Greening My House
Posted on January 27th, 2009 - 10:30 AMAbout the author: Jeffrey Levy joined EPA in 1993 to help protect the ozone layer. He is now the National Web Content Manager.
A few months ago, my wife and I bought a house slightly bigger than our current home, but organized inside in pretty strange ways. Since we plan to spend the next 30-40 years there, we decided to renovate it. We want to do it in the greenest way possible. That means reduce, reuse, and recycle through the renovation.
“Reduce” starts with choosing where to live. Both our current house and the new one are about ½ mile from Metro, the DC-area subway; I walk and ride in. We also accepted smaller houses than what was available much further out.
The environment gains from these choices in a few ways: less fuel to commute and less energy used to heat and cool our house. But our quality of life is also better, because my short commute leaves me more time at home, and I’m relaxed on the train instead of driving in rush hour. Not everyone can choose where to live, but I think not enough people put living close to work on their “wants” list when house hunting.
Reducing also means:
- choosing sustainable, low-emitting cabinets and flooring (THAT decision is a whole blog post by itself
- insulating well
- replacing drafty windows with efficient ones, and
- finding efficient plumbing (2-mode flushing toilets, anyone?)
It also meant asking the contractor to seal the basement so the heater isn’t running nonstop to keep the pipes from freezing.
“Reuse” comes in several forms. First, we’re keeping the existing appliances. I haven’t done the math, but it’s hard for me to believe that on a life cycle basis, even more efficient appliances are better than getting the full life out of existing ones. It just takes so many resources to create a new item. We also had the contractors keep trim work so they can reinstall it. Old kitchen cabinets will go in the basement. And what we’re not reusing ourselves, we’ll donate.
“Recycle” in this context includes scrap wood, metal, and bricks. We’ve been searching the web for help with that. It also includes recycling stuff we no longer want and won’t move with us (need an old computer power supply?).
Since it’s Radon Action Month, I should also mention we tested the house before we bought it, and it’s fine.
What are your favorite tips and tricks for renovating in a green way? Remember we don’t allow advertising in our comments, so please stick to generic product descriptions instead of specific companies.
Tags: home renovation, recycle, Reduce Reuse Recycle, Reuse
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Question of the Week
January 27th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Hey Jeff, do you know about Community Forklift? They are a 501c3 org. You can donate and purchase new/used building materials…they were at 2008 dc green festival. I hope this doesn’t count as an advertisement…i just wanted you and everyone else to know about this valuable local resource for finding used building materials or to donate leftover building supplies.
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Joan reply on January 27, 2009 4:10 pm:
Tina that’s a great idea. I believe Habitat for Humanity also operates building supply stores in most parts of the country where you can buy or donate used building materials. Look online for a list of their “Restores”.
-Joan
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January 27th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Hey, thanks to both of you! I’ll check out those resources.
I forgot to mention that we’ll also buy Energy Star for everything, whether we need new heating or air conditioning now, or when replacing appliances later.
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January 28th, 2009 at 12:07 am
hi, that is a great idea to greening your house. for this you can use thier used and waste material . this is good for environment also.
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neetu
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January 28th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Greetings from sunny Southern California! When my wife and I bought our house, there was lush green grass in both the front and back yards. Our entire neighborhood is like this and the common grounds are like parks. It’s gorgeous, but is very water-intensive. Everyone, literally, has a sprinkler system that irrigates their lawns usually twice a day in the Summer and a few times a week in the Winter. But this is the desert. There’s no water here. The water comes from Northern California and the Colorado River. Although I appreciate the beauty, I know it is irresponsible to use the level of water resources required just to keep patches of grass green. Hence, about 90% of our back lawn has since been replaced with a huge patio. That instantly cut our lawn water use by about two thirds. I have been gradually reducing the size of the front lawn by putting in low-water beds of plants and decorative rocks that are more suited for the local climate. As I do this I find myself changing the irrigation outlets to smaller, lower flow heads and in some cases, closing them off entirely.
Another thing we did was install whole-house fans. These are 12″ fans in the bedroom ceilings that suck air into the attic from the room. Instead of using the air conditioner to cool the hot air upstairs, we open a few windows & doors and turn on the whole house fans. The entire volume of air in the house is replaced with cooler air from the outside in a matter of minutes. This air is drawn up into the attic where it replaces the extremely hot air up there! This keeps the whole house much cooler and uses a lot less electricity than the air conditioner. And since we use the AC less, I expect a longer life from it.
For 2009, we are beginning to look at solar panel technology which I gather is becoming more efficient. Since we have abundant sunshine here in our warm desert environment, it seems silly not to use it.
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Jeffrey Levy reply on January 28, 2009 4:21 pm:
Hi Eric! Good to hear from you.
Your approach to greenscaping makes a whole lot of sense. Thanks for doing that!
We have a big fan we stick in a window to do just what you describe: blow the hot air outside and pull in cooler air downstairs. We also sleep with our windows open maybe 4-6 months/year. It’s plenty cool enough. Even here in DC, we often don’t turn the AC on until July.
We also have an attic fan in this house. Thanks for reminding me to talk to the builder about putting one in the new house.
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January 28th, 2009 at 11:29 am
Hi Jeff,
Living close to work is great for so many reasons. When I had a long commute for one career (before starting my own green company) I found I ended up eating out or carrying out all the time because it was too late and I was too tired by the time I reached home.
A couple of thoughts on your plans. Check your old cabinets before putting them in the basement because a lot of cabinets (even today!) emit urea formaldehyde, especially if they have any exposed particle board. And, it’s not just in cabinetry. http://healthychild.org/blog/comments/carcinogenic_cribs_and_changing_tables/ Also, you may want to check on and protect your indoor air quality during the remodeling process.
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January 28th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Great ideas about making your renovation greener! We recentely replaced all of our windows with double pane windows that have gas inside. This will help keep our home warmer and cooler depending on the season. It will also protect our furniture down the line.
The new windows presented the issue of figuring out what to do with the old windows. We posted them on Craig’s list for free, and were able to get rid of many which was a nice way to reuse them. We also donated several to a camp and they will decorate the windows for art projects and then hang them as decorations.
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January 28th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
The annual Solar Homes Tour, typically on the first weekend in October, is a fabulous way to see what other people have done to “green” up their homes (often, solar is just one aspect of what they have accomplished), and to gather ideas for your own project.
Find tour details near you on the American Solar Energy Society’s web site.
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