Energy efficiency, health, and comfort all are hallmarks of a green house. Such properties are often called high-performance, eco-friendly or energy efficient homes.
Common elements
While some homes are certified as green by housing or environmental industry groups, properties don’t necessarily have to carry a label to be considered green.
What all such homes have in common is a desire by its owners to live in a property that incorporates systems and features that lower utility bills, improve health and comfort, and minimize the impact on the planet.
Green upgrades
For existing homes, there’s a vast array of strategies for achieving greater efficiency.
They include small, inexpensive upgrades, like installing low-flow water faucets, energy efficient light bulbs, and programmable thermostats.
In addition, less visible elements, such as efficient insulation and air sealing, create a more comfortable, less drafty interior environment.
And bigger, more costly projects--high efficiency furnaces, solar panels, and triple-pane windows, for example--often provide larger financial and environmental gains.
Find out in NAR’s 2015 Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends report.
New homes
Newly constructed homes are being built to high standards that embrace green principles. Many builders now take a scientific, whole-building approach to ensure that a property’s design, layout and systems work in concert to create a functional, comfortable setting that addresses environmental concerns.
Seeking green
When you’re looking at a home with green features, here’s a short checklist of considerations:
- Energy efficiency in home features like appliances, water faucets, lighting, heating, cooling and water-heating systems.
- Efficient building envelopes with high- performance windows and well-insulated walls, floors, and attics.
- Non-toxic building materials and finishes, such as recycled or renewable woods and low- and zero-VOC (volatile organic compound) paints and sealants.
- A landscape featuring native plants that thrive without chemical fertilizers or excessive watering is extremely important to have if you live in SoCal.
- Location efficiency, meaning a community where public transportation and the needs of daily life are accessible without a car.
What you are planning to make your home and lifestyle Greener?
Learn more
Contact Inna Ivchenko, REALTOR® with NAR’s Green Designation.
Read about green home labels at ENERGY STAR®,EnergyStar.gov.
National Association of Homebuilders, www.NAHB.org.
US Green Building Council, www.USGBC.org.
Connect with experts and get green home questions answered at GreenHomeGuide.com/ AskAPro.
Thanks for reading my blog! I hope, the information presented in this and other ''green'' posts will help you understand in greater detail some of the benefits of sustainable homes and lifestyles.
Sources: GreenREsourceCouncil.org and U.S. Homeowners on Clean Energy: A National Survey
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