Living Green

Make your home energy self-sufficient in some surprisingly simple steps: as indicated by an article in Saturday's Washington Post

Passive Solar Energy

Advantage: Energy that costs nothing, unless a couple of trees need to be cut down to allow the sunlight in.
Disadvantages: Most new houses are built in subdivisions where the front of the house faces the street. Passive solar design might mean your house would face the back yard or side yard.

Tight Building Envelope

Advantages: Allows a tight envelope to be formed around your house so little energy escapes.
Disadvantage: Slightly higher initial cost.

Renewable Energy

Solar: The electricity you generate from the sun powers anything in the house.

• Advantages: Clean and, once paid off, an investment that keeps on producing. If you make more energy with the sun than you need, it can go into the utility grid, spinning your meter backward and generating a credit.
• Disadvantages: Expensive: It would cost $40,000 to $60,000 to take an average American house completely off the grid with solar.

Wind: Wind energy has improved dramatically in the past few years. Systems are now quiet, and if the wind blows at more than 8 miles per hour, it creates energy that can be used for anything that requires electricity in your home, including heating or cooling.

• Advantages: Takes your system 20 to 30 percent off the grid when there is a good wind. If you produce more energy than you need, it goes into the utility grid, spinning your meter backward and generating a credit.
• Disadvantages: No wind, no energy. There are often ordinances on tower height.

Efficient Heating, Cooling

Heat pumps: A high-efficiency heat-pump system provides the same comfort as its standard-efficiency brethren but uses 10 to 20 percent less energy. A heat pump is the most efficient system for the money invested. The expense is about 15 percent to 20 percent more than the cost of a standard system and, as a result, these pay for themselves in three to five years.

• Advantages: Refrigerant that's less damaging to the environment than the refrigerant used in standard systems. Zoned systems put energy only where needed instead of everywhere. Why heat the whole house when you need the warmth only on the first floor? Will cool even when outside temperatures top 100 degrees.
• Disadvantages: Costs more initially. Needs a backup heat source if temperature goes below 20 degrees outside. This backup can be electric or fossil fuel (propane, fuel oil) and is designed to kick in as needed.

Geothermal: This system uses the natural heat of the earth to heat and cool a house. It works well in large and small homes but requires electricity to run.

• Advantage: Extremely efficient.
• Disadvantages: The initial outlay is sizable, and although it is efficient, you remain on the grid.

Radiant heat: This system consists of pipes installed beneath the floor that heat the floor. Similar to hot water baseboard heat, it is a low-temperature radiator system that runs through every square foot of your floor. Electricity does not work well for this system and so is not recommended. Propane is the fuel of choice, though solar energy can complement this system.

• Advantage: Less expensive than geothermal.
• Disadvantages: Not necessarily less than high-efficiency heat pumps, especially when you factor in the cost of propane vs. the cost of electricity. Does not cool.

Water Heaters

On-demand hot water: On-demand systems heat water only as it is needed. They have been used throughout Europe since World War II. Important note: If the water needs to be treated, it must be treated before it enters the hot water heating system.

• Advantages: Saves energy, cost-efficient.
• Disadvantages: You are still on the power grid. The systems that run on electricity do not work nearly as well as those that use propane. Propane costs have almost doubled in the past year.

Solar water heaters: A water system requires only a couple of solar panels and heats water throughout the year. Given the tax incentives, this system earns back the cost in three to seven years and then keeps going.

• Advantages: Tax credits, heats water off the grid.
  Disadvantage: Cloudy days mean your backup system, usually electric or propane, will turn on automatically to make sure you are never without hot water.

Go Green...Toward Energy Self-Sufficiency In Some Surprisingly Simple Steps

Angela Jones
www.AngelaJonesRealEstate.com