How to Make Your Home More Green – Tips from Two New Books

With the summer heat right around the corner here in the Tri-Valley, you might be thinking of ways to reduce your energy bill while staying comfortable this summer and then into the following winter. Two new books offer some great advice on how to do just that. They are “Green Sense for the Home: Rating the Real Payoff From 50 Green Home Projects” by Eric Corey Freed and Kevin Daum (Taunton Press), and “The Hybrid House: Designing With Sun, Wind, Water and Earth” by Catherine Wanek (Gibbs Smith).

Picture from Amazon.com

The tips range from the easy (by now everyone has heard you should wrap your water heater in an insulating blanket) to the more difficult (reusing your gray water from showers, sinks and laundry to flush your toilets – this can reduce water consumption by as much as 40%).

Another easy tip is to cover windows on the southwest side of your house in the afternoon in the summer to keep the sun out. This will reduce the workload on your air conditioner quite a bit. In the morning, keep your windows closed to retain the cooler overnight air in your home. If not using AC, open the windows when the temperature inside matches the temperature outside.

“The Hybrid House” also provides tips on how to make better use of sunlight to reduce your electric bill. In an average home, 25% of the electricity bill is for lighting.

These and many more suggestions can be found in the two books. Some are do-it-yourself projects, while others (like recycling your gray water) will require engineering help and permits. But little steps add up and reduce the stress on all our natural resources – AND save you money!

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