How To Green An Existing Home

Simple Things that You Can Do to Save Energy and Money

Living in an established neighborhood that is lavished with mature trees where you have built many memories with family, neighbors and friends is very special.

You do not have to give this up in order to live in a home that saves energy and conserves water, which are two of the main aspects of green-built homes.  In addition, in today’s economy many homeowners prefer to green their existing homes rather than build a new one.

Many times the emotional attachment to created memories is too great to make a drastic decision to build a new home.

Here are a few tips on what you can do to upgrade your home to an energy-efficient level, make it more comfortable to live in, and enjoy greater savings in your monthly operating costs.

1. Weatherize Your Home

These are some of the things that you can do to make your home more airtight. Some of the things you can easily do are sealing around the windows on the exterior side.  During a windy day, you can place your hand on different areas of your windows and check for air infiltration.  Use the clear caulk to seal around these areas.  Every leak is equivalent to dollars flying out your windows.  Your windows account for 30 percent of energy loss in your home!

Another simple step you can do, is remove the duct grills and use a good brand caulk to caulk around the areas that you can feel the hot air filtering from the attic through small cracks between the sheetrock and the edge of the grills.

Yearly you should check for damaged weather strips around your doors, as this is another source for air infiltration.  Install foam strips behind electrical outlets, which you can easily find at your local Lowe’s or Home Depot.  Seal around recessed can lights.  Change your light bulbs to CFL’s.  If you’re buying new light fixtures, look for those that have the ENERGY STAR label because they use less energy.

2. Upgrade to Energy-Efficient Appliances

Replace old appliances for ENERGY STAR appliances.  This includes your refrigerator, dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer equipment, tank-less water heater.

3. Upgrade To Water-Conserving Fixtures

Older faucets consume more water and you could replace for automatic faucets.  Also, there are water-conserving shower heads and toilets that will help reduce your utility bills.

4. Hire The Rignt Professionals

You can have an energy audit done in your home.  A professional audit will check the ducts for leaks and the furnace and air conditioning units in the attic to ensure that they are working properly.  Some of the recommendations that they could make is to install radiant barrier underneath roof decking, air sealing the ducts in the attic, replacing your windows for more energy-efficient ones if you have an older home.

Just by doing a few things to green your home, you will enjoy greater savings for you and the planet in which we live.

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