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Green commission. Green in your pocket |
Mission statement
Greener Living Realty defines the future standard in real estate services. Toronto real estate will never be the same. We put green in your pocket.
Designing Your Home To Be Energy Efficient
If you are having a new home built, have you given any thought to how you could make your home more energy efficient in its design? Before you put in solar panels, grey water recycling or Energy Star appliances, you should look at how you can make your home energy efficient in how it is built, and there are many ways to do this.
First, you need to decide where you are going to build your home. Where you build your home has a great impact on how much light you get and how hot or cold your home will be. If you want shade, then trees, landscaping and hills will help. They also great for blocking wind.
Second, you want to increase the number of sun-facing windows on your home so that you can keep the energy use in your home down. This is passive solar heating and it is becoming very popular. With energy-efficient windows, doors and thermal insulation, you can decrease the amount of heat that is lost in your home by as much as 50 percent.
Third, why not look at putting on a dark roof. A dark roof is 40 degrees Celsius cooler than white roofs. Your home will even use 40 percent less energy to cool your home if you use a dark roof. You can also look at using a garden on your roof to provide insulation, heat reduction and some healthy food for your home.
Fourth, try to place windows and skylights in areas that will allow light to be reflected throughout your home. This way you can decrease your reliance on lights and thereby reduce the energy use in your home.
Fifth, you can install Passive Infrareds, which will switch off lighting in rooms that are not being occupied in your home, like the basement, your home office, hallways and the bathrooms. You can also have a sensor that dims lights depending on how much daylight is coming in at the time.
Lastly, you can install smart meters in your home so that you can see exactly how much energy is being used in your home at that time. These smart meters will tell you when you use the most energy, when you use the least energy and what is using a lot of energy. This can then help you make your home more energy efficient as a result.