our house last fall and found it a wonderful experience. The gentleman spent just over 2 hours inside and outside our home checking for air leaks, performing the blower test, examining the furnace, A/C, etc.
This is different from a home inspection where here the focus in on energy efficiency / inefficiency of the home.
The energy audit report we received contained our home?s energy efficiency rating, comparison to similar home?s general rating, energy efficiency recommendations specific to our home and numerous general home energy efficiency tips. As we couldn?t find a copy of a full energy audit report anywhere we wrote about ours (within the ECOENERGY page of our home web site) including pictures of the charts, graphs, etc. so others could see what our report contained in hopes of becoming convinced of the value of having their own home energy audit.
Yes, we are on our way to saving money every day through the recommendations contained in the report.
Dan
DailyHomeRenoTips.com
www.nicoleeversonphotography.com
Nicole Everson