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Homeowners have consistently shown that green living and green homes are important to them. Not only is it better for the earth, living a green lifestyle has numerous financial incentives for homeowners. Furthermore, a green home is a huge incentive to over 50% of home buyers on the market. Here are 6 tips to help green up your home, start saving you money and eventually make your home a desirable listing.
- Energy-efficient Lighting. One of the easiest and common ways to implement a green lifestyle is switching to Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFLs). They use 66% less energy than a standard bulb and last up to 10 times longer. Replacing a 100-watt incandescent bulb with a 32-watt CFL can save $30 in energy costs over the life of the bulb.
- Bamboo Floors. Always dreamed of having wood floors and finally getting to install them in your house? Opt for bamboo, which replenishes itself at a faster rate than other trees. It takes just four to six years for bamboo to mature, compared to 50-100 years for typical hardwood floors.
- Rain Barrels. Place rain barrels at the end of a downspout and enjoy the water that would normally run off into your lawn or driveway. Use this to water plants, lawns, gardens, window boxes, or trees.
- Programmable Thermostats. A programmable thermostat can make automatic temperature changes that you are unlikely to notice. each degree before 68°F during colder weather saves 3-5% more heating energy.
- “Energy Star” Appliances. Appliances compromise about 18% of a homes total energy bill, and if any of your appliances is more than 10 years old, the EPA suggests replacing them with energy-efficient models. These bear the “Energy Star” logo, showing that the appliances use 10-5-% less energy and water than standard models.
- Use Healthier Paint. Conventional paints contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can cause smog, ozone pollution and air quality problems with negative health effects. Use zero- or low-VOC paint, made by most major paint manufacturers today, to avoid releasing these toxins while painting, while the paint dries, and even after it has dried.
Greening up your home can be as easy as installing new lightbulbs and you can start seeing the results soon after. By greening up your home, you have an additional reason for more buyers to walk through the door, all by helping to reduce your personal carbon footprint.
Tags: energy efficient, energy star, green, green homes, green lifestyle, green living, greening your home, home improvement, real estate trends, shorewest
Categories: Home Improvement, Home Selling
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