Home Interior Design: Green Remodeling

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Green Remodeling

The "green movement" which encourages us to think of environmentally conscious ways we can go about our everyday lives has taken hold in a new way in the last decade. The motto of "think globally, live locally" is a beautiful way for us to implement green living principles because in truth we can only really make a difference in the daily decisions we make each day. So when the time comes to put together a remodeling project, if you can integrate green principles even in how you go about planning to renovate your home, you can do your part to save the planet.

At a procurement level, we all can look for ways to buy green technology materials or materials that were made with recycled materials. This is especially important if you are rebuilding walls because if you can use recycled materials rather than freshly produced lumber or wallboard, that cuts down on the amount of manufacturing work that has to be done to make building materials from scratch.

It also reduces how much the lumber industry has to kill trees to provide for our building needs which reduces our carbon footprint just one more step. And step by step is how we win this battle to save our environment.

If you are thinking about way to make your home environmentally friendly during the planning phase for your remodel, that is an excellent point in time to begin to integrate new technologies into your daily life. The simple step of putting solar panels in the roof while you are having your roof redone gives you the ability to go solar. In doing so you reduce the amount of energy you have to pull from power companies who are producing that energy by burning fossil fuels or gas. On top of that benefit, by producing your own energy, you save money because you become more self-sufficient.

In fact, many homes that produce solar energy make so much electricity that it is more than is needed for one home so they sell that energy back to the power company. Yes, going green can even make you money.

When you have your walls or ceiling tore up during a remodeling project, this is a perfect time to put in extra insulation as well.

This one step can reduce the use of energy to heat or cool your home noticeably. Your utilities bills will fall which is money in your pocket. But more than that, your lower utility bill means you are using less energy to take care of your home, which means you are doing a good job of going green. By being on the look out for the many ways you can use green technology in the design of your home renovation, you can make a huge leap into the future by starting to live green locally to benefit the earth globally.