How the Green Movement is Impacting Home Ownership

Sustainable living is a popular buzzword today in many circles. Saving money has also become a popular concept that has reached the ranks of all income levels. Combining environmental concerns with saving money makes sense for homeowners. Fortunately prices for energy efficient designs are at a price point where it is available to homeowners in all price points.

Green Remodeling Options

Green remodeling can come in many shapes or forms. It can be as simple as sealing doors and windows to converting all the lighting to energy efficient options. Most energy companies offer free energy audits. This is a great place for homeowners to start. The biggest bang for your buck starts with sealing the air loss in the home. This can happen with increased insulation, insulating attics and places that have minimal or no current insulation, new windows, and cleaned duct work. These procedures will not only improve the air quality, but will reduce utility bills.

The next step consumers generally turn to are energy efficient appliances. With the Energy Star Rating system it is easy to compare appliances with regard to energy efficiency. The ratings include all appliances from televisions, to washers and refrigerators. Most appliances have the Energy Star Ratings allowing consumers to select the most efficient models.

The last step, and perhaps the most talked about, is converting to solar panels for electrical use and solar water heating. These are more expensive conversions that have much longer return on investments. They are however, more noticeable when looking at reselling the home.

Implications for Resale

Keeping track of energy efficient upgrades is the best way to get the value from a resale point of view. Keep receipts for the projects you have completed. This might include simple things like installing low flush or dual flush toilets and low flow showerheads. They make a big impact on water bills and are not expensive conversions. Documenting the upgrades along with the reduction in utility bills will help potential buyers see the value.

With larger projects look for rebates and government incentives before starting the upgrade. This applies to HVAC systems, windows, doors and often appliances. Solar panels and solar water heaters might also have incentives depending on where you live. These incentives can reduce the return on investment by over 50%, making them more financially feasible.

Quality of Life

Green remodeling not only impacts the environment and your wallet, it can also improve indoor air quality. Green initiatives will reduce the cost of operating the home, and conserve natural resources. Will millions of Americans suffering from allergies and sensitivities to the chemicals used in our homes, energy efficient and environmentally friendly options are more important to home buyers. Marketing your home as energy efficient and documenting improvements will enable sellers to get the maximum value for their homes with a faster sales cycle. Green living is becoming more than a buzzword, it is becoming an expectation.  

Green Building That Is Out Of The Box

As a builder, you want to build high-performance homes that will stand the test of time, be beautiful, and give your clients maximum function. It is important, however, to do your part in being more sustainable as well. That is why you want to consider taking existing homes and turn them into products to build a new home, which is good for the environment and can offer materials that you may not even be able to get anymore.

Rethinking Building A Green Home

Most people think of a green home as one that is energy and water efficient, but it can be so much more than that. Reusing materials, such as bricks, flooring, windows, and molding, can be a way to be sustainable and green as well. Deconstruction can be more expensive and time consuming than a classic home demolishment, but its benefits to the environment, homeowner, builder, and the community more than outweighs the extra cost. You may even be able to get a tax deduction for donating materials that were saved.

What is deconstruction and how is it different than demolishment? It is when a building is permanently dismantled in a way to salvage as much of the materials possible. From windows to bricks to wood flooring to moldings and more, most any material can be saved to allow it to be reused in another home or to serve another purpose. Demolishment does not concern itself with salvaging and takes the broken and unusable materials to the dump.

The best benefit to deconstruction and reusing materials is that many materials, such as those found in a 100-year old home, may not even be available anymore. Bricks from long closed down brickyards and old-growth wood cannot be purchased at your local home improvement store. They offer not only a functional purpose, but also a richness and beauty that cannot be found with new materials.

Builders Should Think Green

What if there is not an existing home to deconstruct? A builder should be thinking about green long before the site is even cleared. Whether they purchase reclaimed materials from a supplier or include more environmentally friendly materials found at the building supply, being green is not just a color for St. Patrick’s Day. It is a way of life that many clients are choosing to espouse not just in their everyday life, but in their building choices as well.

By finding a deconstructed material store or site in your community, you can not only build with materials that have stood the test of time, but also save the environment by decreasing the distance that they will be transported and the energy used in manufacturing new materials. This is an important consideration for many buyers, which is why you want to be sure that you consider adding this to your business practice.

If you are looking for a way to bring new clients to your building business, think green. It may be the key to taking your company to a new level with an entirely new demographic of clients. Consider deconstruction for your projects. You may find that it can make your homes even more beautiful, as well as green and environmentally friendly.

Smart Green Retrofits for Managing Energy Bills

When it comes to energy savings and green home improvements, instead of expecting huge returns, understand the latest bottom line – you can hold against skyrocketing energy costs by going in for some smart retrofits.

In general, energy prices have increased substantially in the last 10 years, especially in certain parts of the country. Even though there was a slight fall in natural gas prices since 2008 and there was stability in electricity prices for a while, there have been upward trends in prices of both since 2011.

According to the estimates of the Energy Information Administration of the US, there will be an average yearly increase of 2.3 per cent of the costs of residential energy right through 2035. If these projections are accurate and your average annual energy bill is $2,200 today, an increase of 2.3% works out to $50 more in the first year if your consumption pattern stays constant. In such a scenario, you’ll have a bill close to $4,000 by the time you get to 2035. Ouch, that’s going to pinch.

Dependable energy saving retrofits

When the sole reason for making retrofits is managing energy bills, look out for projects that offer the maximum returns for your investment.

As a rule of the thumb, try to fight the 2.3% yearly average by going in for green home improvements which reduce your energy usage by 5% or above and require a reasonable initial investment. Remember to find out whether your state government or utility offers tax credits and rebates for such improvements.

Some suggestions:

1. Insulate and seal ductwork running through spaces without heating. Though it may not appear glamorous, doing this in places like the attic and garage can improve heating system efficiency by 20% and you might manage a 5% overall bill reduction. A few hundred dollars of investment will be required for hiring an HVAC pro for the job and labor and material costs.

2. Get a programmable thermostat. If you don’t have one already, getting it and programming it correctly can help you save about 8% on your energy bills on an average.

3. Seal air leaks and add attic insulation. This is one of the soundest energy-saving improvements. By sealing and insulating your home, you can bring down energy bills by almost 10%. Regard upgrading attic insulation and sealing air leaks as a combination job for maximum benefits.

 

The bottom line

Don’t expect huge savings in your energy bills when you opt for green home improvements. It makes better sense to go in for green retrofits that are likely to offset increasing energy prices.