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IT'S EASY
BEING GREEN
Want to go green
and don't know where to start? Pick
one thing that is important to you. Are you concerned about your family's
health? Look at ways you can eat healthier. Need relief from rising energy
costs? You can slash your electric bill in a hurry by switching to CFLs
and eliminate phantom loads. You'll find that once you start making small
changes and realizing the big benefits, you'll find it easier to spot the
next step you can take for an even greater impact. The important thing is
that you do something. Anything!
Remember,
you don’t have to jump in with both feet and feel overwhelmed in your
quest to go green. Even a small step is a step in the right direction.
When you tally up all the little steps each of us as individual makes,
they add up to a big difference.
Check out these tips on
going green and keeping a little (or a lot) more green in your pocket.
Energy
Savings
Get
Audited (it's a good thing)
I think most
of you will agree that rising energy costs are major concern. Here's a
breakdown of how we use energy. In the average American household about
45% of the total energy used goes to heating and cooling, 33% goes to
lighting, cooking and other appliances, 14% goes to water heating and the
remaining 9% goes to refrigeration and other uses. So the question on
everyone’s mind is “How do I reduce the amount of energy I use,
meaning the amount you pay to the utility companies, (and here’s the big
part) WITHOUT sacrificing creature comforts?”
That’s
were an energy audit comes into play. Hire an energy efficiency expert to
come to your home or business and assess your current energy use, perform
tests using tools and techniques such as thermal imaging to measure heat
loss, and offer recommendations where you could make improvements. They
can be found in your local telephone directory under the heading of
"Energy". This is a more thorough evaluation than a self-audit.
A self-audit
it just that. An examination you perform yourself. Some of the key places
you’ll want to look are around windows and doors for air leaks, make
sure your attic has the proper amount of insulation, insulate heating and
a/c ducts, fix leaking duct work, change out old standard incandescent
light bulbs for compact florescent, cold cathode or LED lights.
Seal
Those Leaks
First, take a look at your windows and doors. You can perform a simple
door test with a dollar bill. Open the door and lay a dollar bill across
the doorjamb. Now close the door and try to pull the dollar bill out. If
it comes out easily, you need to add or install weather striping. You can
also do this test on your refrigerator & freezer doors to see if
it’s time to replace the seal there. Here’s another test for windows
and doors and requires two people, a hair dryer and a candle. One person
goes outside with the hair dryer and the other is inside the window with
the candle. With the hair dryer on high, slowly move it around the outside
of the window. The person inside follows the movement of the hair dryer
with the lit candle. You can judge amount of air loss by the movement of
the flame. Caulking around leaky windows will reduce the amount of heating
or cooling you will loose.
Another place
to look for air leaks that a lot of people don’t even think about is
light switches and outlets located on exterior walls. If you hold your
hand close to the receptacle or switch and feel a draft, install a
specially made insulating pad behind the cover. They are readily available
at hardware stores. They are inexpensive and can make a considerable
difference.
Insulate,
Insulate, Insulate
Next, take a look at your
insulation. Only 20% of homes built before 1980 are well insulated. Most
US homes should have between R-22 and R-49 in the attic. What this boils
down to is, if you have less that 7” of fiberglass or 6” of cellulous
insulation you could benefit from more. The ZIP Code Insulation Calculator
is a very useful web-based tool. It can be found at EnergySavers.gov
and as the name suggests, you enter your ZIP code and it will tell you the
amount of insulation recommended for your area. One of the most cost
effective ways to make your home more comfortable year round is to add
insulation to your attic, since it minimizes both heat loss in the winter
and heat gain in the summer.
Crawl spaces
are often overlooked when it comes to insulation. To address moisture
concerns, the best type of insulation to use in crawl spaces or similar
areas is a bubble wrap type. This type of insulation looks very much like
bubble wrap you use when shipping packages, but it has a foil coating on
one side. It gets stapled to the underside of the floor joists with the
foil side facing up. Not only does it keep cold air from coming up through
the floor, it also will reflect any heat that is lost through the floor
back up into your living space.
Ductwork
that is not insulated and runs through an unheated space, such as an
attic, basement or crawl space, and leaky ductwork can be other major
sources of heat loss. You can
loose up to 60% of heated air before it reaches the register if your
ductwork is not insulated and it runs through an unheated space. Sections
of duct work that are not properly joined together, I’m talking about
both supply and return, will leak heat or air conditioning into
unconditioned spaces and pulls unconditioned air into the return duct
work. In both cases your HVAC system has to work nearly twice as hard,
meaning it uses twice as much energy, to maintain the temperature set at
the thermostat. One tip here: Don’t use cloth backed adhesive duct tape
to repair leaky ductwork. It deteriorates very quickly. Instead use a foil
or other heat approved tape.
Other
energy savings measures include programmable thermostats, thermal window
coverings, compact florescent light bulbs and power strips to eliminate
phantom loads.
A programmable
thermostat can save 10% per year in heating and cooling cost. Why run your
heater or air conditioner all day if you’re not home? Lowering your
water heater to 120°F can save a considerable amount of energy. Insulated
curtains or blinds will minimize heat loss in the winter and block the sun
in the summer.
See The
Light (CFL of course)
There’s been a lot of talk recently about compact florescent light
bulbs, or CFLs. They are more expensive than traditional incandescent
bulbs, but last much longer and use considerably less electricity. Count
the total number of light bulbs that are in the most used areas of your
home. Now divide that number by 4. The answer you come up with is the
number of bulbs you need to replace with compact florescent bulbs to cut
the amount of electricity used for lighting in half. (Remember, lighting
makes up almost 1/3 of your electric bill). It’s one of the fastest ways
to reduce your electric bill. Just imagine the savings if you replaced all
your light bulbs with CFLs. If
every household in the U.S. replaced just ONE incandescent light bulb with
an energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL), it would
eliminate the equivalent of the emissions created by one million cars. If
you can't afford to replace all you lights at once, commit to replacing
one a month or as the old ones burn out.
A couple
things to know about CFLs are they don’t dim well (even though some are
labeled dimmable, it’s not as wide of a range as traditional light
bulbs). LEDs and cold cathode bulbs are better energy saving choices if
you are using a dimmer switch. CFLs take 15-20 seconds to come to their
full brightness level, so they might seem a little dim when you first flip
the switch. Also, CFLs also contain small amounts of Mercury, so read the
packaging for proper ways to dispose of them. Need help choosing the right
CFL? Click
here.
Get Rid
of Your Ghosts
Another topic you may have heard recently is “Phantom Loads”. This
is electricity that is being consumed even though an appliance is not in
use. Almost anything with a digital display (microwave, toaster oven, DVD
player, video game system) and some things that don’t (TVs, laptops and cell phone charges) all generate phantom
loads. Seventy-five percent of the electricity used to power home
electronics is consumed while the product is “turned off”. Super
thirsty phantoms, we call them vampires, are the power cords with
transformers, the little, chunky black box. They use 20% to 50% of their
electricity when nothing is pulled into them. Putting this type of
equipment on a power strip, and turning the power strip off when not in
use, allows you to easily eliminate phantom loads. Go for a "Smart
Strip" for your TV and video equipment. It will automatically turn
the strip off when you power off the TV.
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Water
Savings
Those
of you on metered water, you know this is just one more bill that can add
up quickly. Older toilets are one of the worst water wasters in American
homes today. Many use a whopping 3.5 gallons per flush.
What if you
have an older toilet that’s working fine and you don’t want to go to
the expense of replacing right now. A very low cost solution is to put a
brick, or two, in your toilet’s water holding tank. The brick reduces
the amount of water needed to fill the tank. Be sure to position the brick
so it does not interfere with the flapper valve or float.
When you do go
to upgrade your bathroom fixtures, chose low flush toilets, and water
saving showerheads and faucets and be sure to look for the Water
Sense label. It’s the EPA's new water use rating system and is
similar to the Energy
Star rating given to electric appliances. Many people have the
misconception that by using a water saving showerhead, they’ll have
reduced water pressure. This simply isn’t true. By introducing air into
the water stream the pressure is actually increased. If you haven’t
looked at the wide variety of water saving showerheads available today,
you should take another look. They are not the no-frills, utilitarian ones
of the 1980s. One 10-minute
shower per day with a water saving showerhead can mean saving 10,000
gallons of water a year.
Using a
rainwater capture system can greatly reduce the amount of water needed
from your home water source for watering your lawn, garden or landscaping.
Simple rainwater capture systems consist of a barrel at the bottom of your
homes down spout. Some have spigots near the bottom of the barrel to
attach a regular garden hose or drip irrigation hose. More complex
rainwater capture systems can be connected to automatic sprinkler systems
or even piped into the house for flushing toilets. Using plants that are
native to the area is also a good way to decrease water use. Since they
are accustomed to regional climate changes, they require little or no
watering between rainfalls.
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Greening
Your Lifestyle
Organic
and Local Farm Markets
Indoor
Air Quality
There
are a lot of he doom and gloom statistics as it relates to how we got were
we are today. But don’t worry; there is good news at the end.
The
fact that we are getting so good at being energy efficient has a flip
side. When we “tighten up” your home by sealing leaks and adding
insulation, we are no longer allowing the bad stuff out. The EPA recently
stated that the air inside your home or office is likely to be 3x worse
than the air outside, and we all know how bad that can be. Almost
everything we bring into our homes emits some type of fumes. New carpet or
new particleboard furniture off-gas formaldehyde. The odor new paint gives
off are actually volatile organic compounds or VOCs. VOCs are also found
in many adhesives and can be highly toxic. Regular indoor latex paint can
off gas for up to 2 years, not just the day or 2 that you can smell it.
Why do you think the label says, “use in a well ventilated area?”
However,
you do have options when buying new products for your home. Take carpet
for example. Look for natural fibers like wool or jute in the carpet and
backing. Also look for a green certification label. Most of the major
carpet manufacturers now offer healthier, non-toxic product lines. It used
to be that buying environmentally friendly paint was very expensive and
color choices were limited. Now you can go into any home improvement store
and purchase low or no-VOC paint in a wide spectrum of colors for the same
price as regular latex paint.
Poor
indoor air quality has been shown to be a contributing factor in the
dramatic increase in respiratory ailments in this country. Diseases like
Asthma and allergies. If you were born in the 50s, 60s or 70s, think back
to when you were in school. How many kids did you know that had asthma or
carried an allergy relieving prescription drug or inhaler to ward off
“an attack”? Now think how many people you know today that take
medication for allergies, asthma, bronchitis or other breathing problem?
We’ve been bombarded with these toxins for so long that our bodies are
no longer able to fight them off on our own. Studies show that children
are especially susceptible to these problems.
The
Chemistry Experiment Under Your Sink
Household
cleaning products are another source of toxins polluting the air inside
our homes. Did you know that using aerosol air fresheners can increase
your risk of cancer of the lymph nodes by 60%”!
There
is a wide variety of environmentally friendly cleaners available
in retail stores today. Brands like Method, SeventhGeneration and many
others use safe, natural ingredients like citrus and vegetable oils. Or better yet, make your own from the non-toxic,
safe ingredients you probably already have in your pantry. Search the
Internet for "Natural Cleaning Recipes" and you'll find a whole list of
free, low cost, effective cleaners you can
make at home. If you are short on time or just don’t want to make your
own green cleaners, hire a “green cleaning” service - a cleaning service with a healthy twist. They use
nothing but environmentally friendly, non-toxic cleaners and help you
detoxify the air inside your home or office.
Breathe
a Sigh of Relief
Ok, I
promised you good news. So here it is. You can take control of your own
indoor environment. First, a couple low costs solutions:
houseplants (spider plants and ivy in particular), HVAC “tacky filters”
and natural, non-toxic cleaning products.
Spider
plants and ivy are shown to have three times the “air scrubbing” capabilities
of other houseplants and they are very inexpensive and easy to grow. They
help remove formaldehyde and other toxins.
Replace
the filter in your HVAC system or whole house fan with one that has a
stick film that will capture the “big stuff” like dust and pet dander.
Most of these filters run in the $10-20 price range.
Help! They're Already Here
But
what if just put in new carpet, or your furniture is relatively new
and you're not ready to get rid of it just yet, or you just bought a new
house and you're pretty sure they used regular latex paint? You can still
take steps to greatly improve your indoor air quality. In this situation
one of the best things you can do for yourself is invest a couple hundred
dollars in a good quality air filtration system. I’m not talking about
the kind you can buy at the big box or local hardware store. These units
do little more that filter out the big particles like a tacky filter and
most of them produce ozone, a known carcinogen.
You
may have heard that Sharper
Image recently filed bankruptcy. According to Consumer Affairs it’s
because of the class action lawsuit filed against them pertaining to their
Ionic Breeze air system, which is probably one of the most widely
recognized brand names on the market today. If you read the fine print,
the Ionic Breeze carries a warning that says not to use the unit in
enclosed spaces if your have a respiratory ailment. Who do they think are
buying these products? Why does it issue that warning? Because it emits
unhealthy levels of ozone.
California
recently passed a bill banning any air filtration system
that produces ozone and I think you’ll see other states instituting a
ban as well.
If you need help wading through the mountains of
information about air filtration systems on the market today, contact
us, we can make recommendations and help you choose the system that is
right for your situation and conditions.
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Water
Quality
Water,
Water Everywhere but Is It Safe to Drink
Now
you know how to clean up the air in your home. What about the water. Here
are some more doom and gloom statistics, but just like before,
there’s a healthy solution.
So my
question to you is - Do you really know what’s coming out of your
faucet? I can tell you, you’d be surprised to find what’s still
lurking in your tap water.
Municipal
water treatment plants only do a superficial job at treating the water
that is pumped into your home. They add chemicals such as chlorine to
eliminate microbes, but they don’t address other problems like sediment
and organic matter. So in simpler terms, they get rid of the pests, but
not the pollutants.
You
might one of the 50% of Americans who doesn’t want to drink tap water so
you drink bottled water. The truth is most bottle water is no better, and
sometimes slightly worse, than tap water. For the most part, bottled water
is water that is filtered to remove the “big chunks” (like sand and
sediment) but not the pollutants. So to get rid of the pollutants, they
zap it with ozone (we already know that’s not good), stick in a plastic
bottle, pop a lid on it and ship it off to sit in a warehouse or stock
room until it’s sold. And it’s expensive. More expensive per gallon
than today’s gas prices. Buying 2-3 bottles of prepackaged water per
week adds up to somewhere in the neighborhood of $225 per year! And
there’s also the concern about the bottles themselves leaching some
pretty nasty contaminates back into the water.
You
might have a reverse osmosis or some other type of whole house filtering
system. Well at least that's better than nothing and it's fine for
showering and laundry. But most home filtering systems filter out
everything – the bad and the good. It might be contaminate free, but
it’s what I would consider “dead water” that’s been striped of the
beneficial trace minerals our bodies need.
After
drinking a big glass or a bottle of water, do you ever get that sloshy
feeling? You know, where you can feel or hear the water splashing around
inside your stomach? The reason you’re feeling that is because the
processes your water goes through before it reaches you make the water
molecules clump together and they are not as easily absorbed by the body.
Health professionals tell us we should be drinking more water, right? So
what are you supposed to do?
I'm
In Charge
By filtering your own drinking water at home and using a non-toxic,
refillable water bottle, you control not only the cost but also the
quality of the water you drink. In order to do this you need is a water
filtration system that reduces 90% or more of the contaminates listed in
the ANSI 42 and 53 standards for water testing. I know that’s a
mouthful, but what it basically means is that you need a home water
filtration system that gets rid of all the bad stuff like chlorine, odor,
lead and VOCs and replenishes the good minerals and nutrients our bodies
crave. Taking that "dead water" and turning it into living,
healthy water.
Just
like with the air filtration systems, contact us,
we can help you choose the water filtration system that is right for you.
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Recycling
/ Trash
Let's
Talk Trash
If you haven't
seen the 20-minute video called “The
Story of Stuff” by Annie Leonard, you should take the time to watch
it. The Story of Stuff tells how “We” here in the US have become a
society of over-consumers. And have not only have we used up our own
natural resources and are going overseas to use up other nations
resources. It also shows how we are polluting our environment and drinking
water sources with industrial by-products and running out of landfill
space with the massive amounts of trash we produce.
Did you know
the average American produces 4.5-5 pounds of garbage a day? That’s
twice as much as 30 years ago. Let me ask you a question. When you throw
something away, were is “away”. Think about the time it will take for
that garbage to breakdown. What if your trash company charged you by the
pound? I bet you’d come up with ways to reduce the amount of garbage you
produce pretty quickly.
Use the
principal of the three Rs when it comes to your garbage.
Reduce/Recycle/Re-purpose.
Reduce the
amount raw materials you consume by purchasing products that have recycled
content. There is a difference between recycled and post-consumer recycled
products. Recycled paper typically is paper that is made from the left-overs
from the paper manufacturing process. It is usually virgin paper and it
diverts waste from the landfills. Post-consumer recycled paper is paper
that is made from another paper product (ie: office paper, newspapers).
The higher the recycled content, the better. Also choose products that
have less packaging. For example, if you are going to purchase a new mouse
for your computer, choose the one that has the least amount of packaging
(meaning their will be less to throw away or recycle once you get it
home). Take re-usable
shopping bags to the grocery store and drugstore.
Composting is
another good way to reduce household trash and it’s a free source of
nutrient rich materials to add to vegetable gardens, lawns and
landscaping.
Participate in local recycling programs designed for paper, metal cans and
plastics
Re-purposing
something can be as simple as donating it to charity or using old kitchen
cabinets as garage storage. Think before you throw it out. Habitat
for Humanity has a great retail centers in many
locations across the county. It's called ReStore, where they sell overstock
or donated building materials, paint and furnishings. They also accept
donations of these items.
Freecycle.com is
another great re-purposing resource.
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Green
Investing
Invest in the
environment and start building your personal wealth. The green investing
wave is truly just starting. Wall Street knows it's coming and has
earmarked huge sums for investing in green companies and technologies.
This is your chance to test the waters with green mutual funds that tend
to concentrate on alternative energy or socially responsible investing
which includes stock and bonds from environmentally responsible and
sustainable businesses.
As with any
investment, do your research. Make sure your investments are diversified. Don't
invest it all in one focus.
Green
Building
Green
Building as another hot topic these days. Building green simply means
using energy efficient building techniques and mechanical systems as well
as environmentally friendly products and finishes.
Hit
Me With Your Best Site
Proper
site orientation, which is simply the direction your house faces, can have
a major affect the size of the mechanical heating and cooling system
you'll need.
South
facing buildings with the proper roof overhang use passive solar gain to
take advantage of the lower angle of the sun in the winter for heat and
blocks the intense rays of the sun, which is higher in the sky during the
summer, reducing the amount of cooling needed. During the winter keep
curtains and blinds on south and east facing windows open during the day
to capture the sun’s heat and close them at dusk to keep that heat in
longer. Reverse this in summer months, close the curtains to block the sun
during the day and open them at night to let the cool air in.
Minimizing
the number of windows and doors on the north and west sides when building
a new house will reduce the amount of heat loss, since these areas
get less sunlight. If your exisiting house has quite a few north or west
facing windows, thermal lined curtains or shades will minimize heat loss
in these areas.
Make
In the Shade
Did
you know properly positioned tree can reduce the amount of energy a
typical house uses for cooling by 25%, by providing shade during the
hottest hours of the day? It can also act as a wind barrier in the harsh
winter months. Consult a qualified landscape architect to achieve the
maximum benefit.
Green
Goods
There
are so many new and exciting environmentally friendly home building
products available today. Things like: countertops made from recycled
paper or glass and concrete that offer almost endless design options.
Those plastic soda and water bottles we just talked about recycling become
plastic and composite deck boards. Bamboo has gained popularity quickly
and is being used in everything from kitchen utensils to flooring. and you
can now get insulation made from the scrap thread left over from the denim
industry. Not only does it reduce the amount of waste going into the
landfill, demim insulation is naturally fire retardant, doesn’t emit
toxic chemicals or produce respiratory or skin irritants. Anyone who has
handled fiberglass insulation knows that itchy/scratchy feeling I’m
referring to. Denim insulation comes in bats and installs like traditional
fiberglass insulation.
Say
No to Greenwashing
When
researching any product that claims to be “green”, beware of something
called greenwashing. Greenwashing is a lot hype a company puts out about
how environmentally friendly or non-toxic their product is. When in
reality, the product itself might be natural and non-toxic, but the
company that makes the product doesn’t practice environmentally friendly
standards of operation. To give you an example, let’s say you are
interested in putting in a bamboo floor. Bamboo is an environmentally
friendly product right? It grows fast. Reduces the amount of trees cut
down, but if the company that processes the raw bamboo into the flooring
dumps toxic by-products into a near by river, produces massive amounts of
air borne pollutants and glues the bamboo products together with adhesives
that will off-gas toxic fumes into your house, it’s not such a green
product any more is it?
My
suggestion is do your research. Not only about the products themselves,
but also the company that produces them. If your still unsure, contact
us, we’ll research them for you.
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Alternative
Energy Options
Since
these systems require a site analysis and more detailed data, I won’t
get into specifics here. If you want more information about alternative
energy systems, please contact us.
A
Sunny Disposition
Earlier
I mentioned passive solar for indoor heating. Another form of using
passive solar energy is solar water heating. This is typically a system of
tubes installed on a roof or south-facing wall that absorbs the sun’s
direct rays in order to heat your domestic hot water. Keep in mind, most
solar water heaters are not designed to provide 100% of the hot water you
need. It’s meant to pre-heat the water before it reaches your
traditional water heater, reducing the amount of energy needed to bring it
up to the temperature you desire.
Photovoltaic,
or PV, solar systems are what most people think of when solar systems are
mentioned. These systems harvest the sun’s rays to produce DC current
that is passed through an inverter to change it to AC current, which is
the type of electricity our homes use. There is a wide range of system
sizes from large scale, professionally installed ones to do-it-yourself
kits, some can provide power for your entire household electric needs.
GE
Solar just announced a new technology that allows them to produce PV cells
at a much quicker rate, at a lower cost and that are more efficient. Look
for prices of PV systems to fall in the next 3-5 months as these new cells
reach the consumer market.
Blown Away
Individual, smaller-sized wind turbines are becoming more affordable.
Check out this wind
map to see if you have what it takes.
Mother
Nature Knows Best
More
and more homeowner’s are opting for geothermal heating and cooling
systems, which are extremely efficient. The principal behind a geothermal
system is that is the earth maintains a constant temperature of about 60
degrees once you get below the frost line. A series of tubes are placed below the frost line and a
non-toxic antifreeze solution is circulated through these lines
and across a heat exchanger.
So in
the winter, instead of taking 20 degree outside air and having to raise it
48 degrees to reach the 68 degrees your thermostat calls for, a geothermal
system takes pre-heated 60 degree air and raises it 8 degrees. How much
energy do you think that would save? It’s pretty much the same principal for the cooling side of
a geothermal system. Instead of drawing in 90 degree outside air and
having to chill it down to 75 degrees, it takes 60-degree air and mixes it
with a small amount of outside air to raise it 15 degrees. Again saving a
great deal of energy. This is a very simplified explanation, but you get
the general idea.
It
used to be that geothermal systems required a great deal of land because
the pipes were laid parallel to the earth’s surface. Today, many
geothermal systems use deep well technology, where the tubes run
perpendicular to the earth’s surface in a hole similar to when you have
a well dug. Again, this is an over simplified explanation.
Give
Me An Incentive
Now
that you are armed with all this great information about energy
efficiency, improving your air and water quality and clean, renewable
energy systems, you’re all excited, right? So you’re thinking, wow I
could save a lot on my electric or gas bill by replacing my old, leaky
single pane windows with new, Energy Star rated ones. Or instead of you
sending the electric company a check, how great it would be if they owed
you every month? But these greater savings require a bigger investment and
it can add up pretty quickly.
You’ll
be glad to know plenty of financial incentives exist. From state funded rebate
programs for replacing out dated, energy hog appliances to state and
federal tax credits for bigger ticket items like small scale solar and
wind systems. You can find an easy to navigate list of Federal, State and
local rebates and incentives at DSIREUSA.org.
DSIRE stands for the Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy.
Take
It to the Bank
The
banking world is also stepping up to the plate to help homeowners and
business take another look at the long term benefits vs. the cost of
installing an alternative energy system. Many banks now have green lending programs that offers loan packages at a
better rate and longer pay back term than traditional home equity loans,
which makes payments more manageable for many people.
Nothing
But Net
And
who wouldn’t like to have a nice credit balance on their electric bill
each month through a program called Net Metering. Basically, Net Metering
says if you can generate more electricity than you use, the utility
company is required to buy it from you. Obviously, that’s the condensed
version and there is special equipment that is required, but that
equipment can be covered by the rebates and incentives listed above.
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