Save Money as a “Green” Homeowner

Much like buying organically, many people feel that having a “green” home means they will need to throw away a lot of money to participate. However, as technology has grown, it is much easier, and often cheaper to own an environmentally-friendly home. Waste reduction for many green homes can reach 30% or higher savings on utility and water bills. In addition, many of the changes such as replacing a water heater with a tank-less water heater, will not only save you money in efficiency, but also has less maintenance over time, and can last up to 20 years, as opposed to 5-10 years of a standard water heater.

In addition to saving water during your showers, you can save money and water with smart irrigation systems that download current weather statistics for your area, such as humidity, wind speed, solar radiation, and precipitation, to determine when and how long your lawn and garden should be watered for optimum performance. These are systems that can save you up to 50% on your water bill.

 

Insulating your home, or I should say a lack of efficient insulation costs many homeowners hundreds, or even thousands of dollars a year in energy bills. This is often a problem with older homes that haven’t had window updated, have poor insulation in walls, and don’t have all of the cracks in areas such as the attic filled in. While the initial cost of replacing all of your windows can be spendy, this is something that pays off in the first 1-2 years of installation. Using gas filled windows, will save you even more money. Gas filled windows are typically filled with an inert, odorless, gas such as argon. These windows prevent build-up of frost in winter, air-flow, and keep your home cool in summer and warm in winter by allowing your heating and AC to operate at higher efficiency levels since they are not fighting a constantly changing climate within your home.

Solar panels are another feature that is now much more affordable. There are actually many local and federal incentives that make solar usage cheaper to install, which in return pays back in less expensive energy costs. Manufacturing and technology can also produce solar panels faster, with less expensive materials, and easier installation that drives the cost down. New technologies are soon to introduce transparent solar panels in windows, as well as solar energy drawn from building and construction material.

Living green in the 21^st century is more than recycling and composting, although those are still great ways to leave your mark on protecting the environment. Living green in the 21^st century is about reusing renewable and sustainable energy, which not only protects the world around you, but also helps reduce your energy spending.