Switching to more energy efficient appliances

Appliances are the largest source of electricity usage, said Simi Hoque, a professor at Drexel’s department of civil, architectural and environmental engineering. The refrigerator is the most energy-hungry of them all, but you can’t turn it off. Hoque said switching to more energy-efficient appliances will save money, but only if the current models have reached the end of their life.

“If your water heater or your washing machine or your dishwasher or refrigerator have reached their end of life, then it would be important to try to make sure that you find an appliance that is an Energy Star- certified appliance,” Hoque said. “You’re not going to be able to recoup the cost of a new appliance if you haven’t reached the end of life of your existing appliance.”

One exception may be an old window unit air conditioner, Hoque said.

“Those things live for a really long time, but they become extremely inefficient over time,” Hoque said. “And so if you have an old window air conditioning unit, even if it’s not at its end of life, it may be worthwhile to look and see if it’s possible to buy a newer window air conditioning unit to install. I would actually buy a small one because generally those are pretty good. If you put a fan to move air around, the air conditioner can work towards reducing the humidity inside the space, and then the fan can just kind of move the dried cooler air around, and that is enough for comfort on a hot day.”

Hoque also encourages signing up for time-of-use pricing, which allows customers with smart meters to pay lower rates if they use appliances like dishwashers and dryers during offpeak hours.

Home energy audit/weatherization

A home energy audit can help pinpoint areas where expensive heat and cooling are escaping from your residence. Weatherizing your home by sealing drafty windows and doors can make a difference. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that adding insulation to attics and crawl spaces can save up to 17% on heating and cooling costs.

Hoque said one of the most important parts of weatherization is making sure to insulate the top part of the house beneath the roof. And in a rowhome, it’s helpful to have a white- or silver-coated roof.

“This is more about being sure that you’re insulating the most vulnerable part of your building in the summertime to avoid overheating, and that’s the roof,” Hoque said.

Pennsylvania provides free energy audits and weatherization to those who make 200% or less of the federal poverty level. And some utilities offer services that will assess where you could save.

Shopping for alternative electricity suppliers

Pennsylvania’s deregulated electricity market means that while utilities have a monopoly on distribution in specific territories, ratepayers can still shop for alternative suppliers. Electric bills are generally split in half between the energy supply costs and the distribution costs of sending it through power lines. Utilities make their profit on distribution, and simply pass on the supply charges.

Choosing default service means going with the same provider for both supply and distribution, for example PECO or PPL Electric Utilities. This is the simplest option and one that consumer advocates recommend because the utilities are required to shop for a good price. The alternative suppliers, however, often have varying rates and cancellation fees.

Still, Lancaster County resident Bruce Blom said he’s been shopping for years through the Public Utility Commission’s PAPowerSwitch and saves about $80 to $100 a year. The process is known as “price to compare” where ratepayers can see the different rates and compare them to their default service provider.

“It’s pretty easy,” Blom said. “I always only look for a fixed rate and ones with no penalty for cancellation. And for anything for three months to a year. For the last two years, your best deals are only three months of a fixed rate.”

The key is to put reminders in your calendar when the fixed rate ends so you can make sure you’re not facing surprise rate hikes, Blom added.

“Frankly, I don’t care if they have some kind of reward,” he said. “Okay, fine, if they want to give me something, fine. But you got to keep checking because rates go up fairly rapidly.”

Blom had high praise for the PAPowerSwitch website, saying it was very user friendly.

“It’s the best thing I can do,” Blom said. “That’s the only control I have other than, of course, my own personal control of usage in my house.”

It’s New England’s largest indoor public garden and this spring it’ll once again be teeming with fairies.

The Fairy Garden Days return to the Roger Williams Park Botanical Garden this April with hundreds of handmade fairy houses hidden throughout the Garden’s four greenhouses, plus special events and activities planned for kids every day.

Running from April 11-26, 2026, it’s a great day trip during school’s upcoming April vacation or a wonderful weekend adventure to enjoy an early taste of spring.

What Is Fairy Garden Days in Rhode Island?

This annual event has been one of my favorites since my daughters were babies—and we still go back every year.

READ MORE: Explore These Ten Botanical Gardens Across the SouthCoast

Artists young and old create elaborate fairy gardens depicting fanciful houses, entire schools or even relaxing health spas (cause fairies need a massage now and then too!). You never know what you’ll see or where you’ll find the gardens throughout the grounds.

What Kids Can Do at Fairy Garden Days

Though if your young ones lose interest in the fairy gardens before you do, there are plenty of activities around the greenhouses too. Kids can get hands on at the texture table, create their own wand, pen letters to the fairies or write out wishes, which get released every Thursdays.

Don’t Miss These Outdoor Garden Attractions

Outside the greenhouses are a Japanese-style trail to wander, a rose maze to make your way through and an outdoor play area where the kids can let their imaginations run wild.

Meet the Goats Behind the Garden’s Cleanup Crew

Definitely don’t forget to stop by the goat house between greenhouses 1 and 2 to say hi to the three Nigerian Dwarf goats calling the Botanical Garden home. These three are an invasive plant removal team, helping to naturally rid the Garden grounds of unwanted plants.

The goats will also celebrate their 9th birthdays during Fairy Garden Days, with a special celebration planned for them on Sunday, April 12 from 1:30 – 3 p.m. Just one of the many special events planned throughout the Fairy Garden Days from April 11-26.

Special Events Happening During Fairy Garden Days

Various fairy visits and story times are planned over the two-week event, with face painting each Tuesday and Saturday and bubble shows every Friday. There will also be an animal encounter with Roger Williams Park Zoo on April 11, Greenhouse Jazz on Sunday, April 19, and a performance from the Toe Jam Puppet Band on closing day, April 26.

READ MORE: Learn More About the SouthCoast’s Beloved Toe Jam Puppet Band

With the incredibly snowy winter Southern New England has been through, we’re probably all looking forward to finally seeing the start of spring. You can get a jump on flower season by stepping inside the Roger Williams Botanical Garden this April for the return of Fairy Garden Days.

Ivy Mix knew only small-town life growing up in Vermont. In 2003, she decided that needed to change.

“I realized the world was a very big place,” she said recently. “I thought I might want to go someplace and see something.”

She left for Guatemala to volunteer and teach photography in an orphanage. She hung out daily in a nearby bar, enjoying the environment at least as much as the imbibements. When she realized she couldn’t pay off the tab she had racked up, Mix started pouring drinks to offset her debts.

A celebrated bartending career began.

The Tunbridge native is a semifinalist in the Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service category of the James Beard Awards, the top honors in the American food-and-drink industry. The nod recognizes her work at Whoopsie Daisy, the bar she co-owns in Brooklyn. The author and five-time nominee hopes this is the moment she can finally call herself a James Beard winner.

The 20 bartenders in her category include Kate Wise, who grew up in Stowe and works at Juniper at Hotel Vermont in Burlington. Wise said she’s stunned she’s in the same category with a woman she saw give a cocktail-making demonstration years ago at Waterworks Food + Drink in Winooski, the sort of event celebrity bartenders do.

“She is so talented,” Wise said of Mix, who has owned two successful bars.

Catching on to the cocktail boom

Mix spoke with the Burlington Free Press while driving from New York City to Tunbridge. She splits her time living in Brooklyn and her hometown.

“Tunbridge when I was growing up was small and really rural,” Mix said. “It’s still rural, but it was before the demise of the dairy industry.”

Mix and her twin sister, Tess, are the daughters of glass blower Robin Mix and Susan Dollenmaier, founder of the Vermont-based textile company Anichini. They lived off a dirt road with only one house nearby. Mix attended a Waldorf school and then Chelsea High School and became obsessed with horseback riding.

“I horseback rode all the time,” she said. “Before I went to college that’s what I thought I was going to do. Olympic riding was my goal.”

She stayed in Vermont to study philosophy and fine art at Bennington College. While in college she spent time in Guatemala, sowing the seeds of her bartending career.

Mix graduated from Bennington in 2008. She sold her horse and thought she’d become a professor. The economic collapse that year changed her plans. She lived in New York, worked for free at art galleries and hated it. Mix began working at cocktail bars just as that trend was catching on.

“I was like, ‘OK, this is cool,’” she said. “The cocktail revolution was really booming.”

Shining a spotlight on female mixologists

The cocktail revolution, though, felt like it had little room for women.

Mix said the speakeasy “meme” was big then, which meant men in moustaches, arm garters and suspenders. She and friend Lynnette Marrero in 2011 started Speed Rack, which as the movement’s website explains has “been able to shine a spotlight on female mixologists thriving behind bars around the country; and while they are at it, raise money for breast cancer research, education and prevention.”