» Remodelers

Making your home water-wise 2

admin — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 08:43:56 +0000

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.

Low flow water fixtures

admin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:36:24 +0000

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.

Heating with Geothermal Heat Pumps

admin — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 08:14:45 +0000

When trying to conserve energy and your wallet, one of the important factors many people overlook is weather. There is a certain ‘optimal’ HVAC system for every kind of weather, and by designing with that in mind helps to makes sure that your budget remains optimal too. Not every house needs air conditioning or furnace heaters. For instance, if you usually have moderate weather throughout the year, like we have in the Pacific Northwest, you could actually replace conventional heaters and A/Cs with heat pumps. And we generally advice our clients to go in for geothermal heat pumps. (GHP)
A heat pump works by moving heat from a warm area to a cool area. It operates on electricity and generally moves heat from the warm air outside to your cold interiors or warm air indoors to cool exteriors. Heat pumps that exchange heat in this manner are called air-source heat pumps. Overall pumps have high efficiency, in fact the highest, since they use very little energy and don’t really create heat, only move it. A geothermal pump works in a similar fashion, only, it exchanges heat with the earth, instead of air. Geothermal heat pumps move the earth’s heat through ducts into a cool house, and vice versa. Because the lower layer of the earth remains more or less at the same temperature, and is warm, GHP work in almost every kind of weather and are favored largely in extreme temperatures.
Geo Thermal Heat pumps are generally more expensive than conventional heating systems. However, the success of an installation depends on the weather, soil quality and certain other factors. Yet, over the long term, the operating costs of heat pump, especially geothermal heat pumps cost very little to operate and provide up to 300% efficiency.

The advantages of a mini split system

admin — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:00:20 +0000

1. It’s easier to install and the units are smaller than conventional duct systems. Mini splits come in different capacities depending on the area you want to use it for. However, they all require nothing more than drilling a hole a few inches in diameter through your wall. This considerably brings down you labor costs and time taken for installation.
2. It has more aesthetic appeal. The indoor fixture are usually built with very sleek design and finishing, (depending on the cost) and are come in various mounting options. For instance you will find indoor fixtures that can be installed on the ceiling, corners or walls.
3. Space friendly. The indoor and outdoor parts can have as many as 50ft between them. Thus, you could install the outer condenser somewhere inconspicuous, like the back of the house, when it won’t be an eye-sore.
4. Duct HVAC systems usually cause a certain amount of heat loss through the ducts, particularly if they haven’t been insulated well (That’s another thing – there is no insulation required with mini splits) With mini splits there’s no such issue – there’s minimal loss of heat or energy through the conduit wires.
5. The cost is comparable to a standard heat pump system. Unlike heat pumps, Mini splits only lose about 40% of their efficiency when the temp drops to zero degrees. However by over sizing the unit by 40 %,( this adds a little to the upfront cost) you will have 100% efficiency at zero degrees. Given the last cold spell we had in December, this could be money well spent.

Heating with Mini Splits

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:36:19 +0000

We will all agree, that when it comes to home operating costs and maintenance, little else burns as large a hole in our pockets as heating and cooling. HVAC is one place where homes lose a lot of greenery – in terms of money, and in terms of the carbon footprint they add. Therefore, when we remodel homes, a lot of homeowners want to know how to restructure their HVAC systems, to make their homes (and their pockets) greener. Our answer to them – mini split systems.
Most homes run on centralized HVAC systems that use ducts and sometimes pipes to control temperatures indoors. While these systems are quite alright, they are not always feasible when you are attempting a remodel, especially if you are adding an extra floor or room space or making major design changes. Restructuring the entire duct and pipe system adds considerably to the cost. Mini split systems make it easy to manage indoor temperatures without any major construction or uprooting.
Mini split systems are also called ductless systems and are available for heating and air conditioning purposes. These systems come with three parts, which can be very simply explained as: one part which is mounted indoors to maintain air and temperature, one part outside which handles the condensing and compressing and a third part linking both parts with suction wires, electrical wires, drain and refrigerant tubing. This entire system can be fitted with minimal inconvenience and construction and works efficiently to heat/cool/condition as per your requirements.
The amazing thing about them is their efficiency. Bonneville Power administration just did a study that found that mini splits can be as high as 450 % efficient. For every $1.00 you spend you get $4.50 worth of heat. Nothing else on the market even comes close. Back that up with a supper insulated house and your heating bill will become a non issue.

LED’s offer huge Enviormental Savings

admin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:08:40 +0000

The main reason we’ve included LED in our recommendations, is because they’re quite eco-friendly, compared to all other options. LED produce much more light per watt of electricity. To be precise they produce around 18-22 lumens per watt, much higher than the incandescent and fluorescent lamps. This means they use less power to produce more, which cumulatively adds up to a lot of energy savings. In fact, the US DOE estimates that if LED lighting were used on a large scale, it would convert to savings of $265 billion, reduce electricity demand for lighting purposes by 33% ; and avoid the set up of 40 power plants across the country.
Also, every time you turn on the lights, you’re contributing to CO2 emissions to the tune of 196 pounds per year, for every light bulb in your house. LED lamps bring this to just 63 pounds every year. LED lighting is also non-toxic, it does not contain mercury like fluorescent lamps and thus recycling them is less hazardous. A few other benefits:
• LEDs are extremely small and are available in different colours. This goes well when you try to get creative with lighting in your house.
• LEDs can be dimmed quite easily. Repeated on-off cycles don’t damage LEDs the way they damage other lights. Thus, using LEDs for Christmas lighting is the ideal option
• They’re shock resistant, not fragile like usual bulbs.

The Road to Green Living is paved with Recycled Tiles

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:25:45 +0000

Forget wood, laminate, ceramic and all those other offensive gas emitting and environment degrading options for your floors and walls. No green home is green without recycled tiles. And thankfully when it comes to this, we have many options. Recycled glass tiles seem to be a hot item on the internet and also among those who want to build green homes. This is probably because everybody has use for glass tiles and they are relatively cheaper to recycle than other materials. Also, for those looking at colour and vibrancy in their showers or kitchens, recycled glass tiles are affordable and they fit the bill perfectly.
For those of you looking for something little more unique – try out recycled metal tiles. Very few people have ever really tried any kind of metal tiles; leave alone recycled metal ones but the ones at Eco Friendly Flooring leave you quite speechless. They’re made from recycled aluminium or brass and would look absolutely stunning in the kitchen or even as plain decorative elements on a wall.
Another great option is rubber flooring. Before you get ideas about bouncing along as you walk, let us make ourselves clearer: Rubber Flooring is actually safer (because it’s slip-proof); durable (because it won’t crack and will expand when your house settles); comfortable (it’s sound absorbent, soft to feel and walk on) and quite economical when compared to other options. And if you thought you might not get variety, check out Rephouse for their colours and textures.
If you find yourself confused by all the recycled flooring results when you try Google, visit www.ecosurfaces.com – a one stop shop that covers flooring surfaces made from all types of eco-friendly , materials in many colours and textures.

Remodeling – The Home Plan

admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:44:50 +0000

Remodeling – The Home Plan

Truth be told, when homeowners start off with remodeling their home; they have no idea as to what they actually want the home to look like, unless they know something about construction and architecture. Normally, they will wait till the contractor draws up certain plans, and then will generally approve or disapprove with little conviction in either case. So, when your contractor approaches you with the plans, this is what you should be noticing, and asking:

1. First and most important identify how family members use the rooms. The space requirement and positioning of rooms should be made accordingly in the plans. For example, does your wife take the kids’ lessons while cooking? If so, then the kitchen must be large enough to accommodate the wife’s requirements and sit the kids comfortably while they study. Similarly, if you work from home in the study, then you need to have the bathrooms close by. Or if you like entertaining guests every weekend, the living room needs to be large enough.
2. Keeping the family’s requirements in mind, is the house plan as eco-friendly as it could be? Ask your contractor to explain how much energy the new house will save as compared to the old house and if changes in the plan could make it better or worse. Don’t worry; contractors are more than happy answering questions.
3. How easy will it be to maintain the house, keeping in mind the time you have, and the environmental conditions?

Remodeling – Lighting & Electricity

admin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:42:57 +0000

When you approach an eco-friendly contractor to build you an eco-friendly home one of the things he Is going to suggest (and carry out too) is the switch to solar electricity. Depending on your requirement, resources and the location, there are quite a few options you have when it comes to using solar electricity: You could install solar panels to generate total or partial capacity or you could buy it directly from your provider.

Your contractor will suggest that installing solar panels will be the most effective way to turn your home green. A better contractor, however, will suggest ways to make the best of the ambient sunlight you have for lighting purposes, so that you’re now powering other electrical appliances with solar electricity, and not so much the lights. This can be done by the Passivhaus standard which will entail constructing the home in such a manner that most of your rooms are lit up with natural sunlight, while ensuring that it doesn’t heat up the house unnecessarily.

The other things you want to discuss are appliances that save electricity: EPA certified one, CFLs, and the latest – LED lamps. Also, it is very important to ensure that you and the contractor carry out an energy audit of your existing house first in order to compare the savings your new house will generate.

How to remodel the green way. Phase 1 demolition

admin — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:14:12 +0000

Remodeling – Demolition

An eco-friendly home first begins by taking it all apart – the demolition we mean. Ideally, environment friendly construction should begin here. Here are things you can do to ensure that you have a green demolition too:

1. Start by reviewing all the times in your house, to see what can be recycled. Recycling is one of the simplest ways by which you can minimize waste, minimize cost and maximum your home’s green quotient. Start with the furniture – can you use the wood to create other things? Can you donate it? Can u refurbish it to reuse it? When you think of bringing in the new, think of what you’re going to do with the old.
2. Ensure you have a demolition crew that doesn’t tear the place down. Many items that are quite salvageable get damaged in the process of demolition. For example, you could use the bricks for the walls to pave your garden or backyard or for some other construction in the house, provided the crew knows how to bring them out intact.
3. When you finally do end up with things that you cannot put to any use, before discarding them, look for people who can put them to good use. For example, you might not know what to do with all your old plumbing pipes, or there may be items that get damaged and thus are not of any use – like glass or tiles. Contact companies that manufacture recycled construction material. They will be more than happy to get their hands on raw material or at least refer you to someone who would be.