World Environment Day, Google, and Greening Your Home

Posted by nithi.vivatrat on June 5, 2009

Happy World Environment Day! Be sure to check out the movie HOME today.  On this subject, I thought that it was very cool that Google had made progress on its home energy monitoring initiative by recently announcing partnerships with eight electric utilities.  Soon, you’ll get to see cool reports like this:

Unfortunately, it’s not available in the DC area yet. That doesn’t mean homeowners in our area shouldn’t be thinking about how to improve energy efficiency in their homes. Last March, Green Inc, the wonderfully pragmatic environmental blog at the New York Times, invited five practical environmentalists to think about how to green your house and lifestyle in a realistic way. From Katharine Wroth’s suggestions for cutting your utility bills by 25% (great selling point at an open house!) to Josh Dorfman’s explanation of how to make a “dumb” house “smart,” their tips are realistic and fairly inexpensive.

If you are feeling more ambitious, think about conducting an “energy audit” on your home. Auditing his own home, Tom Zeller Jr. found that “as much as 25 percent of your heating and cooling dollars escape through unseen cracks and gaps in your home, which are usually found in attics, basements, duct systems, and around floors, doors, and windows. If you combine all the holes and gaps in a typical house, it can be like leaving a window or door wide open year round.” Plus, seeing thermal images of your house to track air flows and leaks is just cool.

All these little things can add up as you think about positioning your house in today’s market. Using some of these suggestions, you are also helping the earth one baby-step at a time.