Verizon FiOS Internet Named Reader's Choice by PCMag.com

For the fourth consecutive year, PCMag.com readers gave high praise to Verizon FiOS Internet service, earning the online magazine's Readers' Choice award. It's also the third consecutive year that FiOS has finished at the top of the Web site's annual Internet Service Provider (ISP) Service and Reliability Survey.

The survey, conducted between June 15 and July 17, asked PCMag readers to rate their ISPs in 11 categories ranging from speed and reliability to initial setup and overall satisfaction.

FiOS Internet scored 8.7 out of 10 in its overall rating and led all competitors in scores for initial setup, speed, reliability, e-mail, technical support, repairs and likelihood to recommend. It topped all cable companies when it came to needing the fewest repairs.

See if Verizon FiOS Internet service is available in your area

Color Changing Roof Tiles Could Save Hundreds in Cooling Costs

It’s a concept we all learn in grade school science—dark things absorb heat while light things reflect it. Because of that principle, black roof tiles are terrific at absorbing heat during the winter, but reduce energy efficiency and make it harder to keep your house cool in summer.

To address this problem, experts such as US Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu recommend that homeowners in warm climates paint their roofs white. While that may be a clever move for some (providing their homeowners’ association approves), it doesn’t fully address the problem. In a perfect world, we would all have black roofs during cold times and white ones when it’s hot. Enter a team of recent MIT graduates and Thermeleon, their new green roofing concept.

Thermeleon is a roof tile filled with a “phase-change polymer gel” that changes color based on temperature. On hot days, the tile appears white and reflects roughly 80 percent of sunlight. But on warmer days, the tile turns black and reflects only 30 percent of sunlight. All of that translates into a roughly 20 percent reduction on cooling costs, which could translate into hundreds of dollars in lower utility bills per year.

The team is currently working on translating the method Thermeleon uses to change its color into a spray that can be applied to existing roofs, which makes it much more practical. No specific plans have been made to commercialize the concept yet, but the team does plan on working to bring the concept to reality. Here’s hoping it all works out.

Image via MIT

Powering Up with Microsoft Hohm

We've written a few times in the past about the myriad of energy tracking tools available on the Web for consumers looking to beef up on their energy efficiency.There's Google PowerMeter of course, as well as EnergyCircle, a tool that helps parents show their kids about conservation. One of the newer entries into the bunch happens to be from software giant Microsoft.

Microsoft Hohm is a service that allows you to monitor your energy usage for the purpose of saving money.As someone that's interested in that, I thought I'd sign up and give it a whirl.

I think one of the more interesting features of Hohm is just how thorough it is when evaluating your home energy situation. It asks for information about your house, including the year it was built, the structure, what kind of insulation you have, the surface area of the windows, etc. The information is organized in a way that's easy to use and surprisingly fun to fill out.

Once you're done with that, you move on to your heating/cooling and lighting, where you input the amount of light fixtures in your house and the kinds of bulbs you use. It's actually kind of eye opening to think about each room and where you could be saving money by just swapping a few bulbs or by leaving the lights off more.

After all of that, there is even a field for you to share your electricity info, including the amount of kWh you use per month, and the rate you're paying. With all of this information, Hohm constructs a chart of your average utility costs, and what you can do immediately to make your home more energy efficient and save money.

All in all, I would definitely recommend checking out Hohm if you have been thinking about ways to lower your utility costs or how to upgrade your home. It's in beta right now, and you'll need a Windows Live ID but I'd say it's worth it to give Hohm a trial run.

Do you have any energy monitors that you use for your home? Which ones are your favorites?

Georgia Natural Gas First in Georgia to Get Recycled Natural Gas from Landfill

Georgia Natural Gas (GNG) recently announced that it is now the first and only natural gas marketer in Georgia to get recycled natural gas from a landfill, helping to conserve Georgia’s precious natural resources. Specially designed equipment at the landfill collects the methane gas and makes it ready for consumer use.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), landfills are the largest single human source of methane gas emissions in the United States, accounting for 25 percent of all methane sources. Methane is a greenhouse gas with a high global warming potential. Landfill methane gas is generated during the natural process of bacterial decomposition of organic material contained in municipal landfills. New technologies have made it possible to capture and combust the methane gas, breaking it apart to form water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other compounds that are less volatile than methane.

GNG says it began purchasing the recycled gas in early 2009. The landfill is capable of producing enough natural gas to fuel approximately 15,000 Georgia homes and has a potential life cycle of about 20 years. GNG has exclusive rights to purchase all of the recycled gas produced at the landfill through 2011.

Find out if Georgia Natural Gas service is available in your area.

How to Change Your Address Online with WhiteFence

Have you ever had to drag yourself down to the post office and stand in that never-ending line just to change your address? Then right as you get to the front of the line most of the postal workers seem to disappear and you're left with the disgruntled one that is mad at you because they can' go on break.

Well say goodbye to those dreadful days, because WhiteFence can help you change your address easily online. Watch our short video demonstration to see for yourself how simple and fast changing your address with WhiteFence can be.

Charge Your Cell Phone with Just a Flick of the Wrist

Okay, so I’ve written about some cool green ways to charge your cell phone before including solar power and yo-yo power, but I think I may have found the coolest, most dangerous way to charge a phone with clean energy yet.

Designed by Mikhail Stawsky, the Rotel is a cell phone concept that harnesses the awesome power of spinning things around your finger. You simply put your finger through the phone, spin it around your finger and wait as the battery charges with free electricity. It remains to be seen exactly how much spinning would have to be done to get a full charge, but I suspect it would take quite a while.

It may not be the most practical everyday way to juice up your cell phone, but it does look like a fun party piece that could come in handy in a pinch. Just make sure you don’t lose control and smack yourself in the face with your phone.

Image via Yanko Design

WhiteFence Thanksgiving Traditions

One of the most gluttonous holidays of the calendar year has come and gone, ushering in tidings of good cheer and shopping sprees galore. One of the more unique things about Thanksgiving, besides the food, would have to be the different holiday traditions that people associate with it.

Every family or group seems to have their own way of enjoying the time together, from football to playing games of Risk, if you're my family. At WhiteFence, we celebrate Thanksgiving with a big pot luck lunch each year, where people contribute all kinds of dishes. Food comas follow shortly thereafter.

With those things in mind, I took the liberty of asking a few 'Fencers what their favorite holiday traditions were. Their answers ranged from pie to Oprah.

Happy Cyber Monday!

The long Thanksgiving weekend is over and now you’re stuck behind your desk for another grueling day of work, with weeks separating you from your next day off. Don’t be too depressed though, as today is Cyber Monday, the day where online retailers unleash their hottest holiday deals.

If you didn’t empty your bank account last week with all of the Black Friday deals, there are lots of cool things to be had at a deep discount today. Did that huge new HDTV you had your eye on sell out before you got to the store at five in the morning? What about that sweet new laptop? If you missed out last week, you might just be surprised to find even better deals today.

If you’re ready to start wasting company time shopping online, check out Eddy’s blog from last week to find a link to all of the best deals available online today.

Happy Black Friday!

Thanksgiving Day has come and gone again and as tradition dictates, today we turn from one national pastime to another—from eating to shopping. Today is known as Black Friday, and is one of the biggest shopping days of the year, the day that retailers unveil their best holiday deals.

Whether you’re in the market for big-ticket items like laptops and HDTVs, or just looking for some cheap stuff like DVDs and videogames, there’s something for everybody out there today. So get out there and start spending!

To help guide you through the maze of great deals to be had today, check out Eddy’s blog from last week to find a catalog of all the hottest money-saving Black Friday items.

Think Twice Before Deep Frying Your Turkey This Thanksgiving

Underwriters Laboratories, the product safety specialists, created this video they suggest you watch before making plans to fry your turkey this holiday season. It's a little scary to see how things can quickly go wrong!