Green Home Improvement
Is it possible to make your home more "Green" if it was not built that way?
Yes you can add solar panels and even wind energy to make your home a energy producer instead of a energy consumer. You can collect rain water to use in your home to cut down on the amount of water you use from your local water company.
There is enough technology out there that you can take a ordinary house and make it far more green that it is today. It will take some work and some money but it can be done. If you could live in your home and spend less than $300 a month on utilities bills would you do it?
You bet I would and have. Yes there are some no to low cost items you can do like the rain barrels. best part is they work better then tap water and one can often get used barrels from from local companies just ask around.
Insulations and vapor barriers are another big item most homes lack in. Hold you hand up around the windows outlets and thing penetrating the wall if you feel air you need to seal it up.
Insulate water pipes and seal air ducts are big first steps missed in the original design. All are relatively cheap to do.
Hard part is once you have the obvious big stuff done what next? Changing lifestyle.
Take show not bath put in a shower stopper so when you are not actually getting wet or rinsing the water is off. Do not laugh at that most water goes down the toilet and bathtub drain.
low flow toilet that actually will get rid of the mother load are out there and are reasonably cheap. I paid $30 for mine it is 3.6 and 1.2 liter flush it was on sale for $ 100 it included toilet seat (very important as they can run $30) and I received a $75 rebate from our region. It worked well so I when t and did the other one also. My water bill has dropped $ 20 a month. My wife and boys think going to the bathroom is a past time I think.
So in two months my toilets paid for themselves.
One big pit fall my customer fall into is the misleading advertisement out there on white appliances.
yes a new fridge is 30 to 40% more inefficient then the old one but how much are they really costing you to run? 12 to 16 for the old one and 6 to 10 for the new one. Yes a great reduction in the usage of that appliance but in reality it is peanuts compared to the $ 1000 it will cost you. A good investment no if the old one is actually still properly functioning and not in need of replacement.
Like to know how to save your self energy and water? Do a simple home audit.
If people would like I can set up a thread on that and help any with questions or calculations for the actualized savings or electrical appliances not heating or cooling though as I am not an expert in heat calculations. I would also challenge small business owners to look at your facilities and see what you can do there as I bet yo have no insulation in your ceiling nor good windows.
Yes sealing up air leaks in and around your windows is a good way to help save money as is the insulating of the pipes. You gave some good ideas here for people Krakyn.
I believe you can do a lot with a older home to make it more green or at least save you the owner a lot of money. The biggest issue I face is my kids like to leave all the tvs and lights on in the house. Even when they are not there.
Yes for that electro shock therapy works well I have head or motion detectors combined with a timer but this is too expensive to me.
But there are some real nice 30 watt two foot fluorescent lights out there for the home that give off tons of lights and are cheap to buy.