So you want to make your house more green, but don't know where to start and you want to get the most bang for your buck. Let's face it, investing in "the green" is an expensive proposition to most. That said, most of us are already participating in some sort of green initiative, such as long term light bulbs or recycling.
There are several things you can do though that will save you lots of money and make your house value increase when you decide to sell it.
SOLAR PANELS
I blogged about the benefits of solar panels here. My previous home was entirely Eco friendly and the savings I saw were immediate and lowered my costs drastically. Most power company's now a days will match your investment dollar for dollar. Yes its expensive up front, however, most company's will pay you for unused power either as a cash rebate (which I got several time a year) or apply it toward your power bill.
GREEN YOUR LATRINE
They've come down in price drastically and are chic and trendy. Did you know that the average toilet uses 3.5 gallons per flush while these new Eco friendly ones use 1.3 gallons or less. Here in the desert where water is a scarce commodity it can add up to thousands in savings. Check them out here.
NEST THERMOSTATS BY GOOGLE
Probably the best thermostat out there and completely controllable from your smart phone and they're WIFI. The kids could install it too, it's that easy. When Nest thermostats were acquired by Google it caught many by surprise, little wonder they're getting into the home appliance industry, check this awesome product out here
REPLACE OLD KITCHEN APPLIANCES AND START USING SMART APPS
If your kitchen appliances are more than eight years old chances are they're costing you alot of
money. Studies have shown that kitchen appliances such as refrigerators and dishwashers generally use more energy as they get older. Consider upgrading to energy efficient ones and
even interactive ones that you can control from an app, check these out. There are even refrigerators that have LCD displays that use bar code technology to alert you to foods that are coming up on their use by dates. Pretty cool huh.
So in the spirit of St. Patrick's day, think about going green, even if it happens incrementally, it'll probably save you lots of money in the long run, pay for itself and even increase the value of your home when it comes to sell it. Happy green St. Patrick's day.
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