Build Your Home for Energy Efficiency

jchait — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:06:33 -0400

If you’re building from scratch there are some things you can do to insure maximum energy efficiency.

Work proper shading into your design – tactics such as overhangs and trees planted within close proximity can work hard to naturally cool your home during the summer.

Use smart lighting where you can: Shoot for a majority (or all) of your lighting to be sun tunnels, compact fluorescents, or LED vs. incandescent lighting.

Throughout your home use energy efficient appliances – look for the energy star label.

Don’t add more light then you need. For example, in a room used for an office, one that just has a desk, requires less lighting than say a family dinner dining area. If you can utilize task lighting with LED only, try that. You can always add more light if truly necessary.

Build no larger than you really need. Extra unoccupied rooms lead to extra heating and cooling costs. Even if you shut the doors on these rooms, drafts may be an issue.

Build with the correct building orientation in mind to utilize passive solar and minimize wind. Consider whole solar or power or a wind solar combo if you can.

Use spaces as weather buffers – like a garage. Although, some think that better energy efficiency can be gained by not having an attached garage. Talk to your contractor or designer to see what suits your site best.

Make sure you design your home for easy installation of renewable energy systems from the start. If you plan poorly in the beginning, it can cost much more later on.

Choose a home building team who has completed energy efficient homes from the ground up previously.

Consider a green roof or white roofing.

Program Calculates How Your Trees Will Help Fight Climate Change

jplatt — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 09:00:00 -0500

One of my favorite charities is American Forests. Every dollar you donate results in the planting of a new tree. But have you ever wondered how much good a single tree will do for the environment?

Now you can find out. The free Tree Carbon Calculator from the U.S. Forest Service and the Center for Urban Forest Research lets you find out all kinds of cool things about your trees:

How much carbon will it sequester over the year, or over its lifetime?
If it's a shade tree, how much energy will you save thanks to it? And how much carbon dioxide will you avoid as a result?
What are the future benefits of any new planting project?

There is a catch (isn't there always?). The calculator is calibrated to California climates, so it's not 100% accurate elsewhere, but you'll probably be able to find a setting that's pretty close to your own neck of the woods.

The program was designed for Excel 2003 on Windows XP. It definitely won't work on a Mac, but it may work with other version of Excel or Windows.

But hey, it's free, and it's good information, so download it and give it a tree. I mean, give it a try.

shade

Build Your Home for Energy Efficiency

Program Calculates How Your Trees Will Help Fight Climate Change