Green Home Guide

More Than Just Appliances
A green home is a home which has been introduced sustainable and energy efficient choices in the home. This provides a home with increased energy savings and uses environmentally responsible materials and building strategies in the making of the home.

Having a home that is energy efficient not only saves money for the client but also produces an indirect effect that happens in our environment. Less energy used means less burning of fossil fuels, less pollutants, less greenhouse gases, cleaner air, and easier breathing! Energy efficiency is more than choosing to use Energy Star compliant appliances. It also means taking a look at your mechanical ventilation systems. Even though your unit may be new or working fine, there are other components involved to make sure that your home is maximizing it’s ability to not only be well insulated but also to be well ventilated.

Is Your Home Toxic?
Having a home that is energy efficient not only saves money for the client but also produces an indirect effect that happens in our environment. Less energy used means less burning of fossil fuels, less pollutants, less greenhouse gases, cleaner air, and easier breathing! Energy efficiency is more than choosing to use Energy Star compliant appliances. It also means taking a look at your mechanical ventilation systems. Even though your unit may be new or working fine, there are other components involved to make sure that your home is maximizing it’s ability to not only be well insulated but also to be well ventilated.
 

Some other symptoms of a sick house are: some rooms are hot while others are cold, Asthma or allergies get worse when indoors, smells musty, kids seem to catch colds frequently, AC or Furnace is making noise, cooking odors do not properly disperse, house is stuffy or drafty, and there are many more. If you are saying yes to some or all of these symptoms, please consider doing a Home Performance Audit.

When a Home Performance Audit is completed and the suggested fixes done, this can bring relief for asthma and allergies, make the rooms in your home more comfortable, improved indoor air quality, and may cut your heating/cooling bill by 40%. Homes account for 19% of greenhouse gas emissions in the USA. So by being doing a Home Performance Audit and then solving the problems of our sick homes, we not only help our own health but help lower the emissions produced from our homes.

This program is part of the California Home Performance Program and is also associated with the CBPCA (California Building Performance Contractors Association). The California Home Performance Program is the first western state to be granted Energy Star approval!

Healthy Baby Nursery

Consider that newborns spend about 16 hours in their new nurseries, trying to make it as nontoxic as possible is important.

Children are uniquely vulnerable to the home environment. They drink more water, eat more food, and breathe more air per pound of body weight than adults. For example, children in the first six months of life drink seven times as much water, and children 1 through 5 years old eat three to four times as much food on a body-weight basis than the average adult. The air intake of a resting infant is twice that of an adult. Two additional characteristics of children further magnify their exposures: their hand-to-mouth behavior and their play close to the ground.

Greentopia offers guidance and assistance to those expecting families who would like to learn how to make your new baby nursery healthy and “green”. Contact Greentopia for more information.

Source: Is Your Home Affecting your Children’s Health? by Leonardo Trasande, MD, 10/04/05. Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP, is assistant director of the Mount Sinai Center for Children’s Health and the Environment, the nation’s first academic research and policy center to examine the links between exposure to toxic pollutants and childhood illness.

Resourceful Links on Going Green for Your Home:

Affordable by Design - Building an Eco House on a Tight Budget

Green Home Guide

Green Renovation Checklist

Green Project Profiles

Sustainable Lifestyles

Why Build Green

Greentopia Realty is here to assist and provide you with information on how to incorporate the concept of "greening" in your home buying and selling
process. And in many cases, there is Green Financing opportunities available for buyers and home improvement projects.