Go Green!
If you are in the market for purchasing a house, consider the many benefits an Eco-friendly home offers. Homes with green features not only leave a smaller footprint on the earth, they also create less impact long-term on your pocketbook. Benefits include greater energy efficiency, reduction in pollution, preservation of natural resources like water and native habitats, healthier indoor air, and lower maintenance costs. Eco-friendly homes also hold their value, even in today¡¦s slow real estate market, typically appraising for up to 15% percent more than comparable conventional homes.
How Energy Efficient is the Home?
To learn more about how much energy (like heating, cooling, and lighting) a home consumes and/or loses take a careful inventory of the house. Energy efficient features include:
- low emissivity (low-e) and double paned windows
- Energy Star appliances
- heating and cooling systems appropriately sized
- insulated ductwork and attic space
- doors and windows free of drafts
- presence of natural lighting
- deciduous trees growing on the south and west sides of home
- solar power
- passive solar orientation
- window awnings
- light colored exterior (to reflect heat)
- For more thorough, specific information, hire a third party home energy rater to perform an energy audit.
Indoor Air Quality
- Avoid houses with visible signs -or smells- of mold.
- Test for high levels of electromagnetic fields (EMF) throughout the house.
- Test the home for radon exposure.
- Look for well ventilated homes. This might include a house equipped with an energy recovery ventilator.
- Consider homes which "breathe" naturally, built with sustainable material such as rammed earth, adobe, straw-bale, or insulated concrete forms.
- Once you are living in your new home, make sure to use only non-toxic, biodegradable cleaning supplies. To save money, make your own cleaning solutions using basics such as vinegar, baking soda, and water.
Water Sustainability
One of the most important features an eco-friendly home should offer, especially here in our desert environment, is a conservation water system. Does the home offer:
- native, drought-tolerant landscaping
- rain-catchment and/or gray water system
- low-flow toilets
- on-demand hot water system
- water-saving shower heads and low-low faucet aerators
House Size Matters
Smaller homes leave less of a footprint on the land, require fewer materials in their construction, and generally cost less to maintain. The smaller the square footage, the less energy is required to heat, cool, and light the house. (Plus, a smaller home means less time you have to spend cleaning!)
Location, Location, Location
Choose your location carefully. Look for a home situated in a "Live/Work/Play" community. The closer you are to work, shops, entertainment, parks, schools, trails, and other amenities, the more likely you will dump the drive and instead walk or bike.
Eco-Certified Homes
More and more, builders are incorporating green practices in the construction of new homes. Third party organizations such as the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Build Green New Mexico offer guidelines and certifiable designations in sustainable, healthy, and eco-friendly construction.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle....and Remodel
If a LEED certified home is outside your budget (which is the case for most buyers), consider greening a home, whether it be one that you are about to purchase or already own. Given that the floor plan works, and there are no major structural issues to tackle, eco-remodeling may fit within your budget. Ideas to consider:
- Replace existing allergen-producing carpet with sustainable flooring material like bamboo, cork, reclaimed hardwood flooring, stained concrete or Marmoleum.
- Paint walls with low or no-VOC paints. Check out Bioshield and American Clay for their clay-based paints and earth plasters.
- Insulate attic, caulk windows & baseboards, and weather strip doors.
- Install solar tubes for increased natural lighting.
- Purchase as many products as you can locally. Regionally produced products produce less embodied energy (like requiring less fuel for transport) and support the local economy.
Seek Eco Home Buying Help
When screening potential real estate brokers, ask them how much they understand about home energy performance, environmental issues, and healthy house building practices. Look for real estate professionals with an EcoBroker designation. Certified EcoBrokers have undergone extensive training focused on the efficiency, sustainability and health of specific design/features in homes, and how those features relate to the potential monthly savings or costs of a home.
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