Electronic waste is a big environmental issue, and we’ve covered numerous ways that both electronics companies and consumers can reduce the amount of e-waste headed for landfills. While most recent efforts focus on reuse and/or recycling (which are both important), Israeli site FixYa harnesses "crowd power" (ie, social media) to help people fix their electronics rather than disposing of them. The main motivation behind FixYa was the increasing lack of technical support provided for consumer electronics, but Yaniv Ben Saadon told us that there’s a green element to the site’s mission:

By allowing more and more consumers to successfully operate and mend their products, FixYa decreases the number of products that are discarded and eventually pollute our environment. Although globalization and competition drive the average consumption of consumer products to increase over time, the usability of these products decreases as they become more technologically advanced and challenging to operate. Moreover, since manufacturers are under growing pressure to release their products to their markets, often these products are mass produced before they are properly designed. The result is that the products we buy are cheaper than they were before, yet more challenging to operate.

From gaming systems to washing machines, FixYa’s user have already provided a wide range of "fix-it" advice. Ben Saadon shared with us some of the most popular problems, and the highest-ranked solutions, addressed on the site.

1. A Clacking Xbox with Three Flashing Red Lights

User Carl26 walks a panicked gamer through the process of fixing this problem with the GPU memory.

2. Another Flashing Light… on a Kenmore Dish Washer

Expert qqwweer shows how to reset the light.

3. Ipod Keeps Displaying "Do Not Disconnect"

User Yung offers four different approaches to this problem.

4. Sansa MP3 Player Won’t Turn On

User chrism provides a really simple solution to this really aggravating problem.

5. DVD Player’s P-SCAN Split-Screen Keeps Coming On

User spyder99 shows that sometimes a solution is as easy as flipping a switch… if you know where that switch is located.

These are just a few examples of how FixYa’s brand of social media provides solutions for users’ pocketbooks and the envionment. Ben Saadon notes

Through the collaboration of a community of consumers, FixYa encourages its users to learn from the experience of others on how to properly use and fix their products. The result is that more and more consumers are able to successfully operate their existing products rather than replace them with newer ones, and thus help to reduce the number of products that ended up polluting our environment.

And, if throwing your problem out to the community isn’t your style, FixYa also features a massive collection of manuals and troubleshooting guides.

If you're a regular reader of Green Options (or even if you're not), it should be obvious that we're committed to providing you with a wide range of information and ideas on "greening the good life." We also want to make sure that we're giving you the information that will benefit you the most, so we've created a couple of ways that you can let us know what matters to you.

First, we're going to start a new regular feature: the Green Living Q&A. If you've got questions about living the green life, no matter how big or small, submit them to our writers using this form. They'll be constantly reviewing the questions we receive, and writing posts that answer them. If one of them chooses to answer your question, you'll get credit for asking it, including a link to your site, blog or GO member page.

In addition to questions, we know that many of you have green tips and strategies that you use in your daily lives, and we'd love to help you share them with the Green Options community. If you'd like to submit a tip to Rebecca and Amy for possible publication as a Tip o' the Day, just send it along to them through this form. As with Q&As, if we publish your tip, we'll be sure to acknowledge your contribution with your name and a link.

We want Green Options to be a community where users not only learn more about living a greener life, but share their own knowledge and experiences. As always, we welcome your feedback, comments and suggestions!

Another guest post by Mike Taylor, publisher of Solar Kismet.

Electricity, or how I saved over $500 this winter

You may recall in Part 1 on Natural Gas, I outlined how I saved $166 on my natural gas bills over a two month period versus the previous homeowner (standardized against winter temperature differences) with little to no effort and less than $100 in supplies. That number has now increased to over $400 in savings from September 2006 through March 2007…

Now I'm happy to report that I got the electricity data on the previous owner as well, and frankly I'm not sure how she used so much electricity in our little house - she used as much in one month as we expect to use in a whole year. But the data doesn't lie and over the same 6 month winter time period, i.e. no air conditioners or dehumidifiers to skew the data, we have saved an astonishing $516 over her previous bills in the same 6 months the year before…Our monthly bills are $25-$35 in the DC metropolitan area (we're paying 13 cents/kWh on average). It's incredible how easy it is to save electricity, money, and pollution.

As before, your first thought must be that I'm sitting in the dark or bought all new appliances. Nope. The porch light greets us when we come home, we hang out in various rooms in the evening without much thought to turning the lights off, and we haven't replaced any major appliances (same refrigerator, dishwasher, laundry, etc).

Here are my secrets, not exactly rocket science, which cost less than $100 and only a little effort:

• Replaced all lights with CFLs - Every one. The light is the same. They hardly burn out. Friends can't tell the difference. The trick? Don't buy the $2 cheapie and expect it to put out the save amount of light. Pay $3 for the one with the most lumens, i.e. the 100 watt replacement (use these where the bulb won't be visible), and/or the ones with the fancy cover so it looks like a regular bulb (use these where the bulb is visible). You can get really small ones and specialty ones for vanity lights that work great. Some may take 5 seconds to warm up and reach full brightness but is that too much to ask? Prioritize the lights that are on the most (not the ones in the closet) if you don't want to replace them all.
• Light sensor on the front porch - I don't like to come home to a dark porch. So I paid $10 for a light sensing socket and screwed it into the old socket on the porch. Sun goes down, light comes on, and it has a timer to turn itself off after 2, 4, 6 hours (or the next morning).
• Phantom Loads - There are a lot of things that are "on" even when "off" - anything with a remote control, a fat box for a plug (a transformer that converts AC to DC), a clock, cell phone chargers, printers, monitors, etc. We have 2 or 3 power strips that allow me to shut off 3-4 things at once where it's convenient, or we unplug them. But it's not practical to do everything - I don't like to reprogram the VCR, TV, microwave clock, etc so I don't bother. I do unplug the clock radio in the guest room when no one's there (that thing uses $24/yr alone) and the chargers that don't get used everyday. Get a Kill-a-Watt and use it to go around the house and test different appliances (or better yet, buy one with some friends and pass it around to share costs). You will be surprised how many of these you have…

That's about it…surprisingly simple. Other things you can do:

• Switch to natural gas appliances - As you replace your old appliances (if they break or you remodel), switch to natural gas. It's cheaper and cleaner for the most part (even with the higher natural gas prices recently) - stove, dryer, and water heater. After all, electricity production is about 30% efficient and mostly comes from coal. I found a free natural gas dryer on Craig's List a few years ago at my old house. An electric water heater alone probably costs over $500/yr to operate - that's more than it costs to buy it.
• Buy Energy Star appliances - As you replace your old appliances, pay a little bit more for ones with the "Energy Star" label. They are more efficient and save more money in the run. Don't necessarily replace the appliances if they still work (although a new refrigerator over one that is 10 years or older could easily save over $100/yr). The "big four" users are refrigerator, dehumidifier, central air conditioner, and electric water heater.
• Buy a window air conditioner - We haven't gone through a DC summer yet, but we plan on using the air conditioner at some times…but there's no reason to cool the whole house at night, so we'll use a window air conditioner for our room and shut the central air off. Use a fan at night if it cools down - even 4-5 use less than the air conditioner.
• Refrigerator details - Turn off the ice maker. We don't use much ice and don't feel the need to have 2 gallons of it available at all times, so I turn it off once it's filled (and it usually stays off for 2-3 months actually). And if you buy a new refrigerator, the top/bottom door styles are more efficient than the side-by-side doors. Refrigerators can easily use less than 500 kWh/yr now versus 1500+ a few years ago (hurray for federal efficiency standards).
• Don’t replace the windows for energy reasons - As before, do it for aesthetics. Do it for comfort. Don’t do it expecting to save oodles of money and run from anyone who says otherwise.