Green Living
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
If you had $20k towards being green
What would you do?
There was a contest maybe a month ago I saw online that asked what I would do with $20k to make my home more green. I wasn't really sure, because we have done so much already.
It was tough because it didn't seem like enough to do a solar panel or something, but too much to change out all our lightbulbs, you know?
I guess I would try to do more insulating, maybe thermal curtains in all the windows. Not quite sure what else I would do though.
Re: If you had $20k towards being green
Yeah, solar was my first thought too...but 20k wouldn't cover it.
I would get new windows. We still have original 1963 windows.
I would definintely do solar... It might not be enough to power the whole home, but it sure would be a good starting place!
I like the idea of geothermal, but we too have a new furnace and I just don't see the payoff like I do for solar.
I'd love to do solar!
I would certainly replace all the old windows. They're original to the house (1908).
Insulation would be good too; we don't have ANY.
I'd pay for curbside recycling pickup (we take it somewhere for free right now, but most of our neighbors pay for curbside service).
It's not green to get rid of appliances, but I'd love a modern fridge. Ours is from the 1970s and is really energy inefficient, not to mention oddly laid-out. And it has wire shelves that aren't solid...so sometimes it's hard to arrange things on them.
And some kind of eco-friendly flooring. Our hardwood floors are original and over 100 years old. They've been refinished to the point that they're now disintegrating. They have to be replaced, unfortunately.
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We're leasing solar panels which I would have preferred to buy outright but, the $20,000 wouldn't cover all of it.
Next ideas would be more isulation and better windows.
Hmm, new windows/doors, more insulation, more efficient furnace/ac. Our windows are original 1955. FIL is going to replace the upstairs windows as a present to us. We put more insulation in the attic, because there was very little, but we'd like more.
The AC/Furnace are only about 13 years old, but it would still be nice.
Possibly figure out a way to reuse our gray water...
I'm not sure how far 20K would go for all of that...
I would probably do windows. Sadly I doubt 20K would be enough to do the whole house.
I would also consider replacing the water heater with a tankless and getting a new boiler.
I might consider increasing our attic insulation. That would actually be pretty cheap- we should really do it ourselves sometime soon.
I would love a new energy efficient fridge but ours is only about 10 years old so not too bad.
Solar would definitely be a plus living in southern California. I would love to replace our windows. We rarely run the heat or even air conditioning since we live in such a moderate climate, but we end up having to in the winter because our windows let in a lot of drafts. It would be so much more efficient if we could replace those.
I would also love to re-landscape our yard with California friendly plants/flowers that don't require a lot of water---and plant more fruit trees.
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Add insulation, upgrade the windows of our house that are not double pane w/ the gas between them, doubt we could do geothermal on 20k, but would look into that and/or solar.
We currently have a gravel driveway (we live in watershed of a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay so the less impervious surface the better.) I would love to upgrade our driveway to a gravel-lok system which is water permeable but not the loose gravel, also right now under our deck we just have pea gravel and I wish we could get the gravel-lok stuff down there to make it a more usable space, and I would get a rain garden put in that area as well.
Replacing our single pane windows for sure.
We already have a geothermal system ($21K for those of you wondering if you could get a system for that) and have re-insulated the attic. We're starting to replace windows next year.
For everyone who listed insulation you do realize in accessible areas like attics it's very easy to DIY and cheap too. Insulation is the #1 thing you can do to save energy in your home and has the fastest payback. For our huge attic (2100sf) it only cost us $500 and we went from an R-10 to an R-48! It paid for itself in less than 3 months based off the previous years heating bills.
I'd start with an energy audit. We had one and just spent close to $20K on improvements suggested by the audit. Some of them were not suggestions we'd have ever guessed. For example, our hot water heater and boiler weren't that old or inefficient (so we thought), but technology changed so much since ours were installed, that replacing them made sense. Our auditors were independent and certified by the state, so I trust they weren't making things up. (The state has the right to audit their work.) They provided a ROI estimate and it was only about 5 years!
I was also surprised at how expensive the upgrades were. I'm sure it depends on the age& size of your house, but to insulate our attic & knee walls and around our foundation and to install the new HWH and boiler cost over $14K. It adds up quickly.
Now, if I had another $20K to spend, I'd do more insulation, maybe upgrade our windows (they are newer, but still not great) and then look into solar.
Another FYI, if you have a boiler, it make not make sense to go tankless. We have a few friends with tankless HWHs and they have complaints. With a boiler you can link the systems together so the energy used to heat water for the boiler goes through an exchanger and heats the water, as well. So in the cooler months you are getting 2 for 1.