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Photo : Serkanyalcinkaya ( Shutterstock ) With energy costs continuing to rise, ceiling fans are becoming an increasingly popular way to make homes more energy efficient. As we’ve written about in the past, not only can ceiling fans keep your home cooler in the summer— with or without air conditioning —but they can also help your home stay warm and toasty in colder weather. 02:15 How to Steam an Egg Wednesday 11:19AM But when it comes to choosing a ceiling fan, it’s not solely a matter of finding one to match your decor: You should also consider the room’s square footage in order to ensure that the fan is able to get the job done. Here’s what to know. How to buy the right size ceiling fan for a room First, you need to figure out the square footage of the room where you’re going to hang the ceiling fan. Find the square footage of the room You can use an online square footage calculator , or do the math : Measure the length of the room (in feet) Measure the width of the room (in ...

Photo : Lost_in_the_Midwest ( Shutterstock ) A sump pump is an incredibly useful item to have in your basement: Unsophisticated but essential. It’s basically motorized pump in a bucket, buried below the floor of your basement or crawlspace ; as the groundwater seeps up, it collects in the bucket, the pump activates, shoots it back outside, and your basement stays dry . Sump pumps are designed to run intermittently on an as-needed basis, cycling on only when there’s enough water in the bucket. Though they will run constantly if your basement floods, in non-flood conditions, these “cycles” should be steady—if your sump is cycling on and off every few minutes (or even every few seconds) for a long period of time, especially when there doesn’t seem to be a reason for it, that’s a problem known as “short cycling.” Short cycling will wear out your pump, and most likely indicates a problem with your sump system. Here’s what to do if your sump pump short cycles or never stops running even...