Some generators can be more of a hassle than stormy weather

If recent storms and power outages have helped you conclude that life has become too unpredictable not to own a generator, you'll probably be told that the most important consideration is how much wattage you need to keep your household humming. But as Consumer Reports discovered in its recent generator tests, choosing between a portable and a stationary generator also depends on your ability to run and maintain it.

The Ratings of portable and stationary generators we've just posted cover 14 models, and there are pros and cons for each type. Then there's what fits your lifestyle.

Portable models are okay if you can wait from a few minutes to an hour to get back online. Unless you've had fair warning, you'll need to move the generator into place and make sure you have fuel on hand to run it. Not everyone can store gallons of gasoline or multiple 20-pound tanks of propane. (During a storm, you may find roads that are closed and gas stations with pumps that don't work.) And because of safety concerns, not everyone in the household will be able to start the generator or operate the transfer switch. And a portable generator may not be a good choice for someone who works a long way from home and can't get there in time to restore power.

Even though they cost more, there are none of those concerns with a stationary generator. Since it's mounted outdoors, nobody needs to wheel it out of the garage. Fuel isn't an issue because you can get more than 200 hours from a 250-gallon propane tank, and unlimited hours if you have a natural-gas hookup. And in addition to starting up automatically when the power goes out, stationary generators routinely start themselves up to self-diagnose. An arrangement with a local dealer gets you necessary maintenance before a power outage.

We also found issues that are model-specific, such as generators that offer electric start—but no battery (about $50 extra). One portable model is heavy enough that it might as well be a stationary unit; another is lighter, but wheels are $150 extra. And some models, including one stationary unit, provided power that was uneven or low-voltage, which makes motorized appliances and sensitive electrics run hotter.

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U.S. wind energy market is soaring

The wind energy market took off in 2011 amounting to one-third of all new electric capacity in the nation, according to a new report from the Department of Energy. The wind industry accounted for $14 billion in new investment and nearly 70 percent of the equipment installed at U.S. wind farms came from domestic manufacturers. We don't want to deflate all that good news, but in Consumer Reports' 15-month-long test of one residential turbine, we found that catching the wind is not a simple matter.

Harnessing wind on a wind farm is a lot different than mounting a turbine on your roof or on a pole in your yard. For starters, you might not get enough wind or the turbine may be obstructed by other buildings. Then there are local zoning laws and other concerns. Right now the Honeywell WT6500 wind turbine is sitting on the roof of our headquarters in Yonkers, N.Y. One of the few turbines that can be mounted on a roof, the Honeywell from WindTronics is quieter than most. But in the 15 months since the turbine was installed, it has delivered less than 4 kilowatt hours--enough only to power a 12,000 btu window air conditioner for one afternoon.

Clearly, if you're considering a wind installation you should do your homework first. The DOE has a guide for residential wind installations on its website. A grid-connected wind turbine can reduce your consumption of utility-supplied electricity. If the turbine can't deliver the amount of energy you need, the utility makes up the difference. When the wind system produces more electricity than you need, the excess can be sold to the utility. Here is some guidance from the DOE:

Considerations for a stand-alone system

• You live in an area with average annual wind speeds of at least 4.0 meters per second (9 miles per hour).
  
• A grid connection is not available or can only be made through an expensive extension. The cost of running a power line to a remote site to connect with the utility grid can be prohibitive, ranging from $15,000 to more than $50,000 per mile, depending on terrain.
  
• You have an interest in gaining energy independence from the utility.
  
• You would like to reduce the environmental impact of electricity production.
  
• You acknowledge the variable nature of wind power and have a strategy for using variable resources to meet your power needs.
  

Considerations if you're connecting to the grid

• You live in an area with average annual wind speeds of at least 4.5 meters per second (10 miles per hour).
  
• Utility-supplied electricity is expensive in your area (about 10 to 15 cents per kilowatt-hour).
  
• The utility's requirements for connecting your system to its grid are not prohibitively expensive.
  
• Local building codes or covenants allow you to legally erect a wind turbine on your property.
  
• You are comfortable with long-term investments.
  

You can read the full wind market report on the DOE's website.

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Take special precautions when food shopping in hot weather

Grocery shopping when the weather is blistering hot requires a different strategy. When temperatures top 90 degrees, any perishables you buy need to be refrigerated more quickly—within an hour, according to the federal Food Safety and Inspection Service. That keeps food out of the danger zone (40 degrees F to 140 degrees F) when bacteria can multiply rapidly.

If you're doing a number of errands, make the grocery store your last stop. Then go straight home from there. And if your supermarket is more than a half hour away from home, bring a cooler with you. Put your meat, poultry, seafood and eggs on ice for the drive home. Unload the groceries right away and refrigerate or freeze all perishables promptly.

Even though many of today's refrigerators have door bins made to hold milk jugs and egg cartons, it's safer to store those items in the cabinet because the temperature in the door fluctuates more than the temperature in the main compartment. Refrigerators should maintain a temperature between 35 and 38 degrees F and the freezer 0 degrees, according to the FSIS.

In Consumer Reports refrigerator reviews, we test temperature performance under a number of different scenarios including whether a model can keep a constant temperature when the temperature in the room changes and whether it can maintain a set temperature in a room with very high temperatures. The best performers should get you through a hot summer like this one. We also test energy efficiency, which is important for an appliance that's plugged in all the time. More than 80 models made our list of recommended refrigerators.

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In today's open-plan homes, appliance noise matters

Most homes today have open floor plans, which people prefer to chopped-up layouts with separate kitchens and divided living spaces. Open-plan living is more social, plus it creates light, airy interiors. But there is one downside: open homes can get noisy, especially those with wood floors, stone countertops, and other hard surfaces.

If you live in an open-plan home, it's important to minimize noise where you can. Choosing quiet appliances is one strategy. In the kitchen, focus on the refrigerator and dishwasher. Consumer Reports has a listening panel that judges the sound coming from these appliances at various times in their operating cycles, for example when the refrigerator compressor kicks in and when the dishwasher enters full wash mode. Some models in our refrigerator and dishwasher Ratings are excellent at containing sound, while others are merely fair. If your kitchen is part of a great room set-up, with a TV room within earshot, you'll definitely appreciate the difference.

Noise is also a factor with washers and dryers, especially since more laundry rooms are located on an upper floor, as opposed to in the basement. Again, our panel of listening judges determines how much sound these appliances generate. With washers, we also measure vibration, which is not just noisy, but can also be severe enough to cause walls and floors to shake. While noise and vibration used to be a common problem with front-loaders, because of their rapid spin cycles, many new models offer superb resistance in our washer Ratings.

One final item to think about is the vacuum cleaner. Obviously, you can control when it's on (e.g. when the house is mostly empty, as opposed to when the family is gathered around the TV). Even still, some models are quieter than others in our vacuum Ratings, which could make the chore less onerous. Canister vacuums, for example, tend to generate less racket, though Miele is one manufacturer that does a very good job of muffling the motor on its upright vacuums.

Appliances aside, there are ways to reduce the noise in an open-plan home. For example, area rugs and fabric window coverings will both absorb some of the sound bouncing around a room. Deploying screens and other temporary room dividers can also break up the noise while creating a sense of semi-privacy, without returning to a permanently divided floor plan.

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LEDs and CFLs that perform brilliantly in our lightbulb tests

LEDs have a lot to offer ... for a price. Unlike compact fluorescents, the light-emitting diodes in Consumer Reports' latest lightbulb tests brightened instantly, even at frigid temperatures, and turning them on and off frequently didn't affect them. (That test killed some CFLs.) And there's no mercury in LEDs, making cleanup easier if a bulb breaks. But you'll pay for those advantages and our tests found that not all LEDs shine.

After 3,000 hours of testing we found some LEDs earned near perfect scores, but we also found dim bulbs, ghastly light color, and LEDs that don't cast light in all directions. So choose from the lightbulbs recommended in our Ratings or buy Energy Star-qualified LEDs, which must meet stringent standards that are independently verified. And if you're concerned about the bigger picture—the environmental impact of energy-saving bulbs—LEDs have a slight edge over CFLs, according to a recent report from the Department of Energy.

The study looked at the energy and environmental effects of manufacturing, assembly, transport, operation, and disposal of LEDs, CFLs, and incandescent bulbs. LEDs had a significantly lower environmental impact than incandescents. The main reason cited was that incandescent bulbs consume so much electricity that to generate all that energy substantially impacts the environment, making them the most harmful to the environment. Look at it this way. Watts indicate energy use and to get about the same amount of light output, you can choose a 60-watt incandescent, a 14-watt CFL, or a 12.5-watt LED. Now consider that there are an estimated six billion lightbulbs installed in American homes.

LED prices are dropping, but most we tested cost between $25 and $60 without rebates. Even so, a $25 LED can save you about $130 over its 23-year life, compared with an incandescent. If the LED advantages don't outweigh the price, our Ratings include plenty of fine, inexpensive CFLs that can save you around $60 over the bulb's lifetime.

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Frigidaire's three dishwasher spray arms clean the same

As dishwasher features go, the lower spray arm is vital to the wash process, ever present beneath the racks no matter where the other sprays are situated. So when Frigidaire introduced three new dishwashers with three different spray arms, Consumer Reports brought them into its labs to compare washing performance.

The three models have been added to our dishwasher Ratings of almost 90 models. All Frigidaire Gallery units, the FGBD2435N[W], FGBD2445N[F], and FGHD2465N[F] range in price from $400 to $600 and are more alike than different, with slight variations in water use, cycle time, and a few features. Except for the spray arms.

The lowest-end model of the trio, the $400 Gallery FGBD2435N[W], has a traditional spray arm. The company makes no specific claims—other than the general "high-performing"—on the Frigidaire website. In the $550 Gallery FGBD2445N[F] the spray arm looks like a spinning capital T. The company says the blade spray arm "provides more water coverage for better cleaning" on its website. And the $600 Gallery FGHD2465N[F] departs further from traditional arms with a circular spray outlet (see photo) that spins at the end of an arm to provide, "four times better water coverage and a clean no other dishwasher can beat," according to Frigidaire.

You can't blame a manufacturer for trying out new innovations. A Frigidaire-commissioned study found that 78 percent of dishwasher owners admitted to re-running the dishwasher—with 22 percent of them doing so because the dishes weren't clean, according to Appliance Magazine. But will reconfiguring the spray arm solve that problem? In our Ratings, the three Frigidaires were all mid-pack models with virtually identical wash performance. Another concern: Frigidaire is among the most repair-prone brands of dishwashers, according to the Consumer Reports National Research Center's Annual Product Reliability Survey.

If you're in the market for a dishwasher, don't miss our buying advice, which includes a video on how we test.

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Can LG's new "mega" washer cure the wash day blues?

We probably didn't need another survey to tell us that 75 percent of American women find doing the laundry tedious. But LG did one anyway as part of the company's launch of what it's calling the industry's largest capacity washer, the LG WM8000. At a whopping 5.1 cubic feet, LG promises the spacious front loader will save both time and money because laundry can be dealt with in fewer loads.

According to LG, American women— the survey doesn't mention men—do laundry on average 2.8 times a week, a chore that takes eight hours or more. One out of three respondents said they do more laundry in the summer than at any other time of year. This one dreary task causes them to miss out on exercise, family time and social events, the women reported. LG claims the "mega-capacity" WM8000 can help them reclaim some of that time by accommodating larger loads and using the TurboWash feature, which it claims reduces cycle time by 20 minutes.

The WM8000 is on sale now ($1,399 for white and $1,499 for graphite) and Consumer Reports just brought one into the labs for testing. It's too early to tell if it will perform as well as its brandmate, the LG WM3470H[W]A, $1,100, which tops our front-loader Ratings. In addition to TurboWash, the new machine has what LG calls 6Motion, six different wash motions including tumbling, scrubbing, filtration, rolling, stepping and swinging that work in various combinations depending on the fabric. The WM8000 received Energy Star's Most Efficient designation, something we'll keep in mind as we test for energy and water efficiency.

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New Jersey asks residents to get rid of their old refrigerators

New Jersey wants to get old refrigerators and freezers off the grid so badly that it'll pay residents fifty bucks per unit plus pick it up for recycling. To further sweeten the deal, the state is offering $1,000 to the person who turns in the oldest refrigerator or freezer before the end of September. And here's a bonus: Replacing an old unit with an Energy Star qualified model can save $100 to $200 annually in utility costs, no matter what state you live in.

When Consumer Reports put out a call for old appliances a few years ago, a Pittsburgh couple sent in a photo of their 1930 Westinghouse refrigerator (see photo). They said they liked its style and didn't want to part with it. But, according to Energy Star, homeowners can reap big savings by replacing their clunkers with Energy Star units. If you still have a fridge from the 1980s, replacing it can save over $100 each year and replacing a fridge from the 1970s can save more than $200 each year. Use Energy Star's calculator to find out how much you'll save by replacing your existing refrigerator.

Energy Star qualified refrigerators are required to use 20 percent less energy than models that don't carry the logo. When Consumer Reports tests refrigerators, we not only measure energy efficiency but tell you how much it costs to run each model for a year. Some of our top bottom-freezer picks, for example, cost as little as $50 to operate, based on the current year's average national utility rate.

No matter what the age of your refrigerator, you can reduce the amount of energy it uses by following these Energy Star guidelines:

• Set the appropriate temperature. Keep your refrigerator at 35 to 38 degrees Fahrenheit and your freezer at 0 F.
  
• Place your fridge in a cool place. Position your refrigerator away from a heat source such as an oven, a dishwasher, or direct sunlight from a window.
  
• Allow air circulation behind the fridge. Leave a few inches between the wall and the refrigerator, and keep the condenser coils clean if you have an older model.
  
• Check the door seals. Make sure the refrigerator seals around the door are airtight. If not, replace them.
  
• Keep the door closed. Minimize the amount of time the refrigerator door is open.
  

If you live in New Jersey, you can find out more about the Oldest Fridge Contest on the New New Jersey Clean Energy website. The winner will get a $1,000 Sears gift card for Energy Star product purchases. Residents of other states should check for rebates with their local utility or visit the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency.

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