Category Archives: Green Homes

Insulating Your Home for Energy Efficiency

Posted on February 3, 2011 | Leave a comment

Home Insulation and Better Energy Efficiency

Insulating Your Home for Energy Efficiency

Insulating Your Home for Energy Efficiency

Heating and cooling are by far the largest energy expenditures in any building – estimates on the percentage of the average electricity bill dedicated to maintaining air temperature range from 43 to 60 percent. Ensuring that your home is well-insulated will not only help keep you comfortable, but also save you money. The U.S. Department of Energy offers tips and guidelines for maintaining energy efficiency with proper insulation.

Older Houses, Insulation and Energy Efficiency

According to the Department of Energy, only 20% of homes built before 1980 are properly insulated. The DoE recommends checking the insulation in the attic, ceilings, walls, floors, and crawl spaces, but use caution – many homes built before 1980 made extensive use of asbestos in insulating and other building materials.

Fibers of this thread-like mineral can lodge in the lungs, causing asbestosis or certain types of cancer. Symptoms of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the chest, are particularly severe and may take between 20 and 50 years to become apparent after exposure.

The good news is that, as long as the insulation remains intact and undamaged, the risk is low. However, if you suspect your insulation contains asbestos and needs to be replaced, contact a licensed abatement team to remove it. Continue reading →

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Subsidies for Green Home Improvements

Posted on October 11, 2010 | Leave a comment

Considering Home Improvements? Here’s Why You Should Go Green.

Green Home Improvements

Image Credit: Green Earth News

We are passing through a critical juncture in energy awareness. The looming threats of global climate change, peak oil and dependence on foreign oil have foregrounded the energy crisis. Never has there been so much demand—or so much need—for green technology.

In response, federal and state governments have created subsidies to encourage the development of sustainable technologies. Yet critics say that these subsidies are ballooning out of control and costing the public too much in lost revenue.

Now is the time to take advantage of these incentives—before they are reduced or removed altogether. They’re a great way to offset costs and, in the long run, the energy they conserve will save you money (not to mention save the planet!). Continue reading →

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Going Green and Painting the Town Red: a Guest Post

Posted on September 30, 2010 | Leave a comment

Some Thoughts on Going Green by Greentea Design

Eco-Friendly Japanese Design

Eco-Friendly Japanese Design

During Wednesdays, the mall in my country does not use plastic bags when packing its groceries for its loyal customers. Instead, buyers have the option of choosing between placing their goods in a box or buying eco-friendly reusable bags. Opting for the latter certainly opened my eyes to the term “Going Green.”

In an age where plastics abound in casings, gadgets, and even in furnitures, enlightened consumers still clamor for old-school, sensible, and reliant media such as paper, glass and wood.

Of these three, wood is certainly the most versatile. It can be painted on, cut and fashioned into different delightful items. Equally important is the fact that it is dependable and tenacious. Case in point, homes using wood survive catastrophes and are easily repaired for their yearly maintenance. Continue reading →

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5 Easy Ways to Green Clean Your Carpets

Posted on September 1, 2010 | 4 Comments

Going Green When You Clean Your Carpets: Green Homes Tips

Organic CarpetCarpeting requires frequent cleaning to avoid indoor air pollution and maintain a clean appearance. The carpet can be one of the dirtiest places in a home and it also happens to be where we and especially our children and pets spend a lot of time on. However, many carpet cleaners, and especially spot removers are full of extremely powerful chemicals that can do more harm than good to indoor air quality and the environment as a whole.

A few of the most common carpet cleaning products contain dangerous chemicals including: pesticides, acids, lye and even formaldehyde. When these products are used on carpeting they are nearly impossible to completely remove and a residue remains that can pollute the air quality. Side effects from exposure to these chemicals can include: allergies, respiratory illnesses, and a weakened immune system. Furthermore, after use of these chemicals we tend to wash the rags or sponges used to apply them down our drains and this pollutes the groundwater. Continue reading →

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Environmentally Friendly Solutions to Ant Problems

Posted on July 30, 2010 | Leave a comment
Ants on Watermelon

Ants on Watermelon

As summer months roll on, a short stroll around the perimeter of your house may tell the not so surprising tale of the yearly ant infestation. I don’t know what it is about summer and ants in the yard, or worse, in the house, but it’s true. Maybe it’s the hot weather and the water from the hose. Maybe it’s summer fruit falling from the trees. Maybe we eat more ice cream and gelato and leave things like plates full of sugary coatings on the counter in the kitchen, over night. I’m no exterminator, nor am I an entymologist, but I have experienced the onslaught of ants. And they can be devastatingly annoying, because they show up in droves, often completely infiltrating your house or yard seemingly in just a quick moment.

If you suffer from an ant infestation, in summer or winter for that matter, you don’t have to settle for picking up the phone and calling your local exterminator. They’ll most likely come out to the house, and using toxic substances, spray around the perimeter, directly coating the soil with poisonous ant and insect killer and negatively affecting the environment. That same dirt in your yard might end up sustaining your vegetable garden. The run off from when you hose down your cement patio will go back into the ground or worse, into storm drains. None of this is good, and none of it is actually necessary, considering there are several environmentally friendly solutions to getting rid of an ant problem. Continue reading →

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Major U.S. Regions and Their Native Plant Species

Posted on July 28, 2010 | Leave a comment
Desert Plants: Sustainable Landscaping

Desert Plants: Sustainable Landscaping

When beginning this topic, I quickly realized it could become a lecture on ALL of the United States regions, and their native plants. Not only each region, but also each state — and within each state, there are sometimes multiple regions. Ugh.

It’s not as simple as dividing the United States into north, south, east and west. Clearly, they all converge at some point and share characteristics of their directional cousins. The southeast for example, is an apple and oranges discussion when compared to the southwest. Florida vs. El Paso — both in the “south.” One is a swamp and hot as Hades — the other is covered in red clay and rock, with sparse vegetation — also, hot as Hades.

The Purpose of the Breakdown: On Native Plant Species

This isn’t a lesson in meteorology, zoology, botany or which all-season tires will work best on your local roadways in climate change. This breakdown is to provide you with some necessary information on what types of plants and trees you might benefit from in helping to add a slice of sustainability to your local Eco-system. Continue reading →

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