How to retrofit older homes

How can you retrofit a concrete block house with few windows to be more resource-conserving? ''It may not be practical to add a porch, but it might be practical to add shade trees on the south and west sides,'' suggests Janet McIlvane with the Florida Solar Energy Center in Cocoa.

Air conditioning changed everything

Half a century made all the difference. We went from designing with the climate to defensively shutting it out while shutting ourselves in, and today we are paying the energy price.

Tips for living without air

Living without air conditioning has its challenges, and with experience, Joyce Gann has learned how to do it.

Go native: Florida friendly landscapes thrive with less water

Wise use of native plants can go a long way toward reducing outdoor water use while celebrating the place you call home.

APPLIANCES

Switch to water-friendly appliances is on tap

How many times a day do you flush a toilet? How long are your showers? How many loads of laundry do you wash a week?

Saving resources as your clothes spin at high speed

A new washing machine will appear in stores this summer that spins clothes so fast (1,200 revolutions per minute) they come out almost dry.

Let us count the numerous ways that toilets can flush

How lush does it flush? The newest high-efficiency toilets use only 1.28 gallons of water. Not lush. And that's the point. While 1.6 gallons per flush still is the standard, the new versions use 20 percent less water. The Environmental Protection Agency's voluntary WaterSense program, begun in 2006, will certify that products use less water.

Way to go is low flow

How low can it flow? Water savings with low-flow shower heads add up when the flow slows to a rate of 1.5 to 2 gallons per minute.

Green sources on the Web

waterwiseeducation.org. An excellent site for specific information on water savings developed by the California Urban Water Conservation Council under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. You can access this by Googling H20use.

Dishwasher sensors can tell just how dirty your dishes are

The secret to highly efficient dishwashers is electronics. Sensors can measure the weight of the dishes and the clarity of the water (to determine how dirty the dishes are), then determine how hot the water must be to clean those dishes.