A Green Home Is Within Your Reach

It isn’t easy being green, a famous frog once lamented, but when it comes to your home it’s getting easier and easier to go green.

You can go big or you can go small when you go green, but even small changes can help you reduce your carbon footprint – your personal impact on global warming based on the amount of carbon-based energy you use.

About 80 percent of consumers say they want a green home -- but less than 50 percent said they were willing to pay more money to get one, said Stephen Melman, director of economic surveys for the National Association of Home Builders, or NAHB.

The NAHB recently approved green-building guidelines that are adjustable for different parts of the country. The organization argues green homes don’t have to cost more than other homes, or look like an experiment in alternative living.

“When a house is green but looks like other houses in the neighborhood – and can be replicated by large-scale building companies – then we know green is mainstream,” NAHB President Kevin Pressly said in a release. “We’re seeing that happen right now.”

The more popular green building becomes, the more companies will manufacture green products, and the less they will cost, Melman said.

Here are some ways suggested by the NAHB to make your home more green:

• Install energy-efficient windows that use technologies including low-emittance (low-E) glass coatings, gas filler between layers and composite framing materials.
• Use recycled plastic lumber and wood composite materials instead of hardwood for decks, porches, trim and fencing.
• Install more efficient heating and cooling systems that are properly sized based on your home’s square footage, and consider a tankless water heater. A geothermal heating and cooling system uses renewable energy to provide heating, cooling and even hot water at little monthly cost.
• Increase the amount and quality (based on R-value) of insulation to reduce heating and cooling losses. (Heating and cooling represent at least half of the energy used by a home.) Some newer types of insulation can be healthier, with little or no emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and more efficient.
• Don’t stop at the attic and walls when it comes to insulation. Foundations and crawl spaces can be insulated, too.
• Install low-VOC carpets to improve indoor air quality. Other environmentally friendly flooring choices include linoleum, a natural product, and laminates that look like hardwood.
• Buy more-efficient appliances. ENERGY STAR-rated appliances use an average of 30 percent less energy than standard models. Front-loading washers use 40 percent less water and 50 percent less energy than top-loading washers.
• Install plumbing fixtures that use less water. Early low-flow toilets didn’t flush very well, and old low-flow showerheads didn’t provide much water pressure. New technology has solved those problems.

Find more tips on how easy it is going green at the NAHB’s Web site, www.nahb.org. You can read up on ENERGY STAR homes and appliances at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Web site, www.energystar.gov. The EPA offers additional green-building tips for homes at http://www.epa.gov/greenbuilding.