Consumer E-Newsletter - 03/20/2007 (Plain Text Version)

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In this issue:
Keeping Your Eye on the Ball: The Financial Benefits of Homeownership
Finding Your Perfect Builder
It IS Easy Being Green — Simple Household Products to Green Your Home
The New American Home 2007 Showcases Cutting-edge Green Technology
Piece by Piece: How Homes Become Green
The Home of the Future: Looking at New Homes in 2015
The Victorian: The British Contribution to American Architecture
When Renovating, Take a Simple Step to Reduce the High Cost of Heating and Cooling Your Home
You Think You've Got Problems Now? Home Headaches You Can Easily Avoid
How Much Can You Expect to Recover From Your Remodeling Investment?
What’s Hot? The International Builders’ Show Had the Scoop
The Vernacular Architecture of the American Southwest
Builders are Bringing Green to the Mainstream
Photo Gallery: Go Green
Blast from the Past: Vintage Bathtub Folds Up Like a Murphy Bed
Did You Know? The Good on Green
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It IS Easy Being Green — Simple Household Products to Green Your Home

Being green is easier than you think by incorporating a few minor household changes .

It’s not easy being green? Well, actually Kermit may have had it wrong. Making your home more environmentally-friendly and greener is easier than you think. The number of green products available have grown significantly and become even easier to use. With a few minor changes to your home, you can make a big difference.

Consider using these types of green products in your home:

Energy Efficient Windows
By replacing your windows with ENERGY STAR® windows, you save on energy bills by helping to keep heat inside during the winter and outside during the summer. These windows may have two or more panes of glass, warm-edge spacers between the window panes, improved framing materials, and Low-E coating(s), microscopically thin metal or metallic oxide layers deposited on windows to reduce radiative heat flow.

Eco-Friendly Flooring
Bamboo, cork and eucalyptus flooring products are all excellent choices for the home as they are sustainable alternatives to the slower growing hardwoods. These products mature in roughly half the time that it takes hardwoods to grow. In addition to being a good eco-friendly choice, the options are stylish and affordable.

No longer just panda food, bamboo flooring makes an excellent eco-friendly choice.

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFL)
This type of light bulb is a simple way of making a big change at a low cost in the energy efficiency of your home. Most home improvement stores carry these bulbs, which use 70 percent less energy than regular bulbs and can save $30 or more in energy costs over each bulb’s lifetime.

ENERGY STAR® Products
If you are in the market to upgrade any of your major appliances, consider purchasing an ENERGY STAR®-rated product. These products, ranging from dishwashers and refrigerators to computers and televisions, meet strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the EPA and U.S. Department of Energy. Qualified refrigerators, dishwashers and vent fans incorporate advanced technologies that use 10-50 percent less energy and water than standard models, more than making up for the slightly higher costs of these products.

Tankless Water Heaters
Selecting a more efficient and correctly sized water heater also will save you money. Tankless water heaters provide hot water on demand at a preset temperature rather than storing it, which reduces or eliminates standby losses. Replacing an electric water heater with a solar model can reduce costs by up to 80 percent a year, and over the 20-year lifespan of the appliance will prevent more than 50 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

More Efficient Toilets
New toilets have redesigned bowls and tanks that use less water but function more efficiently than first-generation low-flow models. Some use pumps for supplementary water pressure. In the average home, flushing toilets accounts for some 30 percent of water usage. New efficient models can reduce that use up to 25 percent.

Induction Cooktops
Another energy-saving option for your kitchen is installing an induction cooktop. Cooking with induction cooktops is faster than regular cooktops and uses far less energy. Magnetic induction cooking uses electricity to produce a magnetic field that causes molecular movement in cookware. The movement produces heat which warms the post and its contents.

Home Insulation
Increasing the amount and R-Value (the measure of thermal resistance) of insulation is a cost-effective way to save energy and help reduce heating and cooling bills, which account for at least half of the energy-use in the home. Sprayed insulation made of foam, cellulose or wool are alternatives to traditional glass fiber batting.

For more information about how home builders are protecting the environment and greening homes, visit www.nahb.org/forconsumers.