The green movement has been driving development of more energy-efficient heating and air conditioning systems and appliances. Proud of their investment, some homeowners are showing off their new equipment to stylish effect.
 
“In the New Dream Home, Majestic Boilers and Designer Pipes” The Wall Street Journal’s Gwendolyn Bounds details how sleek, state-of-the art equipment is becoming a focal point of some homes. “Say goodbye to the scary room ... where boilers and water heaters work among the spiders,” she writes.
 
Many of the spruced-up systems and appliances mentioned in Bounds' article have already been put through their paces in our tests. In some cases, the performance lived up to the design. Others, not so much.

• The futuristic-looking GeoSpring electric heat-pump water heater, which Bounds compares to the robotic maid Rosie from the Jetsons, produced energy savings of at least 50 percent compared with a standard GE 50-gallon electric water heater.
• A solar water heater provides the new centerpiece to a $70,000 “boiler room” located just off one California couple’s living room. Our current tests of solar water heaters (which cost from $2,200 to $7,500), show payback periods of 12 to 22 years.  
• Makers of LG Electronics’ "Art Cool" split ductless air-conditioning units, which hang directly on interior walls, claim they can frame works of art. We found the more conventional Sanyo KS-1271 and LG LS122CE, both around $1,000, and the $1,200 Mitsubishi MS-A12WA to be quiet, efficient, and good at handling brownouts in our tests (Read the full report).