Go Green While Saving Green
- 1611 Westlake makes use of shade and multi zone air conditioning
Austin architect Peter Pfeiffer and Dallas architect Betsy del Monte have devised a Energy Use Pyramid, to determine which strategies save or create the most energy for their cost. Like the food pyramid we learned about in elementary school, the Energy Use Pyramid has a base of the most efficient green tactics working up to ideas that, like icing on the cake, are nice to have but less important.
The base of the Pyramid may surprise many – it has nothing to do with solar panels or windmills. To keep your home the most energy efficient for your money, according to Pfeiffer, has to do with design of the home and landscape, and proper insulation. An ideal house is oriented to avoid direct western exposure (which creates even more heat in the summer) and to use southern exposure to capture heat in the colder winter months. Shade trees and strategic overhangs create much of the same effect. Houses created with this mindset are smaller, and insulated with no air leaks. These ideas to maximize heating and cooling are the best investments you can make to keep your house greener.
The middle of the Pyramid deals with appliances and other electricity using items in the house. For example, one Energy Star front-loader washing machine uses 75% less energy, 60% less water and reduces more dryer time than a standard top-loader. Another strategy is CFLs – florescent lights that use a quarter of the energy of traditional incandescent bulbs, reducing your electrical bill by around 10% if used throughout the home. They also create less heat for your air conditioner to cool – dropping that bill by as much as 15%.
The top spot of the Pyramid goes to the energy you can harness yourself with solar and wind power. While this is a great way to stay green, it is not the most cost efficient. Simple home improvements like correctly sized windows, efficient two-zone air conditioning, and big shady trees affect the aesthetic value of your home, resale value, and energy use. 1611 Westlake
Tags: air conditioning, Austin, cost efficient, Dallas, energy star, energy star appliances, energy use, energy use pyramid, florescent lights, going green, insulation
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 9:52 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 9th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
John Thomas -- EcoBroker says:Nice post…Thank you. I would add that sealing the thermal envelope of the home is critical. Most homes lose 25-30% or more of their energy due to thermal leaks.
December 20th, 2009 at 11:08 am
White says:I think you made some good points.