An Eco Friendly Home

For any homeowner looking to reduce their environmental footprint, there are plenty of features and capabilities available with today's technology that can reduce or even entirely eliminate reliance on fossil fuel powered electricity. They can also drop water use considerably and encourage renewable growth around the area of the house.  Some of these features are relatively inexpensive or even free, while others may cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Even some of the more expensive utilities, however, can begin to pay for themselves after five, ten, or fifteen years of use and rebates can often be found at your municipal utility.  Some eco friendly homes and capabilities may not be available in certain areas, but the majority of home improvement stores, such as Home Depot or Lowe's, will have a considerable amount of products dedicated to environmentally conscious customers.

Perhaps the greatest step a homeowner can take towards complete energy independence is to install solar panels.  The only one hundred percent efficient system for reducing environmental impact, solar panels charge during the day and use energy for lighting, powering outlets, heating, or storing power during the night.  Solar panels are by far the most efficient, but also by far the most expensive -- a single full size panel costs nearly five thousand dollars and it may take half a dozen to completely provide for a single house's energy needs.  However, an average American house spends nearly three thousand dollars per year on electricity, meaning the investment will pay for itself over a given period of time.  Indeed, customers who have an electric car can simply attach it to their house and not have to worry about paying for gas!  The major drawback to solar panels is the quality of light in any given area.  Solar panels are extremely popular in states with little cloud cover, such as Colorado or Wyoming, but are nearly useless along areas such as the Pacific Northwest, where constant clouds limit the panel efficiency to less than twenty percent.

Water usage is a major factor of an eco friendly home design. An American uses twenty gallons of water per day for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and pet care. Water must be drawn from rivers, lakes, or underground sources, which requires energy and draws from natural reserves. The majority of this water, perhaps surprisingly, comes from toilet use. A standard single toilet fills two and a half gallons in the bowl, so that houses with more family members consume considerably more water in comparison to single apartments. During water shortages, it is not uncommon to hear of restrictions on toilet use as cities may have to limit a house to as little as one or two flushes per day! A low flow toilet reduces the amount of water used by nearly three quarters, requiring less than one gallon of water to do the same job. This is one of the primary things to consider when planning your green interior design scheme. Low flow toilets can be easily installed in any house with standardized plumbing, as the efficiency comes from greater suction power. A low flow toilet costs approximately two hundred dollars.

Eco friendly homes provide several advantages compared to the normal models, most notably a considerable reduction in energy and water bills.  Check out local stores for environmentally efficient designs of lights and fixtures.