Maximizing Potential
The way you decorate and manage your home can actually help you have a “greener” home with cleaner air. No one understands this more than, perhaps, those at the head of the “earthship” movement. If you’re not familiar, this is a community in New Mexico dedicated to totally sustainable housing using sustainable building materials.
In an “earthship”, geothermal energy is harnessed and water is cycled multiple times. There’s drinking water that comes from one set of taps, which drains out as “gray water” then goes to nourish plants, the remainder of which is used for toilet water, which is then flushed to an external septic tank and leach field.
Indoor watered plants in an earthship not only provide sustainable, year-round yields of the freshest vegetables (like a small produce section in a grocery store), said plants actually clean the air also, helping filter out varying toxins.
Now certainly, an earthship represents an architectural undertaking that predicates a total lifestyle change. This may be a bit too far for some homeowners. However, there are similar things you can do in property management that are good for your home, yourself, and the environment. Consider the following suggestions for potential maximization here.
- LED Lighting to Save on Electricity
Light-Emitting Diodes, or LEDs, tend to last longer than traditional bulbs utilizing gas as fluorescent cylinders do, or filaments as traditional lightbulbs do.
While there is still a mild level of planned obsolescence with cheaper LEDs, spend a little more and you’ll find they last a long time. Plus, they give out brighter light for less energy, saving you money on your electric bill every month.
- Filtering Your Air With Plants
Not only do plants make it feel like home, but they also filter out toxins in the air naturally. Plants inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen, besides deriving nutrients from water and sunlight. Accordingly, fill your house with plants, water them, and enjoy naturally fresher air that requires no HVAC filter changes. - The Solar Angle
When you break it down, just solar panels cost about $1 per Watt, call it $2 per Watt after acquisition and installation. So a 5 kWH array would be about $10k to acquire, ship, and install. You might even be able to have installation experts put in the array for a little less, depending on your locality. Go DIY, and you can almost cut costs in half.
Most panels cost about $100 per 100 Watts, then you’ve got positive and negative wires that go into a surge controller, and from there into a battery array connected to your home’s power supply. Golf cart batteries are traditionally used, and can store about a day’s energy if things are cloudy; maybe even a bit more.
The only downside is, solar panels need to be cleaned every couple of months, and they tend to wear out after 10 years. That said, energy savings can help you more than break even, and you are able to just sub out panels as they need to be replaced, maintaining associated savings.
Optimizing Eco-Friendly Home Management
LED lighting, solar panels, and indoor plants all represent green ways to manage your home such that you’re more healthy, and your footprint on the environment is diminished. If you’re not sure how to get the ball rolling, perhaps start with plants and “branch out” (pun intended) from there.
