Posts Tagged ‘Eco friendly’

How you maintain your garden is also as important as planning when it comes to conserving water. If you’re looking at limiting the amount of water you put into your garden, you will also need to limit the amount of water that flows out of your garden. You can do this is many ways:
• Pick plants, shrubs and grass that are known to develop good root systems and employ gardening techniques that improve roots. One way to do this is to mow the lawn tall, but do it frequently. The other way to do it is to pick plants that go well with your climate and soil and water them well for the first few weeks before you reduce the frequency. Keep looking out for leaves that go yellow and new shoots that look weak and pale.
• Mulching is an excellent way to ensure that your soil remain well hydrated and does not loose moisture, especially if you live in dry weather. Mulch can be conveniently prepared in your backyard using organic waste from your kitchen. A healthy dose of nitrogen fertiliser is also recommended, provided you know what you’re doing.
• Irrigation techniques are the most crucial aspect of conserving water in the backyard. In regions frequent watering is required most homeowners opt for irrigation to keep it convenient. Drip irrigation saves much more water than sprinklers which water a lot of things other than the grass. Gray water systems are another great option. Gray water is ‘wash water’ i.e. water used in the bathrooms, kitchen sinks and laundry, which is treated and then used in gardens. Gray water does not include water from toilets (which is called black water) and is perfectly safe, with few chemicals and pathogens once it’s treated and is used by a large number of families for irrigation. A gray water system is simple enough to be installed in your backyard. However, make sure you are familiar with your locality’s policies on gray water systems.

A pretty home in a quiet suburb, kids playing on the porch, toys littering the driveway and a large backyard with a pretty garden. This is usually the picture most homeowners want when they are remodeling their homes. In particular, the large backyard with a pretty garden is very common, especially for those with kids. While it may seem to be the perfect addition to a green home, a garden that is not well-planned can actually do more harm than good to the environment, by causing you to waste water.
Going water-wise is not just limited to toilets and faucets. If you have a garden, a large amount of water goes down there too, sometimes much more than is necessary to keep your garden green. Thus, we often suggest water-efficient landscaping and gardening when we remodel homes. This does not mean tearing up your garden from hearth. Although it is always easier to do over the entire garden, water efficient practices can also be integrated with the way your current garden is. And this can be done quite simply:
• The first way to limit the amount of water you put into your garden is to choose the plants you water carefully. Some plants tend to survive longer with little water and ideally these should be your first choice. This does not mean you turn your garden into a cacti exhibit. Most of the plants that grow naturally in your surroundings are your best option. Trying to grow and maintain an exotic garden can prove to take up a lot of water and money and effort.
• Soil preparation is an important part of creating a water-efficient garden. After the climate, your soil is what will determine what kind of plants will grow best, with less water. Planting ones that suit your soil or treating the soil accordingly before you plant will ensure that your garden works well with the natural weather and minimal water supply.

Installing water efficient fixtures can definitely bring in savings over the long term, for your pocket as well as the planet. Water efficient toilets save close to 4000 gallons of water per year and water efficient faucets and showerheads too, save large amounts of water as compared to conventional fixtures. However, that is not all. Most water boards and utility providers also offer you rebates on water efficient products.
The amount of rebate depends on the type of product you buy, your water board or utility provider and where you live. For instance products and accessories marked with the EPA’s Watersense label are eligible for rebate in almost all states. A list of utility specific rebates available can be found on the EPA’s Watersense website, here.
What if you’re not buying a WaterSense labelled product? There are quite a few other reputed manufacturer that offer great products and services at the residential, commercial and community level to help reduce water consumption and energy savings. For instance American Standard has been manufacturing products and services to help tackle water scarcity since the past 100 years. Their rebates page offers an exhaustive list of states where you can make savings + get your money back.
Depending on your geographic location, your county, district or state will have their local authorities and programs that work at water conservation. These partner with local water suppliers, manufacturers and state authorities to offer attractive discounts on water efficient products, systems as well as rebates. Check the websites of your local utility provider to know more about how you can save water, save energy as well as money.

Saving water is more often than not, the introductory phrase to environmental awareness. Ask anyone how they plan to save the environment and “Turn off the tap while brushing” is on their list of top three ways. However, saving water and using it efficiently is one of the most basic ways in which we can ensure our homes are green. While most of us will conscientiously try and maintain water saving habits in the house and encourage others to do so, a lot of water wastage happens in other, not so obvious ways. Therefore, while remodeling homes we often ask homeowners to look beyond turning their taps off to replacing them altogether with water efficient taps.
A sure-shot way of looking for faucets that can help save water is to look for EPA’s ‘Watersense’ label, a certification given to bathroom fixtures and accessories that use minimum water, no more than 1.6 gallons per minute, as per federal regulations. The Watersense label, a program by EPA, is an independent third party certification given to products that clear the strict federal requirements.
Water efficient bathroom fixtures are not just limited to faucet, they also extend to showerheads that provide the comfort, and ‘feel’ of a regular shower head while using only a fraction of the water. In fact, there is a range of products that have the Watersense label and can greatly limit your water usage and wastage. These products cost a little more than the regular products, however, are worth it when you consider their quality and reliability as well as efficiency and lifetime value. Replacing your current fixtures with water efficient, or even better, Watersense fixtures is bound to bring in large savings in your annual water bill. To know exactly how much, you can use the savings calculator on the EPA’s Watersense website.

Sometimes getting the U-Factor, SHGC and VT values right is not enough. Often, the installation of the window itself, i.e. the entire window assembly can have flaws. These flaws result in air leakage – one of the main obstacles in trying to achieve energy efficiency with the help of windows.
If your house is built on the Passivhaus principles; or you are looking at seriously reducing your HVAC requirements (and thus the bill) then air leakages through windows can punch a large through your plan. Some energy efficient windows specify the AL value (expressed in cubic feet of air passing through for every square foot of the window assembly) between 0-1. The lower the value, the lesser the leakage. The industry-accepted value is 0.30.
Another problem for insulation is condensation. If you live in cold areas, you’ve probably seem frost or dew on the edges of the windows. Looks quite ‘Christmassy’ but it only means that much more heating load. Condensation happens when inside warm air comes into contact with cold panes and glass, which essentially means your windows are not doing such a good job insulating.
With condensation and air leakage, there aren’t fixed ratings to go by. However, certain materials and window technologies work better. For example, if you’re opting for multiple pane windows, looks for stainless steel spacers, or thermally improved spacers made from silicon foam or butyl tape. These spacers might be more expensive, but they are better are insulating, sealing and thus preventing unwanted heat transfer, while at the same time allowing from seasonal expansions and contractions in panes. Similarly, opting for energy efficient windows with two or more panes or glazing reduces condensation even at indoor humidity levels of 45-60%. This is especially true of windows with argon/krypton glass filled windows.