Thoughts on building a green home
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by: hugatree
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Word Count: 415
What does it mean when people say that they are building a green home? There are several features that most green homes have include using the sun and land for natural heating and cooling, reduced construction waste, using sustainable resources, and/or using energy efficient appliances and fixtures. There are many ways that these features can be implemented in both building a green home and in updating existing homes.
So, how can you go about building a green home? There are really some very simple steps you can take to improve the home that you have now or to take into consideration when building a green home. A huge step you can take on the road to greenness is to update fixtures and appliances, most importantly, those which use water.
One of the first things to do is to update your toilet. Old toilets use much more water than updated ones and can be replaced relatively easily. Another important group of fixture to check are your faucets. Dripping faucets can waste gallons of water per day and you may not even notice it! Additionally, and I do know that this is expensive, but top-loading washers use a lot more water than front loaders. I am not saying that you should run out and buy a brand new washing machine, however, you should keep that in mind if you find that you are going to be purchasing a new washing machine.
Another thing to keep in mind for either building a green home or updating an existing structure is the type of windows and insulation that you are using. If you are building a green home, paying a little more for energy efficient windows can help cut heating costs, which is especially important with todays fuel costs. Also, having your home properly insulated can cut heating and cooling costs.
While I understand that it is not always possible to go out and spend a lot of money on updates for your home, there are many things that you can do to that are very inexpensive. The cheapest, easiest update that I have done to make my own home more green is to purchase a water-saving showerhead. I only paid seven dollars for it, and it uses half of the water that my old showerhead did. Building a green home is pretty simple and doesnt have to be expensive.
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