Ways for Homeowners to go Green

[MissingAll4Seasons]

As far as large appliances go, you really have to do a cost breakdown. I had an OLD (like "harvest gold" era!) upright freezer that still worked and kept my food wonderfully frozen... however, it gulped electricity like a marathon runner gulps Gatorade. I plugged a meter into it, and determined that it would be less expensive just in one year's energy savings to replace it with a brand new, more efficient chest freezer... when I added in the tax rebate, it was even more savings. However, the same wasn't true of my 5 year old furnace... it was only marginally less efficient than a "cleaner burning" brand new one. It was smarter for me to save the difference in price and put it towards better insulation.

[BigDGeek]

A hailstorm and heavy downpour a couple of days ago showed just how bad the drainage was off part of my roof and how much water would be wasted with a simple downspout. So when I had a contractor over the other day to repair the minor roof damage that the hail caused, I also had him build a new downspout that feeds into a sealed rainwater capture system that we designed and built together yesterday. It has a 64 gallon capacity. Every little bit helps IMHO and it's just another step I can take on the path to greening my home and lifestyle.

If more homeowners looked at it as a journey instead of a destination I think they would be less intimidated and more willing to take on projects like this one at a time.

[jgrimes53]

Speaking of roofs, you can also thing about Doing it yourself (DIY) for Solar Panels.
Here's a reasonble cost DIY guide.

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