The Leading Home Network (LHN) is a community where homeowners and professionals share their experiences in green building. more...

 

Educational and Overview

Homeowners: Start here.

Friends often tell me they want to make their homes greener but don't know where to start.  Everyone also want to know what are the "easy" things they could quickly do.  So in I invented the 5-10-50 list... what 5 things can any homeowner do themselves, in 10 minutes or less, and save at least 50%.  Here's my list.... I'd be curious to hear what others would put on theirs:

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Are you ready for CalGreen?

Confused about what CalGreen means for you?  The good news is that you're not alone!  With CalGreen going into effect in January 2011, we created this guide to help you prepare for it.

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Green Can be Comfortable

Often when I see an article about green home, the homes look ultra-modern and cold.  Our goal was to show that a traditional, warm and inviting home could also be a green home.

We also wanted to show that green building didn't require trade-offs off comfort and could even be luxurious.  Here are some of the products we used to achieve our goals:

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Hot water reclamation - a no brainer?

 

If you had the chance to install a $600 piece of equipment that would enable you to use 20% less heated water without compromising shower warmth, would you do so?  Unfortunately, I didn't because I had already closed-in my showers by the time I learned about grey-water heat exchangers but according another homeowner who has installed one the preliminary data suggests significant savings from the device.


The principle is simple: as hot water from the shower goes down the drain, cold water going into the shower goes through a heat exchanger wrapped around the drainpipe and warms up so that less hot water is required to blend with it to reach your target temperature.  You effectively re-use the energy that had gone into the heating the water

If you are interested in this, check out the GFX technology web site at http://www.gfxtechnology.com/GFX.html and read more about a real-world application at http://www.greenerhouse.info/showerheatrecovery.

I also found another company, Heat Exchangers Nf. Inc. who sell a heat exchanger that can be used as a retrofit called the Shower Smart Faucet.  I'd be interested to hear feedback from anyone who's tried it.

 

Green Building Resources

GREEN HOME DESIGN & BUILDING RESOURCES

v Indicates CA-based and/or essential resource!

Not sure where to start?  Here is a list of online resources our panel of experts have found helpful through our own projects.

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