Here is the catch: There isn’t one magic thing you can do, but there are many small steps you can take that will collectively add up. You can do several things without spending a dime, and you can do even more by spending a little bit of money.

1. Set your thermostat a degree higher for air-conditioning and a degree lower for heating. This could save you as much as $100/yr on your energy bill.
Cost: $0

2. Install a programmable thermostat for your heating and cooling systems. It can save you $100/yr or more, especially if you spend a lot of time away from home.
Cost: $80 more or less (example at Amazon.com)

3. Buy a Kill-A-Watt device to track the power consumption of any appliance in your home. You can calculate your electrical expenses by the day, week, month, even an entire year. Also check the quality of your power by monitoring Voltage, Line Frequency, and Power Factor. This little device could potentially save you many times its cost.
Cost: $20-$50 at Amazon (Manufacturer’s site)

4. Eliminate wasteful standby power and save on your energy bills by unplugging devices that you are not using. Ten percent of power consumption in your home  is from devices that are turned off or in stand-by mode. You can unplug these devices manually, or use a power strip with a built-in feature, such as Monster Digital with GreenPower.
Cost: $47 and up at Amazon.

5. Lighting represents about 25% of home energy costs. The obvious solution is to turn off the lights in your home that you don’t use. Zero cost, big savings. Go a step further and, as your incandescent bulbs go out, replace them with CFLs, or even better LEDs. Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) use as much as 70% less energy than incandescent bulbs and can save you as much as $10 per bulb per year. LEDs (light emitting diode bulbs) are slowly becoming widely available, although still a bit expensive, however they use 80% less energy over traditional bulbs and last 25 times longer.
Cost: $0 (turn off the lights) to $10 per CFL bulb (more for LEDs).

Introduction:
Until fairly recently builders considered each part of a house – walls, roof, windows, doors, plumbing and electrical systems, etc – independently. Over the last two decades experts have gained a lot of experience with energy-efficient building, resulting to an understanding that the house works best as a system, and that changes in one part of the house affect other parts.

A home energy audit by a certified professional will test your home’s energy performance based on the principles of the house as a system. The results can save you 30-50% on your energy bills and improve the comfort, energy efficiency, and air quality of your home.

What does a Home Energy Audit entail?
A home energy audit conducted by a professional certified HERS Rater is a comprehensive analysis that includes a Blower Door Test, which measures the extent of air leaks in your home, an Infrared Camera Scan, which reveals hard-to-detect areas of air infiltration and missing insulation, and a visual Airflow Evaluation, which checks your duct work for visible signs of leakage.

A home energy audit takes anywhere between 2-4 hours to complete, and costs an average of $300-$500, depending on the size of the house. The energy auditor will provide you with a report listing the issues observed and their recommended fixes.

What are the benefits of a Home Energy Audit?
Almost all homes can benefit from a home energy audit and almost all homes could be more energy efficient. As a general rule, the older the home, the less efficient it is.

Do you feel cold or drafty places in your home? Do you feel big temperature differences from room to room? Would you like to know what changes to can make your home as energy efficient as possible? Do you want to reduce your utility bills?

Energy efficiency. Save in utility bills:
Even if you implement some of the auditor’s recommendations, you will see significant savings in your utility bills. Depending on the extent of the issues identified and repairs that you do, it is possible that you see as much as 50% savings.

Better health. Improve your indoor air quality:
By sealing your home’s envelope (walls, windows, roof, etc), you’re improving indoor air quality. When the warm air rises, it escapes out of various gaps in your home. This creates low pressure in the lower part of your home, drawing cold, unconditioned air into the house. Often this air increases moisture levels and might result to mold growth, or bring in otherwise poor quality air.

Comfort. Improve heating/cooling levels throughout the house:
Through a combination of air sealing, duct sealing and air balancing, you can get rid of drafts and cold spots in your house and achieve the right amount of heating or cooling making all rooms equally comfortable.

Contribute to the environment:
Based upon your potential energy savings, you could reduce green house gas emissions, thus helping the environment. By improving home efficiency by 30%-50% (which is a realistically achievable goal), we could achieve a 5-10% reduction in total U.S. emissions.

Bonus: If you are planning to re-finance or sell your home there are Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEM) that you, or the prospective buyer, might qualify for, which take into consideration the home’s reduced energy costs, therefore making the home more affordable. Furthermore, there are tax incentives to improve the energy efficiency of your home which can significantly reduce the cost of any energy efficiency upgrades.

Can I do a Home Energy Audit myself?
Yes and no. You can certainly follow certain basic guidelines and identify major air leaks in your home. You can use weatherstripping to seal air leaks around movable joints, such as windows or doors, or caulk some of the cavities in the walls.

However, you won’t be able to perform a proper energy audit of your home the way a professional energy auditor can, since auditors use expensive equipment that can identify many more issues in places where you wouldn’t even think of looking.

In conclusion
A home energy audit can save you much more than it costs to perform one and it is definitely worth it. Beyond just the savings, think of the potential improvements in comfort and air quality. Many people have gotten rid of, or minimized their allergies due to a healthier indoor environment. If you have questions or are interested in an audit, please contact me and I’ll be happy to refer you to a certified home energy auditor.

Every time I have a little home improvement project I wonder what the most eco-friendly material I can use is. This usually results to me spending hours walking up and down Lowe’s & Home Depot trying to figure out what all the product labels mean.

But now there is hope! I just came across Ecolect, which is an online library of green, sustainable materials. It was founded in 2005 by two graduates of The Rhode Island School of Design, who were looking for a better way to track down and obtain sustainable materials. Ecolect’s mission is to “help designers find sustainable materials, to provide makers of new materials a space to publicize their innovations and create a vibrant forum for designers committed to sustainability to share their inspiration, occasional frustration, new information and everything in between.”

The goal of Ecolect is to offer:

1. An easy-to-use website featuring only materials with sustainable attributes,
2. A place for you to contribute user reviews and images of materials you use
3. Helpful case studies on successful sustainable design
4. An informative blog that discusses how design and ecology affect the world

There are quite a few materials listed tehre and the selection is growing, although the site needs better navigation and an easier way to find products. I am guessing as more sustainable materials are added and more people become interested in green materials Ecolect will boom.

I love to see technology & electronics being used to automate the home. And when this automation helps save energy, what else can I ask for?

A company called Ecobee has created an internet enabled smart thermostat that offers simple touch-screen programming and a personalized Web Portal so home owners can manage their home comfort from anywhere!

Say you have programmed your thermostat to a lower temperature between the hours you are at work. Work piles up and you know you will end up getting home later than usual. What do you do? You log in to your personal portal and change the settings so the temperature will stay at the lower level for another two hours. That is just cool. Or maybe I am too much of a gadget fan.

Conserving a bit of energy for two hours won’t make you rich, but having the flexibility to do that, as needed, throughout the year can add up. What if you are out of town and are scheduled to come home a day early? Log in, adjust the thermostat and your home will be waiting for you all nice, warm and comfy.

As Ecobee’s website says: “Our green automation platform sits at the convergence of energy conservation, green technology, the networked home and consumer electronics. Our products automate energy conservation, making it easier to save on energy costs without sacrificing comfort.”

I am often amazed at how, with all the technological advancements we have made, many products haven’t changed in decades. And I am not taking about mechanical products. Today I am talking about drywall!

Drywall is what divides the walls of the rooms in our homes (at least in most of the U.S.). Drywall is nothing more than gypsum powder mixed with water and baked between two thick pieces of paper. I am simplifying and generalizing here, but generally speaking that’s what drywall is.

While watching some TED videos recently, I came across a presentation about EcoRock. I had no idea how un-friendly to the environment the production of drywall was!

So a company called Serious Materials decided to create a green alternative to gypsum drywall. EcoRock, as is the product called, is not only more environmentally friendly, but it performs better at a similar price.

Here is why it is eco-friendly (copied directly from their site):

• EcoRock uses 80% less energy to produce than gypsum drywall. Naturally cured and dried, EcoRock eliminates the energy-intensive, high-C02 generating calcining and oven-drying found in gypsum drywall production.



• EcoRock is made of 80% recycled materials. EcoRock is made using 80% post-industrial recycled waste, including waste from steel and cement plants—with no gypsum.
• EcoRock is designed to be fully reutilized at end of life. EcoRock can be used as a pH additive for soils and can be returned to the production of EcoRock and other building materials as a valuable raw material. Unlike gypsum, EcoRock may be safely disposed of in landfills if necessary.
• EcoRock is the most mold-resistant and lowest emitting drywall. EcoRock outperforms all other mold resistant drywall by 50%. EcoRock scores the highest ASTM D3273 rating of 10 out of 10, showing zero mold growth over a six week period, (other published tests go only four weeks). No harsh anti-fungal chemicals are used on its surface or within its core.
• EcoRock also drastically reduces the quantity of indoor air contaminants over any other drywall. EcoRock generates 60% less dust, and presents no negative effects of airborne mercury often generated during wallboard production using FGD (recycled) gypsum from coal plants.

As if all that wasn’t enough, EcoRock has a termite resistant face and core, it is impact resistant, ceiling sag resistant, generates no mercury in production, and can contribute up to 8 LEED credits.

Now I wish I only had a home to renovate so I could use EcoRock!

“Imagine being able to live in a new master-planned gated community set in a friendly small town rich with history…” starts the welcome message for the Villages at Heritage Springs.

The Villages is a new community of more than 500 residences set on 54 acres in Santa Fe Springs in Southern California. But what’s so special about that you might ask. Well, they claim to be the nation’s largest single-builder solar-powered community.

It sounds like a great community full of green and energy efficient features. First let me mention the standard stuff real quick: The community offers both town-homes and single family homes ranging from 1,390 to 2,166 square feet. In terms of amenities it offers pretty much everything you’d find in a modern home. High ceilings, luxurious master-suites, two-car garages, etc.

It’s the green features that make it stand out: The homes are solar-powered and have been designed for superior energy performance, exceeding the National Energy Standard by 50%. It uses SunPower’s SunTile technology which blends naturally into the home’s design converting the sun’s energy into electricity to power the lights, appliances, television, and other electronic devices.

In addition to saving up to 60% on the home’s electric bill, if the system produces more electricity than the owner is using, the meter spins backwards giving you credit which offsets your electric bill (net metering).

But the maintenance on this thing must be… zero. No maintenance required. The system turns itself automatically on in the morning and off at night. You can also track your usage from the supplied wireless in-home display, a computer or even a mobile phone.

Think about this – over thirty years you will:

• Save the energy equivalent of drilling for 143 barrels of oil, or
• Offset 88,236 miles driven in a car, or
• Reduce carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions by 3,341 pounds, or
• Provide the equivalent environmental benefit of planting 160 mature trees, or

As you know, solar power alone won’t make a home energy efficient. The builder, Comstock Homes, has included a whole set of energy efficient, money saving features in the home:

• Double-Pane, Low-E windows result in better heating and cooling retention in the home Up to half of all lights in the development are Energy Star fluorescent lights, using 1/3 less electricity and lasting up to 10 times longer than conventional lighting.
• Energy Efficient Air-Conditioning & Heating, upgraded duct insulation and ducts tested to ensure minimum leakage.
• Tankless Water Heaters (they can cut energy expenses up to 40%)
• Cool Roof Tiles, reflecting sun’s heat, resulting in up to 30% cooling energy savings.

Of course now I wonder, when will we see such large scale green community in the DC metro area? Are we too conservative around here to take such big step?

Check out the Villages at Heritage Springs.

While browsing for modern and eco-friendly home appliances, I came across a concept which, even though I have seen green enthusiasts build it before, I don’t think there is another one so well designed and integrated. I am talking about the combination of sinks and toilets in bathrooms!

Spanish company Roca is created the W+W, a single-body, eco-friendly combination of a sink and a toilet that uses the water from the sink to flush the toilet. The process is not as simple as it sounds, but the bottom line is it saves water.

The W+W is a L-shaped, internally integrated, one-piece combination of a sink and a toilet. All of the water that falls into the sink is filtered to separate larger waste (maybe you dropped a piece of toothpaste?) from the water, and the liquid passes to a small treatment tank where it is purified. The treatment tank is connected with the cistern which uses the purified water when the toilet is flushed. This setup saves 20% or more of the water that would have otehrwise been used.

In addition, the uni-body sink-toilet has a smart faucet which, when turned on, uses only cold water to avoid starting the boiler unless it is needed.

Quite frankly I haven’t figured this part out yet, but it sounds like if you are in a rush and need hot water you will have to exercise some patience. Actually, that’s not a bad thing.

Over all this product is pretty cool. “A meeting of the ways between sophistication and love for the planet” as the company’s brochure says. Check Roca out!

I first came across Ecosmart Fire in the Fall of 2004 and instantly fell in love with their fireplaces. I loved their simple, modern design, and the fact that they are so eco-friendly. If it weren’t for their price tag I would have already purchased one or two.

Yesterday I was browsing a local magazine and I saw an ad for Vastu, a furniture store in DC (Vastu also has a cool blog). What caught my attention was that their ad showed an Ecosmart Fire fireplace. Naturally I went to Vastu’s site to check them out, but also revisited Ecosmart Fire’s site to see what they’ve been up to during the past few years. They have several new designs, one of which is called the Mini-T. I got all excited – I thought, it is small enough, it has to be within reach. Ecosmart Fire does not list prices in their site, so back to Vastu’s site, where I saw the Mini-T selling for $1990 plus freight. Still not within my reach.

On the upside, Ecosmart fireplaces qualify for tax credit of up to $1,500 or 30% of their purchase price (thanks to The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009).

Ok, so what is an Ecosmart Fire fireplace? It is “an environmentally friendly open fireplace.” To quote their site, “the EcoSmart Fire is flue less and does not require any installation or utility connection for fuel supply, which makes it ideal for just about any architectural environment. Fueled by a renewable modern energy (Denatured Ethanol), it burns clean and is virtually maintenance free.”

Whether you can afford it or not, or whether you need a fireplace or not, it’s worth visiting their website to check them out.

• See Ecosmart Fire
• See Vastu DC’s Ecosmart Fire section

Interested in solar power but not a fan of the flat solar panel aesthetics? SRS Energy, based in Philadelphia, has developed solar panels shaped like traditional clay roof tiles. Now you can save on electricity without compromising aesthetics.

The Solé Power Tile™ is an electricity-generating “barrel-style tile” installed alongside US Tile’s traditional clay tile roofing. Their light-weight performance polymer construction results in easy handling. The tiles are offered as an integrated upgrade to a traditional roofing purchase.

Solé Power Tiles feature light-weight polymer technology engineered tough for roofing applications. According to the company, the patent pending technology enables Solé Power Tiles to perform even better than bulky solar panels under high-heat and dynamic-lighting conditions.

The catch? Well, they are blue. The company is planning to roll out different shapes and colors in the future. But, personally, depending on the location, I don’t think the blue color is necessarily a problem.

For more details, visit their website: www.srsenergy.com